Liverpool go top after Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota finish off Burnley

It somehow took until the 90th minute for Liverpool to put the result beyond doubt when Diogo Jota fired into the bottom corner to send his side top amid a collection of missed chances. There was a chasm of quality between the visitors and Burnley, with one further proving their credentials as title challengers while the other is set for a battle at the wrong end of the table.

The only surprising element about Liverpool’s victory at Turf Moor, their eighth in their last nine trips to Burnley, was the fact the margin was not greater. Poor finishing, the intervention of the referee, Paul Tierney, and James Trafford’s reflexes kept things respectable for the hosts.

If Liverpool are to win their second Premier League title under Jürgen Klopp, they know they cannot waste so many chances against more clinical opponents. Title winners are ruthless and Liverpool were far too generous at crucial moments. They finished with 19 shots but only 10 on target as they made heavy work of defeating a far inferior team.

“Coming here and playing the game we played is absolutely exceptional,” Klopp said. “It is exceptional as well that we didn’t score more goals – actually we did but for different reasons they took it away. For a long time we caused Burnley so many problems – we played a super game. It is the last game of a really busy period and I really liked the game but we should have scored more.”

Vincent Kompany was on the scoresheet 10 years ago when Liverpool last lost on Boxing Day but it never looked like he would repeat the trick a decade on. Defensively Burnley bear no resemblance to the intelligent and aggressive style their manager offered as a player. Darwin Núñez was left in space on the edge of the box, allowing him to calmly pick out the bottom corner after neat work by Cody Gakpo.

The Uruguay striker is more consistently showing why Liverpool invested so heavily in him: not only did he execute his shot with precision but his effort to reach the spot from where he scored deserves merit because only seconds before he had been clattered by Dara O’Shea in the buildup.

Darwin Núñez opens the scoring at Turf Moor. Photograph: John Powell/Liverpool FC/Getty Images

Commendable is one way of describing Burnley’s desire to pass out from the back but ill-advised might be more accurate. They often caused their own problems and Jordan Beyer created unnecessary tension when his pass into midfield went straight to Ryan Gravenberch, who played it to Núñez, who should have doubled his tally but was quickly closed down by Trafford and his backheel to Mohamed Salah was intercepted.

Few defences would have been able to cope with Liverpool’s interplay as first-time passes fizzed between midfield and attack, opening up space in the final third to utilise. By the half‑hour, Liverpool had notched seven shots on target. The seventh could have resulted in a second goal, only for Tierney to harshly judge that Núñez fouled Charlie Taylor in the box prior to Gakpo finding the net. VAR checked but accepted the view of the referee.

Trafford made superb saves to keep out Harvey Elliott, Salah and most of those in green and white. “We should have been calmer in these moments, we should have finished the game much earlier,” Klopp said. “We could have made it easier but as long as I’ve been at Liverpool we’ve never done it easy, so why should we start now?”

The officials were helping Burnley after what felt like the inevitable second seemed to arrive when Elliott poked a Gravenberch cross in off the post. There was nothing Trafford could do, especially as he was potentially left unsighted by the offside Salah, although even with a clear view he would have been unlikely to react in time. Tierney reviewed the footage and the one-goal advantage was maintained. “Only someone who has never played football could say it’s not a goal,” Klopp said.

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Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Jacob Bruun Larsen went close but neither could trouble Alisson from good chances as Burnley completed their ninth home defeat in 10 without a shot on target. “The team fights, the team is alive, the team is entertaining; it just lacks that bit of final touch to reward themselves,” Kompany said.

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Jota had only been on the pitch for four minutes, in his first appearance for a month, when he offered an example of composure for his teammates to heed, as he fired the ball between Trafford’s legs. If Liverpool are to maintain this form and hold off their rivals, they will need their full squad to play their part and Jota certainly did that. “We sneaked him [Jota] somehow on to the squad list because he trained only twice and the medical department wanted to give him extra training, so I said he can have that at Burnley,” Klopp said.

“Diogo is an incredibly important player for us, having him changed the whole dynamic. The goal he scored today is the goal of a boy full of conviction.” Liverpool need more of that.