GREAT SAVE!published at 21:19 Greenwich Mean Time 14 January
Brentford 1-2 Man City
Erling Haaland has a header well saved and sub James McAtee curls over as City end this one well.
Liverpool had to come from behind to maintain their six-point lead at the top of the Premier League table in an enthralling draw with surprise challengers Nottingham Forest.
Forest, chasing a seventh successive league win for the first time since 1922, took the lead after only eight minutes when Chris Wood applied a clinical finish to Anthony Elanga's pass.
Nuno Espirito Santo's side survived in relative comfort as they tried to complete the league double over Liverpool, until head coach Arne Slot's substitutions had an instant impact after 66 minutes.
Diogo Jota had only been on the pitch 22 seconds when he headed in a corner from another substitute, Kostas Tsimikas, the pair having just come on for Andrew Robertson and Ibrahima Konate.
Jota threatened to turn the game on its head completely, forcing two fine saves from Forest keeper Matz Sels, while Mo Salah saw a late effort blocked on the line as Liverpool dominated the second half after a lack-lustre first period.
Forest remain in second place and on this form, in the wonderful atmosphere at The City Ground, they show all the signs of maintaining that lofty status.
Nottingham Forest's fans gave their players a thunderous reception at the final whistle after they put in a monumental shift to earn a point.
Manager Nuno will be desperately frustrated that a defence that is so magnificently drilled, led by the outstanding Murillo backed up by a top-class keeper in Selz, got caught at a corner for Liverpool's equaliser.
Otherwise, this a performance from Forest that demonstrated exactly why they have emerged as this season's surprise package and why they deserve their place near the top of the Premier League.
Wood's opener was classic Forest, indeed classic Nuno, Liverpool caught cold as Elanga slid the ball through for Wood, who finished with the confidence that has typified his campaign as he scored his 13th league goal.
Forest then ceded possession to Liverpool with trust in their fierce discipline and organisation, with Murillo a towering figure alongside Nikola Milenkovic.
And when Liverpool did break through, Sels formed a formidable barrier, keeping out a typical late Liverpool surge as Forest secured a point.
Liverpool could so easily have won this game as they dominated the second half, only denied by a succession of saves from Sels in a final flurry after Jota's equaliser.
In reality, however, Liverpool were again short of their best, especially in the first half when they were laboured and sloppy after they went behind, allowing Forest to drop into that deep defensive block that is so hard to pierce.
Liverpool, after a spell when they looked unstoppable, have had a dip in the past fortnight, drawing with Manchester United at Anfield and here at Forest, as well as losing to Tottenham in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg.
Slot looked as animated and frustrated as at any time this season, particularly in that first 45 minutes, but Liverpool came on strong after the break and only Forest's defensive heroics and the keeping of Sels kept them out.
This was not Liverpool at their best – but this was still a position they would have been delighted with if it had been offered at the start of the season.
Position | Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals For | Goals Against | Goal Difference | Points | Form, Last 6 games, Oldest first |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 48 | 20 | 28 | 47 |
| |
2 | 21 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 30 | 20 | 10 | 41 |
| |
3 | 20 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 39 | 18 | 21 | 40 |
| |
4 | 21 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 41 | 26 | 15 | 37 |
| |
5 | 20 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 34 | 22 | 12 | 35 |
| |
6 | 21 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 38 | 29 | 9 | 35 |
| |
7 | 21 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 32 | 25 | 7 | 34 |
| |
8 | 20 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 30 | 32 | -2 | 32 |
| |
9 | 21 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 32 | 30 | 2 | 30 |
| |
10 | 21 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 40 | 37 | 3 | 28 |
| |
11 | 20 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 30 | 29 | 1 | 28 |
| |
12 | 21 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 27 | 41 | -14 | 26 |
| |
13 | 20 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 42 | 30 | 12 | 24 |
| |
14 | 20 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 23 | 28 | -5 | 23 |
| |
15 | 20 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 21 | 28 | -7 | 21 |
| |
16 | 19 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 15 | 25 | -10 | 17 |
| |
17 | 20 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 31 | 45 | -14 | 16 |
| |
18 | 20 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 20 | 35 | -15 | 16 |
| |
19 | 20 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 23 | 44 | -21 | 14 |
| |
20 | 20 | 1 | 3 | 16 | 12 | 44 | -32 | 6 |
|
Manager: Nuno Espírito Santo
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager: Arne Slot
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager: Nuno Espírito Santo
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Manager: Arne Slot
Formation: 4 - 2 - 3 - 1
Premier League
All competitions
All competitions
All competitions
Following a 1-0 win at Anfield in the reverse fixture in September, Nottingham Forest are looking to complete their first league double over Liverpool since the 1962-63 campaign.
Liverpool won this exact fixture 1-0 last season, ending a 13-game winless run in away league games against Nottingham Forest (D7 L6).
Should Nottingham Forest win this match against Liverpool, it would be only the third occasion that both of a team’s first two defeats of a Premier League season have come against the same opponent, after Manchester United against Chelsea in 1993-94 and Newcastle United against Liverpool in 2022-23.
Nottingham Forest have won each of their last six Premier League games, while a win over Liverpool will see them equal their longest ever league winning run of seven, set four times previously (February 1893, December 1906, October 1921, and September 1979).
Nottingham Forest have won five of their last six Premier League home games (L1), more than they had in their previous 21 at the City Ground (W4 D7 L10). Forest are looking to win four consecutive home league games within the same top-flight season for the first time since January 1996.
Liverpool are unbeaten in all nine of their Premier League away games so far this season (W7 D2) – only in 1987-88 (first 15), 2018-19 (10) and 2019-20 (13) have they had longer unbeaten runs on the road from the start of a top-flight campaign.
Liverpool have scored at least twice in each of their last 12 Premier League games, their second-longest such run, after doing so in 15 consecutive matches between March and September 2019.
Matz Sels has kept nine clean sheets in the Premier League this season, more than any other goalkeeper. Indeed, the only Nottingham Forest keeper to record more in a single campaign in the competition is Mark Crossley (13 in 1994-95).
16 of Mohamed Salah’s 18 Premier League goals this season have come in the second half of games. In the competition’s history, only Salah himself has scored more for Liverpool after half-time in a single campaign (18 in 2017-18).
Cody Gakpo has scored in each of Liverpool’s last three Premier League games, the longest run of his career in the competition. Only seven different Dutch players have ever scored in 4+ successive appearances in the Premier League (most recently Crysencio Summerville in November 2022), with just one doing so for Liverpool (Dirk Kuyt, 5 in May 2011).