And with that, I’m off. But this doesn’t mean that your liveblog-based fun is over! Here’s Barry Glendenning with the latest from Old Trafford. Bye!
Match reports!
The history boys:
20 - Sunderland are the first league team in the history of English football to fail to pick up a win in 20 consecutive home games in all competitions. Suffering. pic.twitter.com/8VuTay2Wv5
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 18, 2017
In League One, 10-man Shrewsbury scored a stoppage-time winner at Rotherham to take full advantage of Wigan’s slip and secure their position at the top of the table for a little while.
Meanwhile, Merthyr Town grabbed a late goal and thus their game at Chesham United in a 13-1 home win. Ed Hewitson, their goalkeeper, was named man of the match.
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Luton started the season with an 8-2 home win against Yeovil, smashed Stevenage 7-1 at Kennilworth Road a month ago, and today have trounced Cambridge 7-0. Incredible goalmanship there.
HYLTON HAS HIS HAT-TRICK!!! IT'S 7-0!!! #COYH pic.twitter.com/RE06H1TIq7
— Luton Town FC (@LutonTown) November 18, 2017
Final scores: Bournemouth 4-0 Huddersfield, Burnley 2-0 Swansea
Lots of goals for home teams and absolutely none for the travellers.
Final score: Crystal Palace 2-2 Everton
Lots of drama but no winners at Selhurst Park.
In League One, Bradford have taken a 2-1 stoppage-time lead at Wigan, who thus won’t go top today.
Final score: Leicester 0-2 Manchester City
Two excellent goals do the job for the leaders, who could have been a man down inside the first couple of minutes. But weren’t.
Final scores: Liverpool 3-0 Southampton; West Brom 0-4 Chelsea
Chelsea are second in the league as I type, though Manchester United could reclaim that place later on.
Pulis is a great organiser and seems an affable chap, but West Brom have been on a path that leads inexorably to this point for a couple of years, probably longer.
"Pulis out" chants have now begun from a section of the home fans who are still in the ground (about 25% have left)
— Paul Doyle (@Paul_Doyle) November 18, 2017
Most matches are entering stoppage time, though some of those have quite a bit of it to play: there’ll be six minutes at Burnley, thanks to that Tammy Abraham injury.
GOAL! Bournemouth 4-0 Huddersfield
That is a harsh scoreline: Huddersfield dominated possession in the first half, and have pretty much owned the ball in the second. They’ve still found time to concede a couple, though: Callum Wilson has now completed his hat-trick, which I believe means he has never scored a top-flight brace – the last time he scored two in one game, against West Ham a couple of years back, he also got a third.
And talking of misses, James McClean has missed a fabulous chance to give West Brom a totally irrelevant but potentially morale-boosting goal against Chelsea.
The good news for Crystal Palace is that Christian Benteke is back, as a second-half substitute against Everton. The bad news is that he’s missed an absolute sitter when he should have put his side back into the lead.
In other injury news, Swansea’s Tammy Abraham has been stretchered off with a back injury.
At Bournemouth, Nathan Ake has required lengthy treatment to a head injury. It looks like he’s going to play on, though.
So Paul Pogba starts for Manchester United, and Zlatan’s on the bench.
Here are the players who will be contesting today’s late kick-off:
Man Utd: de Gea, Valencia, Lindelof, Smalling, Young, Pogba, Matic, Rashford, Mata, Martial, Lukaku. Subs: Rojo, Ibrahimovic, Lingard, Romero, Ander Herrera, Shaw, Fellaini.
Newcastle: Elliot, Yedlin, Clark, Lejeune, Manquillo, Ritchie, Hayden, Shelvey, Murphy, Gayle, Joselu. Subs: Diame, Aarons, Perez, Mbemba, Darlow, Jesus Gamez, Mitrovic.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
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Ben Foster has just pulled off a really excellent one-handed save to stop Chelsea going 5-0 up.
GOAL! Bournemouth 3-0 Huddersfield!
Incredible scenes: Huddersfield, a man up and two goals down, have had 82% of second-half possession without quite managing a goal, and then Bournemouth spring down the other end and increase their lead! Harry Arter gets on the scoresheet.
