That’s it for today’s blog, but the Premier League football continues. Next up, Arsenal v Chelsea. Bye!
Full time: Cardiff 2-3 Brentford Peep peep! Sergi Canos’s memorable second-half hat-trick gives Brentford a vital victory at the Cardiff City Stadium. Will Vaulks scored both Cardiff’s goals, the first from inside his own half.
Full time: Aston Villa 3-0 Crystal Palace Villa move up to sixth after a superb win over Crystal Palace. Tyrone Mings was sent off just before half-time with the score 1-0, but Villa’s ten men were brilliant in the second half and could have won by more.
Full time: Fulham 0-0 Southampton A quiet afternoon at Craven Cottage comes to an end. Southampton had two goals disallowed for offside but Fulham deserved a point.
Full time: QPR 0-2 Swansea Peep peep! Swansea move up to second in the Championship after another good away win.
Full time: Hamilton 0-3 Celtic Peep peep! Three second-half goals move Celtic 16 points behind Rangers with three games in hand.
Aston Villa 3-0 Crystal Palace Ollie Watkins hits the inside of the post after a quite glorious reverse pass from Jack Grealish. Watkins has worked so hard, particularly since Villa went down to 10 men, and deserves a goal.
Fulham 0-0 Southampton Excluding the two disallowed goals for Southampton, there have been three shots on target in the whole match. It hasn’t been a classic.
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Aston Villa 3-0 Crystal Palace Joel Ward has hit the bar for Palace with a mishit cross.
Fulham 0-0 Southampton: Walcott goal disallowed for offside. VAR has ruled out an excellent goal from Theo Walcott. He beat Areola from close range after a devastating cross from Che Adams, but replays showed Adams was fractionally offside.
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GOAL! Cardiff 2-3 Brentford (Vaulks 76)
It’s Will Vaulks 2-3 Sergi Canos. Vaulks, who scored from his own half earlier in the game, has brought Cardiff back into the game with a deflected shot.
GOAL! Aston Villa 3-0 Crystal Palace (El Ghazi 76)
Anwar El Ghazi seals victory with a rare old screamer. Villa broke from a Palace corner, with Grealish putting Watkins through on goal. His first touch was poor but he retrieved the ball and played it back to El Ghazi, who scorched a first-time shot in off the far post.
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GOAL! Cardiff 1-3 Brentford (Canos 73)
Sergi Canos completes a 24-minute hat-trick!
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The latest scores in our featured games
Premier League
Leicester City 2-2 Man Utd (FT)
Aston Villa 2-0 Crystal Palace (Mings sent off for Villa)
Fulham 0-0 Southampton
Scottish Premiership
Hamilton Academical 0-3 Celtic
Championship
QPR 0-2 Swansea
Cardiff 1-2 Brentford
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Aston Villa 2-0 Crystal Palace Scott Dann makes a vital block from Ollie Watkins. Villa have had the better chances in the second half, despite being down to ten men.
“Talking of VAR, which I know you love,” begins Ian Copestake. “I received a Christmas card recently which was a clear and obvious error. It will be returned with this decision noted on it.”
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Arsenal play Chelsea this evening in a mouthwatering game at the Emirates. Barry Glendenning has some very interesting team news.
Fulham 0-0 Southampton: Shane Long has a goal disallowed. It would have been first goal since forever, but he was just offside.
GOAL! Hamilton 0-3 Celtic (Turnbull 74)
After a nervous, goalless first half, Celtic are running away with it at the Fountain of Youth Stadium.
GOAL! Cardiff 1-2 Brentford (Canos 65)
Brentford have come from behind to lead at the Cardiff City Stadium. Sergi Canos, who scored that spectacular equaliser at the start of the second half, has got his second.
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Fulham 0-0 Southampton There was a long VAR check for a Southampton penalty just now. Ryan Bertrand’s volleyed cross hit the outstretched arm of Ola Aina, but VAR decided it wasn’t a clear and obvious error. That’s probably fair enough.
GOAL! Aston Villa 2-0 Crystal Palace (Hause 67)
Ten-man Villa are 2-0 up! Ollie Watkins’s lobbed header hit the top of the bar, and Kortney Hause reacted quickest to head the dropping ball over the line from a yard.
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Fulham 0-0 Southampton It’s been a quiet second half at Craven Cottage. Ivan Cavaleiro missed an excellent chance for Fulham, heading over from Antonee Robinson’s cross, but that’s about it.
Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace Villa’s ten men have defended well in the first 15 minutes of the second half. Christian Benteke has just slapped a shot a couple of yards wide, though he was subsequently flagged offside.
