With fewer than a dozen games left to play in Jurgen Klopp’s first full season in the Premier League, a top-four finish is there for the taking.
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Ahead of Sunday’s clash with Burnley at Anfield (Watch live, 12 p.m. ET, on NBCSN and online via NBCSports.com), Liverpool sit two points clear of fifth-place Arsenal (the Reds having played a game more already) with 11 games to go in the 2016-17 season. After a truly horrendous start to the 2017 calendar year (winless in their first five PL games) threatened to derail Liverpool’s chase for a second top-four finish in eight seasons, Klopp’s men bailed out the sinking ship with a pair of wins, over second-place Tottenham Hotspur, and Arsenal, in their last three league games.
Through the final day of 2016, no side in the PL had scored more goals (46 — four more than any other side) than the Reds, but it was their leaky defense (21 goals conceded — most of any side in the top-six at that time; they sat second ahead of New Years Day, six points back of runaway leaders Chelsea) which had already precluded them from a genuine title challenge.
“I don’t want to make it too philosophical — it is obviously the case we are inconsistent,” Klopp said this week. “I know we don’t have to doubt the attitude, and the kind of attitude we usually are looking for was here against Arsenal; they were really motivated and you cannot play like this if you have any issues.”
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Burnley (31 points) are already more than three-quarters of the way to the magical 40-point mark which will all but guarantee their safety from relegation (as few as 36 points could result in a 17th-place finish this season), though Sean Dyche’s Clarets are winless in their last four PL games (two draws).
INJURIES: Liverpool — OUT: Jordan Henderson (foot), Daniel Sturridge (hip), Danny Ings (knee surgery), Adam Bogdan (knee surgery); PROBABLE: Roberto Firmino (knock) | Burnley — OUT: Johann Gudmundsson (knock), Steven Defour (hamstring), Jon Flanagan (loan from Liverpool); QUESTIONABLE: Joey Barton (hamstring)