Nottingham Forest Chase Historic Win at Anfield
Nottingham Forest head to Anfield chasing a slice of history: a first-ever hat-trick of league wins on Liverpool’s turf. Under the lights and the noise, they arrive as something few sides can claim to be in recent years – genuinely comfortable visitors.
Iraola’s Liverpool still wide open
Andoni Iraola’s Premier League debut in the Liverpool dugout ended with drama and relief at St James’ Park. A last-gasp equaliser salvaged a point and gave the new era a jolt of optimism. The 90 minutes before that told a different story.
Liverpool dominated the ball, as expected. Sixty-one percent possession, 27 shots to Newcastle’s 13. On paper, it looks like control. On grass, it looked fragile. Every time Newcastle broke with pace and purpose, Liverpool’s shape buckled.
Anthony Elanga’s opener was the perfect snapshot. Newcastle won the ball in their own box and, 10 seconds later, it was in Liverpool’s net. No intricate build-up, just ruthless transition. The second was just as brutal. Malick Thiaw snapped into a challenge, Forest surged, and 12 seconds after winning possession Joe Willock was sliding the ball past Alisson with authority.
Those two moments didn’t just cost points; they exposed a pattern. Since the start of last season, Liverpool have now conceded nine goals from fast breaks in all competitions – more than any other Premier League side. For a team that wants to squeeze high and suffocate opponents, that statistic is a flashing warning light.
Now Iraola walks out at Anfield for his first competitive home match knowing the club guards an imposing record. Liverpool have not lost their opening league game of a season at home since 2003. Seventeen wins, five draws, 22 games. Two decades of making sure the curtain-raiser belongs to them.
That streak faces a very specific kind of threat.
Forest, the unexpected Anfield specialists
For years, Anfield was a graveyard for Nottingham Forest ambitions. From 1969 onwards, they came and went without a win in any competition. That drought is over in emphatic style.
Forest pinched a 1-0 victory there in September 2024, then returned last November and tore into Liverpool with a 3-0 win that felt like a statement of intent. Since their return to the Premier League in 2022, no side has beaten Liverpool more often in the league than Forest. Three wins. A number that jumps off the page in an era when Anfield has swallowed up so many visitors.
They do not arrive cowed. They arrive knowing exactly what it feels like to silence the Kop.
Glasner’s reality check – and the Delap gamble
Like Liverpool, Forest are adapting to a new voice on the touchline. Oliver Glasner is still trying to drag his ideas from the training ground into the heat of Premier League football.
Leeds United have made that process feel particularly painful. Daniel Farke’s side handed Forest back-to-back defeats within four days, knocking them out of the League Cup and leaving them goalless across both games. The mood around Glasner afterwards matched the scorelines.
He didn’t sugarcoat it. After Tuesday’s cup loss, he laid out the scale of the task: nine months locked in a relegation fight, the departure of a key midfielder in Elliot Anderson, and just six weeks together with this group. No shortcuts, no illusions.
“The reality is, and I think everybody has to understand and accept, nine months of relegation battle, losing maybe your top midfielder (Elliot Anderson), and now we're six weeks together,” the former Palace boss said. “The reality is no magician, no Messiah, it's just hard work. This is what we have to do.”
That honesty framed his team selection too. Forest’s opener last Saturday featured no new signings in the starting XI, a quiet summer by their recent standards laid bare on the teamsheet.
The mood shifts with one name, though. Liam Delap. A club-record £50m signing, a striker desperate to rewrite his story after a bruising spell at Stamford Bridge that brought just one league goal in 28 games. For Forest, he is both a risk and a spark – the kind of forward who, if he clicks, can turn counter-attacks into something far more ruthless.
Anfield would be some stage for a reboot.
Goals on the road, questions at the back
Forest do at least travel with a weapon Liverpool cannot ignore: they score away from home. Consistently.
They have found the net in each of their last 10 Premier League away games, the longest current run in the division. Fifteen goals in their last five on the road underline that this is not a fluke. When they break, they carry numbers, and they carry threat.
Set that against Liverpool’s vulnerability to fast breaks and the picture is obvious. Iraola wants his side on the front foot, pinning teams in. Forest are at their most dangerous when the game stretches and the grass opens up in behind.
Anfield has seen plenty of opening-day statements down the years. With Liverpool’s high line under scrutiny and Forest chasing a historic third straight league win there, this one feels less like routine business and more like a test of what both new eras are really built on.
