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Work-rate. Incisiveness. Nous. I don't ask for much. This is how it's gonna be. Build from the ground up. First of all, please note this game is live on Amazon Prime. We go into the Boxing Day clash having missed the opportunity to top the table at Christmas. While it's true that it matters that you are top at the end of May and not at Christmas, it would have been nice to finish at Anfield in 2023 with a win. Burnley enter this having somewhat surprisingly won 2-0 at Fulham. They've changed a lot of personnel (and of course the manager) since the last time they were in the top flight. I haven't watched any of them this season (bar goal highlights) so all I know about them is that Kompany has them playing with a very different approach to that employed by his predecessor Dyche. Not many of the players from that era are still there. I've also no idea if they are missing key players for this one. Our last game at Turf Moor was in February 2022. It was in that period where Mo and Sadio were away at the AFCON (both going all the way to the final), and Fab had suddenly found the goal-den touch. He it was who scored the only goal of the game, in a manner Dyche would have been proud of. Corner flicked on at the near post by Sadio, followed up by Fab who bundled in at the second attempt. Truth be told it was a bit of a slog, and Burnley had their chances. We grabbed the 3 points but it's not a game that will live in the memory. Jurgen will go into this one a little short of options. No Robbo, Joel or Kostas as all have long-term injuries (Robbo is expected to be back some time next month). Thiago and Baj have yet to feature this season. Diogo and Mac are a few weeks away from a return. Lucho's knee will need assessing so he might be missing for this one too. And all this before the likes of Mo and Endo go away with their national teams next month! Mo is desperate to win the AFCON with Egypt (if they play anything like they did at the last one, it will involve a lot of running him into the ground as his team plays for extra time and penalties). Endo is captain of Japan's national team. I'm not expecting a cohesive performance at Burnley (though it would be very welcome of course) but I do still expect the squad to approach the game with the right motivation, concentration, attitude and application. Let's end 2023 with another 3 points please. Get it done!

And so on to our first home game of the season. It's a lunchtime kick-off and I'd expect the fans to be in great voice. Hopefully the issues with the new ticketing and stadium entry system have been resolved, or at the very least do not cause the chaos that was evident at the two recent friendlies at Anfield. What do I want from this game? Well, there is Drive, Intensity, Nous, Guile, Luck, Energy, Bravado, Effervescence, Risk, Reward, Ingenuity, Electric atmosphere and Style. I don't ask for much. In late March 1976, we met Burnley at Anfield in this fixture. At the time, we were neck and neck with QPR in the title race and were gunning for a second UEFA Cup title. We would face Barcelona soon afterwards in the semi final - a team that had the calibre of Cruyff and the class of Neeskens. We won 1-0 thanks to a Toshack goal to become the only Engish side to win there, a record that stood until 2012. As for Burnley, it was a routine win thanks to a double from Davie Fairclough. The first a header in the centre of the goal from about a yard out following a flick-on from a corner. The second was slotted away at the near post when a ball across the ball was dummied into the ginger goalgetter's path on the left of the area. One of the greatest films of all time by one of cinema's greatest directors was atop the box office in March 1976. Scorsese. De Niro. Foster. Shepherd. Cinematic brilliance, written by long-time Scorsese collaborator Paul Schrader. He was living in his car at the time, and driving around New York and seeing people out and about at night, his own feelings towards the depravity on display gave him the inspiration to create what is probably Robert De Niro's most enduring screen character, Travis Bickle. I bet loads of you have mimicked the "You talkin' to me?" scene in front of a mirror. Some of you might even have gone down the 'aviators and mohawk' route. There's no doubt that Taxi Driver is iconic. It lost out to Rocky for Best Picture and Best Director, and to Network for the big acting awards. No shame in that as the Oscars are not the be-all and end-all, and both of those are excellent films in their own right. Just not as raw and thought-provoking as the tale of a Vietnam vet going through an epic case of PTSD. The 70s has left one hell of an outstanding legacy on the movie landscape. The game last season (back in January) marked a first home defeat for us in the league since April 2017. We were poor that night, but Burnley benefitted from being handed a penalty late on for an offence that Sadio at the end didn't get the same treatment for. Burnley had gone years without being awarded a penalty in the league, so of course it was going to be us on the receiving end. That's how that shit was rolling in 2020/21. We lost, and it triggered an unprecedented run of home defeats, the likes of which had never been endured by even our very worst teams, never mind the defending champions. We owe Burnley for that one. We might have got payback with a 3-0 win at Turf Moor back in May, but This Is Anfield. Take them to the fucking cleaners. Get the job done. Make it rain. A real rain that'll wash those alehouse fall-over-at-the-first-sign-of-contact cunts off the pitch. A shit paraphrase of a famous quote, but I don't care what you say. You talkin' to me?