Nuno Espirito Santo told reporters not to ask him about the performance of referee Paul Tierney after Nottingham Forest’s defeat to Liverpool.
Forest were downed by a 99th-minute Darwin Nunez winner, which sees Liverpool go four points clear on top of the Premier League, with second-place Manchester City hosting Manchester United on Sunday.
Nuno’s side defended well throughout and the Portuguese head coach was left aghast when the Reds scored later than the eight minutes of added time.
Clearly aggrieved after Manchester United’s controversial winner at the City Ground on Wednesday night, Nuno refused to comment on the referee against Liverpool, presumably because if he started, he wouldn’t stop.
“I will not comment on the referee. Don’t insist,” he said after the dramatic defeat.
“It was a tough week for us because it’s a repeated situation.”
Read more: Liverpool and Klopp are winning the bloody lot and there is nothing we can do about it
Nuno might have been fuming, but at least he was able to keep his emotions in check.
According to BBC 5Live, Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis had to be ‘removed by security after chasing referee Paul Tierney down the tunnel’.
Our League just keeps on delivering, doesn’t it? Wonderful stuff.
Related video: Jurgen Klopp saw nothing wrong with Liverpool's winning goal at Forest (Daily Mail)

As well as the late goal, Forest fans and staff were furious after Liverpool were given a drop-ball after Ibrahima Konate went down with a head knock, despite the hosts being in possession of the ball when Tierney stopped play.
The home fans could also be heard chanting “cheat” as the game drew to a close.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was in a much better mood after Nunez returned from injury to ensure the Reds will finish the weekend top of the table.
“Pretty special afternoon,” Klopp said. “It’s been a tricky schedule.
“This game didn’t go easy for us. We didn’t have a great rhythm and the boys felt the intensity for the first time.
“We had our moments. We didn’t start well.
“In the last second the guy who looks like a former Liverpool player thought I’ll score a goal and decide the game.
“The goal was set up by a guy who was the calmest on the whole pitch. I saw it only live but I’ll never forget it. He was calm. He chips the ball there. Super assist and super important goal.

“If you’d told me 12 days ago we would win all four games I would have said no chance, it was impossible. In the circumstances winning the games is ridiculous.
“We will recharge until the next game. It’s pretty special what the boys did. To get to that points tally was a big fight. It never was easy.”
Alexis Mac Allister – who assisted Nunez’s winner – said it was “a special day” for Liverpool.
“This is such a special day for us,” he said. “To win it like that is not easy. We came to a tough place.
“In that moment I knew it was last minute and I just had to put it in. Darwin is such an important player for us.
“There is no easy game in the Premier League. Very happy, very happy.
“It’s three points. We move onto Thursday (against Sparta Prague in the Europa League).
“We were always positive. Our leaders were keeping the team very positive. We’re a good group, nice players on and off the pitch.”
Read now: Who will replace Jurgen Klopp as next Liverpool manager? Tuchel on list

Postecoglou tells Son to carry on if he loses his finger after Spurs’ ‘persist’ to come back vs Palace

“It’s a finger. even if he loses it, it won’t really matter. He can still play, he’s fine.” That might be the most Ange Postecoglou quote of the season.
Tottenham came from behind to win for the fifth time in the Premier League this season on Saturday, overturning Eberechi Eze’s opener for Crystal Palace to win 3-1.
Captain Son secured the comeback win with a tidy finish late on and Postecoglou played down his finger injury, insisting he can carry on fine if it has to be removed.
Finger removal aside, the Spurs boss singled out Brennan Johnson’s performance against the Eagles.
The Welsh winger came off the bench with the score at 1-0 and helped inspire the comeback victory.
Read more: History repeating as Tottenham win from behind, again, after largely failing to convince, again
“I thought Brennan was good but I thought all of them were good tonight,” Postecoglou said. “In those moments we work hard with our wide players to make sure they’re in the right areas and a couple of times tonight we just weren’t when the ball was flashed across.
“Brennan did fantastically well to win back possession and when he’s played it across it’s the other winger that’s there. From our perspective that’s a really important part because it’s not by accident.
Related video: Oliver Glasner on Palace 3-1 Spurs defeat (English Football Channel)

“Again you’ve got to be there and I thought Timo, he missed the chance in the first half and he was a constant threat to them and was in the right area for the goal.”
On his side’s performance, Big Ange said: “Persistence, some quality, belief. It wasn’t easy game with them sitting so deep. We needed a goal to open them up but still kept composed and disciplined.
“When they got their goal it was only time they got the ball in our half. The reaction was outstanding.
“It was a game we should have won a lot more comfortably but we had real belief in the process and were not getting swayed by things not going our way. I thought the mentality was first rate.”
Timo Werner grabbed his first Spurs goal after missing a big chance in the first half, and Postecoglou said the German had a “good game”.
“For all of the attacking players goals are important,” he said. “I thought he was having good game generally [despite first-half miss].
“He didn’t stop believing, got into the right area and outstanding work from Brennan [Johnson, who provided the cross].”
Read now: ‘Manager of the year’ Postecoglou and his Spurs side need to remind us what they are

