Fabinho strike enough for Liverpool to see off Burnley

Fabinho’s fifth goal in eight matches helped Liverpool grind out a 1-0 victory over Burnley in testing conditions to maintain their pursuit of Manchester City.

With rain seemingly blowing around Turf Moor in three different directions at the same time, the conditions seemed ideal for an upset – one Jurgen Klopp’s side could ill-afford starting the game 12 points off the leaders.

But even though the visitors reunited their famed original front three of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino for the first time since the end of October, it was their new-found goalscoring midfielder who made the breakthrough.

Since the turn of the year, no team-mate has scored more than the Brazil international, whose primary role of anchoring the midfield was also performed superbly in a scrappy contest which saw a number of players struggle.

Certainly Liverpool, kicking against a strong wind, struggled the most as judging balls played over the top became something of a guessing game and often relied on goalkeeper Alisson Becker making the right judgement call in coming out of his area.

Burnley tried their best to exploit that with the runs of Wout Weghorst, Jay Rodriguez and Maxwel Cornet giving experienced centre-backs Virgil Van Dijk and Joel Matip a difficult time.

Josh Brownhill’s early long-range effort was turned behind by the Liverpool goalkeeper while a counter-attack after Salah unsuccessfully appealed for a penalty saw Weghorst clip over Alisson, only for Trent Alexander-Arnold to hack clear.

Burnley are going to need much more from £12million January signing Weghorst, however, if they are going to escape the trouble they are in after an 11th league match without a win.

The giant Dutchman has proved to be effective in