Fabinho keeps up his Liverpool scoring streak to dispatch Burnley

In a year when Jürgen Klopp has spent £50m on a forward, Liverpool seem to have gained a prolific scorer. Not Luis Diaz – or not yet, anyway – but Fabinho. Klopp’s title hopes may be faint but they could have been extinguished without his newly potent holding midfielder.

Fabinho’s fifth goal of 2022 reduced the gap to Manchester City to nine points; had it not been scored by the man who shields the back four, the temptation would have been to call it a poacher’s goal, scrambled in from half a yard and showing a predatory instinct associated more with strikers.

The importance of a clinical touch was underlined as Burnley lacked one. Their last 850 minutes of top-flight football have yielded them a mere three goals, just as they have a solitary league win at Turf Moor in more than a year.

One unwanted statistic ought to have changed and another could have done courtesy of a first half when they had the superior chances. And yet, thanks to Fabinho, Burnley went in with a deficit.

Unlike against Manchester United on Tuesday, there was no comeback. Their local derbies next season seem likelier to involve Wigan and Blackpool than Liverpool and United.

For Liverpool, however, it felt the definition of a hard-fought win. Troubled initially, they ended up triumphant. Unconvincing before the interval, when neither Virgil van Dijk nor Joël Matip looked particularly commanding, they played with greater authority after Fabinho struck.

While Klopp believes this is the strongest squad he has ever had at his disposal, he could be grateful a minor injury altered his best-laid plans. The initial intention was for Sadio Mané to be a substitute.

Promoted to start because of Diogo Jota’s dead leg, he proved the brightest of Klopp’s front