One more post, with one more final score – Plymouth and Wycombe have indeed drawn 3-3 – and one more match report. Bye!
They’re into four minutes of stoppage time in Plymouth.
Wycombe have equalised!
90: Weston makes it 3-3! Beautiful control by Bayo, laid it off and Myles sends a beauty into the top corner! 3-3 #PLYvWYC
— Wycombe Wanderers (@wwfcofficial) December 26, 2016
And some more:
Here come the match reports:
The big game in League Two is still ongoing, and Plymouth lead Wycombe 3-2 with about seven minutes to play. Doncaster have won, and would go top if Wycombe manage to equalise.
The live blogs just keep on rolling today: Michael Butler is all over Hull v Manchester City here:
Karl Robinson has won the Karl Robinson derby, his current side Charlton having beaten his former side MK Dons 1-0, away from home.
Bury haven’t lost! They’ve ended their 12-game losing streak with a goalless draw at Fleetwood!
Its all over, a clean sheet, a point - we'll take that #buryfc #stoptherot
— Bury Football Club (@buryfcofficial) December 26, 2016
Final scores: all the Premier League games have finished, and there’s not a draw among them: Arsenal, Burnley, Chelsea, Everton, Manchester United and West Ham are the winners!
A rare victory at Old Trafford for Manchester United with David Moyes in the dugout.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) December 26, 2016
GOAL! Manchester United 3-1 Sunderland (Borini, 90 mins)
That’s another beauty! A right-wing cross is headed out to Borini, 23 yards from goal, who chests down and volleys perfectly into the top corner! Lovely!
GOAL! Chelsea 3-0 Bournemouth (Pedro, 90 mins)
Pedro’s shot from the edge of the area is deflected, and dribbles past a wrong-footed goalkeeper.
Updated
GOAL! Leicester 0-2 Everton (Lukaku, 90+1 mins)
Everton are going to win this one! It’s a long ball out of defence – Barkley I think, booting the ball out of his own penalty area – and Lukaku runs round Morgan, shrugs off his challenge, cuts inside and sidefoots past Schmeichel.
Updated
This is true. Today’s red card offence was only marginally less terrible.
@Simon_Burnton Beckford was sent off on 3 December for fighting a member of his own team, right?
— Mark Schmidt (@J0nas3) December 26, 2016
GOAL! Swansea 1-4 West Ham (Carroll, 90 mins)
Llorente pulled a goal back a couple of minutes ago, but before I can tell you about that Carroll meets a looping cross from the right with a crashing left-foot volley, and West Ham restore their three-goal cushion.
Updated
GOAL! Manchester United 3-0 Sunderland (Mkhitaryan, 86 mins)
That’s a super finish! He was a yard offside, but we’ll overlook that. It’s a cross from the right wing, and Mkhitaryan sends a flying backheel volley into the far corner! Phwoar! That’s your excuse for watching Match of the Day right there! Lovely, lovely goal.
Updated
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 West Brom (Giroud, 86 mins)
West Brom hold out until five minutes from the final whistle, but that’s where their luck/organisation/time-wasting ends!
Updated
GOAL! Manchester United 2-0 Sunderland (Ibrahimovic, 82 mins)
That’s nicely done. With the visitors overcommitted in attack Pogba carries the ball at an understaffed defence, plays in Ibrahimovic and he waits for the keeper to commit himself before curling just inside the far post.
Updated
GOAL! Burnley 1-0 Middlesbrough (Gray, 81 mins)
A Victor Valdes howler! Heaton hoists forward a free kick deep inside Burnley’s half, Vokes flicks on, and Gray sends in a low first-time shot from the edge of the area. It should have been saved, and it looked like it had been – only for Valdes to let the ball dribble out of his arms and just inside the post!
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Cameo of the day: former Leeds striker Jermaine Beckford, who came on for Preston against Leeds in the 66th minute, and was sent off for kicking someone in the face a little under three minutes later. It was his first appearance since 3 December, when he was sent off against Preston.
GOAL! Swansea 0-3 West Ham (Antonio, 78 mins)
A tap-in for Antonio, who is all alone in the penalty area when a wayward long-range shot flies to his feet, and he pokes it into the net.