Man Utd ‘put up’ £69m to beat Liverpool, Chelsea to defender as Romano reveals Maguire stance

Man Utd are willing to pay Benfica’s asking price for Antonio Silva in an effort to beat Barcelona, Liverpool and Chelsea to his signing, according to reports.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe completed a deal to buy 25 per cent of the Premier League club last month with the British billionaire taking over footballing operations as part of the agreement.

Ratcliffe has brought in Omar Berrada from arch-rivals Man City as the new CEO at Man Utd, while Newcastle’s Dan Ashworth is likely to join when the Red Devils can come to an agreement with the Magpies over compensation.
They are keen to overhaul the recruitment department with numerous reports claiming that Ratcliffe and INEOS are keen on bringing in three priority signings: a centre-back, a midfielder and a centre-forward.
And the centre-back could come in the form of Benfica’s Silva with Spanish publication Nacional insisting that Man Utd have ‘put up’ €80m (£69m) for the defender.
The report adds that ‘it is difficult to think that they can retain’ Silva for another season after his ‘masterful performances’ in both the Portuguese top flight and Champions League.
READ MORE: Gossip: Man Utd hold ‘secret meeting’ with Potter amid Zidane snub; Arsenal ‘mobilising for defender
Related video: Chelsea players have learned to understand each other, says Pochettino (The Independent)

Barcelona are among the clubs to have ‘received the call’ from his agent, Jorge Mendes, however the Catalan giants’ ‘problem’ is the €80m asking price.
It is ‘too expensive’ for Barca and Nacional adds that ‘the latest information suggests that he may end up in the Premier League’ with Man Utd ‘willing to pay whatever is necessary for Silva’.
They continue by claiming that Silva has also ‘attracted the attention of Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain’ but that ‘it is Manchester United that is currently leading the auction.’
It seemed likely that Harry Maguire would leave Man Utd last summer but the England international stayed to fight for his place and his perseverance has paid off as he is back to being a regular for Erik ten Hag.
However, links to Bayern Munich centre-back Matthijs de Ligt and other defenders have seen more rumours about Maguire’s future at Old Trafford – but transfer expert Fabrizio Romano insists the pair’s futures are not linked.


Romano wrote in his Caught Offside column: “Matthijs de Ligt will wait to understand who’s gonna be the new manager at Bayern Munich before deciding anything regarding his future.
“Everything is open with Tuchel leaving so it’s very quiet now. There have been rumours about Barcelona and Man United but nothing is serious or concrete with any clubs in Spain or England yet.
“Many clubs are attentive to his situation but nothing else.
“Sticking with United, from Harry Maguire’s point of view, it’s always been the same in the last year.
“The club are open to important proposals… or they’re happy with him staying. They’re not desperate to sell Maguire.
“Also in this case, we have to wait for a new director to arrive, and then Man United will decide how to proceed regarding many players.”

The F365 Blackout: Newcastle keep Wolves from door, Brighton’s false floor collapses at last

It promised to be a pretty decent set of Saturday 3pm kick-offs and if anything it exceeded expectations. At least three goals in all but one of the games, and that one had a 99th-minute winner instead. Lovely, nutritious Barclays, this.
 
Newcastle 3-0 Wolves: Magpies make the best of it in a game that meant more than they’d like

It would have seemed unlikely back in August for a routine home win over Wolves in early March to have been quite such a significant and necessary result for Newcastle.
But these are two teams whose seasons have taken them in unexpectedly convergent directions, with Big Six-infiltrating Newcastle slumping into mid-table while a Wolves side who began the season in chaotic circumstances after Julen Lopetegui’s departure and set for an apparent relegation fight have really never been in one at all.
Such have been their respective journeys that a Wolves win today would even have seen them leapfrog their wealthy but suffering opponents.
It was a useful time, then, for Newcastle to find themselves once more. Even progress to the last eight of the FA Cup hadn’t really settled anyone down, so unconvincing was their passage past a Blackburn side with only two Championship wins to their name since November.
Related video: Newcastle United 3 - 0 Wolves: Joe Buck match reaction (Dailymotion)

But this was much more like it. The goals obviously welcome, but the clean sheet perhaps even more so after recent unpleasantness.
There will be no return to the Champions League next season – Spurs in possibly-enough fifth are 10 points clear with a game in hand – but there is still an acceptable league season that can be salvaged here. Sixth place is not out of range if there can be more days like this against opponents who have shown all season long that wins like this against them cannot airily be dismissed as ‘only Wolves’.
 
