Overview
The last time Liverpool faced Nottingham Forest, the two teams were at the top and third in the Premier League rankings respectively. However, November last year seems to have passed a long time for both clubs.
Both started the round in 8th and 19th place respectively, significantly lower than expected when the new season started. This was the last time Liverpool started a game in such a low position in the rankings since April 2023. They won 3-2 at home to Forest that day, a very lucky victory.
However, this time The Kop is clearly declining. They have lost five of their last six Premier League games (W1), more than they lost in their entire championship campaign last season (4. Before this streak, they had lost only 5 of their previous 49 matches in the tournament (won 33 matches). This is clearly a disastrous decline.
However, it is also fair to put Liverpool's difficulties in a specific context. Most of their problems have come away. At Anfield, they have won four of their five Premier League games, along with two of their two Champions League games.
Even in the 1-2 loss to Manchester United, Arne Slot's side still had an expected goals ratio of (2.75 to 1.34). In general, Anfield is still a fortress.
The defeat to Man United was also the Reds' only loss in their last 22 home games in the competition, with a series of 17 wins extended from the defeat to Nottingham Forest in September 2024. Can the away team create a surprise for the second consecutive season?
This largely depends on the strength of the squad that Sean Dyche deploys. Callum Hudson-Odoi, Chris Wood and Oleksandr Zinchenko are all set to return, while Ola Aina and Douglas Luiz are still absent.
One of Forest's recent key players has been Morgan Gibbs-White. He has scored in both of his last two Premier League games and has the opportunity to score in three consecutive games for the first time in his career. If he continues to score, Gibbs-White will become the fourth Premier League player to score over 20 goals for Forest, after Wood (37), Bryan Roy 24. and Stan Collymore (22).
Gibbs-White's recent contributions have helped Forest score 5 goals in 3 Premier League games under Dyche, equal to the total number of goals in the first 8 matches of the season under Nuno Espirito Santo (4 goals) and Ange Postecoglou (1 goal).
They also average 13 shots per game and 1.6 xG per game, surpassing any of their predecessors in the 2025-2026 season.
Head-to-head record
Nottingham Forest won 1-0 away and drew 1-1 at home to Liverpool in the Premier League last season.
However, Forest have not lost 3 consecutive matches against The Kop since February 1993.
Last season's 0-1 loss was also the only match in which Liverpool have not scored in the entire Premier League campaign. In the two meetings at Anfield after Forest were last promoted, Liverpool scored three goals, a 3-2 win in April 2023 and a 3-0 win in October 2023.
Score prediction: Liverpool 2-1 Nottingham Forest
The match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest takes place at 22:00 on November 22 (Vietnam time).