Updated
“If you offered Pulis 38 nil-nils at the start of the season he’d take your hand off,” says Sean Doyle. He remains on course for one this afternoon, and – pertinently – the game is currently being delayed while an obviously not-seriously-hurt Baggie receives treatment.
Great chance for Bournemouth! Wilshere, who’s been superb, plays in Afobe, but instead of chipping the keeper, or shooting wide to his right, the shot is low and too close to Courtois, who saves.
Reading have taken a 2-1 lead against Norwich in the Championship. Norwich have also had Jonny Howson sent off, conceding a penalty which is Panenkaed into the crossbar, bounces down and is lashed in by Garath McCleary.
Twenty minutes to play, an for someone to give the world a genuinely compelling reason to spend their Boxing Day evening watching Match of the Day.
Leicester have also made use of their substitutes: Mahrez and Ulloa have just come on, and the latter had a half-decent chance to score with his first touch, but Robles catches his header.
Henrik Mkhitaryan is back: José Mourinho has just brought him on, to replace Jesse Lingard.
Oooh! Victor Moses has a shot from just outside the penalty area, but it fizzes just wide of the post.
“I’m not having this post-truth world we are entering and will fight for facts at every opportunity,” counters JR. “It is absolutely no herring of any colour to say that the Baggies under Pulis engage in an absurd amount of time wasting. It is a fact that anyone who watches them play knows, and I say this as a Baggies fan.” I believe JR: if there’s a way of defunnifying football, Pulis will probably encourage his teams to do it.
GOAL! Leicester 0-1 Everton (Mirallas, 51 mins)
Everton, who haven’t won away since September – and that was at Sunderland, who were basically a vending machine for points at the time, so doesn’t really count – are winning away!
Updated
GOAL! Swansea 0-2 West Ham (Reid, 50 mins)
Bob Bradley’s Swans go two goals down, as Winston Reid heads in a Payet corner at the near post.
Updated
GOAL! Swansea 0-2 West Ham (Reid, 50 mins)
Payet’s corner is headed in by Reid at the near post, and Swansea are two goals down.
Updated
GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Bournemouth (Hazard, 49 mins)
Hazard, who is on his way to another man of the match award (Wilshere having been the key competition in the first half), rolls in the league leaders’ second goal.
Updated
Chelsea have a penalty! Hazard wins it, and will take it.
Updated
Plymouth are now 2-1 up against Wycombe, where they’re only just in first-half stoppage time.
Meanwhile this, from Charles Antaki: “I’ve not seen the latest David Attenborough series, but if the producers were looking for 45 minutes of an octopus – not a very creative octopus – pummelling away at a jellyfish, they could use footage from the first half of Arsenal-WBA. Not great telly, but nature is after all sometimes dull.”
“To be fair to Arsenal fans: I live in N5, I’m not from London and I’m at the Emirates on the boss’s Club Level seats as I normally go to the Etihad,” writes Alex Sargent. “Point is, this isn’t a part of London that sees people coming back for Christmas, it’s one where people aren’t here. Most of my Arsenal ticket-holding friends are elsewhere visiting in-laws and can’t get here. So, in my view, it’s not as apathetic as the Mirror man thinks. Oh and WBA certainly here for nil each.”
“How do you know they’re secondary socks? Perhaps they’re tertiary, or even quaternary,” writes Stephen Colwill. This is true. Slimani could be wearing any number of socks.
The battle of the bottom two in the Championship seems settled before the break: Rotherham have just gone 3-0 up against Wigan.
This from the Mirror’s man at Arsenal suggests it’s a theme:
0-0 at half time at the Emirates. A lot of empty seats here. The modern fan's apathy. To be honest, they're not missing much. Awful.
— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) December 26, 2016
Our man in Leicester is not feeling entertained.
Leicester 0-0 Everton. A late but compelling entry for the worst half of football in 2016.
— Paul Doyle (@Paul_Doyle) December 26, 2016
“Time wasting by West Brom is a blue and white striped herring,” writes Roy Allen as the players at the Emirates go in for half-time with the score at 0-0. “We all know what Pulis is going to do: he’s going to play a narrow back four with wingbacks as fullbacks and three midfielders in front. A back nine. That’s what’s happening. Arsenal have to do more than faff around in front of them. They need to play at pace, play vertical passes, take risks, take people on. Endless square passes in front of Pulis’s masses ain’t going to cut it. It just makes bus-parking easy.”