Everton 1-3 West Ham: Hammers late show seals El Moyesico glory
London Buses for David Moyes and West Ham, then, as a six-game winless Premier League run is now bookended on one side by three successive wins and now a couple more against Brentford and, most gratifyingly, in the Moyes Derby at Goodison Park.
That this victory came in adversity after his side went a goal down on 56 minutes should also please Moyes. If West Ham fans remain unconvinced by the manager, any evidence that the players retain hunger for the fight is to be welcomed by any self-respecting beleaguered manager.


Everton, meanwhile, might feel they’ve tossed away three of the four points the universe gave them this week. They were good value for their lead, one that could have been taken earlier from the penalty spot, before their late collapse.
 
Fulham 3-0 Brighton: Seagulls finally slip out of top seven after latest worrying effort
We noted this week Brighton’s largely undiscussed but really quite dramatically poor form over what is now a really very long time, and sure enough that run of form is now five wins in 21 Premier League games. For context, that is the same number of wins as they collected in their first six games of the season.
That gravity-defying, attention-diverting seventh place is now a distinctly less impressive ninth and suddenly they are closer to the bottom half than the top six, with Manchester United five points above them and Chelsea now just three points behind with a game in hand.

Fulham, who retain a pleasing penchant for chucking in enough excellent wins like this one to remind you what they’re capable of while also still doing things like, say, taking one point from six against Burnley, are now only four points behind them.
Perhaps our favourite feature of that really quite lengthy run of mediocre form from Brighton is the fact it has contained neither back-to-back wins nor back-to-back defeats. Which is some good news at least for next week’s game against Nottingham Forest.
 
Nottingham Forest 0-1 Liverpool: Klopp’s next-gen mentality monsters are winning the lot, aren’t they?
“Liverpool are now four points clear at the top of the Premier League after Nunez’s 99th-minute winner at the City Ground. They are going to win the bloody lot, aren’t they? Klopp’s announcement that he will step down at the end of the season seems to have given a second wind to this group of players and if the German is ‘running out of energy’, this has not been rubbing off on his players.

“The win at Forest is another mentality monsters moment and proof that Klopp’s players will fight until the end of every game, until the end of his reign at Anfield. We probably knew that anyway. But every time you see it in practice… you can’t help but be impressed.
“Despite their underwhelming performance against Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, there was a feeling of inevitability to Nunez’s last-gasp winner. That is the feeling this Liverpool team gives you. Even when they are not playing at their best and without several crucial players, they get the job done. It won them a sodding trophy last week, for crying out loud. Although they always should have beat Chelsea…”
Read the full verdict on Nottingham Forest 0-1 Liverpool here.
Darwin Nunez celebrates his goal for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest.
© Provided by Football365
Darwin Nunez celebrates his goal for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest.
Tottenham 3-1 Crystal Palace: Spurs win from behind again, but doubts remain
“Defeat at home to Wolves a fortnight ago had been coming for quite some time after a series of wins at White Hart Lane 2.0 that had all followed a vaguely similar blueprint. Unconvincing first-half displays, a great many unimaginative and easily repelled attacks, lots of possession and sterile domination, sloppy and unnecessary concessions and then eventually a win, very often from behind, that flattered Spurs to one degree or another.

“Now let’s have a quick look at today’s game, shall we? Right. It had literally all of that. Again. They’ve ended up on the right side of things – again – and at some point maybe we do have to just accept that as they do so far, far, far more often than not at home – six wins in seven here now – maybe they do know what they’re doing.”
Read the full verdict on Tottenham 3-1 Crystal Palace here.
 
Brentford 2-2 Chelsea: Sacking Poch is now clearly Boehly’s quickest route to regaining fans’ trust
“Via the medium of song, Chelsea fans urged Pochettino to ‘f*** off’ and told Todd Boehly: ‘You’re a c***.’ Chelsea’s players and management are accustomed to dissent this season but the pocket of Blues in the corner turned on their own in the curtest way yet while serenading Roman Abramovich and Jose Mourinho.
“The away supporters were driven to such anger by a performance that was typical of their season: signs of promise undone by lapses of concentration, some abject ineptitude and appalling flakiness.

“For their next four games, Chelsea return to the discomfort of home, where Boehly might find it harder to ignore the c*** calls if today’s dissent is amplified accordingly. If the Blues owner wants to get fans onside, pulling the trigger towards Pochettino appears the quickest and easiest way to do it.”
Read the full verdict on Brentford 2-2 Chelsea here.

