PEPE REINA is hoping Liverpool can put their away day blues behind them by making Anfield a fortress again this season – starting with the visit of Premier League champions Manchester City this weekend.

The Reds were left stunned as they slid to a heavy defeat at West Bromwich Albion in their league opener on Saturday. The 3-0 loss – their worst opening-day reverse for 75 years – was compounded by the sending-off of Daniel Agger for a professional foul.

Brendan Rodgers’ men face a testing Europa League play-off trip to Heart of Midlothian on Thursday, before resuming their Premier League campaign at Anfield on Sunday against Roberto Mancini’s City.

Liverpool won just six of their 19 home league fixtures last season, and Reina has called on his teammates to ensure that they improve on that record this time around. As well as City, the Reds face tricky games against Arsenal and Manchester United before the end of September.

“We don’t have the easiest run of fixtures coming up, but they are what they are,” said Reina. “We have to face them and I’m sure for them it won’t be easy to come to Anfield.

“We have to make ourselves strong at home. This year we have to get better results at home.”

Reina, echoing the views of skipper Steven Gerrard, admitted the loss at The Hawthorns had come as a shock to the system. But the 29-year-old insists there is no sense of panic despite the disappointment of defeat.

“As players, we didn’t expect a game like this,” he said. “We were full of confidence and had trust in ourselves because we were playing well.

“We are getting the ideas from the manager – and we still are – and this is just the beginning. We have to lift ourselves up now and stick together more than ever.

“It’s not normal (to lose). But I don’t think we will see many games for Liverpool like we did on Saturday. There is nothing to worry about. This is just early days. It was a bad game, and it is as simple as that.”

Reina, who saved a penalty from Shane Long, but was helpless to prevent strikes from Zoltan Gera, Peter Odemwingie and Romelu Lukaku, added: “We played all right in the first half. Then they scored a world class goal and in the second half they got a penalty which I don’t know was a penalty and with the sending-off, the game was finished.

“Obviously we tried our best but we didn’t create the chances that we used to, defensively in the second half we were missing because of the red card.

“I was unhappy at the first penalty because it was never a penalty. It’s as simple as that. There was no contact.

“The second penalty was soft as well. It’s right to say he gets in front of Martin but he barely touched him.

“Saturday’s defeat doesn’t really make us more determined to win against Hearts.

“Every game is important. We’ll try to win every game.”