As third-placed Nottingham Forest host leaders Liverpool, football writer Ben Bloom looks at whether Nuno Espirito Santo's side are genuine title contenders.
Back when Nottingham Forest unexpectedly ended Arne Slot’s honeymoon period at Liverpool in mid-September, a first victory for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side at Anfield since 1969 was widely considered a freak result; the type of upset that can invariably occur in football.
A team that had last season broken the record for the lowest points tally (32) of any Premier League club ever to avoid relegation was not expected to hang around the upper echelons of the table for long.
"Normally this team is not ending up in the top 10," said Slot of Liverpool’s vanquishers after that match. "If you lose a game against them, that’s a big disappointment."
Yet four months on, Forest welcome Liverpool – who are yet to suffer another league defeat – on Tuesday evening as the Premier League’s most in-form side.
Six wins on the bounce has raised a question that not even the most optimistic supporter would have envisaged answering when they departed Anfield unbeaten four games into the season: are Forest genuine title contenders?
It is a conundrum that has gained worth with each passing week, and the two sides meet at the City Ground separated at the top of the table by just six points. Should they complete a first league double over their visitors since 1962/63, Forest can legitimately be considered Liverpool’s most likely challengers for the Premier League crown.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Liverpool
LIV
|
19 | +28 | 46 |
| 2 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
20 | +21 | 40 |
| 3 |
Nott'm Forest
NFO
|
20 | +10 | 40 |
| 4 |
Chelsea
CHE
|
20 | +15 | 36 |
| 5 |
Newcastle
NEW
|
20 | +12 | 35 |
"I’ve always said you can judge the table best halfway through the season," said Slot at his pre-match press conference.
"That moment is there now, so if Forest are up there with us, with Arsenal, Chelsea and [Manchester] City and all the others then they definitely are a team that is in competition with us and with the other teams.
"They deserve to be treated like this if you look at the way they play and if you look at their results. It’s going to be a very difficult challenge tomorrow to get a result."
'Compliments distract us'
On the cusp of equalling a club-record sequence of seven consecutive victories, set in 1922, Nuno nonetheless refused to engage with title talk.
"If we start thinking about ifs... it’s if, if, if, if," said the Forest boss on Monday.
"That’s why we always try to approach how we are going to prepare ourselves, how we are going to play the game. In the end of the game there will be no ifs.
"We try as much as possible to ignore what is around. We never change, it is the way we see things, it’s the way we see the competition, it’s the way we see life.
"Day by day, we focus on our tasks. Tomorrow is another tough one.
"When we do things good we should be pleased, but too many compliments can distract us, so we don’t want to pay too much attention."
Emulating Leicester
Nuno may not want to hear it, but the Forest manager deserves plenty of plaudits for the counter-attacking style he has implemented with such success this campaign.
No Premier League team have had less possession than Forest’s 39.4 per cent this season, but – led ably by Chris Wood in attack – they have been clinical when they do have the ball.
Similarities have been drawn between Nuno’s pragmatic approach and that which Claudio Ranieri used to such great effect when masterminding Leicester City’s shock 2015/16 title triumph.
Assessing whether Forest might emulate Leicester’s fairytale win, football writer Adrian Clarke noted that Nuno’s team have exactly the same points tally at this halfway stage of the season as Ranieri’s side nine years ago.
They have proved defensively solid, registering more clean sheets than any other team, and are yet to make a single individual error that has led to a goal conceded.
Nuno’s game plan
The Anfield victory in September was a prime example of Nuno’s ingenuity at eking out the best from a squad that has punched above its weight.
Against a team that had scored seven and not conceded in their opening three games, the Forest manager packed the middle of the pitch with five central midfielders in a successful bid to be as compact as possible.
The second-half introductions of Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi was a bold move when Nuno might have attempted to settle for a point, and it sparked a host of counter-attacks, one of which was eventually finished by Hudson-Odoi, curled with precision into the bottom corner.
Hudson-Odoi's winner at Anfield
Last time out against Liverpool... 💫⏮️ pic.twitter.com/AtRPIMtGFu
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) January 13, 2025
"I think Nuno did a great job in implementing a style of play that suits the players very well," said Slot this week.
"I think they already showed in retrospect how good a team they are.
"Leading up to that [Anfield] game I think they had two draws and one win. In general, I think when Liverpool loses a home game that is something we don’t expect.
"Now, looking back at it and seeing where they [Forest] are in the league, it’s not been such a shock result as I thought it was back then.
"They had a very good game plan. [They] changed the wingers that normally played and brought them in at the end and they made a difference.
"Although I expect their wingers that have done so well to be in the starting XI tomorrow, that’s something he changed back then and that worked really well for them during that game."
The rematch
Anticipation ahead of Tuesday’s rematch recalls memories of a bygone era when the two clubs were English football’s leading forces.
The duo shared five European Cups in as many seasons during the late 1970s and early 1980s, as well as multiple EFL Cups and First Division trophies.
Tuesday’s match heralds the start of tricky periods for both teams that will determine whether either will add a Premier League title to their haul.
Liverpool face seven of the current top 10 away from home before the season is done, while Forest play seven of the top half in their next eight matches.
Win on Tuesday and Nuno will find it increasingly hard to shun talk of a title challenge.