The big smile on “Captain Fantastic” Steven Gerrard’s face was a welcome return, as he grabbed two goals to slam the Premier League door shut on Burnley and send them back to the Championship for the 2010/11 season.

The first half at Turfmoor was scrappy at times as Liverpool with Aquilani trying to make the most of a rare start in the Liverpool red. Despite growing possession amidst the occassional Burnley push forward in hope of survival, the first half brought no goals for either side and a little re-think took place at half time.

With Maxi and Babel swapping flanks at the start of the second half, things started to show signs of clicking in to place a little more. It wasnt long though before Rafa Benitez had to reshuffle his pack to accomodate the loss of Dirk Kuyt with a minor calf injury 5 minutes in, Yossi Benayoun arriving off the bench.

With Liverpool lacking strike options even more so than normal, Ryan Babel took over in his favoured central role, with Torres / Ngog injured and Kuyt departing the field. Two minutes later and Liverpool were in front as Gerrard cut in from the left, got his shot away from 20 yards and saw it nestle in the bottom corner as it clipped Leon Cort on the way through leaving the keeper stranded.

7 minutes later and the game was all but over, as Gerrard added his second on 59mins with a world class finish from 25 yards. The captain took full advantage of Aquilani’s stumble, moving the ball into his path, to swing the ball inside the right hand post at pace past the full stretch Jensen in the Burnley goal, for by his own admission, his best finish of the season.

Burnley hit the post with 20mins left on the clock but they were a side resigned to the inevitable which became the certain as Maxi Rodriguez, fired in Liverpool’s 3rd of the day and his first in English football, just minutes later after a sublime throughball from the inventive Aquilani.

Liverpool were able to add a fourth in the 90th minute as Lucas, on for Daniel Agger, lifted the ball over the square Burnley defence to allow Babel to jog through and beat the keeper one on one, albeit with a small suspicion of offside. Burnley were not four goals worse than Liverpool on the day but the Reds second half display was certainly encouraging ahead of the 2nd leg tie with Atletico Madrid on Thursday at Anfield.

The talented Daniel Pacheco got some more game time as he came on to replace Steven Gerrard for the final 10 minutes and fellow young countryman Daniel Ayala played out the whole game at centre half alongside Jamie Carragher with very few causes for concern, both grateful for the rare opportunity and keen to please.

Rafa Benitez will be left with a possible few selection thoughts over the next couple of days if Ngog and Kuyt are unable to shake off their knocks in time to play, although their chances are rated as possible to be included at present. If not, then perhaps Rafa will turn to Babel to continue his improving form and lead the line. With wingers presently at a premium and Maxi once again stepping down due to being unelligible, Aquilani may find himself with a second start in a week while Lucas will be expected to return in front of the back four alongside Mascherano.

It was only their 5th away win of the season in the Premier League but Liverpool will take confidence from todays result and look forward to hopefully gaining a Europa League final place before the week is out and then preparing to do battle with Chelsea, which many a Man Utd fan will be watching cautiously. Until this time a faint half hope of a 4th place finish remains on the Red half of Merseyside.