Here’s Jonathan Wilson on Manchester United’s draw at Leicester.
The latest scores in our featured games
Premier League
Leicester City 2-2 Man Utd (FT)
Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace (Mings sent off for Villa)
Fulham 0-0 Southampton
Scottish Premiership
Hamilton Academical 0-2 Celtic
Championship
QPR 0-2 Swansea
Cardiff 1-1 Brentford
GOAL! Cardiff 1-1 Brentford (Canos 50)
Sergi Canos has equalised with an outrageous goal, a hooked volley over his own shoulder from 25 yards!
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GOAL! Hamilton 0-2 Celtic (Griffiths 54)
Odsonne Edouard’s brilliant pass is finished off by Leigh Griffiths, which should be enough for Celtic to move to within 16 points of Rangers.
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GOAL! QPR 0-2 Swansea (Lowe 54)
Swansea could be going second in the Championship - Jamal Lowe has put them 2-0 up at Loftus Road.
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GOAL! Hamilton 0-1 Celtic (Edouard 49 pen)
Odsonne Edouard has scored from the penalty spot to give Celtic the lead at Hamilton. They can’t afford to drop any points today: at the start of the game they were 19 points behind Rangers with four games in hand.
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Peep peep! The second halves are underway.
Half-time reading
The half-time scores in our featured games
Premier League
Leicester City 2-2 Man Utd (FT)
Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace (Mings sent off for Villa)
Fulham 0-0 Southampton
Scottish Premiership
Hamilton Academical 0-0 Celtic
Championship
QPR 0-1 Swansea
Cardiff 1-0 Brentford
“Season’s greetings!” says Gary Naylor. “Not much charity shown to Tyrone Mings though. I think we can - and I don’t mean this disparagingly - say that Zaha drew both those yellow cards. That said, there are players (though they’re not big centre-backs) who seem to get an allocation of four or five blocks, niggly fouls and late tackles every match. Bruno Fernandes of course, but there are others.”
I think that’s a bit harsh on Zaha. He wasn’t even facing Mings on the first one, and the second one was a clear foul.
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GOAL! Cardiff 1-0 Brentford (Vaulks 45+4)
Will Vaulks has scored from inside his own half! Cardiff broke from a corner, with the Brentford keeper David Raya a long way outside his area. Vaulks played a one-two with Robert Glatzel and drove the ball nonchalantly over Raya from 60 yards!
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Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace The goalscorer Bertrand Traore has been replaced by Ezri Konsa, who has come on in defence after Tyrone Mings’ red card.
Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace Mings thought he was fouled first by Zaha - he might have a point - and wanted VAR to check it. They can’t do that, though, as it was a second yellow card rather than a straight red.
GOAL! QPR 0-1 Swansea (Ayew 44)
Andre Ayew heads into an open net to give Swansea the lead at Loftus Road.
RED CARD: Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace (Mings sent off)
Tyrone Mings wins the Eejit of the Day award. He was booked a minute ago for that tackle on Zaha, and now he has been given a second yellow for blocking the same man. That was so unnecessary.
Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace Vicente Guaita makes another fine close-range save, this time form Anwar El Ghazi. Villa could be three or four ahead.
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Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace Wilfried Zaha and Tyrone Mings are booked for an impromptu fall-out. Mings’ studs caught Zaha on the side of the thigh, a naughty tackle that might have brought a red card, and Zaha sought retribution.
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Fulham 0-0 Southampton It’s been a much tighter game at Craven Cottage, with only a couple of shots on target.
“Villa-Palace has been a cracking game so far, very exciting,” says Paulo Biriani. “And then along comes VAR to take all of that away. I mean, seriously, who thinks this adds anything to the game? If only there was a left-leaning media giant to begin a campaign to abolish this shit. It’s an abomination.”
Who said I was left-leaning?
“For those who take note of such things,” begins Paul Flint, “the first mention of Peaky Blinders by the Spanish commentator on the Villa game has come in at a relatively disappointing 2 minutes 34 seconds. He can do better.”
It’s a shame Peckham Town FC aren’t in the Premier League.
Fulham 0-0 Southampton What a chance for Southampton! Ward-Prowse’s brilliant free-kick was tipped onto the inside of the post by Areola, an outrageously good save. The ball rebounded towards Che Adams, who seemed to have an open goal - but the spin on the ball took it away from him.
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NO PENALTY That took around four minutes, but I think it was the correct decision: Cash may have got the ball, and if there was a foul on van Aanholt it was in his follow through, by which time the ball had gone anyway.It’s good to see a referee have the confidence to stay with his original decision.
