The Reds have won nine and lost only one of their 12 Anfield games this season and host Newcastle on the back of a perfect weekend.
Liverpool won at Manchester City on Sunday, less than 24 hours after their closest title rivals Arsenal had slipped up at home to West Ham United, allowing Arne Slot’s side to extend their lead at the top to 11 points.
Newcastle climbed to fifth with their success against Nottingham Forest on Sunday but can’t afford a repeat of their last away trip, when they were significantly below par and thumped at City.
Howe said: “Liverpool’s record at Anfield this season has been very strong. We have to be mentally very strong in this game.
“It’ll have to be close to a perfect game from our perspective.
“We need every aspect of our game to be functioning as it was in the first half against Nottingham Forest, albeit we conceded the first goal, that apart I thought we responded really, really well.
“We were free flowing, we were dynamic, flexible in terms of our tactical play. We showed no fear and we attacked the game and scored four great goals.”
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He added: “Inconsistency has been there all season to a degree. I think there’s been games where we’ve been frustrated with ourselves – but then when you mention the statistic – 13 wins out of 16 – that’s not an inconsistent team.
“I’d certainly take that again in the next 16 games but I try to be very honest and acknowledge the fact that we have been inconsistent at times and Sunday certainly reflected that.”
Tonight’s game is a rehearsal for the Carabao Cup final, but Howe is adamant that game has played no part in his preparation for the league meeting.
He said: “This game in isolation takes preference over any future game that we have.
“So we’ll look at this game in total isolation and just try and deliver something that we think can give us the best conditions to try and win. That will be the same for any future games we have. We’re not trying to be clever. We just want to try and win this game.”
