LONDON — Troubled Liverpool’s woeful season hit a new low with a shocking 3-0 home defeat against Nottingham Forest, while Chelsea won 2-0 at Burnley to step up their English Premier League title challenge.
The spluttering champions fell behind in the 33rd minute when Murillo’s fierce strike punished their failure to deal with Elliot Anderson’s corner.
Reds boss Arne Slot was fuming that the goal was allowed despite Forest’s Dan Ndoye appearing to obstruct Liverpool keeper Alisson Becker – an offence that led Virgil van Dijk’s equaliser to be disallowed in the 3-0 loss at Manchester City before the international break.
Sean Dyche’s side doubled their lead after 46 minutes when Nicolo Savona slotted home from Neco Williams’ cut-back.
With Liverpool’s defence in disarray, Morgan Gibbs-White scored Forest’s third from the rebound after Omari Hutchinson’s shot was saved in the 78th minute.
Beaten by Forest at Anfield for a second successive season, Liverpool have lost eight of their last 11 games in all competitions, including six of their last seven in the top-flight.
It is the first time Liverpool have lost consecutive league games by a three-goal margin since 1965, AFP reported.
Slot admitted that Liverpool’s players are still affected by the tragic death of Diogo Jota in a crash in Spain in July.
And once again they were devoid of inspiration and energy in another lethargic display that left them languishing in 11th place, eight points behind leaders Arsenal.
Liverpool’s stunning decline comes after a summer spending spree of over £400 million ($523 million).
Alexander Isak was hauled off in the second half of his fourth league start for Liverpool following a British record move from Newcastle that has failed to live up to the hype.
Sweden striker Isak has yet to score for the Reds in the top-flight. “Another big disappointment. We started off quite well but we conceded the 1-0 and weren’t able to play the way we did in the first half hour,” Slot said.
“If things go well or things go bad, it’s my responsibility. We weren’t able to create enough. I tried to adjust a few things, but it didn’t work out. We are in a very bad spell.”
At Turf Moor, Pedro Neto’s diving header put Chelsea ahead just before the interval and Enzo Fernandez netted in the closing stages.
It was the ideal warm-up for Chelsea ahead of a crucial week featuring home games against Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday and Arsenal in the Premier League on November 30.
The west Londoners would drop back down to third place if Manchester City avoid defeat against Newcastle later on Saturday, but regardless of that result, their hard-fought victory in freezing Lancashire added to their title momentum.
“It’s tough after the international break, 12:30, Burnley away, it’s always a hard game. But the way we competed I’m very happy,” Maresca said.
“It was very important to keep the momentum from before the international break.”
New Wolves manager Rob Edwards suffered a 2-0 debut defeat against fourth-placed Crystal Palace at Molineux.
Edwards has been tasked with saving Wolves from relegation after arriving from second tier Middlesbrough to replace the sacked Vitor Pereira.
But Edwards, who played over 100 times for Wolves, was unable to spark an immediate revival from his bottom of the table team.
Daniel Munoz gave Palace a 63rd minute lead and Yeremy Pino netted six minutes later to leave Wolves, beaten in 10 of their 12 league games, sitting nine points from safety.
Brighton came from behind to defeat Brentford 2-1 at the Amex Stadium.
Raul Jimenez’s 84th minute goal gave Fulham a 1-0 victory against Sunderland at Craven Cottage.
West Ham blew a two-goal lead in their 2-2 draw at Bournemouth.
