Perhaps it was football at its most illogical. Liverpool were triumphant after a first-half performance Arne Slot felt was their worst in his time at the club. They got a goal from a player who may have only been in a goalscoring position because one of his teammates was injured and after he had struggled in his original role, amid a collective malaise.
A team who have been aggrieved by refereeing decisions of late saw a seeming winner disallowed in contentious fashion and yet made off with three points. And Vitor Pereira, who seemed to have had an immediate impact with Nottingham Forest, reacted to his first home game in charge by saying: “I am frustrated, angry with football. Very, very unfair.”
