Liverpool 0-1 Burnley: Premier League – as it happened

That’s the end of Liverpool’s long unbeaten run in the Premier League at Anfield! A sequence that stretched all the way back to April 2017 is finally over after 69 games! Alisson engages the referee in a token argument over the penalty, but a grim-faced Klopp comes across to usher him away. Liverpool were appalling tonight … but they were only as good as Burnley allowed them to be. Sean Dyche’s team were magnificent to a man, and fully deserved the win. The three precious points they’ve earned launch them into 16th place, two points ahead of Brighton on 19, with a game in hand. As for Liverpool? They remain in fourth, six off Manchester United’s lead, Spurs and Everton breathing down their necks, and still without a Premier League goal in 2021. A season to concentrate on the cups, perhaps? Sunday’s game at Old Trafford suddenly gets even bigger.

90 min +4: Alexander-Arnold and Minamino earn a corner out on the right. Alisson comes up again. Robertson takes, Pope claims, and that’s surely that!

90 min +3: Barnes goes down and his treatment eats up a few precious seconds. Burnley are so close now!

90 min +2: Liverpool win a fortunate corner, a ricochet from long distance. Alisson comes up. There’s a bit of bedlam, but Burnley hold firm. Alisson heads back.

90 min +1: McNeil has a lash from 25 yards. It flies wide left.

90 min: Nothing comes of the corner. There will be four minutes. Four minutes for Liverpool to save a long unbeaten home record in the league that stretches back nearly four years!

89 min: When it’s not your day … Alexander-Arnold shoots low from the right. The ball flies toward Firmino, who flicks cleverly towards goal. The ball ricochets off Mee and out for a corner. That could have gone anywhere!

86 min: Liverpool haven’t responded to that shock at all. On the touchline, Klopp looks resigned to defeat.

84 min: Minamino comes on for Shaqiri. Too late to have any sort of effect?

Barnes whips his 100th senior club career goal into the bottom right! Alisson went the right way, but had no chance. Liverpool’s long unbeaten run at Anfield is now in serious peril!

82 min: Barnes barges his way past Fabinho down the inside-right channel and into the box. He’s free! Alisson races off his line and spreads himself. Barnes needs no invitation. Over he goes, and that’s a penalty!

81 min: It’s attack versus defence now, though Liverpool don’t have any idea how to break through the deep Burnley block. Dinks on the edge of the box and nothing any further.

78 min: Salah runs slap-bang into the back of Pieters, and this is a free kick just to the right of the Burnley box. Alexander-Arnold curls it in, and …

76 min: Liverpool scored seven at Palace before Christmas. They haven’t won in the league since. They’ve only scored once since then. Minamino hasn’t played in the league since. It’s a bit strange that he’s not been given any chance to break the logjam.

74 min: Alexander-Arnold reaches the byline and whips in from the right. The ball hits Pieters on the arm, but neither referee nor Mr VAR is interested. That was in seen-them-given territory, but there was certainly no clear and obvious error, so the decision stands.

72 min: Firmino snaffles a Pope roll-out and aims for the bottom right. He shanks it well wide.

71 min: McNeil again gets the best of Alexander-Arnold down the left. He cuts back for Gudmundsson, arriving late. Gudmundsson sidefoots wide left from a tight angle. That was a decent chance.

69 min: Shaqiri shovels a diagonal pass towards Firmino on the left-hand edge of the six-yard box. Firmino can’t guide an effort goalwards with a telescopic leg. Pope likely had the angle covered anyway.

67 min: From a deep position on the right, Lowton loops a huge diagonal pass towards Barnes, who enters the box free! He whips a shot towards the bottom left. Alisson palms it away, a fantastic save, though the flag eventually goes up for offside. Alisson wouldn’t have known that. It was another great stop. Both keepers are playing very well. Just look at that scoreline!

65 min: A second change for Burnley, and their first tactical one: Gudmundsson comes on for Brady.

64 min: Alexander-Arnold snatches the ball off McNeil and sends Salah off down the right. Salah pulls back for Mane on the spot. Mane’s under pressure from Lawton, and skies his shot.

63 min: So having said that, Liverpool drop the tempo again. Burnley hold their shape, and the hosts go nowhere.

61 min: Nothing comes of the corner, but Liverpool have picked up the tempo a bit. They already look better since their double change.

60 min: Wijnaldum turns just to the left of the centre circle and embarks on a sensational diagonal run to the edge of the box. He slips the ball to Salah, who fires towards the bottom right. Pope, having another fine game at Anfield, claws out at the expense of a corner.

