Eddie Howe admitted Newcastle United will need to be "close to a perfect game" when they face Premier League leaders Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday.

Newcastle played out a thrilling 3-3 draw with Liverpool in the reverse fixture at St James' Park in December, with Fabian Schar's 90th-minute equaliser snatching a point.

This will be the first of two meetings with Arne Slot’s side in the next three weeks, with the teams also set to face off in the EFL Cup final at Wembley Stadium on March 16.

The Magpies have struggled against Liverpool at Anfield in the Premier League; having won on their first trip there 2-0 in April 1994, they have since failed to win in any of the last 28 (D5 L23).

In fact, Newcastle are winless in their last 16 Premier League games against Liverpool (D5 L11), last beating them in December 2015 (2-0).

"We need to be close to a perfect game from our perspective," Howe said.

"Learning from the recent game against Manchester City [a 4-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium] would be a good starting point for us, when we didn't execute the aggressive gameplan that we wanted, and we didn't attack the game well enough.

"We need to learn from that at Anfield, which is a great environment to play football in but not good if you're not totally there. We have to acknowledge that and make sure we turn up.

"Psychologically it's huge. It's an emotional stadium, we're going to need to start well, and we need to have a threat in the game."

Newcastle will also have to nullify the threat of Mohamed Salah if they want to win at Anfield.

Salah is the only player in Premier League history to be directly involved in 40+ goals in more than one season, having done so in both 2017-18 (42 – 32 goals, 10 assists) and the current campaign (41 – 25 goals, 16 assists) for Liverpool.

He also has a knack for scoring against Howe's side, scoring four goals in his last two Premier League games against them, netting a brace in both.

Salah also assisted Curtis Jones' goal in the reverse fixture, and Howe urged his players to work as a team to keep him quiet.

"[Dealing with Salah is] going to be a challenge for us," Howe added.

"It's always not down to any one individual in the team, although he will naturally come up against one opponent, it's about the team supporting that area of the pitch.

"I think against Arsenal at home in the EFL Cup [a 2-0 victory] is a great game to reflect on. We defended in twos, threes, fours. We had a mentality that we wanted to defend our goal to the highest level.

"I don't think we've consistently had that in recent weeks, but we're going to need that in this game."