Liverpool boss Arne Slot tips Nottingham Forest to stay in title race after Diogo Jota rescues point

Leaders remain six points clear of Premier League’s surprise package after thrilling draw at City Ground

Liverpool's Diogo Jota, centre, celebrates his equaliser against Liverpool. Reuters

Liverpool boss Arne Slot has tipped Nottingham Forest to be a factor in the Premier League title race after his side were held to a 1-1 draw at the City Ground on Tuesday night.

Forest, who are the only team to win at Anfield this season after a 1-0 win in September's reverse fixture, went in front inside 10 minutes as Chris Wood slotted home his 13th goal of the campaign.

It was a deserved lead with Liverpool struggling to create chances in the first half. Forest looked like they would close the gap to the league leaders to just three points until Diogo Jota headed in from a corner by fellow substitute Kostas Tsimikas just 22 seconds after the pair were introduced by Slot on 66 minutes.

Forest had goalkeeper Matz Sels to thank for their point after he made a string of outstanding second-half saves to keep out the resurgent visitors.

Slot was impressed and does not think Forest will drop a lot of points between now and the end of the season.

He said: “After 20 games you can judge the table much better than the first five to 10 games and I don’t think they’re there because of luck.

“It’s so hard for everyone to play against, they have already had some difficult away games and it shows you they are a team that can compete with the top end of the league table.

“I see no reason for them to drop a lot of points because they are a difficult team to play against. We only conceded one (counter-attack) here today in 98 minutes of total domination.

“Being 1-0 down here and it’s so hard to score against this team, it’s not what we wanted, we wanted three points.”

Slot admitted he did not imagine the impact of Tsimikas and Jota would be so instantaneous.

“Scoring from a set-piece isn’t something I had in mind when I brought the two of them in,” he added. “We brought an attacker (Jota) in for a defender (Ibrahima Konate) to play even more attacking football than we did because we needed goals. But of course, Jota scored the goal and Kostas with the set-piece. (Jota) had a big impact, he was the one apart from Mo (Salah) that had a few chances to score.”

Forest extended their unbeaten league run to seven matches and are still only six points behind Liverpool at the top of the table.

Proud boss Nuno Espirito Santo said: “We are competing very well. This is the mentality of the squad, it’s about playing, competing and improving.

“You know what I think about the table, for now, it is not important, it is how we prepare for Southampton. We have to give credit to our players when we face such talented opponents and we raise the bar and challenge ourselves. It’s huge for us. I think it was a lesson for all of us. This is how we want to compete at the limit of our efforts and we saw that. Very very proud of the work of the players.”

Elsewhere, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City suffered a late capitulation as their disappointing season suffered another setback.

A double from Phil Foden looked to have put the defending champions on course for a third successive Premier League win for the first time since October but Yoane Wissa and Christian Norgaard replied in a dramatic finale.

“Long balls we won and we could run and in that moment we didn't take the right decisions,” said Guardiola. “Maybe that would have been different but at the same time, they had chances. Their strikers are really good, Wissa and (Bryan) Mbeumo are really dangerous.”

City were again without injured centre-backs Ruben Dias and John Stones, while captain Kyle Walker was not included in Guardiola's squad after expressing his desire to leave the club this month.

“At 2-0 we have to close it but we don't have those specific players to defend in the box so we have to do it by controlling the ball,” added Guardiola.

“The fatigue against Brentford in the last 15 minutes is normal. I don't have anything to regret. Recover and go to the next game.”

A point leaves City still sixth in the Premier League, two points adrift of the top four and 12 behind leaders Liverpool.

Newly installed West Ham boss Graham Potter led the Hammers to a 3-2 win over Fulham. Carlos Soler, Tomas Soucek and Lucas Paqueta were on target for the Hammers to take them above Manchester United and Tottenham into 12th.

Potter's former club Chelsea needed a last-gasp equaliser from returning captain Reece James to salvage a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge.

Cole Palmer's cool finish from Nicolas Jackson's through ball had given Chelsea the perfect start.

But Bournemouth hit back through Justin Kluivert's penalty before Antoine Semenyo's blistering near-post effort put the visitors in front.

James has endured another injury-hit season but showed his quality by curling home a free-kick at the death.