Key events
Premier League half-time scores
Fulham 2-0 Bournemouth
Liverpool 1-1 Burnley
Luton 0-2 Sheff Utd
Tottenham 0-1 Brighton
Wolves 0-1 Brentford
Into injury-time for most of the afternoon kick-offs…
Oooft, Saints now 2-0 down at home against mid-table Huddersfield.
Goal! Liverpool 1-1 Burnley (O’Shea 45)
What a goal from Dara O’Shea! That is a stunning leap and powerful, arching header that beats Kelleher in the Liverpool goal from a Burnley corner.
While all that was happening, Huddersfield scored at St Mary’s to go 1-0 up. With Leicester and Leeds both winning, anything but three points for Southampton will be blow to their hopes of jumping into the automatic promotion spots.
Goal Luton 0-2 Sheffield United (McAtee pen 36)
The referee is called to the screen for a handball in the Luton box by Reece Burke. Up steps James McAtee to convert.
Goal! Fulham 2-0 Bournemouth (Muniz 36)
It’s all happening now! Muniz makes it 2-0, Willian sweeps in a cross to the far post and it’s nodded back across goal and the Fulham man gets across his defender to poke home.
Goal! Wolves 0-1 Brentford (Norgaard 35)
Bad to worse for Wolves as the visitors go ahead.
Goal! Liverpool 1-0 Burnley (Jota 31)
Oh dear James Trafford. The Burnley keeper comes to claim a corner but gets nowhere near it and Diogo Jota has a relatively easy header to put the Reds ahead.
Goal! Luton 0-1 Sheffield United (Archer 30)
He missed a chance earlier, but now Cameron Archer has put the Blades ahead. Does this count as a shock given Luton’s recent form?
Bad to worse for Bolton, they are now down to ten. George Thomasonn sent off for serious foul play.
Spurs have had a couple of big chances to level against Brighton, but both James Maddison and Richarlison failed to find the net. There’s no way this ends 1-0.
Blow for Wolves, he scored a hat-trick last week but Matheus Cunha’s afternoon is over. Jean-Ricner Bellegarde is on.
Blackburn, who axed manager Jon Dahl Tomasson earlier this week, are 2-0 up now thanks to Sam Szmodics. New boss John Eustace is not in the dugout but will be a happy man so far.
At the top of League Two, Stockport County lead 2-0 at Grimsby.
Goal! Tottenham 0-1 Brighton (Gross 17, pen)
Danny Welbeck is felled in the box by Van de Ven, obvious foul taking away the striker’s trailing leg. Pascal Gross tucks away the spotkick.
It’s almost like Leeds got wind of the score at Vicarage Road. Patrick Bamford has his side ahead against Rotherham. Elsewhere in the second tier, Blackburn are beating Stoke 1-0 at Ewood Park.
Goal! Leicester are 1-0 up at Watford, with Patson Daka scoring from the spot to put the league leaders ahead.
Goal! Fulham 1-0 Bournemouth (Decordova-Reid 5)
First goal in the Premier League 3pm KOs is at Craven Cottage, Bobby Decordova-Reid takes advantage of a slip at the back in the Bournemouth defence and slots home.
Goal! In League One, Northampton have gone 1-0 up at home against Bolton. The Trotters were hoping to get back into automatic promotion spots with a win as they’re chasing Derby and table-topper Portsmouth.
2min: Big chance for Brighton to take an early lead as Welbeck takes advantage of a Micky van de Ven slip to race in on goal. His left-foot shot forces Vicario into a strong save.
Peeeeeep! We are underway in the 3pm KOs!
Simon McMahon has a fitba preview from north of the border:
It’s the Scottish Cup round of 16 today, and a couple of Scottish Championship sides will be hopeful of repeating Morton’s heroics against Motherwell last night and upsetting their Premiership opponents, namely Big Dunc’s Inverness, who host Hibs, and Partick Thistle, who welcome bottom of the table Livingston. Less chance of any romance at Pittodrie, as Neil Warnock takes charge of Aberdeen at home for the first time against Bonnyrigg Rose, and Kilmarnock, who will be expected to beat Cove Rangers at home.
Who wants to feel old? On the bench today for Liverpool is Lewis Koumas, 18, son of ‘streets won’t forget’ Jason.
In the Championship, Ipswich twice trailed but earned a 2-2 draw at home against West Brom with Omari Hutchinson scoring in the 93rd minute to earn a point for the Tractor Boys.
