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The away side's success on Merseyside in the prior year appeared a one-off in an typically strong Premier League home campaign for the hosts. This recurrence now, a decisively stronger success under Sean Dyche, was indicative of the challenges plaguing the declining champions.

Nottingham Forest's outstanding performance

Nottingham Forest proved brilliant as they achieved their largest victory at Anfield. Goals from the defender, superb at either side of the playing surface, Savona and the superb Gibbs-White spurred a deserved success for a team that also kept a maid clean sheet in twenty top-flight fixtures.

The home side's struggles

Liverpool, on the other hand, were a disorganized as they endured an 8th setback in eleven fixtures to drop into the bottom half of the table. Weak at set pieces, repeatedly, ineffectual in the final third, as before, with the striker replaced after 68 anonymous minutes, and poor in defense, they faltered in every area to yield to a second successive three-nil loss.

Initial dominance missing reward

For half an hour the home side held the upper hand, the infrequent counter from Gibbs-White aside, but the inability to turn promise into the hard currency of goals hurt them significantly. Mac Allister was given an early opening from the forward's run into the penalty area only for the Forest player to execute a brilliant goalline clearance with his head. The Liverpool midfielder had a second shot deflected soon after while impressive control from Mohamed Salah created another near-post opening for Kerkez. A Forest defender just did enough to pressure the full-back into sending high.

Set-piece weakness afflicts once more

Liverpool's coach has often lamented his side's susceptibility to transitions and set pieces in the current campaign. He was given fresh cause for frustration when Forest opened the scoring through a mix of the each weakness.

Sean Dyche was surprised after Igor Jesus did not pass to Domínguez in an open area on the break and gave the defender opportunity to intervene. The following corner sparked jubilant scenes in the visitors' bench, though, when Elliot Anderson's ball glanced off the captain to Murillo and the centre-half hammered an unstoppable strike from six yards into the opposite side. It brought similarities of the captain's disallowed finish against the champions in the away team's first goal with Dan Ndoye standing in an illegal position in front of Anfield's returning keeper the Brazilian.

VAR calls and dispute

Unsurprisingly, the Van Dijk was prompt to mention the comparisons to the referee, the ref. In contrast to the full-back at the Etihad Stadium, Dan Ndoye made no obvious action in front of the goalkeeper and the score was given. The Premier League stated: "The on-field decision of a score was reviewed and verified by the assistant – with it deemed that Ndoye was outside of the view of Alisson and did not make an action that affected an opponent."

The Reds were let off by the referees and VAR 120 seconds later when Jesus was convinced he had increased Forest's cushion.

Konaté, who experienced a terrible afternoon, made an unconvincing attempt to deal with an Sangaré's cross and directed the sphere against the forward, who controlled before finding the lower corner of the keeper's posts. The referee, in communication with his linesman, ruled out the attempt for a handling that multiple reviews were unable to verify or disprove. The Premier League stated: "The ruling of invalid score was reviewed and confirmed by the video assistant – with it deemed that Igor Jesus unintentionally touched the object before netting."

Follow-up strike increases lead

Any hope from the let-off. Within seconds of the restart the midfielder was unable to cut out a pass towards the defender inside the Anfield 18-yard box. The former Liverpool defender evaded from his marker and laid their next goal on a plate for partner defender the scorer, who located Alisson's upper corner with a simple placed shot.

Strategic substitutions do not work

The manager took risks, substituting Ibrahima Konaté with the forward after the 55th minute and partnering the France forward alongside the Swede. That experiment persisted all of a short period before the striker was replaced following one more quiet performance. Federico Chiesa and Rio Ngumoha were additionally thrown into the Anfield's frontline but inefficiency in possession and sturdy visitors' defense kept the Reds at bay.

Final goal seals the result

The visitors displayed the precision and incisiveness that the home team were lacking in the opposition half to seal the match {beyond doubt|out of reach|conclusively