Liverpool 2-0 Burnley (26 Dec, 2023) Game Analysis

Liverpool returned to the top of the Premier League as Darwin Nunez's first league goal in almost two months helped them to a 2-0 win at struggling Burnley on Tuesday.

Nunez's precision after six minutes gave Liverpool a strong start at Turf Moor, but Jurgen Klopp's side were unable to kill off the hosts as the second goal would not come.

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Mohamed Salah was denied by the crossbar and Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott were denied goals as Burnley hung on, but Diogo Jota's 90th-minute effort sealed the points.

Nineteenth-placed Burnley had chances of their own in the second half and almost managed to equalize when Jacob Bruun Larsen's shot went agonizingly wide of the post.

Liverpool's first win in three league matches put them above Arsenal as they reached the halfway point of the season on 42 points. Arsenal, who have 40, host West Ham United on Thursday.

There was a sense of relief when substitute Jota fired from a tight angle for his 50th Liverpool goal after a radical move, as the points should have been in the bag long ago.

“We put obstacles in front of us and finally we find a way to overcome them, but it's incredible,” Klopp told Amazon Prime. “We played an incredible game but it was only 1-0 and then they realized something was possible.

“They could have equalized in a crazy way and, in the most difficult situation of the whole match, we made it 2-0.”

Liverpool, held to a draw by Manchester United and Arsenal in their last two games, totally dominated the early stages and Nunez produced a silky finish to curl an effort inside goalkeeper James Trafford's post after Gakpo.

Salah should have made it 2-0 after good work from Gakpo and Nunez but his shot was well saved by Trafford.

Gakpo then put the ball into the net, but his effort was disallowed due to a foul by Nunez in the build-up.

Burnley played neat football, just like their style, but lived dangerously when Salah rattled the crossbar with a diving drive after being played in by Joe Gomez.

The pattern continued after the break and Elliott produced a neat finish, but VAR again came to Burnley's rescue as referee Paul Tierney disallowed the goal for offside against Salah.

This release inspired Burnley and they began to threaten an equalizer with Larsen giving Liverpool a big scare before Jota finally put the game to bed.