GOAL! Manchester United 1-0 Sunderland (Blind, 39 mins)
Just recovering from a minor technical issue, so I can’t tell you much about this goal other than that it happened a few minutes ago, and was apparently good.
Updated
From a short free-kick Burnley’s Boyd slams a piledriver goalwards, but it’s pushed away.
In the big game in League Two, it’s now Plymouth 1-1 Wycombe. Jordan Slew has scored the goal.
“About 30 minutes in and West Brom are looking in imperious time wasting form,” writes JR, who is watching the action from Arsenal. “Dawson and Foster in particular are dominating possession averaging about 15 seconds at every dead ball. Yacob has chipped in by sitting down with a pretend injury. Neil Swarbrick doesn’t seem to care so the Baggies may have a chance at really shortening the game and escaping with a 0-0.”
Sock change! Islam Slimani calls on the physio, his problem eventually solved by him taking off his socks, revealing the fact that he was wearing more socks under his socks, and then donning a new pair of secondary socks over those socks.
Bournemouth are playing well at Stamford Bridge, though. Jack Wilshere just went close, and a penalty appeal, following Matic’s challenge on Smith, has been turned down.
Eden Hazard Rabona alert! The ball rolls to the Belgian 20 yards from goal and he sends a 20-yard rabona towards the top corner! It’s tipped round the post, and the whistle had already gone for a Bournemouth free-kick, but still.
@DevonPeterdoyle @Simon_Burnton @EFCLive I wonder if @vardy7 feels like this when attending #LeiEve today. https://t.co/gOAfwof242
— Doremus Schafer (@DoremusSchafer) December 26, 2016
It’s going with form rather than league position at Plymouth, where Wycombe have taken the lead.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Bournemouth (Pedro, 23 mins)
From a short corner, the ball is back alone the edge of the area, then inside a bit, and finally nudged to Pedro on the edge of the area, who half-turns and shoots left-footed over Boruc and into the corner!
Updated
At the other end, Lamine Kone fouls Mata inside the penalty area, but the referee waves play on.
It’s a decent shot, from Van Aanholt, but De Gea saves.
And Daley Blind has just been booked for hauling him back, giving Sunderland a decent shooting chance from the set piece.
Updated
Anichebe has recovered, and played on for Sunderland.
That’s Ayew’s first goal of the season. The venue might not be a coincidence:
9 - Nine of Andre Ayew's 13 goals in the Premier League have come at the Liberty Stadium. Surroundings.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 26, 2016
Alexis Sánchez lashes a shot wide for Arsenal from just outside the penalty area. “Ozil under scrutiny (again) today,” writes Charles Antaki. “One slightly irritating thing which does’t help his case is his tendency, when losing a tackle, to seem to be more interested in drawing the referee’s attention to some infringement rather than, y’know, chasing after the ball and trying to win it back.”
GOAL! Swansea 0-1 West Ham (Ayew, 13 mins)
A long, high cross into the box, a good knock-fown from Andy Carroll, a bit of a howler from Fabianski and a tap-in for Ayew.
Updated
Are the 30,000 Jamie Vardy masks images of Jamie Vardy wearing a Jamie Vardy mask? #metaVardy @simon_Burnton @efclive #EFCawayday
— Peter Doyle (@DevonPeterdoyle) December 26, 2016
Now that’s an interesting question. Whatever, it’s not been an enormously popular protest:
Total lack of class by LCFC printing 30000 Jamie Vardy masks because their striker is banned and they don't like it.
— andy dillon (@andydillon70) December 26, 2016
At Old Trafford, Victor Anichebe is receiving treatment to his left shoulder and looks in some discomfort. That could be the end of his afternoon.
Arsenal have had a shot, but Xhaka’s effort from 25 yards sails well wide.
I’m keeping an eye on all the Premier League games, which is another way of saying that I can’t really watch any of them, but for now I’ll concentrate on the games at Arsenal and Chelsea. I haven’t seen any chances so far, there or anywhere else.
Except at Plymouth, where kick-off has been delayed by 15 minutes because if excessive queues.
Peeeep! And they’re off!
