And that’s your lot from this. For all the scores from all the divisions, have a look here.
But that isn’t it for today. No sir, no madam. We’ve got two hefty games to keep track of, specifically Manchester City v Liverpool, which you can follow with Scott Murray here, or if you prefer there’s Real Madrid v Barcelona, and Ian McCourt’s your man for that one.
Cheers, and good evening.
Premier League full-time scores
- Chelsea 1-0 Norwich
- Everton 4-0 Aston Villa
- Newcastle 0-3 Leicester
- Southampton 0-1 Stoke
- Swansea 2-2 Bournemouth
- West Brom 2-1 Arsenal
Late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late late goal at Griffin Park, where Brentford seem to have grabbed the points against Nottingham Forest in the 96th minute. Philipp Hofmann with the goal. Similarly late strike for Sheffield Wednesday through Lucas Joao, but that just makes it 3-1 to them over Huddersfield.
Leicester City are top of the Premier League. Top. Of the Premier League. The English Premier League. Leicester. Leicester City.
Scenes.
Full-time: Swansea 2-2 Bournemouth
A good comeback, but is that enough for Garry Monk?
Full-time: West Brom 2-1 Arsenal
Oh Santi.
Full-time: Southampton 0-1 Stoke
Mr Bojan Goals gets the winner for Stoke.
Full-time: Newcastle 0-3 Leicester
Mortensen, Van Nistelrooy, Vardy.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leicester | 13 | 8 | 28 |
| 2 | Man Utd | 13 | 10 | 27 |
| 3 | Man City | 12 | 17 | 26 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 13 | 12 | 26 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 12 | 10 | 21 |
Updated
Full-time: Chelsea 1-0 Norwich
Some respite for Jose.
Full-time: Everton 4-0 Aston Villa
The final whistle puts Villa out of their misery.
Ooooh, comeback at Hillsborough - Wednesday, having been 1-0 behind to Huddersfield, are now ahead, after Joao and Lee bag to give them a 2-1 lead in the closing stages.
Bloody hell - down in Scottish League One, Peterhead have just made it 7 (seven)-0 against Cowdenbeath.
Cazorla fell over, kicked the ball twice and conceded a free kick. Incredible.
— Iain Macintosh (@iainmacintosh) November 21, 2015
Arsenal miss a penalty!
Crivens. Sanchez is fouled by Brunt and the referee points to the spot, and after a significant amount of faffing around Santi Cazorla steps up...but slips and kicks the ball from one foot into another, and it flies wide!
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GOAL! Newcastle 0-3 Leicester (Okazaki 82)
And that’s that at St James’s. If it wasn’t that already. Shinji Okazaki bags a third for Leicester, and they’re streaming out of the stadium now. Leicester going top unless Arsenal can do something at West Brom...
The big three that Garry Monk left out - Montero, Sigurdsson and Gomis - are all on as Swansea chance things against Bournemouth.
Hazard and Matic both playing very well here. Makes you think, well, what was all that about then...
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) November 21, 2015
Sounds spicy at Elland Road - two red cards, one per team, where Gaetano Berardi goes postal and gets himself sent off for storming around shouting and swinging at everyone and everthing, including a linesman’s flag. Rotherham’s Leon Best was sent off in the same incident.
Good few minutes for the Midlands - Derby go 2-0 up over Cardiff through Andi Weimann, while Henry Lansbury has levelled things for Forest at Brentford, who have also had a man sent off. And then Wolves are level, Benik Afobe making it 2-2 against Ipswich.
West Brom nearly 3-1 ahead, as they think they’ve bundled the ball over the line, but the linesman’s flag goes up for a foul.
Oooh, treble change for Norwich. Lovely stuff.
Big throw of the dice by Norwich boss Alex Neil as he introduces Hoolahan, Dorrans and Jerome all together. 72 minutes played. #CFCLive
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) November 21, 2015
Joe Garner’s pulled one back at Deepdale - it’s Preston 1-2 Blackburn now.
Oh, Joel Campbell. He’s on off the bench for Arsenal, but he might as well not be, completely mishitting a shot when given an entirely presentable chance to level things against West Brom.
