Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool kick-off time, team news and how to follow as high-flying Tricky Trees look to close gap on top-of-table Reds

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Nottingham Forest will be looking to bring themselves right into title contention tonight when they host Liverpool.

Nuno Espirito Santo‘s side are on an incredible winning streak, sealing six consecutive victories in the top-flight.

The Tricky Trees are second, and if they beat Liverpool for the second time this year, they would be in contention to lift the Premier League trophy at the end of the season.

Meanwhile, Liverpool have had a couple of disappointing results in recent weeks.

The Reds were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Manchester United before losing to Tottenham in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final.

But you would think they would have put that behind them, and they’ll be raring to go for this one.

Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool: Manager of the Year

This game sees the two most likely candidates for Manager of the Year meet for a second time.

On the first occasion at Anfield, Arne Slot‘s men were beaten 1-0 by Nuno’s.

That result left a lot of questions for Liverpool to answer, which they have done magnificently.

Since then, they are yet to lose another Premier League match, while they are in pole position to be crowned champions.

Should they win the league, Slot would be a huge contender for Manager of the Year.

However, Nuno is also a very strong candidate.

Forest have a genuine chance of winning the Premier League, while they should seal Champions League football, barring a collapse in the second half of the season.

So, the former Wolves boss has to be up there.

• 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 vs Liverpool: Team news

Forest managed to rest the majority of their first-choice starting XI at the weekend in their FA Cup win over Luton.

Murillo and Morgan Gibbs-White weren’t even part of the squad, while Chris Wood, Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi were among the players to come on as substitutes.

Ibrahim Sangare is the only injury concern for Forest.

It is much the same for Liverpool, with Slot only without Joe Gomez due to injury.

Darwin Nunez is suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season against Manchester United.

Liverpool rested Mohamed Salah, Alexis Mac Allister and Virgil van Dijk in their 4-0 win over Accrington Stanley at Anfield.

Federico Chiesa scored his first goal since joining the Reds from Juventus and looked sharp, so he will be a good option off the bench.

• 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.

Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool: What has been said?

Former Watford striker Troy Deeney believes that Nuno should be named Manager of the Year if he gets Forest into Europe.

Speaking to talkSPORT.com, he said: "Nuno, all day long.

"There was talk at the start of the year of Forest being relegated so if they finish in the European places Nuno has to be Manager of the Year.

"Arne Slot is fantastic and he's done a great job but they brought in one player so it shows that that squad was already really good.

"He's obviously had to come in and tinker and change it but for what Nuno's doing it's a no-brainer.

"Even the hardest of Liverpool fans would have to say it's hard to give it to Slot.

"If Forest finish second, it's nailed on. If they finish fourth then there's definitely an argument for it."

• 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).

Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool: Date and how to follow

This Premier League clash is set to take place on Tuesday, January 14.

Kick-off at The City Ground is scheduled for 8pm.

The match will be shown on TNT Sports 1 and TNT Sports Ultimate.

You can subscribe to TNT Sports through discovery+, BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.

talkSPORT will also have updates from Nottingham, with Adrian Durham, Deeney and Scott Minto taking you around the grounds.

talkSPORT.com will also have the action in our dedicated live Premier League blog.

To tune in to talkSPORT through the website, click HERE for the live stream.

You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.