Nuno Espirito Santo gave players clear Virgil van Dijk instructions at half-time against Liverpool

Nuno Espirito Santo masterminded a historic victory for Nottingham Forest at Anfield, instructing his squad to stop Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk as they secured a shock 1-0 win.

Forest hadn't savored success at Liverpool's home ground since 1969, but Callum Hudson-Odoi's 72nd-minute strike ended that drought and handed Liverpool their first defeat of the season afterthe Reds' perfect start under new head coach Arne Slot.

Nuno's tactical nous shone through with second-half adjustments that stifled Van Dijk, who had been finding too much space before the break. The former Spurs manager expressed his delight in the post-match comments, acknowledging the rarity of the feat and the effort from his players.

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"We are very happy. Many of our fans weren't even born when we last won here, they know how hard it is to play here. We are proud of the work of the players, they worked very hard.

"Overall we knew how hard it was going to be today and it was about taking our chance at the right moment and we did that. At half-time we were trying to correct some things that we saw. [Virgil] van Dijk was breaking into spaces too many times."

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah, who had been in scintillating form with three goals and three assists in the opening league games, couldn't help his side maintain their unbeaten run.

Nottingham Forest newcomer Alex Moreno kept Liverpool's Egyptian star quiet while James Ward-Prowse also impressed. Nuno praised the pair, saying: "Alex had a hard task going one-v-one up against Salah but I think he did well. But when he finished he was really tired! James, he pretty well managed the game, holding his position, he has great knowledge of the game. Now we are in the process of giving him the idea of the team but he understands it very well."

Slot dismissed any suggestion that the international break led to Liverpool's unexpected defeat, arguing: "It's always difficult but I don't think [the break] had anything to do with it. Players came back strong and I saw today a team that wanted to fight until the end. That wasn't to do with energy. We simply had the ball a lot we had to create from ball possession."

He also addressed the attacking issues, noting: "If you look at the goals we scored until now, we scored quite a few from transition moments from winning the ball back but the other team (Forest) played over our press a lot with a lot of long balls. We mostly got the ball in our last line."

Slot concluded with a critical eye on his squad's performance: "It wasn't good enough today because too many individual performances in ball possession were not up to the standards that I'm used to from these players."