At Stamford Bridge, both teams could have notched, as Kurt Zouma hits the bar then Robbie Brady goes close with a drive at the other end.
Johnnie Jackson has put Charlton 1-0 ahead over Birmingham, while at Brentford Sergi Canos has given the home side the lead over Forest.
GOAL! Newcastle 0-2 Leicester (Ulloa 62)
In all the deserved hoopla about Vardy and Leicester it’s easy to forget just how abysmal Newcastle are. They leave Ulloa free in the box to head home, and Leicester are heading to the top of the table. Nothing makes sense anymore.
Updated
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Norwich (Costa 64)
Lovely stuff that for Costa, his first goal in a while, making some space for himself with some delightful footwork and curling the ball across John Ruddy and into the net.
Updated
It has come to this...
as it stands (west brom winning, swansea not losing) IF we beat Norwich we’ll go 14th in the league (above them).
— Chelsea Stats (@ChelseaStats) November 21, 2015
Couple of goals in the Championship - Joe Newell has made it 0-1 in Steve Evans v Neil Redfearn/Leeds v Rotherham, while Daryl Murphy has put Ipswich back ahead against Wolves. Oh, and up in Yorkshire, Sean Scannell has bagged for Huddersfield, so they’re 1-0 up over Sheffield Wednesday in David Wagner’s first game in charge there.
GOAL! Everton 4-0 Aston Villa (Lukaku 59)
Ooof. Turning into a proper shoeing at Goodison, where Lukaku gets on the end of another fine move to make it 4-0 to Everton. Remi, Remi, Remi.
Updated
Elsewhere in the Championship, Derby are ahead, George Thorne having given them the lead over Cardiff.
While his former team get spanked, Paul Lambert is having a lovely time in his first game as Blackburn manager - Jordan Rhodes has just put them 2-0 up at Preston.
Meanwhile, in Spain...
Illegal here for me to take a picture of him but there's a sniper on the roof of the Bernabeu offices
— Ed Malyon (@eaamalyon) November 21, 2015
Rough times for Diego. Presumably all his fellow professionals will be lining up to offer their sympathy.
After his nightmare first half, Chelsea players don't seem keen to pass to Costa and his frustration is growing....
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) November 21, 2015
Arsenal close to levelling things against West Brom, as Ozil thunks one against the post, but perhaps even more troublingly Mikel Arteta, who himself was a substitute replacing an injured player, has injured his calf and will have to go off. Mathieu Flamini is on.
Stoke should be two ahead of Southampton, after Xherdan Shaqiri spurns a chance when presented to him on the finest bone china plate by Marco Arnautovic.
Updated
Casual stuff at the Bridge as the second-half gets underway...
Kenedy still putting on his gloves as he took a pass. Yellow card surely
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) November 21, 2015
@NickMiller79 I see your Pete Rock & CL Smooth and raise you Ryuichi Sakamoto's Thousand Knives https://t.co/1sE9YjNe3j Kicks in at 1:30
— Harry Kennard (@HarryKennard) November 21, 2015
Championship half-time scores
- Birmingham 0-0 Charlton
- Brentford 0-0 Forest
- Derby 0-0 Cardiff
- Ipswich 1-1 Wolves
- Leeds 0-0 Rotherham
- MK Dons 1-1 Fulham
- Preston 0-1 Blackburn
- Reading 2-0 Bolton
- Sheffield Wednesday 0-0 Huddersfield
The lunchtime kick-off finished Bristol City 1-1 Hull. Follow all the scores live here.
Some half-time listening - how about this lovely bit of business from the early 90s, by Pete Rock and CL Smooth...
Half-time scores...
...all around the Premier League...
- Chelsea 0-0 Norwich
- Everton 3-0 Aston Villa
- Newcastle 0-1 Leicester
- Southampton 0-1 Stoke
- Swansea 2-2 Bournemouth
- West Brom 2-1 Arsenal
GOAL! Newcastle 0-1 Leicester (Vardy 45)
Jamie Vardy is having a party! Ten games in a row for the Leicester striker now, levelling Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Premier League record. Well done that man. Perhaps even more remarkably, Leicester will be top of the table (for a short while) if it stays like this. Blimey.
