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Forest's victory on Merseyside in the prior year was a blip in an otherwise strong Premier League home record for the Merseyside club. A second successive win in the current campaign, a far more convincing success under the Forest boss, was indicative of the issues engulfing the faltering former winners.

The visitors' outstanding performance

The team was exemplary as they secured their most significant triumph at Anfield. Goals from the Brazilian, excellent at both ends of the field, Nicolò Savona and the superb Morgan Gibbs-White led to a well-earned success for a team that also kept a first clean sheet in twenty division games.

Liverpool's woes

The Reds, on the other hand, were a disorganized as they suffered an eighth loss in eleven games to drop into the bottom half of the league. Weak at dead-ball situations, repeatedly, impotent in attack, again, with the striker substituted after sixty-eight uninfluential moments, and defensively weak, they struggled in each phase to succumb to a back-to-back three-nil defeat.

Early pressure missing reward

For the opening half-hour the home side maintained the upper hand, the infrequent counter from the Forest attacker aside, but the shortcoming to turn promise into the actual outcome of scores hurt them significantly. Mac Allister was given an early opening from Cody Gakpo's run into the penalty area only for Elliot Anderson to execute a superb line save with his forehead. The Liverpool midfielder had a another effort blocked moments later while skilful skill from Salah produced another close-range chance for Kerkez. An opposition player just managed to pressure the back into blazing over.

Dead-ball vulnerability strikes again

The manager has often criticized the team's weakness to fast breaks and set-plays in the current campaign. He was given fresh cause for frustration when the visitors took the lead through a combination of the two.

Sean Dyche was shocked after Igor Jesus did not find Nicolás Domínguez in room on the fast attack and allowed Konaté a chance to intercept. The following corner triggered ecstatic reactions in the Forest dugout, though, when the midfielder's cross deflected off Van Dijk to the defender and the defender hammered an unbeatable shot from six yards into the opposite side. It brought similarities of Van Dijk's disallowed strike against City in the Forest's opener with Dan Ndoye positioned in an illegal position in front of Liverpool's recovered goalkeeper the Brazilian.

VAR decisions and debate

Unsurprisingly, the Van Dijk was swift to highlight the similarities to the match official, Andrew Madley. In contrast to Andy Robertson at the City's ground, Ndoye made no apparent gesture in front of the keeper and the goal remained. The league confirmed: "The initial ruling of goal was checked and upheld by the assistant – with it considered that he was not in the sightline of Alisson and did not make an interference that affected an defender."

The Reds were let off by the referees and video review a short time after when Igor Jesus thought he had added to Nottingham Forest's cushion.

The defender, who endured a poor match, made an feeble attempt to remove an Ibrahim Sangaré's delivery and turned the ball against the attacker, who controlled before finding the bottom corner of Alisson's net. Andrew Madley, in communication with his assistant, chalked off the strike for a handball that several reviews struggled to confirm or deny. The Premier League said: "The ruling of no goal was assessed and upheld by the video assistant – with it judged that the player unintentionally controlled the object before scoring."

Follow-up strike widens cushion

That was the end of the respite. Almost immediately of the kick-off Mac Allister failed to stop a delivery towards Williams inside the home 18-yard box. The full-back spun away from his defender and set up Forest's second on a platter for fellow full back the scorer, who found the goalkeeper's upper corner with a composed accurate strike.

Strategic substitutions do not work

Liverpool's coach took risks, replacing Ibrahima Konaté with Hugo Ekitiké after just before the hour and using the Les Bleus forward next to Alexander Isak. The tactical shift persisted all of 13 minutes before the striker was withdrawn following another anonymous showing. the winger and Ngumoha were also introduced to the hosts' offense but inefficiency in possession and solid opposition backline held the hosts at distance.

Concluding strike wraps up the outcome

The visitors displayed the finesse and cutting edge that the home team were without in the attacking phase to seal the match {beyond doubt|out of reach|conclusively