Arne Slot reveals his honest thoughts on Nottingham Forest as Liverpool face tough trip against Premier League high-flyers at the City Ground

Arne Slot is well aware of the dangers posed by Nottingham Forest – they are the only team to beat them in the Premier League this season, after all – and is also not discounting Manchester City from the title race.

Liverpool lead the pack going into Tuesday’s clash with Forest and Slot is adamant that Nuno Espirito Santo‘s side have the capabilities to go the distance.

Slot, who is without suspended Darwin Nunez and hamstrung Joe Gomez, is looking forward to seeing how his side cope after a tough week in which they drew with Manchester United and lost to Tottenham in the Carabao Cup.

‘I’ve always said you can judge the table best halfway through the season and that moment is here now,’ said Slot. ‘Forest is up there with Arsenal, Chelsea, City and us so they are definitely a team in competition with us and they deserve to be treated like this if you look at the way they play and the results. It is going to be a very difficult challenge.’

About the 1-0 defeat at Anfield in September, Slot added: ‘They already showed in retrospect how good a team they are. In general, every time Liverpool loses a home game it is something we don’t expect. Virgil van Dijk played 100 home games and only lost once.

‘It was hard to take, but looking back now it is not such a shock result as I thought it was then. They had a very good game plan, changed the wingers they normally used and brought them on at the end.

Arne Slot insisted that Forest are title contenders ahead of Liverpool’s trip to the City Ground

Forest are the only team to have been Liverpool in a competitive fixture since Slot took over

‘We also know in the second half of the season teams improve, some bring in players in the January window. In general, if a manager works longer with a team sometimes the team plays better.’

Given City have stated their intentions to be bold in the transfer window, trying to complete three deals that would cost more than £100million, Slot is conscious that if any team could work themselves into the conversation from a 12-point deficit, it is the champions.

‘You can never rule City out,’ said Slot. ‘And you can never rule Pep Guardiola out. They are able to win a lot of games in a row and then it depends on the teams above them. Especially because I read on Sky Sports, they are bringing in a completely new team! But we don’t need any motivation – that comes from ourselves.’

The fact Slot regards Forest as being in the title conversation led to him receiving a history lesson at the club’s training base, one in which it was explained how at one stage, this was the most-eagerly contested fixture in England.

‘You know if you spend so much money you will have good players,’ said Slot. ‘Then you need a manager who brings that out of them. That is what Nuno is doing. It’s an unbelievable accomplishment for them to be top three.’

This is the start of a challenging period for Liverpool, with away fixtures against Brentford and Bournemouth following this trip. Looming on February 23 is a trip to the Etihad, too.

So if Liverpool were to avenge the defeat they suffered against Forest on September 14, it would be a huge statement about their potential to lift the Premier League.

‘If we have two games in a row (Manchester United and Spurs) that we didn’t win, it must be a story,’ said Slot. ‘There are also people who try to create a story in the interests of other clubs. We won’t listen to everything around us. We concentrate on ourselves.’