Although it should of course be noted that Jimmy Dunne scored in 12 straight Sheffield United games in Division One in 1931-32, while Stan Mortensen scored in 15 Division One games that he was fit for in 1950-51, with scoring runs of three, 11 and one.
No, wait, that’s 4-0 to Coventry - Murphy again, and that’s his hat-trick.
James Henry has levelled things for Wolves against Ipswich, while in League One Coventry are having a lovely old time, already 3-0 up over Gillingham, Jacob Murphy the latest to stick one in.
GOAL! Everton 3-0 Aston Villa (Barkley 42)
Blimey. Remi Garde must be looking for a trapdoor at Villa Park, because Villa are having their bottoms well and truly spanked. Ross Barkley has his second and Everton’s third at Goodison, taking advantage of some shambolic defending.
Updated
GOAL! West Brom 2-1 Arsenal (Arteta OG 40)
Well, well, well. In this game, your luck can turn just that quickly. West Brom have come from behind to lead over Arsenal with a couple of goals inside five minutes, the latest coming from a Mikel Arteta own-goal, following a James McClean cut-back. Slapstick stuff from the Gooners. Well, well, well.
Updated
GOAL! Swansea 2-2 Bournemouth (Shelvey 36)
And it’s all square! Swansea win a penalty after some unnecessariness from Simon Francis on Ayew, and Shelvey sticks it away. What a game.
Although, perhaps it wasn’t a penner...
Extraordinary game at the Liberty, Swansea back to 2-2. But got to say that was never a penalty. Ayew tripped over his own feet.
— Stuart James (@StuartJamesGNM) November 21, 2015
Updated
GOAL! West Brom 1-1 Arsenal (Morrison 35)
All square at the Hawthorns, as James Morrison volleys home deliciously after a Chris Brunt free-kick, with some more slack marking giving him the room to basically do what he wanted. And he wanted to score a goal.
Updated
Few goals in the Championship to tell you about - Reading are 1-0 up over Bolton through Lucas Piazon, Dean Bowditch has bagged to give MK Dons a 1-0 lead over Fulham, while a Jordan Pickford ogger has given Blackburn the lead over Preston.
Romelu Lukaku is the youngest ever non-English player to reach 50 Premier League goals.
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) November 21, 2015
GOAL! Everton 2-0 Aston Villa (Lukaku 28)
Remi Garde’s second game in charge isn’t going quite as well as his first, as Romelu Lukaku doubles Everton’s lead at Goodison.
Updated
GOAL! West Brom 0-1 Arsenal (Giroud 28)
Arsenal fans, get rubbing your thighs. Mesut Ozil whips over a free-kick and West Brom adopt a rather casual approach to marking in the area, leaving Olivier Giroud to glance home a free header.
Updated
GOAL! Swansea 1-2 Bournemouth (Ayew 28)
But wait! Audacious stuff from Andre Ayew as he backheels home to give Swansea and their manager something of a lifeline.
Updated
GOAL! Swansea 0-2 Bournemouth (Gosling 26)
Oh Gaz Monko. Big problems for the future England manager as Dan Gosling sticks one in the top bins to double Bournemouth’s lead. Eddie Howe’s team sound rampant in south Wales.
Updated
Goal in probably the game of the day in the Championship, as Jonathan Douglas has put Ipswich 1-0 up over Wolves in the Terry Connor derby.
Injury problem for Newcastle, if you regard Cheick Tiote going off as a problem: the midfielder stretched to reach a pass from Daryl Janmaat, tried to run his ailment off but couldn’t. Florian Thauvin comes on, which you’d imagine will involve some sort of tactical re-jig.
GOA...oh, no, wait, it’s not
Junior Stanislas has the ball in the net, firing home in off the post, but the lino sticks his flag in the air and denies the Cherries a doubling of their lead against Swansea.
“Will Monk soon be leading an ascetic life of quiet contemplation and reflection?” guffaws Stephen Mitchell. “Honk! I’m here all week, ladies and gents. Try the Trappist Beer.”
GOAL! Everton 1-0 Aston Villa (Barkely 17)
They’re away at Goodison, where Ross Barkley has given the Toffees the lead, finishing off a sweeping move with a tap-in.
