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Forest's victory on Merseyside the previous campaign appeared a one-off in an typically dominant Premier League home record for the Merseyside club. This recurrence this season, a much more emphatic success under Sean Dyche, was symptomatic of the challenges afflicting the struggling champions.

Forest's exemplary showing

Nottingham Forest proved exemplary as they secured their biggest victory at Anfield. Scores from Murillo, excellent at both ends of the field, the full-back and the superb Gibbs-White inspired a deserved win for a squad that also maintained a initial shutout in 20 Premier League games.

The home side's struggles

Liverpool, on the other hand, were a chaotic as they experienced an 8th loss in 11 games to slide into the second tier of the standings. Poor at set pieces, again, ineffectual in the final third, as before, with the striker replaced after 68 anonymous period, and defensively weak, they faltered in all departments to succumb to a second successive three-nil defeat.

Early pressure without reward

For the opening half-hour the home side held the advantage, the occasional attack from Gibbs-White aside, but the shortcoming to turn promise into the tangible reward of scores cost them dearly. the midfielder was given an initial opportunity from Cody Gakpo's run into the box only for the Forest player to execute a excellent desperate block with his skull. The Liverpool midfielder had a follow-up attempt stopped moments later while dazzling skill from the winger set up another near-post opportunity for Milos Kerkez. A Forest defender just succeeded to pressure the defender into firing over.

Dead-ball weakness strikes once more

Arne Slot has often lamented his side's weakness to transitions and dead balls in the current campaign. There was fresh cause for frustration when Forest took the lead through a combination of the both aspects.

Dyche was surprised after the forward failed to pass to Domínguez in an open area on the counter and gave the defender opportunity to intervene. The following set-piece sparked ecstatic moments in the away team's area, however, when Anderson's cross glanced off the captain to Murillo and the centre-half drilled an unbeatable shot from inside the box into the far corner. This evoked echoes of the defender's ruled out strike against City in the Forest's first goal with the forward located in an illegal position in front of the home side's fit-again goalkeeper the goalie.

VAR decisions and controversy

Unsurprisingly, the Liverpool captain was quick to mention the parallels to the referee, the ref. However, unlike Robertson at the Manchester, Ndoye made no obvious action in front of the keeper and the strike remained. The league clarified: "The initial ruling of a score was reviewed and upheld by the assistant – with it judged that the player was away from the view of Alisson and made no an interference that impacted an opponent."

Liverpool were reprieved by the match officials and the system a short time following when the striker was convinced he had doubled the visitors' lead.

Ibrahima Konaté, who suffered a poor afternoon, made an feeble attempt to deal with an the midfielder's delivery and directed the object against the attacker, who controlled before finding the net of the goalkeeper's goal. Madley, in discussion with his assistant, chalked off the attempt for a handling that multiple replays struggled to prove or disprove. The authority said: "The ruling of disallowed strike was checked and confirmed by the system – with it judged that Igor Jesus accidentally handled the sphere before scoring."

Follow-up score increases lead

That was the end of the reprieve. Moments of the kick-off Mac Allister was unable to stop a ball towards Williams inside the Anfield box. The full-back turned from his defender and set up Forest's second on a platter for teammate full back the scorer, who picked out the goalkeeper's top corner with a calm accurate strike.

Strategic changes fail

The manager made changes, bringing off Konaté with the forward after just before the hour and partnering the France forward with the Swede. The tactical shift continued all of a short period before Isak was withdrawn following one more anonymous display. Federico Chiesa and Ngumoha were also thrown into the hosts' offense but sloppiness in ball control and sturdy Forest defending held the Reds at arm's length.

Concluding goal wraps up the victory

The visitors displayed the precision and incisiveness that the home team were missing in the attacking phase to seal the match {beyond doubt|out of reach|conclusively