Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez achieved a personal goalscoring first for the club in their 2-0 win over Burnley at Turf Moor.
The Reds travelled to Lancashire in the knowledge that victory by any margin would likely be enough to take them to the top of the Premier League table for at least 48 hours, given their superior goal difference over Aston Villa.
Nunez was one of five new faces introduced into the Liverpool XI, returning in place of Luis Diaz after the Colombian suffered a knock to the knee in the weekend's draw with Arsenal, and he immediately justified his recall.
With just six minutes gone in the Turf Moor encounter, Nunez received the ball inside the D from Cody Gakpo, opened up his body and side-footed a sumptuous finish into the far corner beyond the futile reach of James Trafford.
Nunez's opener ended the Uruguayan's eight-match Premier League streak without a goal, in addition to a 12-game scoreless run across all competitions, but his fifth top-flight goal of the season was a momentous one for another reason.
© Reuters
Having beaten Trafford from inside the D, Nunez's strike represented the 24-year-old's first-ever Liverpool goal from outside the box, having netted his first 22 efforts for the club from inside the opposition area.
Overall, Nunez had scored 40 consecutive club goals from inside the box before Saturday's clash, as not since playing for Benfica in a Taca da Liga clash with Sporting Covilha in December 2021 had he struck from over 18 yards away.
Liverpool wasted a glut of chances to add to their lead before the first half drew to a close, though, while Gakpo and Harvey Elliott also had goals disallowed before Burnley began to grow into the game.
However, Vincent Kompany's side could not make the Reds pay for their wasted openings, and with 90 minutes on the clock, Diogo Jota - making his first appearance since battling back from a muscular injury - finished from a tight angle after a neat link-up with Luis Diaz.
While Klopp was inevitably full of praise for Jota, he highlighted the fact that the Portuguese has also been guilty of wastefulness in the past, telling a press conference: "I love Diogo Jota but he missed chances in the past as well.
© Reuters
"He had some fortune like that. It's the nature of the thing that we always ask for, always the players who are not involved and then all of a sudden they think they can change the world.
"Diogo is an incredibly important player for us. Having him changed the whole dynamic, that's true, but before in his life he missed some chances.
"The goal he scored today is the goal of a boy full of conviction. Good technique, obviously, but full of conviction because he had no chance to create any kind of doubt in the last few weeks because he was in rehab.
"We sneaked him in somehow on the squad list because he trained only twice and the medical department wanted to give him extra training and I said he can have that in Burnley. He had that tonight and now he can train tomorrow properly and then he will be ready for Newcastle, which is really helpful."
Liverpool's two-goal success also saw Klopp prolong his perfect record in Premier League Boxing Day fixtures to six matches, the outright most wins for a manager with a 100% success rate on the festive date.
The Reds have moved two points clear of Arsenal in first place and begin 2024 with the visit of Newcastle United to Anfield on New Year's Day.
No Data Analysis info
