The State of Play
Jurgen Klopp announced his departure at the end of the season and Liverpool immediately began by wiping the floor with teams at Anfield, hammering Norwich 5-2 and then Chelsea 4-1. However, The Reds will need to bounce back after they suffered a second defeat of the Premier League season last weekend as they were beaten by three goals to one by fellow title challengers, Arsenal.
Vincent Kompany’s Burnley picked up their 13th point of the season last weekend as they fought back from 2-0 down at Turf Moor to share a 2-2 draw with Fulham. The Clarets begin the 24th match day off the Premier League season sitting seven points adrift of safety and 11 of Burnley’s aforementioned 13 points have come against Luton Town, Fulham and bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United.
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Team News
Trent Alexander-Arnold came back into the Liverpool side for their defeat at Arsenal with Conor Bradley missing out due to personal reasons. He is expected to remain and Wataru Endo is back available after Japan were knocked out of the AFC Asian Cup with Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah out due to injury.
Burnley have a couple of key injury concerns for this weekend with all three of Jordan Beyer, Charlie Taylor and Hannes Delcroix all remaining doubtful, whilst Luca Koleosho and Nathan Redmond are out for the season due to injury.
Expected Line-ups
Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Gomez; Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Jones; Gakpo, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz
Burnley: Trafford; Assignon, O’Shea, Esteve, Vitinho; Brownhill, Berge, Ramsey, Odobert; Amdouni, Foster
What they Said
In the aftermath of their defeat at the Emirates last weekend, Jurgen Klopp said he understood suggestions of fatigue being a factor but did not believe it. “I understand 100 per cent where you are coming from and stuff like this. I have to make a line-up. Would I make the same line-up again? Yes.”
Vincent Kompany praised new signing Maxime Esteve after the on-loan Montpellier defender made his debut after a draw with Fulham. “Aggressive, front foot, wants to win every duel, good left foot, very fast. It’s a good starting point.”
When and How to Watch
This match will be played at Anfield on Saturday February 10th at 15:00 but will not be televised live in the UK. It will also not be able to be streamed legally in the UK.
Prediction
Liverpool have been magnificent for a few months and genuinely difficult to beat with their loss last weekend at Arsenal featuring some uncharacteristic mistakes from the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson. They still have the joint-best defensive record in the Premier League and now face a Burnley side that, despite their intended style of football under Kompany, have scored just 24 goals in 23 games with more than a fifth of those goals coming in one game against Sheffield United. A comfortable home win to nil is to be expected.
