Scrappy win takes Liverpool back to the top of the Premier League
Liverpool 3 Burnley 1, 10th February 2024.
LIVERPOOL 3 (Jota 31, Díaz 52, Núñez 79)
BURNLEY 1 (O’Shea 45)
Against my better judgement I watched the day’s early game and watched in the vain hope that our Merseyside cousins from across Stanley Park could steal a point or three from their Mancunian hosts, Manchester City. For 70 minutes of a truly dreadful and uneventful game my hopes sprang in a continuingly irrational direction until a corner led to the game’s first goal, there was a change of leadership in England’s Premier League, and both would become key themes both in Manchester and at the opposite end of the East Lancs Road in Liverpool. Two late goals from the goal scoring machine otherwise known as Erling Haaland would send his team top of the Premier League, with his second goal courtesy of sheer bloody minded persistence as well as the presence and beautiful through ball from substitute Kevin De Bruyne, the third theme of the day intertwining these north west giants at the pinnacle of English football.
At 2.30pm today Manchester City, aided and abetted by yet another sublime cameo substitute performance from Kevin De Bruyne, had won their game in hand by defeating Everton 2–0 and reclaimed top spot in the Premier League. By 5pm, and due in large part to a “Man of the Match” substitute performance from 20 year old Harvey Elliott, the Reds of Liverpool had leapfrogged their Mancunian foes once more and will end this February weekend on the highest perch of all in English football. So there’s two of our three key themes of the day.
The third in our footballing hat-trick of themes was the proliferation of goals coming directly, or indirectly, as a result of corners, with three of the four goals scored at Anfield coming from these attacking set-pieces and perhaps one could argue for a fourth theme of the day too across the two games: that of both games being incredibly scrappy and ugly affairs that both ended in triumph for the two north west giants who’ve dominated or duked it out for supreme dominance of English football since the arrival of Jürgen Klopp in 2015. Both teams were far and away from their usual brilliant selves today. Both teams relied on late, decisive and game defining goals. Both teams had the gift of supreme cameo appearances from the substitutes bench. And both teams found a way to win an ugly game against a team fighting for their respective lives in the Premier League.
How many themes is that?
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - Available via Amazon
For 0–0 at half-time at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester read 1–1 today at Anfield, and a Liverpool team more than a little fortunate to troop off at the break still level. Yes Burnley may have equalised on the cusp of half-time with a superb header from Dara O’Shea and yes, naturally, it was scored from a corner. But Burnley dominated a scrappy opening quarter of an hour of the game with the triumvirate of Sander Berge in midfield and the attacking front two of Zeki Amdouni and David Fofana all causing the Reds respective problems and footballing headaches. Amdouni was denied by a brilliant smothering save from Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher on 10 minutes before the Irishman pulled off an even better save on 64 minutes as he rushed from his goal line to deny an in-form Fofana. These were game changing, game winning saves, make no mistake about that. Had they gone in, who knows where the destiny or in which direction today’s game would have headed in. An early 1–0 lead for the visitors? Fofana’s goal would have made the game 2–2 with 26 minutes remaining and yet just 2 minutes later, he squandered an even better chance to equalise when through on goal and only Kelleher to beat, but curled his shot inches wide when he should have scored.
Following a lacklustre first half only brightened by the workmanlike industry of Wataru Endō, invention of Colombian magician Luis Díaz and the headed goal from Diogo Jota (from a corner, naturally) on 31 minutes, an unlucky injury to Trent Alexander-Arnold presented a half-time substitution to Harvey Elliott, and the 20 year old did what he does best and will forever continue to be unfairly unrecognised for. He spread the play with delicious cross field passes. He kept the game simple by following the tried and tested Liverpool mantra of old of “Pass and Move”. He provided that energy and tenacity for the ball that is so infectious to teammates all around him and, when the situation required it, on both the 52nd and 79th minute, the latter from a corner, naturally, he provided beautifully cool headed assists for game defining, game winning goals.
Today was an ugly, scrappy win enlivened by a cameo of brilliance from Harvey Elliott, the sheer determination and will to win from Wataru Endō and Luis Díaz, the goals once more from Diogo Jota and Darwin Núñez and the PRICELESS saves of Caoimhin Kelleher.
This weekend, the Reds of Liverpool are once more back atop the highest perch in English football.
A final word from The Boss
“No problem with fighting hard for the result. Actually, I can’t remember the last time when that wasn’t the case. But today obviously, for some obvious and for some less obvious reasons, it was clear it will be a really tricky afternoon. It was about how we deal with it, how much character we can show, and the boys showed exactly what we needed”.
“At the start of the game, we were a bit too much in a rush. That was the problem: we played too quick, too direct, we couldn’t react with the formation, couldn’t win balls back. We score our goal, wonderful, find our way in the game, and then we concede the equaliser in the last second, pretty much, before half-time. Harvey came on, did really well, all the other boys did really well and we scored this wonderful 2–1 in the right moment. That helped, obviously, for us to give the game the right direction. They still had their moments because of the quality they have. I think it’s a pretty strange situation Burnley is in, they play much better than… they cause everybody problems. It’s not just us, they cause everybody problems. That’s quite special with the amount of points that they have, that they always come in the next game with such a positive mentality — really, I admire that a lot. Then we scored a third one and we could have scored more, so it’s all good”.
Thanks for reading. I pen my thoughts after every Liverpool game as well as associated periodic rambling musings throughout the year. All are contained within my archives here or alternatively, here are links to my three most recently published articles from this season:
"Keystone Cops at The Emirates" - Arsenal 3 Liverpool 1
"Lions mauled by Jürgen's boys in the Coliseum" - Liverpool 4 Chelsea 1
"Jürgen’s first goodbye is a feast of beautiful football" - Liverpool 5 Norwich City 1