🔗 Share this article

The away side's victory at Anfield in the prior year seemed an anomaly in an usually dominant Premier League home record for the Merseyside club. This recurrence in the current campaign, a far more convincing triumph under the Forest boss, was symptomatic of the challenges engulfing the struggling title holders.

Nottingham Forest's exemplary display

Nottingham Forest proved brilliant as they recorded their biggest victory at Liverpool's home. Strikes from the defender, excellent at each end of the field, Nicolò Savona and the superb the playmaker led to a merited victory for a team that also secured a maid clean sheet in twenty division games.

Liverpool's woes

Liverpool, by contrast, were a chaotic as they endured an eighth loss in eleven matches to slide into the bottom half of the table. Ineffective at set pieces, again, ineffectual in offense, as before, with the striker withdrawn after sixty-eight quiet moments, and vulnerable at the back, they struggled in each phase to fall to a back-to-back heavy loss.

Opening control without payoff

For 30 minutes the home side enjoyed the initiative, the infrequent counter from Gibbs-White apart, but the inability to turn promise into the actual outcome of finishes cost them dearly. the midfielder was given an initial chance from Cody Gakpo's surge into the box only for the Forest player to execute a brilliant goalline clearance with his skull. Mac Allister had a follow-up attempt stopped shortly after while skilful footwork from Mohamed Salah set up another close-range opportunity for the defender. An opposition player just succeeded to pressure the defender into blazing over.

Set-play vulnerability afflicts once more

The manager has repeatedly lamented Liverpool's weakness to fast breaks and set-plays in the current campaign. This provided further evidence for concern when the visitors opened the scoring through a combination of the two.

The Forest manager was surprised after Igor Jesus was unable to find Nicolás Domínguez in space on the counter and gave Konaté the opening to intercept. The resulting corner triggered ecstatic scenes in the away team's area, though, when Anderson's delivery glanced off the captain to the defender and the central defender hammered an unstoppable shot from six yards into the back of the net. This evoked similarities of Van Dijk's ruled out strike against City in the visitors' initial score with Dan Ndoye positioned in an offside in front of Anfield's recovered shot-stopper Alisson.

Video Assistant Referee calls and debate

Unsurprisingly, the the skipper was swift to point out the parallels to the official, the ref. In contrast to Andy Robertson at the City's ground, Dan Ndoye made no obvious movement in front of the keeper and the strike remained. Officials confirmed: "The referee's call of valid strike was reviewed and verified by the assistant – with it considered that the player was away from the sightline of Alisson and made no an move that affected an defender."

The Reds were reprieved by the officiating team and VAR 120 seconds following when the striker thought he had doubled the visitors' lead.

Konaté, who suffered a poor day, made an feeble attempt to remove an Sangaré's delivery and directed the object against the Forest striker, who brought down before finding the net of the keeper's goal. Madley, in communication with his linesman, chalked off the attempt for a handling that multiple replays struggled to verify or refute. The Premier League announced: "The referee's call of no goal was checked and confirmed by the system – with it deemed that Jesus inadvertently touched the sphere before netting."

Another goal extends cushion

Any hope from the respite. Within seconds of the kick-off Alexis Mac Allister did not stop a pass towards Neco Williams inside the home 18-yard box. The former Liverpool defender spun away from his marker and set up the visitors' second on a silver platter for fellow wing-back Savona, who found Alisson's upper corner with a calm placed shot.

Tactical substitutions prove ineffective

The manager went for broke, substituting Ibrahima Konaté with Hugo Ekitiké after the 55th minute and pairing the French striker with the Swede. That experiment continued for only 13 minutes before Alexander Isak was withdrawn following another quiet showing. Federico Chiesa and the youngster were also introduced to the Liverpool attack but carelessness in play and resolute visitors' defense held the hosts at distance.

Concluding goal confirms the victory

Forest showed the finesse and cutting edge that Liverpool were missing in the final third to seal the match {beyond doubt|out of reach|conclusively