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Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace There’s a VAR check for a Palace penalty after an awkward challenge by Cash on van Aanholt. It’s been going on for ages, and it looks like Anthony Taylor will check the monitor.
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Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace Vicente Guaita makes a decent save from Jack Grealish after a terrific Villa counter-attack. Grealish was played in Bertrand Traore, who has made a brilliant start to the game.
If Villa win today they’ll go above Manchester City. Who’da thunk?
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Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace Bertrand Traore almost gets his second with a cracking low drive that beats Guaita and hits the outside of the far post.
“Season’s greetings Rob,” says Charles Antaki, “and hopefully some lucky child has been given the Palace away shirt as a Christmas present - surely the classiest of this year’s range?”
Hmm. I thought last season’s was a beauty but I’m not sure about this one. It makes me think of ink cartridge levels.
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The latest scores in our featured games
Premier League
Leicester City 2-2 Man Utd (FT)
Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace
Fulham 0-0 Southampton
Scottish Premiership
Rangers 1-0 Hibernian (FT)
Hamilton Academical 0-0 Celtic
Championship
QPR 0-0 Swansea
Cardiff 0-0 Brentford
Fulham 0-0 Southampton It’s been a good start for Fulham, who had a penalty appeal turned down when a loose ball hit Jan Bednarek’s elbow.
Crystal Palace still haven’t kept a clean sheet since the opening day of the season, which must be affecting Roy Hodgson’s equilibrium.
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GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Crystal Palace (Traore 5)
Villa are in front already. Ollie Watkins’ shot was well saved by Vicente Guaita, but Bertrand Traore followed up to score from eight yards.
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“Merry lockdown, eh Christmas, Rob, to you and all clockwatchers,” says Simon McMahon. “League and cup action in Scotland today, as this seasons Scottish Cup gets underway less than a week after Celtic won last season’s competition. So very 2020. In the league, Dundee United will be looking to follow up their win against Kilmarnock on Wednesday with another three points at Tannadice today, when Motherwell are the visitors.
“In the Scottish Championship leaders Hearts are at home to Ayr, while struggling Dundee visit Queen of the South. Scottish Cup ties include Cowdenbeath v Wick Academy, Edinburgh City v Caledonian Braves, Elgin City v Civil Service Strollers, Kelty Hearts v Jeanfield Swifts and Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale v Banks O’Dee. All matches to be played in the howling wind and rain. Very romantic.”
Aston Villa 0-0 Crystal Palace Wilfried Zaha almost gave Palace the lead after 40 seconds. He got the wrong side of Tyrone Mings, ran through and hit a shot that was very well blocked by Emi Martinez.
Peep peep! The 3pm games are underway.
Here’s the great Paul Doyle on Leicester 2-2 Man Utd
And here’s P. A. Media on Rangers 1-0 Hibs
The Leicester equaliser has gone down as an Axel Tuanzebe own goal, which may or may not interest you.
“Afternoon Rob,” says Matt Turland. “It’s been a classic so far for me. Mrs Turland is at work (God bless the NHS and all that) so I’m alone with the two kids today. Got the eldest excited when I told him we’d be able to watch the Leicester game before realising that the Amazon matches are on Monday (not today). Crushing disappointment for the lad, which should stand him in good stead for having me as a dad.
“Also managed to play three games (Dobble, Slide Quest and Zombie Kidz Evolution). I do love a good game but three in a few hours is exhausting. Could do with the 3pms being a little dull to allow me to recover slightly. Can you put a word in to get that sorted?”
Instead of putting a word in, I’ll give you four words: Two Banks of Four.
QPR v Swansea team news
QPR (4-2-3-1) Dieng; Kane, Dickie, Barbet, Hamalainen; Cameron, Ball; Bonne, Carroll, Chair; Dykes.
Substitutes: Adomah, Bettache, Duke-McKenna, Kelly, Kelman, Masterson, Osayi-Samuel; Thomas, Willock.
Swansea (3-4-1-2) Woodman; Cabango, Bennett, Guehi; Roberts, Fulton, Grimes, Bidwell; Dhanda; Ayew, Lowe.
Substitutes: Benda, Cooper, Garrick, Gyokeres, Latibeaudiere, Manning, Palmer, Routledge, Smith.
Cardiff v Brentford team news
Cardiff (4-2-3-1) Smithies; Bacuna, Morrison, Nelson, Bennett; Ralls, Vaulks; Ojo, Wilson, Hoilett; Glatzel.
Substitutes: Bagan, Benkovic, Cunningham, Harris, Murphy, Pack, Patten, Phillips, Whyte.
