Arne Slot said Liverpool had made the perfect start to a defining period in their season with victory against Chelsea but that judgment on his team’s potential must be reserved.

Liverpool reclaimed top spot in the Premier League with an absorbing defeat of Enzo Maresca’s side that extended Slot’s outstanding start to 10 wins in 11 matches. Mohamed Salah opened the scoring against his former club before the man of the match Curtis Jones restored Liverpool’s lead moments after Nicolas Jackson’s equaliser for Chelsea.

Slot was delighted with his team’s tenacity, less so the performance of the referee, John Brooks, but believes Liverpool’s ability to sustain a title challenge will become clear only after they have come through a demanding set of Champions League and Premier League fixtures.

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“I’m very pleased with the result,” said the head coach. “In an ideal world we would have completely outplayed them but that was definitely not the case. It was an equal game in my opinion and we had to work really hard not to concede. The great block tackles by Curtis and Dominik [Szoboszlai] were just as crucial as the goals we scored.

“But I said don’t judge us after this game, judge us after the next seven. Our biggest test is to play Champions League and top Premier League matches every three days. That is what City and Arsenal did for the last two seasons. You saw how difficult it was for us two years ago and last year for [Manchester] United and Newcastle. This is the test we have to go through to see where we are.”

Slot was full of praise for Jones, who became a father for the first time last week and shone at both ends of the pitch. “He had a difficult job to control Cole Palmer, who is an incredible player in my opinion, but Curtis did that really well,” he said. “It is impossible to control a player like that for 90 minutes but Curtis almost did that and had an impact on the other side as well.”

Maresca claimed his side’s performance was evidence of their progression but admitted their defensive work had to improve. “It was a very good performance,” he said. “We don’t like losing but if you are going to lose a game this is the way. Overall we controlled the game, for the most part we dominated. For the most part we need to be proud but also upset that we lost.”