“I was pleased with a lot of things; the points are the most important thing.

“If I’m being honest. I thought it was a really strong away performance. With all due respect I thought we were better and stronger in every department.

“Obviously, it was slightly frustrating we didn’t see it out and get that clean sheet because I thought our performance didn’t deserve that but I won’t let it spoil what was a fantastic performance across the board today. There were a lot of strong performances from the boys.

“We’ve shown we can be strong away from home and we were better in every department today, with all due respect.

“I put it on them before the game. I said, ‘Look, we’ve got a lot of people in the team that are going to fight and do the dirty work but it’s important, in our moments, that the front three go and win us the game’.

“When our moments came, we showed our quality, we were ruthless 🥊 in front of goal. The front three won us the game, but everyone stood up today.

“You saw it last week with [Danny] Ings and [Ollie] Watkins; they got us the goals and looked dangerous as a pair. A lot of people on the outside don’t believe in [their partnership], I certainly do. We gave Emi Buendia a chance and I thought he was fantastic, really creative.”

“It was a realty strong away performance against a side who have taken 10 out of 12 points in a really good moment.

“This is a tough place to come so my players deserve a lot of credit.

“Danny and Ollie can be a real threat together and I thought the service from little Emi was outstanding.

“John [McGinn] was the back up, if you like, with his cross and quality. The three goals we’ve scored were really outstanding in different ways.

“You have to remember that we’ve come up against a team here who were in a great place, 10 points out of 12 and on the back of that manager bounce. The boys have come to a tough place and put in a right top performance. I’m delighted with it and, before the game, the team talk was all about purpose.

“We knew Burnley had a big purpose today, we knew it was a really important game for them but I said to the players ours has got to mean more. That’s to try and finish as high as we can in the top-10. We’ve pushed closer to that and there’s always a purpose in football. It’s important we don’t let this season fizzle out - and that was my message to the players.

“We have been a really strong away team in the main; when our moments come, we’ve proved we can be ruthless 🥊. But this was up there with our best. We’ve been indifferent at home, so we know what we need to work on.

“There should be a freshness about us because we only play once a week; the lads have prepared well. We’re in a good place and we’ve got a tough game on Tuesday [against Liverpool] but we’ll make a couple of changes and rest up to make sure the team is ready.

“It is about enjoying tonight; it puts us closer to where we want to be.

“No, Phil [Coutinho] was (not disappointed) to miss out. There’s not much ego in this group. They’re a right good set of lads.

"The schedule, we’ve been playing one game a week/two weeks which isn’t enough. We want to be in a place where the games come thick and fast.

“We want Philippe Coutinho here.

“We’ve just entered the period where it’s going to change with five games in a short space of time. Phil and Emi will both get enough game time to keep them satisfied. They know that you can’t go Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday all of the time. Phil understood it.

“He’s played a lot and respected and understood that Emi deserves to play now and again as well - plus there’s the option of playing them both as well.

“I thought he [Emiliano Buendía] was terrific.

“Look, we’ve got five games in 15/16 days. I don’t think it’s fair to ask any of the players to play all of them.

“Emi’s showed me that he’s ready. He trained very well and I gave him an opportunity today and he took it.

“I’m delighted to have them both. There will be different challenges and tests for them both and they can’t play in all the games and have all the minutes. I’m the lucky one who has both options.”

Steven Gerrard.


”It was a great performance; it is always difficult coming here and we dealt with their long balls really well.

“They didn’t have many clear chances, we were good on set pieces and we scored three good goals. A lot of positives to take.

“We came here last year and went 1-0 up only to lose 3-2; they kept coming at us and we didn’t deal with their long balls. We knew we had to do that and we punished them at the other end.

“Scoring early breaks the ice and we knew the importance of that third goal; if they scored it they’d have had momentum. It is nice to get into double figures for goals and we are hoping to get top-10.

“We need to keep the momentum going.”

Ollie Watkins