Burnley Vs Liverpool: The Reds Hunt Menterenging Record At Turf Moor

Hugo Ekitike, looks fierce with Liverpool (photo: @lfc)

JAKARTA - The leader of the Premier League standings and defending champions Liverpool will travel to the headquarters of promoted team Burnley in Sunday 14 September's opening match in England's highest caste.

Arne Slot's men became the only team to still maintain a 100% record in the Premier League, while Burnley performed slightly better than many expected in adapting to top-flight competitions.

Last August was a pleasant period for the reigning Premier League champions, where Liverpool won their opening three games, including an important win against title challenger Arsenal.

Now, Liverpool have ambitions to win their first four games for the third time in the Premier League era, having previously done so in the 2018-19 season (runner-up with 97 points) and 2019-20 (chair).

It will also be the third successive defending champion to win four opener games, after Manchester City have done so in the last two seasons, and will be the first in English football history to do so.

Slot's men became strong favorites to get the three points, not only because of quality excellence against Burnley, but also because they had strengthened the already deadly attack line by signing Alexander Isak for 125 million on the last day of the transfer market.

Liverpool have scored in 37 Premier League games in a row - their best record - and after spending nearly half a billion pounds in the summer, it's hard to imagine a defense capable of stopping them at the moment.

This is the easiest game for Liverpool in the next week, where Atletico Madrid and Rival Everton will travel to Anfield in the next seven days. Slot definitely hopes his team can repeat their performance as they destroy Scott Parker's Bournemouth with a score of 9-0 by 2022.

The latest history has made Liverpool's victory even more likely, as the Reds won in eight of their last nine visits to Turf Moor, including six consecutive times. Burnley has the potential to become the fourth team in history to lose seven consecutive times at home against Liverpool.

In the Premier League era, Burnley, as expected, had difficulty facing Liverpool, losing in 14 of the two teams' meetings.

Against the reigning champions in the highest caste, Burnley lost in 10 of the last 11 chances, conceded 30 goals in the process, but one exception to that record was against Liverpool, when Sean Dyche managed to lead his team to win at Anfield in 2021.

It was difficult to assess Burnley's performance after three games, as they faced two tough away games against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, both of which ended in a narrow defeat, but they managed to beat fellow promoted team Sunderland in their only home game.

Burnley are known for their incredible defensive record in the Championship last season, only conceded 16 goals in 46 games, but after three Premier League games, they have conceded six goals. If they conceded two or more goals in this match, they would be the second team in English football history to concede at least half of the previous season's total in the first four games of the following season.

Burnley are unbeaten in 25 home league games, but this record will be tested by Liverpool, and their challenges will not be easier as the next three games also face teams from last seven seasons - Nottingham Forest, Manchester City, and Aston Villa.

Attention will be on Liverpool's line-up at 12:45 a.m. to see if Isak will make his full debut, but most likely he will start off the bench, after playing just 18 minutes competitive this season, for Sweden against Kosovo on Monday.

Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo's slick performance also made it difficult for Slots to back up one of them up for Isak, especially since Gakpo also performed brilliantly on the international stage, scoring for the Netherlands against Lithuania last week.

The injury list shows Ibrahima Konate will be fine after appearing for France during the international break, but Jeremie Frimpong is still recovering from hamstring injuries and Curtis Jones is also absent.

Burnley may soon welcome Jordan Beyer andpriya Roberts back from a knee injury, but the game seems too soon for both of them.

Zeki Amdouni will be out in the long term due to a serious knee injury, but Hjalmar Ekdal should be fine after suffering a minor injury while on international duty with Sweden.

Florentino Luis was the only additional Burnley at the end of the transfer market, and this loan player from Benfica was able to make his debut in this match.

Burnley have conceded three goals against Spurs and Man United, and Liverpool are clearly in some of the top classes of both teams. With Isak's addition in attack, the visitors can score a lot of goals in this match.

Burnley's record against Liverpool is very bad, losing their last six home games at Turf Moor, and there is no strong reason to think they were able to stop this defeat this weekend.

Player Composition Forecast

Burnley: Dubravka; Walker, Ekdal, Esteve, Hartman; Ugochukwu, Cullen, Florentino; Bruun Larsen, Foster, Anthony

Liverpool: Alisson; Szoboszlai, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Wirtz, Gakpo; Ekitike