Full-time at the Etihad where City have won, all the reaction here:
City looking ominously comfortable and now 2:0 up:
Picking through the team news these are probably the headlines for those of you checking your fanstasy teams:
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Allison and Joe Gomez are missing for Liverpool, both are ill apparently
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Son Heung-min is back on the bench for Tottenham, Pape Matar Sarr is back in the starting XI
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Kaoru Mitoma starts for Brighton, but Joao Pedro has a hamstring issue and is not the squad
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Hwang Hee-chan is not in the Wolves squad
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Ben Brereton Diaz is injured and not the Sheffield United squad
For those just tuning in, City have taken the lead against Everton and you’ll never guess who got the goal:
Team news: Fulham v Bournemouth
Fulham: Leno, Castagne, Diop, Ream, Robinson, Joao Palhinha, Cairney, De Cordova-Reid, Andreas Pereira, Willian, Rodrigo Muniz.
Subs: Rodak, Reed, Wilson, Broja, Traore, Ballo-Toure, Lukic, De Fougerolles, King.
Bournemouth: Neto, Smith, Zabarnyi, Senesi, Kelly, Cook, Christie, Tavernier, Scott, Sinisterra, Solanke.
Subs: Unal, Kerkez, Mepham, Faivre, Ouattara, Kluivert, Semenyo, Travers, Sadi.
Team news: Wolves v Brentford
Wolves: Jose Sa, Kilman, Dawson, Gomes, Nelson Semedo, Mario Lemina, Joao Gomes, Ait Nouri, Sarabia, Matheus Cunha, Pedro Neto.
Subs: Doherty, Traore, Hugo Bueno, Doyle, Bentley, Bellegarde, Chirewa, Fraser.
Brentford: Flekken, Collins, Pinnock, Mee, Roerslev, Jensen, Norgaard, Janelt, Reguilon, Toney, Maupay.
Subs: Jorgensen, Ghoddos, Ajer, Strakosha, Lewis-Potter, Damsgaard, Baptiste, Yarmolyuk, Brierley.
Team news: Luton v Sheffield United
Luton: Kaminski, Burke, Osho, Bell, Ogbene, Sambi Lokonga, Barkley, Doughty, Clark, Morris, Adebayo.
Subs: Berry, Woodrow, Kabore, Chong, Mengi, Mpanzu, Brown, Krul, Townsend.
Sheff Utd: Foderingham, Bogle, Holgate, Ahmedhodzic, Robinson, Norrington-Davies, McAtee, Vinicius Souza, Hamer, Osborn, Archer.
Subs: Lowe, Trusty, Brewster, Norwood, Tom Davies, Larouci, Osula, Brooks, Amissah.
Team news: Tottenham v Brighton
Tottenham: Vicario, Porro, Romero, van de Ven, Udogie, Sarr, Bentancur, Maddison, Kulusevski, Richarlison, Werner.
Subs: Skipp, Hojbjerg, Dragusin, Son, Bissouma, Emerson, Forster, Johnson, Davies.
Brighton: Steele, Lamptey, van Hecke, Dunk, Estupinan, Gross, Gilmour, Lallana, Buonanotte, Welbeck, Mitoma.
Subs: Verbruggen,Webster, Moder, Baleba, Ferguson, Fati, Veltman, Baker-Boaitey,O’Mahony.
Team news: Liverpool v Burnley
Liverpool: Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, van Dijk, Robertson, Mac Allister, Endo, Jones, Jota, Nunez, Diaz.
Subs: Adrian, Gakpo, Elliott, Tsimikas, Gravenberch, Clark, McConnell, Koumas, Mrozek.
Burnley: Trafford, Assignon, O’Shea, Esteve, Delcroix, Brownhill, Berge, Ramsey, Odobert, Fofana, Amdouni.
Subs: Cork, Rodriguez, Benson, Ekdal, Vitinho, Cullen, Bruun Larsen, Massengo, Muric.
Preamble
Five games kicking off at 3pm in the Premier League feels like something of a throwback and I certainly hope that is enough to keep to keep me busy with goal updates. Call me Jeff Stelling Simon Thomas.
Liverpool will be hoping Manchester City slip up in the early game against Everton but the Reds can retake top spot regardless of the result at the Etihad with a win over Burnley. Interestingly the Clarets have scored the opening goal in four of their last six visits to Anfield, but Liverpool have won eight of the past 10 Premier League meetings.
At the bottom end of the table, Luton have a chance to end the day as high as 15th if they beat Sheffield United at Kenilworth Road and other results go the Hatters’ way. With Nottingham Forest hosting Newcastle and Brentford travelling to Wolves it could be a big momentum swing for Rob Edwards’ side by the time Match of the Day comes on.
Spurs v Brighton is another game worth keeping an eye on as it looks like guaranteed goals. Fans of losing money can get the 0-0 at 29/1, but Spurs have scored in 35 consecutive matches and Brighton have kept two clean sheets in the league all season.
I will also be attempting to provide udpates on the big matches in the EFL before Taha Hashim takes over the minute-by-minute for the 5.30pm kick-off between Forest and Newcastle.
Team news to follow shortly.