Updated
Bad news for Arsenal - Francis Coquelin has injured his knee in a challenge with Claudio Yacob, and it looks like he’ll have to go off. Mikel Arteta will replace him, but it’s OK, because it’s not like they have any big Champions League games coming up that they absolutely have to win or anything...
GOAL! Southampton 0-1 Stoke (Bojan 10)
Mr Bojan Goals! Bojan Krkic flicks home a cross from Eric Pieters to give the Potters the lead at St Mary’s. Sammy will be pleased...
GOAL! Swansea 0-1 Bournemouth (King 10)
Oh boy, Garry Monk. Things get worse for the lad from This Is England as his team goes behind, Josh King sticking it in the Liberty net after some good work from Junior Stanislas.
Updated
Big ol’ chance for Leicester at Newcastle, where in a flagrant act of disregard for the Jamie Vardy Narrative, Riyad Mahrez tees up Leonardo Ulloa, but he can’t stick it away.
Chelsea nose ahead in the competitive shows of respect stakes....
Show of solidarity at Stamford Bridge as enormous French flag makes way through crowd. [@terrencethecat] #CFC #NCFC pic.twitter.com/XNwNbRF4N1
— World Soccer Talk (@worldsoccertalk) November 21, 2015
Under way at Stamford Bridge where Kenedy is the latest to try luck in Chelsea's troublesome left-back role. Baba Rahman not even on bench
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) November 21, 2015
Anyway, games across the country are kicking off. Have kicked off. Football!
This Marseillaise business. The French anthem has been played before every game today, but apart from French people, nobody has any idea how to react during it. Half bowed heads, half raised, all pretty baffled. It’s done with the best of intentions, but it’s at best completely misguided.
Simon McMahon’s been doing some star-spottin’: “Atmosphere building at Tannadice, Nick, where - celebrity fan alert- I’ve just spotted Lorraine Kelly sat next to Hamish McAlpine, United legends both. Zippy is no doubt still in hospitality.”
Snow! In Newcastle. So maybe just, snow.
Actually, on reflection the pithy summary of Swansea’s team earlier was a serious understatement. Not only is Gomis on the bench, but Gylfi Sigurdsson, Jefferson Montero and Federico Fernandez are too. Blimey O’Reilly. What do we make of that?
If you just fancy following the one game this afternoon, and that game is West Brom v Arsenal at what sounds like a Baltic Hawthorns, then yer boy Tim Hill has minute-by-minute coverage of that one.
“Afternoon Nick,” writes Simon McMahon, bringing us news from that pretty bit of Britain up to the north. “Game of the day in Scotland is at Tannadice where Dundee United meet St. Johnstone. Former United centre half Gavin Gunning has returned from an injury plagued spell in England and goes straight into the starting line up. Paul Dixon also returns from injury as United look to start their climb up the table against the Perth minnows. Other SPFL fixtures include Celtic v Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle v Inverness and Ross County v. Motherwell. In the Scottish Championship in-form Hibs travel to Alloa and Queen of the South host Falkirk.”
A few things to note from those teams, then.
- Interesting that Kenedy, ostensibly a winger, looks like he’ll be playing left-back for Chelsea, unless Jose is planning something seriously funky with Eden Hazard.
- Shane Long gets a go from the start for Southampton, the first time that’s happened since the second game of the season on August 15.
- Swansea have finally dropped Bafetimbi Gomis, who hasn’t scored since bagging in the first four games of the season, Eder getting a start at the Liberty.
- And at the Hawthorns, Saido Berahino is on the bench, Tony Pulis presumably having learned from the first game of the season when Manchester City wiped the floor with his two-up-top Baggies...
- ...while for Arsenal Joel Campell drops to the bench and Kieran Gibbs looks like he’ll be playing on the left wing.
Team news
Chelsea v Norwich
Begovic, Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry, Kenedy, Fabregas, Matic, Pedro, Willian, Hazard, Costa. Subs: Ramires, Oscar, Traore, Remy, Cahill, Blackman, Azpilicueta.
Ruddy, Wisdom, Bennett, Bassong, Olsson, Redmond, O’Neil, Mulumbu, Brady, Howson, Mbokani. Subs: Whittaker, Jerome, Rudd, Hoolahan, Dorrans, Lafferty, Odjidja-Ofoe.
