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The away side's victory at Anfield the previous campaign seemed an anomaly in an otherwise commanding top-flight home record for Liverpool. Their repeat this season, a decisively stronger success under the Forest boss, was indicative of the challenges plaguing the declining former winners.

Forest's exemplary performance

Nottingham Forest proved impressive as they recorded their most significant win at Liverpool's home. Goals from the defender, excellent at each end of the pitch, the full-back and the superb Gibbs-White inspired a merited victory for a Forest side that also maintained a first clean sheet in 20 Premier League games.

The home side's struggles

The hosts, in comparison, were a disorganized as they suffered an 8th defeat in 11 games to drop into the bottom half of the standings. Ineffective at set pieces, once more, impotent in offense, again, with Alexander Isak withdrawn after sixty-eight uninfluential moments, and poor in defense, they faltered in every area to succumb to a back-to-back heavy defeat.

Opening dominance missing reward

For half an hour the Reds held the upper hand, the sporadic attack from Morgan Gibbs-White apart, but the shortcoming to turn promise into the hard currency of goals proved costly. Mac Allister was presented with an initial opportunity from the forward's surge into the penalty area only for the Forest player to deliver a excellent goalline clearance with his forehead. Mac Allister had a follow-up attempt stopped soon after while dazzling skill from Mohamed Salah produced another short-distance opportunity for Milos Kerkez. An opposition player just did enough to pressure the back into firing over.

Dead-ball vulnerability strikes repeatedly

The manager has frequently criticized Liverpool's susceptibility to fast breaks and set pieces in the current campaign. He was given fresh cause for complaint when the visitors took the lead through a mix of the each weakness.

Dyche was shocked after Igor Jesus did not pass to Domínguez in an open area on the fast attack and allowed Ibrahima Konaté opportunity to intervene. The ensuing corner kick triggered ecstatic reactions in the Forest dugout, nevertheless, when Anderson's cross touched Van Dijk to Murillo and the centre-half drilled an unstoppable strike from close range into the opposite side. This evoked reminders of Van Dijk's disallowed finish against Manchester City in the away team's opener with Ndoye located in an illegal position in front of Anfield's recovered keeper the goalie.

Video Assistant Referee decisions and dispute

As expected, the Van Dijk was prompt to point out the similarities to the referee, Madley. However, unlike Robertson at the Etihad Stadium, Dan Ndoye made no obvious gesture in front of the keeper and the score stood. The league stated: "The initial ruling of goal was reviewed and verified by the video system – with it judged that Ndoye was away from the line of vision of the keeper and made no an interference that affected an player."

Liverpool were let off by the match officials and VAR 120 seconds later when the striker was convinced he had increased Nottingham Forest's advantage.

Konaté, who experienced a poor day, made an feeble effort to deal with an Sangaré's ball and turned the ball against the attacker, who brought down before finding the lower corner of the goalkeeper's goal. Andrew Madley, in contact with his assistant, ruled out the strike for a handball that several reviews were unable to prove or refute. The Premier League said: "The ruling of disallowed strike was assessed and confirmed by the video assistant – with it deemed that the player accidentally handled the object before netting."

Second strike extends cushion

So much for the let-off. Within seconds of the kick-off the midfielder was unable to intercept a delivery towards Williams inside the Liverpool penalty area. Williams spun away from his opponent and presented their next goal on a silver platter for partner full back the scorer, who located the goalkeeper's upper corner with a composed placed shot.

Managerial substitutions do not work

Liverpool's coach went for broke, bringing off Konaté with the forward after 55 minutes and partnering the Les Bleus forward next to Alexander Isak. The tactical shift continued for only a short period before the striker was substituted following one more ineffective display. the winger and the youngster were further thrown into the Anfield's frontline but sloppiness in ball control and sturdy visitors' defense prevented the Reds at bay.

Concluding blow confirms the victory

Forest showed the precision and cutting edge that the hosts were missing in the attacking phase to put the contest {beyond doubt|out of reach|conclusively