Buoyed by a comeback point against Manchester United in midweek, Burnley started with a spring in their step and an assured nature about their play. In fact, it was Sean Dyche’s side who had the first sight of goal – Josh Brownhill’s 25-yard strike forcing Alisson into a fine save to deny Burnley the opener. Naby Keïta was next to try his luck from distance, but Nick Pope was equal to his powerful drive before Wout Weghorst spurned the chances of the half as he skewed wide twice when 1-on-1 with Alisson.
As is so often the case though – fail to take your chances and you get punished, which Fabinho did to the ‘Clarets’ five minutes before the break, bundling over the line from a Trent Alexander-Arnold corner to give Liverpool a largely undeserved HT lead. The prospects of a Burnley comeback after the break appeared bleak given Liverpool’s remarkable record of dropping just two points all season when leading at HT. So it proved for Burnley, with a Weghorst pop-shot from 30 yards which was easily gathered by Alisson about as close as they came to a breakthrough.
Despite offering little second-half threat of their own, Liverpool were relatively comfortable in holding onto their slender advantage, although in spite of victory, it’s hard to imagine Jürgen Klopp will be overly pleased with his side’s performance. As for Burnley, the picture is now even bleaker and it’s hard to see a way back from here – irrespective of the games in hand – still holding just one PL win this season.
