Verdict from Anfield as Liverpool draw for the fourth time in the Premier League this calendar year – this time against relegation-threatened Burnley
Arne Slot looks on during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Burnley at Anfield on January 17, 2026(Image: Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
In the build up to this one, Arne Slot insisted he and his players had spent all week on turning their copious amounts of possession into something more decisive in front of goal.
But as the Liverpool contingent trudged off the Anfield turf having drawn their four successive Premier League fixture of 2026, it was difficult to see what evidence there was of the week’s work behind the scenes at the AXA Training Centre.
They had 73% of the ball but walked away with just a point against Burnley. It’s now just four from a possible 12 this calendar year and only one of those – the goalless affair at Arsenal – will be deemed as anywhere near acceptable.
Their top-four status should have been all but sewn up this month but stalemates with Leeds United, Fulham, league leaders Arsenal and now relegation-threatened Burnley, means a resurgent Manchester United, who were deserved 2-0 victors over Manchester City earlier in the day, will feel they can reel in their historic enemy.
How galling would it be to have top-four status pilfered from them by a United who have largely been in disarray for years?
It’s likely that the top five will qualify for Europe’s premier competition but that won’t be any sort of soothing balm right now to a set of fans who aired their frustrations in no uncertain terms at the final whistle of this 1-1 draw. Slot at least admitted he understood their discontent.
Liverpool’s wait for a convincing performance spanning 90-plus minutes this season goes on. Every single game they are being kept fighting until the last blast of the referees’ whistles and it must be so draining for the players, who are never able to rest up with results secure with time to spare.
As anticipated, the hosts started on the front foot and nearly had their opening goal via a Curtis Jones tap-in following good work from Milos Kerkez, whose cut-back was cut out at the vital moment from a Clarets defender.
Goalkeeper Martin Dubravka became increasingly busy as the half wore on with the goalkeeper making three similar saves to his left to deny Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Cody Gakpo. The were decent if not spectacular, however.
Dominik Szoboszlai’s wild week went on when he took on penalty duties after Gakpo had been fouled by Florentino Luis in the area.
Szoboszlai stepped up and hammered it against bar, which only added to what has been a strange old few days for the Hungary captain after his FA Cup howitzer was followed up with the bizarre back-heel that saw him accused of being “disrespectful” in Barnsley circles.
The goal arrived via Wirtz, who guided home with precision and poise after excellent work from Ekitike, whose hustling and bustling down the left made the most of a hopeful ball from Virgil van Dijk.
Wirtz was head and shoulders above most others on the pitch and the goal only continued what has been an excellent six or seven weeks now for the No.7. Excluding the intervention at Sunderland, when his strike to level the game was officially given as an own goal, the Germany international now has four goals and two assists in his last seven games.
It’s taken some time but the £116m playmaker is starting to become Liverpool’s best player. He is certainly their most creative outlet. But he and Ekitike cannot drag this team to the heights that are demanded alone and this was another game that passed Gakpo by as his ordinary campaign lurches on.
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The return of Mohamed Salah cannot come soon enough for a side unable to put teams to the sword and whatever misgivings Slot has over the Egyptian’s defensive contributions, they must now be ignored in an effort to give this side a cutting edge it so sorely lacks right now.
As the search for the elusive second continued, Burnley simply hung in and took their opportunity when Marcus Edwards slammed home past Alisson Becker moments after the goalkeeper had made a superb intervention to stop Ibrahima Konate conceding an own goal.
The frailties that were preyed upon by a Clarets side without a win since November must be hugely concerning for Slot. Once more, the opposition did not need to work overtime to score.
Slot will likely point to the bare statistics of this one as proof his team should have cruised to victory. Thirty-two shots saw 11 of them trouble Dubravka and the champions walked away with an xG of 2.95 to their opponents’ 0.4.
But citing hard lines and simple misfortune won’t cut it when these issues have been season-long problems. Rare off-days can be shrugged off when they are actually infrequent but Liverpool’s five games against the promoted clubs this term have yielded just one win and seven points from a possible 15.
Just imagine how much more secure Liverpool’s campaign would look had so many points not be frittered away in such fashion.
There is no secret to thwarting Slot’s football, it’s a blueprint being followed by so many coaches at the top level this term and it’s the first time the Reds have failed to beat any of the promoted sides at home in the Premier League era. That, frankly, is unacceptable.
Liverpool have just five wins and 21 points from their last 17 Premier League games, which works out at 1.24 points-per-game. Jarringly, the ill-fated and mercifully short-lived reign of Roy Hodgson averaged 1.25.
The scrap for Champions League qualification goes on and it’s a dogfight that Slot dare not lose. Rarely has a dozen-game unbeaten sequence been this uninspired.