58 min: Klopp has seen enough. Salah and Firmino are sent on, in place of the ineffectual pair Origi and Oxlade-Chamberlain.

56 min: McNeil drifts past Alexander-Arnold down the left with ease. Matip steps across to put a stop to his gallop, a fine reading of the situation.

55 min: Shaqiri floats one in from a deep position on the right. Another doddle for Pope.

54 min: Westwood hoicks a dismal effort miles over the heads of everyone in yellow and yards right of the target. On the touchline, Dyche seethes silently. The scariest type of seethe.

53 min: Alexander-Arnold swings a couple of crosses in from the right. Easy for the Burnley defence. Barnes goes up the other end. He’s heading down a dead end, but Thiago foolishly slides in to concede a free kick, out on the left. Burnley load the box.

51 min: Alexander-Arnold cuts in from the right and has a bash. Pope does well to stop the vicious shot, which was heading into the bottom right. He can’t hold on, though, and the ball breaks loose. Mane is lurking, but Pope adjusts his prone body to whip-kick clear just in time. That results in a corner; the corner leads to another, then to nothing.

49 min: He can’t continue. Pieters comes on in his place. Taylor did the damage while stretching to complete a clearance under pressure from Origi.

48 min: Taylor is down with what looks like a muscle injury.

47 min: Mee hangs out a leg to stop Oxlade-Chamberlain marauding down the middle. He’s slightly fortunate not to be booked.

46 min: Liverpool are instantly on the front foot, but Alexander-Arnold’s cross from the right is far too close to Pope, who gathers quietly.

Liverpool, kicking towards the Kop now, get the ball rolling for the second half. Neither team have made a half-time change.

Half-time entertainment. That’s been provided by footage of the Klopp-Dyche dialectic. A proper eyeball-to-eyeball row, Klopp chasing his opposite number down the tunnel, Dyche turning to give as good as he got. Not entirely sure what sparked that, as neither manager appeared to witness the Fabinho-Barnes non-event. We don’t like to see it, though we do. The post-match interviews are going to be something.

VAR nonsense complete. Mike Dean shows Fabinho a yellow card for kneeing Barnes in the arse. It looked nothing more than a garden-variety coming together, but VAR checks for a possible red. However the on-field decision stands. Just a yellow, though Fabinho appears genuinely confused that anything’s been given at all. Robertson may well have been aggrieved at Barnes going down, but it didn’t look as though the Burnley man did anything wrong either. And while all that was going on, Klopp and Dyche were exchanging philosophical ideas in the tunnel! It could be a fun second half.

The whistle goes for the break. Klopp runs off down the tunnel, then turns back. There’s a stramash on the field! Fabinho and Barnes had come together under a high ball, just before the whistle. Barnes went down. Robertson isn’t happy. This one’s going to VAR, despite the half being over!

45 min +1: The ball’s tapped to the right by Thiago. A wee bit too much on it. Alexander-Arnold aims for the top right. He just about finds the top right of the Anfield Road Stand.

45 min: Mane is clipped to the floor by Brownhill, on the left-hand edge of the Burnley D. A free kick in a dangerous position. Liverpool have one added minute in which to take it.

44 min: Mee, the last man, takes an absurd fresh-air swipe at a simple ball – think Gerry Young in the 1966 FA Cup final, kids! – allowing Origi to race clear. He’s one on one with Pope! He reaches the edge of the box and powerfully sidefoots past the keeper … but his rising shot, meant for the top right, caroms off the junction of post and bar! Pope claims the rebound with a smile.

42 min: Liverpool have enjoyed 90 percent possession during the last ten minutes. Much good it’s done them. Origi dinks a cross from the right towards Mane, who is caught offside. Origi should have taken a shot himself; his decision making has been very poor so far.

40 min: Alexander-Arnold drops a shoulder and shoots from a tight angle on the right. Taylor blocks and deflects out for a corner. Nothing comes of that.

39 min: Robertson is sent into the Burnley box on the left. He tries to beat Pope at his near post with pace, but the keeper stands firm. Then Barnes is booked for scything through the back of Thiago earlier in the move. With industrial quantities of chutzpah, he complains about the decision, but it’s as clear a yellow card as you’ll ever see.

38 min: Alexander-Arnold has a look from the best part of 30 yards. That one’s heading off towards Goodison.

35 min: Shaqiri brings Taylor down on the left wing with a forward’s challenge. He walks off shaking his head. The resulting free kick finds Brady on the right-hand corner of the box. He has a whack but it’s soft and an easy gather for Alisson.