Liverpool kept the pressure on Premier League leaders Manchester City with a 1-0 win over Burnley, but Tottenham’s top-four hopes were dealt another setback with a 2-0 loss to Wolves on Sunday.
Fabinho scored late in the first half at windy Turf Moor to give Liverpool their fourth league victory in a row.
Liverpool are nine points behind City with one game in hand, refusing to let the title race devolve into a prolonged coronation for Pep Guardiola’s men.
Raheem Sterling’s hat-trick spurred City to a 4-0 win over lowly Norwich on Saturday, giving them 14 wins in their previous 15 league games.
Guardiola, on the other hand, believes Liverpool will push the champions all the way to the finish line, and the manner they grinded out a hard-fought victory over bottom-of-the-table Burnley suggests he is correct not to count them out.
“It is nine points and then it is 12 points because most of the time City play before us. These are really difficult games. That is why we don’t think about the title race,” Reds boss Jurgen Klopp said.
Sadio Mane made his first appearance for Liverpool since helping Senegal win the African Cup of Nations.
Burnley were aggressive as usual, with Alisson Becker forced to save Josh Brownhill’s whirling strike before Wout Weghorst squandered a glorious opportunity for the hosts.
After a rocky start, Fabinho brought Liverpool back into the game five minutes before halftime.
After Mane headed on Trent Alexander-corner, Arnold’s the Brazilian tucked home his fifth goal in his last seven outings.
“A perfect afternoon. Raining and windy,” Klopp said. “Everything today was set up to be a banana skin for us.
“The balls in the air were so tricky to defend because the wind came from all directions. We played the circumstances rather than suffered from them.”