There are lots of players emerging from lots of tunnels. Action imminent.
Jamie Vardy, I can confirm, is wearing one of those Jamie Vardy masks.
— Adam Hurrey (@FootballCliches) December 26, 2016
He thus becomes the only person in Leicester who looks less like Jamie Vardy than he normally does.
The Boxing Day effect is a curious one. Watford, for example, haven’t won on Boxing Day since 1986*. That’s statistically implausible. Middlesbrough enjoy this time of year a little better.
5 – Middlesbrough have won their last five Boxing Day clashes without conceding a single goal. Joyous.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 26, 2016
Doremus Schafer writes to inform me that the correct stat is that Watford haven’t won a top flight game on Boxing Day since 1986, which is no surprise at all.
Updated
David Moyes does a very brief pre-match interview, as he’s asked if he’s enjoying his first managerial return to Old Trafford since he was booted out by Manchester United:
I’ll tell you after the game if it was nice, but it’s always a great stadium to come to. It’s always going to be a tough game. Great tradition, great history. We know José’s team will be hard to play.
Mahrez and Drinkwater are on the bench, at least:
No Mahrez, no Huth, no Fuchs, no Drinkwater, no Vardy in @LCFC team. And Kanté long since departed. Ah well it was fun while it lasted.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) December 26, 2016
Remarkable scenes:
Belting back page to the Reading match day programme. pic.twitter.com/ZPtt1eid2r
— Ben Hunt (@benjhunt) December 26, 2016
Not content with giving away Jamie Vardy masks, Leicester have also been handing out mince pies!
Updated
Here’s a news story on those Jamie Vardy masks:
Olivier Giroud starts a league game for Arsenal for the first time this season.
6 - Olivier Giroud has scored six goals in his last four starts for Arsenal in all competitions. Chosen.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 26, 2016
Looks like there'll be a few Jamie Vardy masks (and a real Ross Barkley) on Ebay tonight @Simon_Burnton
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) December 26, 2016
Leicester love giving their fans stuff. Last time I saw them they all got blue and white stripey hats, compared to which their Christmas present is a bit of a let-down.
Premier League teams
I’ll put all the top-flight teams in here. If there are any other line-ups you want, let me know and I’ll do my best.
Arsenal v West Brom
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Gibbs, Coquelin, Xhaka, Sanchez, Ozil, Iwobi, Giroud. Subs: Ramsey, Lucas Perez, Ospina, Holding, Monreal, Reine-Adelaide, Elneny.
West Brom: Foster, Dawson, McAuley, Evans, Nyom, Yacob, Fletcher, Phillips, Chadli, Brunt, Rondon. Subs: Olsson, Robson-Kanu, Morrison, Gardner, Myhill, McClean, Galloway.
Referee: Neil Swarbrick.
Burnley v Middlesbrough
Burnley: Heaton, Flanagan, Mee, Keane, Ward, Arfield, Marney, Hendrick, Boyd, Gray, Barnes. Subs: Vokes, Kightly, Defour, Robinson, Gudmundsson, Tarkowski, Darikwa.
Middlesbrough: Valdes, Barragan, Chambers, Gibson, Da Silva, Forshaw, Clayton, de Roon, Stuani, Negredo, Ramirez. Subs: Friend, Bernardo, Leadbitter, Rhodes, Guzan, Downing, Traore.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Chelsea v Bournemouth
Chelsea: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill, Moses, Fabregas, Matic, Alonso, Willian, Pedro, Hazard. Subs: Begovic, Ivanovic, Zouma, Loftus-Cheek, Batshuayi, Chalobah, Aina.
Bournemouth: Boruc, Francis, Steve Cook, Brad Smith, Daniels, Arter, Gosling, Adam Smith, Wilshere, Surman, King. Subs: Afobe, Callum Wilson, Stanislas, Federici, Fraser, Mings, Ibe.
Referee: Mike Jones.
Leicester v Everton
Leicester: Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Wasilewski, Chilwell, Gray, King, Amartey, Albrighton, Slimani, Okazaki. Subs: Hernandez, Drinkwater, Musa, Zieler, Ulloa, Mendy, Mahrez.
