Jurgen Klopp sends title message as Liverpool boss gives players special reward for Burnley win

Jurgen Klopp provided a sarcastic response to a question about Liverpool's Premier League title chances, but admitted his side are within "punching distance" after a 2-0 win at Burnley on Boxing Night.

Goals at either end of the game from Darwin Nunez and a returning Diogo Jota were enough to send the Reds to the summit of the table as they leapfrogged Arsenal ahead of their visit from West Ham United on Thursday.

Klopp, though, was in no mood to entertain genuine discussions around his team's hopes at the halfway point of the campaign but was unable to hide his pleasure at the result at Turf Moor as Liverpool won their first game in three after home draws with Manchester United and Arsenal.

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“Fantastic, I can barely keep my hands down," Klopp said. "But [having] 42 points is really pleasing. That’s really cool.

"The first part of the season is done and it was absolutely all right what we did. Not perfect, but all right. And it keeps us no more than a point away from the top. That’s within punching distance, let me put it like that."

Klopp also revealed the thinking behind the decision to introduce Jota after a month out with a hamstring issue. The Portugal international scored the decisive second after replacing Nunez late on at Turf Moor and the Reds boss was delighted with the forward's cameo.

Klopp added: “You never know exactly what you can expect with the fourth game in 10 days. It is really intense, whatever the outside world thinks. Coming here and playing the game we played was absolutely exceptional.

“It’s exceptional as well that we didn’t score more goals.