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The away side's success here in the prior year seemed an anomaly in an typically dominant Premier League home record for the Merseyside club. Their repeat now, a much more emphatic success under the Forest boss, was a clear sign of the issues plaguing the declining champions.

The visitors' exemplary performance

Forest were brilliant as they achieved their largest victory at Liverpool's home. Scores from Murillo, excellent at both ends of the pitch, the full-back and the magnificent Morgan Gibbs-White led to a merited win for a team that also maintained a first clean sheet in twenty division matches.

The home side's struggles

Liverpool, by contrast, were a mess as they experienced an 8th setback in 11 fixtures to drop into the bottom half of the standings. Ineffective at set pieces, repeatedly, ineffectual in offense, again, with Isak replaced after 68 anonymous moments, and defensively weak, they struggled in all departments to succumb to a back-to-back heavy loss.

Opening control without reward

For 30 minutes the home side enjoyed the advantage, the occasional attack from the Forest attacker apart, but the inability to turn promise into the actual outcome of goals proved costly. Mac Allister was offered an early opportunity from Cody Gakpo's run into the penalty area only for the Forest player to deliver a brilliant goalline clearance with his forehead. Mac Allister had a follow-up attempt blocked shortly after while skilful skill from Mohamed Salah created another close-range opening for Milos Kerkez. The visiting defender just did enough to pressure the full-back into firing over.

Set-play weakness afflicts repeatedly

The manager has repeatedly bemoaned the team's vulnerability to fast breaks and set-plays now. There was new reason for frustration when Forest opened the scoring through a combination of the both aspects.

Sean Dyche was aghast after Jesus failed to release Nicolás Domínguez in an open area on the break and presented the defender opportunity to clear. The resulting corner sparked jubilant reactions in the Forest dugout, however, when the midfielder's ball deflected off Van Dijk to the defender and the central defender fired an irresistible strike from inside the box into the back of the net. There were reminders of the captain's chalked-off finish against Manchester City in the Forest's first goal with the forward positioned in an offside position in front of Anfield's fit-again shot-stopper the goalie.

VAR rulings and controversy

Unsurprisingly, the Van Dijk was swift to point out the parallels to the match official, Madley. In contrast to Andy Robertson at the Manchester, Ndoye made no obvious movement in front of the goalkeeper and the goal stood. The Premier League confirmed: "The referee's call of goal was examined and upheld by VAR – with it considered that Ndoye was outside of the line of vision of the goalkeeper and made no an interference that influenced an defender."

The Reds were reprieved by the referees and video review two minutes later when Igor Jesus was convinced he had doubled Nottingham Forest's advantage.

The defender, who experienced a terrible afternoon, made an feeble effort to deal with an Sangaré's ball and deflected the object against the forward, who brought down before finding the net of Alisson's net. Andrew Madley, in contact with his linesman, ruled out the attempt for a illegal use of hand that several footage found it hard to prove or deny. League officials said: "The ruling of no goal was assessed and confirmed by the system – with it deemed that Igor Jesus unintentionally controlled the ball before netting."

Another strike widens advantage

Any hope from the respite. Within seconds of the kick-off Alexis Mac Allister was unable to cut out a pass towards the defender inside the Liverpool box. Williams spun away from his opponent and laid Forest's second on a silver platter for partner defender the scorer, who found Alisson's top corner with a calm accurate strike.

Managerial substitutions fail

The manager made changes, bringing off Ibrahima Konaté with Ekitiké after 55 minutes and partnering the France striker with the Swede. That experiment persisted for only less than a quarter-hour before Isak was replaced following one more anonymous performance. the winger and Ngumoha were further thrown into the Anfield's frontline but sloppiness in ball control and resolute Forest defending prevented the Reds at arm's length.

Concluding strike wraps up the result

The visitors demonstrated the skill and incisiveness that the home team were without in the final third to decide the game {beyond doubt|out of reach|conclusively