Everton: Robles, Holgate, Ashley Williams, Funes Mori, Coleman, Gana, Barry, Baines, Lennon, Mirallas, Lukaku. Subs: Jagielka, Deulofeu, Barkley, Cleverley, Valencia, Davies, Hewelt.
Referee: Stuart Attwell.
Man Utd v Sunderland
Man Utd: de Gea, Valencia, Jones, Rojo, Blind, Ander Herrera, Carrick, Pogba, Mata, Ibrahimovic, Lingard. Subs: Martial, Smalling, Rashford, Romero, Mkhitaryan, Fellaini, Darmian.
Sunderland: Pickford, Jones, Djilobodji, Kone, Van Aanholt, Larsson, Ndong, Denayer, Anichebe, Borini, Defoe. Subs: Mannone, Khazri, O’Shea, Love, Asoro, Honeyman, Embleton.
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
Swansea v West Ham
Swansea: Fabianski, Rangel, Mawson, van der Hoorn, Kingsley, Cork, Britton, Routledge, Sigurdsson, Fulton, Borja Baston. Subs: Fer, Llorente, Dyer, Nordfeldt, Montero, Naughton, Fernandez.
West Ham: Randolph, Kouyate, Reid, Ogbonna, Antonio, Noble, Nordtveit, Cresswell, Payet, Carroll, Ayew. Subs: Feghouli, Adrian, Fletcher, Fernandes, Quina, Pike, Rice.
Referee: Andre Marriner.
Rooney is injured, apparently, rather than unpopular.
The team news is starting to trickle in now, and Manchester United have left Wayne Rooney out of their matchday squad.
Some pre-match music, while we wait for the team news to roll in: four great tracks from 2016 (well, I like them anyway):
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Hello world!
So, here we are then. Ye Tradionale Boxing Daye Fixtures, and so many questions to be answered. Principally: who’s been at the sherry? Who ate all the mince pies? Has the stadium DJ put away his festive Shakin’ Stevens records yet, or will you be subjected to one more spin? An afternoon of skill, drama, and goodwill to all men so long as they’re wearing the right colours awaits. Here, to kick things off, are this afternoon’s English Football League fixtures. And in the meantime, hello!
Premier League
Arsenal v West Brom
Burnley v Middlesbrough
Chelsea v AFC Bournemouth
Leicester v Everton
Man Utd v Sunderland
Swansea v West Ham
Hull v Man City (5.15pm)
Championship
Look out for: Neither Newcastle nor Brighton are in action this afternoon, so it’s all about the play-off positions, with the visit of Norwich to third-place Reading probably the pick. The bottom two, Rotherham and Wigan, face each other at the New York Stadium.
Aston Villa v Burton A
Barnsley v Blackburn
Huddersfield v Nottm Forest
Ipswich v Fulham
Preston v Leeds
Reading v Norwich
Rotherham v Wigan
Wolves v Bristol City
Newcastle v Sheff Wed (7.45pm)
League One
Look out for: Karl Robinson returns to MK Dons, his six-year managership having ended “by mutual consent” in October. He’s already managed Charlton against them twice in the FA Cup. And on the subject of reuinions, Bradford City reject Josh Morris returns to his former employers in Scunthorpe colours, as the division’s top scorer. Bury head to Fleetwood having won none of 36 available points since September (at the end of that month they had won five in a row; they have now lost their last 12)
Bolton v Shrewsbury
Bradford City v Scunthorpe
Bristol Rovers v Coventry
Fleetwood v Bury
MK Dons v Charlton
Millwall v Swindon
Oxford Utd v Northampton
Peterborough v Gillingham
Port Vale v Walsall
Rochdale v Chesterfield
Sheff Utd v Oldham
League Two
Look out for: Plymouth may be top of the table but their form isn’t great – they have won three and lost three of their last six league games – which isn’t something you could say of their opponents today: Wycombe have won their last six, and haven’t been beaten in the league for more than two months. With their two closest rivals both playing teams in the bottom half and out of form (albeit away from home) there could be new leaders today.
Cheltenham v Barnet
Crewe v Carlisle
Grimsby v Accrington
Hartlepool v Blackpool
Luton v Colchester
Mansfield v Morecambe
Newport v Portsmouth
Notts County v Doncaster
Plymouth v Wycombe
Stevenage v Cambridge
Yeovil v Exeter
Simon will be here soon.
