Nottingham Forest Aim for Historic Third Consecutive Win at Anfield

Nottingham Forest head to Anfield chasing something they have never done before: three league wins in a row on Liverpool’s turf. For a club that went more than half a century without a victory there, that alone tells you how strange this fixture has become.

Iraola’s Liverpool: thrilling, but exposed

Andoni Iraola’s Premier League debut in charge of Liverpool ended with the kind of drama Anfield feeds on, even from a distance. A last-gasp equaliser at St James’ Park salvaged a point and plenty of optimism. It also laid bare the cracks.

Liverpool dominated the ball against Newcastle, holding 61% possession and firing off 27 shots to the hosts’ 13. On paper, that reads like control. On the pitch, it looked very different whenever Newcastle broke.

They sliced through Liverpool with alarming ease on the counter. Anthony Elanga’s opener arrived just 10 seconds after Newcastle had won the ball inside their own box. The second was even more damning: 12 seconds from Malick Thiaw’s intervention to Joe Willock rolling the finish past Alisson.

Two punches, both on the break, both brutally efficient.

Those goals pushed Liverpool’s tally of strikes conceded from fast breaks in all competitions since the start of last season to nine – more than any other Premier League side. Iraola wants front-foot football; the early evidence suggests he must urgently plug the gaps it leaves behind.

Now he walks out at Anfield for his first competitive home game with a proud record to defend. Liverpool have not lost their opening league fixture of a season at home since 2003. Across 22 such matches, they have 17 wins and five draws. Anfield usually sets the tone.

This time, the visitors know the script – and how to rip it up.

Forest’s Anfield habit

For decades, Anfield was a graveyard for Nottingham Forest ambitions. From 1969 onwards, they came and went without a win in any competition. That changed in September 2024 with a 1-0 victory. Then came last November’s 3-0 hammering of the Reds on their own patch.

Two trips. Two wins. Four unanswered goals.

Since Forest returned to the top flight in 2022, no team has beaten Liverpool in the league more often than they have. Three wins in that period, a statistic that jars with the historical weight of this fixture and underlines just how awkward an opponent they have become for the Reds.

Forest arrive with the chance to make it three league victories in a row at Anfield – something they have never previously managed. The aura of the stadium will be there. So will the memory, fresh in their minds, of how it felt to silence it.

Glasner’s reality check and the Delap gamble

Like Liverpool, Forest are adapting to a new voice on the touchline. Oliver Glasner has inherited a squad used to firefighting and is trying to drag it into something more stable, more structured.

The early weeks have been bruising. Leeds United, under Daniel Farke, handed Forest back-to-back defeats in the space of four days, shutting them out twice and sending them out of the League Cup in the process.

Glasner did not sugar-coat it after Tuesday’s cup loss. He spoke of a club still scarred by “nine months of relegation battle,” of losing what he described as possibly his top midfielder in Elliot Anderson, and of the simple truth that he and his players have been together for just six weeks. No quick fixes, no grand illusions.

“The reality is no magician, no Messiah, it's just hard work. This is what we have to do,” the former Crystal Palace boss said. The message was clear: expect sweat, not miracles.

Forest’s summer business backed that up. By their recent standards it was subdued, and Glasner’s starting XI on the opening weekend contained no new signings. Continuity over chaos, at least for now.

One arrival does change the mood. Liam Delap has come in as a club-record signing at £50m, a statement fee for a striker who badly needs a reset. His time at Stamford Bridge yielded just one goal in 28 league appearances, a frustrating spell that stalled his rise rather than accelerating it.

At Forest, he gets a fresh start and, potentially, a team built to play to his strengths. He will be desperate to show he is more than a nearly man.

Goals on the road, belief in their pockets

If Glasner needs something to cling to ahead of Anfield, Forest’s away scoring streak is a good place to start. They have found the net in each of their last 10 Premier League away games – the longest current run in the division.

Fifteen goals have come in their last five league matches on the road alone. They travel, they attack, they score.

Against a Liverpool side that leads the league in goals conceded from fast breaks since last season, those numbers are not just trivia. They are encouragement.

Anfield will expect Iraola’s Liverpool to launch a new era with a statement. Forest have turned this fixture into their own private rebellion. One of those stories gives way on matchday – and the outcome will say plenty about where both clubs are really heading this season.