Nuno Espirito Santo makes Liverpool 'on the ropes' admission after Nottingham Forest 'lesson'

Nuno Espirito Santo admitted that Nottingham Forest were ‘on the ropes’ as they managed to cling on to a 1-1 draw against Liverpool.

The City Ground encounter was billed as a Premier League title battle beforehand and it proved to play of that way. Liverpool went into the game top of the table and six points clear of Forest, who are this season’s surprise package.

The home side displayed why they are being discussed as potentially challenging for the top-flight crown in the first half, with Chris Wood opening the scoring in the eighth minute. But Liverpool improved in the second period and managed to breach a Forest defence that hadn’t conceded in their previous five games. In the 65th minute, Diogo Jota headed home Kostas Tsimikas’ corner - some 22 seconds after the pair had been brought off the bench.

Arne Slot’s visitors created several chance after that, with Jota, Cody Gakpo and Mo Salah all denied by Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels. Salah also had a shot cleared off the line by Ola Aina after Sels was beaten, as well as spurning to other decent openings.

The spoils were shared at the full-time whistle, with Forest moving up to second in the table ahead of Arsenal. And head coach Santo believes that holding Liverpool to a stalemate can be a lesson for his troops. The former Tottenham Hotspur boss said: “It was a lesson for all of us. This is how we want to compete - to the limits of our efforts - and we saw that. I’m very, very proud of the work of the players. We finished on the ropes but the team worked very well.

“We are competing very well. I keep insisting, and this is the approach and the mentality of the squad. It is about playing, competing, improving, realising what are our strengths and our weaknesses and getting to know ourselves better. That can only make us compete in the future in a better way.

“You know what I think about the table. For now, it is not important. It is how we are going to prepare for the next game. We have to give credit to our players when they face such talented opponents and raise the bar and challenge ourselves. It is huge for us. We are going to play against everybody. In the end, we will see how many points we have.”