Avid readers of Defector won’t be surprised to learn that Liverpool are still the Premier League’s top team. I’ve written a lot about how impressive the Reds have been under Arne Slot this season, and I’m sure I’ll write a lot more. However, the team currently in second place deserves some flowers too, as Nottingham Forest, the little money tree that could, have just taken four points from their two games against the same Liverpool. After handing the league leaders their only defeat of the season in September, Forest played the hosts at Anfield on Tuesday and came out with a 1-1 draw, helping to further cement the Trees’ legitimacy.

The fireworks for the home team started early, thanks to goal-eating New Zealander Chris Wood. The striker has been on top of his game all season, scoring 12 goals before Tuesday’s showdown. Luckily no. There were 13 goals in the eighth minute against Liverpool when Wood caught a through ball from Anthony Elanga and sent a perfect cross-goal shot past Alisson to the other side of the net, giving Forest a 1-0 lead and their The lead equalized from the first game.

When a nominal underdog scores early, the tendency is usually to turn up the heat to defend the lead. But this fearless Forest side kept the pressure on, perhaps helped by a rabid home crowd. Although neither team scored in the remaining 37-plus minutes of the first half, the hosts were certainly the better team at the start of the break.

One thing Liverpool have been great at under Slot, however, is adapting in the second half. And yet, after dominating possession in the first 45 minutes, the score was a ridiculous 71 to 29 percent in favor of the Pool Boys; However, this is nothing unusual for Forest, as they cope well without the ball, as evidenced by their league average of 40 percent this season – Liverpool kept up this flood of passes, but found that the routes to goal in the first 20 games Minutes of the second half were still blocked.

Whatever Slot’s half-time speech implied didn’t work, so he made a radical change in the 65th minute, swapping Andy Robertson for Kostas Tsimikas (a comparable substitution) and Ibrahima Konaté for Diogo Jota, a center back and switching to a back three, albeit with Ryan Gravenberch returning to defense without the ball and deploying an attacking quartet of Jota and Luis Díaz, Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah.

The changes paid off immediately, literally, as Tsimikas and Jota combined to equalize less than a minute after entering the field. Liverpool haven’t been particularly good at corners this year, but thanks to Forest’s somewhat loose defending in the penalty area, Tsimikas’ cross found Jota’s head just meters from goal, and if there’s one thing Jota does exceptionally well, it’s his Headers hit the goal:

After the equalizer, the real Liverpool came to play and from then on it was one-way traffic. Liverpool maintained their possession dominance and were eventually able to convert these passes into chance after chance. In the remaining 25 minutes of regular time and the seven stoppages of play, the visitors scored 13 shots, at least half of which came from dangerous positions by dangerous players.

But conceding chances doesn’t necessarily mean conceding goals, and Nottingham Forest are truly elite at preventing such conversions. Forest are second in the Premier League in terms of goals allowed – their 20 goals allowed this season are level with Liverpool’s; Arsenal are in first place with 18 points – and the home team had to show off all their defensive tricks and goalkeeping heroics to keep the score at one. Thanks to the efforts of goalkeeper Matz Sels and the defense, all 13 Liverpool shots landed somewhere outside the net. A special shout out to Ola Aina, who was perfectly positioned at the post to clear a Salah volley just inches from goal.

Restricting Liverpool to just a single goal is hard work, as only Crystal Palace and Forest themselves have managed that in the league this season, but Forest have a formula that works under coach Nuno Espírito Santo. With Wood at the helm and scoring goals for fun, Forest know it doesn’t take much to get a point or three in any given game, and so Nuno’s traditionally conservative approach suits the talents of his players extremely well. In doing so, Forest have enjoyed an unbeaten run dating back to a 1-0 defeat to Manchester City on December 4th that has kept the club high in the table.

Nobody should consider the Trees as serious title contenders, but their system works and a top four finish becomes more likely with each game. Time will tell whether climbing to these heights, with so much pressure and intensity, will tire a team that doesn’t have as much depth as the other Champions League contenders, but for now Nottingham Forest have mastered the art of bending and breaking and then snaps back into place.