Liverpool and Klopp are winning the bloody lot and there is nothing we can do about it

Darwin Nunez came in clutch for Liverpool at the end of a difficult match at Nottingham Forest, who will be kicking themselves after throwing away 99 minutes of hard work.
A lot has been said about Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp over the past few weeks. Praise for how Klopp’s team has been performing without several regular starters and several teenagers on the pitch is deserved but it looked like they had finally come unstuck and that the momentum would end against Forest on Saturday afternoon.

It did not. In fact, the momentum they have been riding has only gotten stronger. And in a game in which Dominik Szoboszlai and Nunez returned to the team off the bench. Oh, and Mohamed Salah is expected to return to training next week.
What is surely going to be their most testing period of the campaign has come to an end with the return of those three players, with Alisson’s absence barely noticeable given Caoimhin Kelleher’s performances in goal, and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s absence allowing Conor Bradley to impress.
Szoboszlai’s dynamism in midfield has been a miss and is the area of the pitch Klopp has been without the most players in, while Salah is obviously their best player. Nunez, meanwhile, has the sort of unpredictability to cause problems for any defence in world football. Not to mention that he is Klopp’s only No. 9.
The kids who have come in have done very well and have proven to Klopp that they are capable of contributing when he needs them to do so. Bobby Clark looks like a good option and a player with a lot of potential and the aforementioned Bradley is making Alexander-Arnold’s absence less of an issue than it really ought to be.
Related video: Klopp on protecting youngsters but also providing opportunities (English Football Channel)

I know the other night you spoke about the youngsters

Liverpool are now four points clear at the top of the Premier League after Nunez’s 99th-minute winner at the City Ground. They are going to win the bloody lot, aren’t they? Klopp’s announcement that he will step down at the end of the season seems to have given a second wind to this group of players and if the German is ‘running out energy’, he has not been rubbing off on his players in that respect.
The win at Forest is another mentality monsters moment and proof that Klopp’s players will fight until the end of every game, until the end of his reign at Anfield. We probably knew that anyway. But to see it come into practice…you have to be both impressed and astonished.
Despite their underwhelming performance against Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, there was a feeling of inevitability to Nunez’s last-gasp winner. That is the feeling this Liverpool team gives you. Even when they are not playing at their best and without several crucial players, they get the job done. It won them a sodding trophy last week, for crying out loud. Although they always should have beat Chelsea…


Forest actually had the better chances to score in a game they set themselves up to strike the Reds in transition. Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi’s pace on either side of Divock Origi looked like it would hurt Liverpool and the former really ought to have on the two occasions he missed when he simply had to score, especially when one on one with Kelleher in the first half.
After an opening 45 minutes dominated by Liverpool that Forest felt they should have been ahead in, the visitors came out of the traps flying and Klopp turned to match-winner Nunez in the 57th minute.
Unsurprisingly, Liverpool were relentlessly knocking on Matz Sels’ door in the latter stages of the match and the breakthrough came when Forest decided to try and dribble out after recovering the ball on the edge of the box, something that will make Nuno want to implode, if he didn’t in the dressing room after the game.

Every counter attack from the hosts was direct, they would always go long, even punting it to nobody when under pressure; but Hudson-Odoi attempted to channel his inner Lionel Messi, got tangled up with Taiwo Awoniyi, and the loose ball fell to Alexis Mac Allister, who delivered a delicious ball for Nunez to simply guide it past Sels to send the visiting fans behind the goal into raptures.
The match was won from that silly decision by Hudson-Odoi but the mentality monsters that are Liverpool will not give a damn. They will finish the weekend top of the Premier League and are going to be in a much better place next weekend, when they face none other than Manchester City. At Anfield and with Salah, Szoboszlai and Nunez fit, you have to say they will be favourites.
There is a Europa League match at Sparta Prague before that, but the kids will play that and probably win at a canter, such is the nature of this season for Liverpool.

It has been a truly remarkable run of form from a depleted team. They clearly recognise that this is another title race in which dropped points of any kind against teams outside of the top three is unacceptable. You get that feeling with both Liverpool and Arsenal. Manchester City can draw at home to West Ham but that will probably be the kick up the backside they need, whereas a result like that for the other two title challengers will seemingly be the beginning of the wheels falling off.
Liverpool might have been favourites against Forest and Chelsea despite their injury problems, but you have to respect the fact that they have not tripped up once – in another brutal title race – with so many players out injured.
Read now: Who will replace Jurgen Klopp as next Liverpool manager? Tuchel on list