If there's a more intoxicating and enticing place to watch Premier League football this season than the City Ground, it must have been in hiding.
Here too, a packed house witnessed another evening carved from the great traditions of Nottingham Forest. The Garibaldi team turned red and steadfastly refused to bow to expectations or hierarchy. A certain guy in an old green sweater would have loved it.
Brian Clough's Forest regularly delivered people here in the 70s and 80s. Liverpool in particular hated it. Nuno Espirito Santo's bunch couldn't quite do it this time. They couldn't quite turn six league wins into seven.
Towards the end, Forest held on, clinging to imaginary branches as a tidal wave from Liverpool washed over them. At full-time, their goalkeeper Matz Sels had announced himself as their best player.
But at the same time this was a shock for Liverpool. Forest's 'rope-a-dope' tactics had given them an early lead when their striker Chris Wood broke free to score. Liverpool, the league leaders, were shocked. They were insecure and anxious. Lots of ball possession – 71 percent of it full time – but during the first hour at least not a single shot on target.
Substitute Diogo Jota changed that within 22 seconds of his arrival. His header from a corner leveled the score. And then it was all Liverpool.
Still, Arne Slot's team will be satisfied. They must be. They didn't lose and they easily could have. They were completely without precision, composure or imagination until the moment Jota scored. And most importantly, title rivals Chelsea and Manchester City – yes, them – failed to win their games.
If Arsenal don't beat Tottenham in the Emirates on Wednesday night, Liverpool will emerge from this cluster of games on equal terms. At this point, that's all that matters.
But what a game. What an atmosphere. What a riot. Liverpool came here knowing exactly what Forest would do, but it wasn't until the home side's legs started to tire in the later stages that they even came close to breaking down their opponents. Sels went from fairly unemployed to man of the match in about 25 minutes and that was pretty much the summary.
It used to be easy to categorize what was happening. One team with all the ball, the other with all the ideas.
There is no secret to how Forest play. They've been doing that all season. Possession means nothing to Nuno's team. It's about what they do when they have the ball.
The first eight minutes of the match summarized that perfectly. Liverpool already had the game at that time. Forest simply sat away from them and tried not to get involved. Slot's team looked comfortable and forward and might even have scored when they fired twice from distance, before Ryan Gravenberch went through with a short pass from Mo Salah and fired a shot over the bar from twelve yards.
If you were from another planet, you might have wondered what this was all about. A game between two teams of which only one actually plays. And then, with their first ever foray into Liverpool's defensive third, Forest scored.
The concept of the goal took place at the halfway point where Callum Hudson-Odoi – goal scorer as Forest won at Anfield in early autumn – won a battle with Salah. Then Anthony Elanga fed Wood through the middle and the New Zealander ran away from Virgil van Dijk to slot a shot over Alisson Becker into the far corner.
It was classic Forest. A classic counter. From Liverpool's perspective it was a terrible goal. Van Dijk was three yards behind his defensive colleagues when he played Wood onside, while Alisson was too close to his near post. He made it easier for the goalscorer than it might have been.
Liverpool had plenty of time to make amends, but didn't do anything about it for too long. Their choices in the final third were terrible. Hopeful shots from distance. Bad passes. Forest's fourth team – in which Brazilian Murillo excelled – took the lead.
They started the second half just as poorly, but Jota was sent off in the 66th minute and immediately scored. A deep corner somehow found him in the space between Murillo and Wood and he headed in from six yards.
That changed everything. Forest started to take action higher up the field and that gave Liverpool some space.
Twice Sels saved from Jota – the second with his thigh was world class – and he then hit a Cody Gakpo drive wide and similarly denied Dominik Szoboszlai. Right at the death, meanwhile, he tipped over a Salah curler and then, from the corner, Forest right-back Ola Aina cleared the Egyptian's low drive off the line.
In the midst of all this, Salah might have been awarded a penalty, but strangely there was no appeal, no whistle and no interest from VAR. Foreign.
So in the end everyone went home with something. Liverpool with a point, Forest with their pride and belief intact and everyone else with a pounding heartbeat they could have felt in their ears.
By the time she was working full-time, it had become fragmented, unstable and extremely convincing. When is the next one? Does anyone have a ticket?
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