Liverpool beat Burnley to return to the Premier League summit

Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez (right) celebrates scoring their side’s third goal of the game during the Premier League match at Anfield, Liverpool. Picture date: Saturday February 10, 2024.

Liverpool responded to Manchester City’s brief return to the top of the Premier League table with a 3-1 win over Burnley which tested their mettle even more than their stretched resources.

Pep Guardiola’s side had overtaken their north-west rivals to reach the summit for the first time since November with victory in the lunchtime kick-off against Everton.

And while the three points re-established their two-point advantage the less-than-convincing nature of victory against the league’s next-bottom side was not quite befitting the occasion of Liverpool’s biggest league crowd of 59,896 after the full opening of the Anfield Road stand.

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For a time it appeared the hosts, who due to flu in the camp were without goalkeeper Alisson Becker and Joe Gomez, were still suffering a hangover from the defeat at Arsenal last week.

It took the familiar right boot of Trent Alexander-Arnold, setting a new mark of 58 for Premier League assists by a defender, and the equally reliable head of Diogo Jota to get them out of first gear but even then it was far from a return to normality.

The sloppy concession of an equaliser to Dara O’Shea on the stroke of half-time posed further problems as did the withdrawal of Alexander-Arnold – only recently returned from a knee injury – at half-time.

Trent Alexander-Arnold was replaced at half-time (PA)

But it was the England