Brentford (4-3-3) Raya; Dalsgaard, Jansson, Pinnock, Henry; Jensen, Janelt, Marcondes; Mbuemo, Toney, Canos.
Substitutes: Bech Sorensen, Daniels, Dasilva, Forss, Fosu, Ghoddos, Haygarth, Stevens, Thompson.
Hamilton v Celtic team news
Hamilton (3-5-2) Gourlay; Stirling, Martin, Easton; Hodson, Hamilton, Odoffin, Trafford, McMann; Winter, Moyo.
Substitutes: Hughes, Johnson, Mimnaugh, Munro, Owolabi, Scully, Stanger.
Celtic (4-2-3-1) Hazard; Frimpong, Bitton, Ajer, Taylor; Soro, McGregor; Christie, Turnbull, Edouard; Griffiths.
Substitutes: Ajeti, Barkas, Brown, Duffy, Elyounoussi, Johnston, Klimala, Laxalt, Rogic.
Full time: Leicester 2-2 Manchester United
An intriguing match at the King Power Stadium has ended with the perfect result for Liverpool. Barry Glendenning will give you chapter and verse.
Full time: Rangers 1-0 Hibernian Ianis Hagi’s goal has continued Rangers’ spectacular winning run in the Scottish Premiership. They are now 19 points clear of Celtic, who play the first of their games in hand at Hamilton Academical this afternoon.
And now there’s been a fourth goal...
There’s been a third goal at the King Power Stadium. You won’t believe who’s scored it.
Fulham v Southampton team news
Fulham (3-4-2-1) Areola; Aina, Andersen, Adarabioyo; De Cordova-Reid, Anguissa, Reed, Robinson; Loftus-Cheek, Lookman; Cavaleiro.
Substitutes: Rodak, Hector, Odoi, Ream, Bryan, Kebano, Cairney, Mitrovic, Kamara.
Southampton (4-4-2) McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Stephens, Bertrand; Armstrong, Ward-Prowse, Diallo, Walcott; Long, Adams.
Substitutes: Forster, Valery, Salisu, Vokins, Djenepo, Smallbone, Tella, Obafemi, N’Lundulu.
Aston Villa v Crystal Palace team news
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1) Martinez; Cash, Hause, Mings, Targett; Douglas Luiz, McGinn; El Ghazi, Traore, Grealish; Watkins.
Substitutes: Heaton, Taylor, Konsa, Guilbert, El Mohamady, Hourihane, Nakamba, Ramsey, Davis.
Crystal Palace (4-4-2) Guaita; Ward, Kouyate, Dann, van Aanholt; Schlupp, Milivojevic, McArthur, Eze; Zaha, Benteke.
Substitutes: Butland, Tomkins, Clyne, Mitchell, Townsend, McCarthy, Riedewald, Ayew, Batshuayi.
“Ah, come on now, Rob,” says Matt Dony. “Murderous self-loathing is for life, not just for Christmas.”
It’s still Leicester 1-1 Man Utd after an hour at the King Power Stadium. Leicester have probably been the better team; United have definitely had the better chances.
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And Ianis Hagi’s goal has put Rangers 1-0 up at half-time against Hibs. As things stand they are an eye-watering 19 points clear of Celtic, albeit having played four games more.
Leicester 1-1 Man Utd is the half-time score at the King Power Stadium. Barry Glendenning will tell you moooooooooooooooore.
A number of games have been postponed because of Covid outbreaks, including a couple in the Championship. Fulham will also be without their manager Scott Parker, who is self-isolating after a household member tested positive. These are the games that are have been postponed so far:
Championship
- AFC Bournemouth v Millwall
- Middlesbrough v Rotherham United
League One
- Blackpool v Rochdale
- Doncaster v Accrington
- Gillingham v Peterborough
- Ipswich v Northampton
- Portsmouth v Swindon
- Sunderland v Hull
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Preamble
Hello! Boxing Day football is an integral part of the Great British Christmas Experience, right up there with forced jollity, familial contempt, murderous self-loathing and socks you’ll probably never wear. The escapism is even more important this year, with most of Britain in Tier 4, and happily there are plenty of diverting fixtures today.
You can see the full fixture list here. These are our featured matches (all 3pm kick-offs unless etc):
Premier League
Leicester City 1-1 Man Utd (12.30pm)
Aston Villa v Crystal Palace
Fulham v Southampton
Scottish Premiership
Rangers 1-0 Hibernian (12.30pm)
Hamilton Academical v Celtic
Championship
QPR v Swansea
Cardiff v Brentford
We’ll have team news anon.
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