Referee: Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire)
Everton v Aston Villa
Howard, Coleman, Funes Mori, Stones, Galloway, McCarthy, Barry, Deulofeu, Barkley, Kone, Lukaku. Subs: Robles, Gibson, Mirallas, Lennon, Naismith, Cleverley, Osman.
Guzan, Hutton, Richards, Clark, Richardson, Gana, Westwood, Veretout, Gil, Grealish, Ayew. Subs: Bunn, Bacuna, Sinclair, Lescott, Sanchez, N’Zogbia, Gestede.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland)
Newcastle v Leicester
Elliot, Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Dummett, Sissoko, Anita, Tiote, Wijnaldum, Mitrovic, Perez. Subs: Cisse, De Jong, Gouffran, Lascelles, Thauvin, Woodman, Sterry.
Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs, Mahrez, Kante, Drinkwater, Albrighton, Ulloa, Vardy. Subs: De Laet, King, Schlupp, Okazaki, Dyer, Schwarzer, Inler.
Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire)
Southampton v Stoke
Stekelenburg, Cedric Soares, van Dijk, Fonte, Bertrand, Clasie, Wanyama, Long, Steven Davis, Tadic, Pelle. Subs: Kelvin Davis, Yoshida, Mane, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Juanmi, Caulker.
Butland, Johnson, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters, Whelan, Adam, Shaqiri, Krkic, Arnautovic, Walters. Subs: Ireland, Wilson, Afellay, Diouf, Cameron, Crouch, Haugaard.
Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire)
Swansea v Bournemouth
Fabianski, Naughton, Bartley, Williams, Taylor, Ki, Britton, Ayew, Shelvey, Routledge, Eder. Subs: Gomis, Montero, Rangel, Sigurdsson, Cork, Tremmel, Fernandez.
Federici, Cook, Francis, Distin, Daniels, Ritchie, Surman, Gosling, Stanislas, Arter, King. Subs: Smith, MacDonald, Kermorgant, Allsop, Murray, O’Kane, Cargill.
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands)
West Brom v Arsenal
Myhill, Dawson, Evans, Olsson, Brunt, Morrison, Fletcher, Yacob, McClean, Sessegnon, Rondon. Subs: Lindegaard; Chester, Gardner, McManaman, Lambert, Anichebe, Berahino
Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Sanchez, Ozil, Gibbs, Giroud. Subs: Ospina, Gabriel, Debuchy, Arteta, Flamini, Reine-Adelaide, Campbell.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Co.Durham)
Preamble
The Reaper walks among us. Well, not us exactly, but the managers of the Premier League, at least. For tis the season when the chairmen and chief executives and the assorted power-holders at our clubs take stock of their situations and wonder if they should throw the chaps in their dugouts into the Big Bin Of Managers, ahead of Christmas and the January transfer window and so forth. Logically it would’ve made sense to look for the Bin before the international break, to give the new chap a couple of weeks to figure out where the tea mugs are kept and select the optimum setting for his office chair . But then again logic and football don’t often always follow.
So we have a couple of managers who might be a little nervous this afternoon. Word seems to be that Chelsea aren’t going to do away with Jose Mourinho any time soon, but you wonder how long their top brass will remain patient with results of they continue as they are, particularly if they lose to Norwich today. Then there’s Steve McClaren at Newcastle, the most curious and often entertaining of clubs where few things stretch one’s willing suspension of disbelief, so getting rid of a manager following a ropey start to the season certainly seems plausible.
And then there’s Garry Monk at Swansea, reportedly on the verge of being shoved into the great pit of the almighty Sarlaac by Swansea. Conventional wisdom is that Swansea are a Sensible Club, run sensibly by a sensible chairman, and thus don’t go in for the sort of knee-jerk fashions of the modern game like sacking the man in the dugout at the first whiff of defeats and misfortune. But they’re ruthless when they need to be, as a quick word with Michael Laudrup will confirm.
So there could be a slightly ghoulish feel to the games today, as several men bite their fingers and wonder if they will be out on their bottoms by the end of the afternoon. Plus there’s loads of other, perhaps a little nicer football to be kept track of too. We shall see. Should be good.
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