Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota both scored as Liverpool soared to 1st-place in the Premier League.
Boxing Day under Jurgen Klopp has always delivered a late, extra Christmas present for Liverpool supporters. Five matches, five wins against Leicester City (2015), Swansea City (2017), Newcastle United (2018), Leicester City (2019), Aston Villa (2022). Now it’s six – Burnley (2023).
Liverpool had the chance to go top of the Premier League with a victory against Burnley, and with recent form proving favourable to the visitors, there was reason to be optimistic.
Jurgen Klopp named five changes from their 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Saturday, with Jarell Quansah, Joe Gomez, Ryan Gravenberch, Harvey Elliott and Darwin Nunez all starting. Wataru Endo retained his position in midfield after an impressive run of games.
The visitors started the match in flying fashion, with Darwin Nunez curling a beautiful effort from outside the box into the bottom far corner, courtesy of a Cody Gakpo assist.
Just moments later, Mohamed Salah had a great opportunity to double his side’s lead but James Trafford tipped the ball over the top with a great, athletic save.
Dutch forward Cody Gakpo thought it would be himself to grab Liverpool’s second goal as he dispatched superbly from inside the box. The initial on-field decision was that Darwin Nunez had fouled Charlie Taylor. VAR didn’t deem the decision clear and obvious enough to intervene – in fact, they may have even agreed with the call.
Salah would hit the bar in the last bit of notable first-half action as Liverpool took a one-goal lead into the interval. Similarly to when they played Manchester United and Arsenal, Liverpool had found themselves in a position where their dominance was not reflected in the number of goals scored.
Pressure was eased when Harvey Elliott doubled Liverpool’s lead early on in the second half, or so he thought. Simon Hooper was the VAR and he asked the referee Paul Tierney to look at whether Mohamed Salah had enough involvement from an offside position, i.e. was Salah blocking Trafford’s view?
Tierney agreed with Hooper that Salah had, indeed, blocked Trafford’s view of the ball when Elliott struck the ball. The goal was thus disallowed for offside. The inevitable controversy was that Salah had been pushed into an offside position.
Anyway, with Liverpool seemingly incapable of riding any luck of doubling their advantage, Burnley could smell something. The atmosphere turned against the Reds and the hosts started playing football.
Johann Berg Gudmundsson missed a wonderful chance to draw Burnley level, but his back-post header flew over the crossbar. Liverpool felt they had to put the game to bed.
It wouldn’t be until the 90th minute until they snatched their insurance goal, the two-goal cushion, the goal they deserved. And it was none other than Diogo Jota, back from injury, to score from an incredibly tight angle.
A hard fought three points at Turf Moor with a clean sheet can never be underestimated as anything other than admirable success. Although, they are 19th.
That was Liverpool’s final match in 2023. For a calendar year that started so poorly, they haven’t half finished it well. Top of the Premier League table with 42 points – their highest tally at the half-way point since winning the thing in 2019/20 (55).
Next up is Newcastle United at Anfield. Kick-off is at 8pm on Monday, 1 January 2024.
Happy New Year, Reds.
Burnley team: Trafford, Vitinho, O’Shea, Beyer, Taylor, Tresor (Gudmundsson 61), Berge, Brownhill (Ramsey 90+2), Odobert, Foster (Redmond 85), Amdouni (Bruun Larsen 85).
Liverpool team: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Van Dijk, Gomez, Elliott (Diaz 67), Endo, Gravenberch (Jones 66), Salah, Gakpo (Szoboszlai 67), Nunez (Jota 84).
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