Burnley 0-2 Liverpool: Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota send Reds back to Premier League summit

Liverpool returned to the Premier League summit with a deserved but ultimately hard-fought victory over strugglers Burnley to finish 2023.

Darwin Nunez's first-half strike and a 90th-minute effort from substitute Diogo Jota saw the Reds run out 2-0 winners in a frantic festive clash at Turf Moor on Boxing Day.

A sixth straight away league win at Burnley takes Liverpool back above title rivals Arsenal - with whom they drew 1-1 in a cracking Anfield showdown at the weekend - to the top of the table, with the Gunners back in action when they host West Ham in a London derby at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday night.

A win rather than a draw also means that Liverpool cannot be overtaken later on Tuesday evening when third-place Aston Villa take on struggling Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Burnley, meanwhile, stay 19th and five points adrift of safety after Nottingham Forest's comeback win at Newcastle, having lost all but one of their nine homes matches since earning promotion back from the Championship at the first attempt under Vincent Kompany.

Nunez ended a club goal drought that had lasted for some 12 games when he side-footed home expertly from just outside the box after only six minutes in Lancashire, a welcome development with Liverpool needing other forward players to step up now with Mohamed Salah off to the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt in January.

Liverpool later saw Cody Gakpo's powerful strike ruled out for a foul by Nunez on Charlie Taylor and Harvey Elliott's side-footed effort into the bottom corner chalked off for offside against Salah, who was pushed by Jordan Beyer before being adjudged to be active in the move and distracting James Trafford.

However, Jurgen Klopp's men survived a notable second-half wobble to wrap up an important three points late on, with Jota marking his return from a muscle injury suffered at Manchester City last month by firing coolly through the legs of the otherwise impressive Burnley goalkeeper Trafford from a tough angle after a lovely flick around the corner from fellow substitute Luis Diaz, one of five players rotated after the draw at Arsenal after a knock to his knee.

Trafford otherwise kept Burnley in the game with a succession of strong saves as Liverpool dominated first-half possession and registered eight efforts on target, but only led by one at the interval as Salah struck the crossbar with a vicious half-volley.

Burnley were much improved after half-time, though, and seemed galvanised after Elliott's goal was controversially ruled out - a decision which really irked Klopp.

Fit-again substitute Johann Berg Gudmundsson spurned their best opportunity to equalise during an impressive spell in which Turf Moor was rocking, failing to test Alisson with a header after being wonderfully picked out by the in-form Wilson Odobert at the back post.

Liverpool open 2024 against Newcastle at Anfield on New Year's Day, while Burnley close out this calendar year with a tricky trip to Villa Park on Saturday.