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Nottingham Forest's success at Anfield in the prior year was a blip in an usually strong top-flight home record for the hosts. Their repeat this season, a far more convincing triumph under their manager, was indicative of the issues afflicting the declining title holders.

Nottingham Forest's outstanding display

Forest were brilliant as they recorded their biggest win at Anfield. Scores from the Brazilian, excellent at both ends of the pitch, Savona and the exceptional Morgan Gibbs-White inspired a merited victory for a team that also kept a first clean sheet in 20 top-flight fixtures.

The home side's woes

The Reds, by contrast, were a disorganized as they experienced an 8th setback in eleven games to drop into the bottom half of the table. Ineffective at set pieces, once more, unproductive in the final third, again, with Isak replaced after sixty-eight anonymous minutes, and defensively weak, they struggled in all departments to fall to a back-to-back heavy reverse.

Opening dominance missing payoff

For half an hour the home side maintained the upper hand, the infrequent break from Gibbs-White aside, but the failure to capitalize on opportunities into the hard currency of scores hurt them significantly. the midfielder was presented with an initial opportunity from Cody Gakpo's surge into the penalty area only for Elliot Anderson to produce a excellent desperate block with his forehead. He had a second shot blocked moments later while impressive footwork from Mohamed Salah created another close-range chance for the defender. The visiting defender just did enough to disturb the defender into firing over.

Dead-ball frailty hits once more

Arne Slot has frequently bemoaned his side's vulnerability to fast breaks and set-plays in the current campaign. This provided new reason for concern when the visitors scored first through a mix of the both aspects.

The Forest manager was shocked after Igor Jesus failed to release the midfielder in room on the fast attack and presented Ibrahima Konaté a chance to clear. The ensuing corner sparked celebratory scenes in the visitors' bench, however, when the midfielder's delivery deflected off the captain to the goalscorer and the centre-half drilled an unstoppable finish from six yards into the far corner. It brought echoes of the captain's chalked-off strike against the champions in the visitors' opener with the forward located in an illegal position in front of Liverpool's recovered goalkeeper the goalie.

VAR decisions and dispute

Predictably, the the skipper was swift to mention the similarities to the official, Madley. But unlike Andy Robertson at the Manchester, the forward made no obvious movement in front of the keeper and the strike was given. The Premier League stated: "The referee's call of a score was reviewed and upheld by VAR – with it judged that the player was outside of the sightline of Alisson and did not make an move that affected an opponent."

Liverpool were let off by the officiating team and the system 120 seconds following when the striker was convinced he had added to Forest's lead.

Konaté, who suffered a poor day, made an feeble effort to clear an Sangaré's ball and turned the sphere against the forward, who brought down before slotting the bottom corner of the goalkeeper's posts. Andrew Madley, in discussion with his assistant referee, ruled out the effort for a illegal use of hand that multiple reviews struggled to prove or disprove. League officials stated: "The decision of invalid score was assessed and supported by VAR – with it considered that the player inadvertently handled the ball before finishing."

Follow-up goal extends advantage

So much for the let-off. Almost immediately of the restart Mac Allister failed to cut out a pass towards the defender inside the home penalty area. The full-back evaded from his opponent and set up their next goal on a platter for fellow wing-back Nicolò Savona, who located the keeper's upper corner with a composed placed shot.

Strategic changes do not work

Liverpool's coach made changes, substituting the defender with Ekitiké after 55 minutes and partnering the French striker next to Alexander Isak. That experiment continued for only 13 minutes before Alexander Isak was withdrawn following another ineffective performance. Federico Chiesa and Ngumoha were further added to the Liverpool attack but inefficiency in play and resolute opposition backline prevented the home side at arm's length.

Late strike wraps up the result

Forest showed the skill and incisiveness that Liverpool were without in the opposition half to decide the game {beyond doubt|out of reach|conclusively