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Good news for West Brom: Eden Hazard has left the field. Pedro replaces him. I meanwhile have totally failed to keep you abreast of news from Serbia’s big match, which is proving predictably one-sided.
63' GOOLL! 5:1 vodi Zvezda, sjajan prijem Boaćija nakon centaršuta Stojkovića, i vrhunska egzekucija! #fkcz #czvrad
— FK Crvena zvezda (@crvenazvezdafk) November 18, 2017
GOAL! Liverpool 3-0 Southampton!
Firmino shoots, Forster spills – it seemed easier to push it round the post for a corner, but he somehow shovelled it out towards the penalty spot – and Coutinho gobbles up the rebound!
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“Manchester City have now scored their 40th league goal of the season,” notes Meno Toutsidis. “No other team in the EPL is to date close to reaching 30. But does anyone know what is the record for a team reaching 50 league goals in either the EPL or the First Division?” I certainly don’t. Anyone?
GOAL! West Brom 0-4 Chelsea
Eden Hazard is having one of those days. A long ball is booted upfield and he controls it ludicrously well just outside the area, cuts inside the nearest defender, takes his time, pushes the ball out of his feet, and shoots past a hopelessly exposed Foster!
Goalkeepers! Watch and learn: how not to deal with an innocuous cross:
#SAFC equaliser... pic.twitter.com/GVKz8suzni
— Mark Evans (@Evs_Dubai) November 18, 2017
GOAL! Leicester 0-2 Manchester City
Leicester have their first shot of the entire game and nearly score – it all got a bit messy but they hit the post, I think. Then City scream down the other end, Sane tees up De Bruyne, 25 yards out, and he thumps in with his left foot. Just too good. Here’s a glimpse of their first:
Pep ball 😍 pic.twitter.com/yWOBB43rJP
— ManCityPhotos (@ManCityPhotos) November 18, 2017
Needing to transform the game, Tony Pulis has turned to Claudio Yacob. Not the obvious game-changer, really. Everton, meanwhile, have made a double substitution at the break – rare for a team that isn’t even losing – with Davies and Calvert-Lewin on for Lookman and Schneiderlin.
West Brom change at half-time: to the rescue comes .... Claudio Yacob! In fairness. Krychowiak had to be replaced: he contributed next to nothing. And Yacob's Wizard of Oz ruby boots deserve an outing
— Paul Doyle (@Paul_Doyle) November 18, 2017
Peeeeeep! The second halves have begun!
Impressive attacking stat dept. The Salah one has since become more impressive, as his league goal tally is now nine:
12 - Alvaro Morata has had a hand in more goals in his first 11 @premierleague games for @ChelseaFC than any other player for the club (8 goals, 4 assists). Impact. pic.twitter.com/dhhLdOfObv
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 18, 2017
20 - Gabriel Jesus has been directly involved in 20 goals in his 21 @premierleague appearances (15 goals 5 assists). Intervention.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 18, 2017
8 - Mohamed Salah has scored eight goals in his first 12 @premierleague appearances for Liverpool; the joint-most alongside Robbie Fowler (also 8). Finisher. pic.twitter.com/5U9f9c4haj
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 18, 2017
It’s been a hard week for Merthyr Town, who amid a cash-flow crisis have “cut the playing budget significantly” and lost 80% of their senior players. Today they’re fielding a youth team at Chesham United, and they’re losing 9-0 at half-time. Apparently their 15-year-old goalkeeper is having an excellent game.
A bit of a wacky Premier League afternoon: six games, 14 goals, a controversial penalty, a controversial not-red-card, an actual red card – and it’s only half time.
Red card! Bournemouth are down to 10 men!
Hope for Huddersfield, as Simon Francis is shown a second yellow card just before half-time, and he won’t be out for the second period!
GOAL! Crystal Palace 2-2 Everton
Just the most terrible goal to concede. Speroni has it, under little pressure, and then he passes to, I think, Dann, who is under all sorts of pressure, is immediately robbed, and then a simple pass plays in Niasse, whose job is straightforward!
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GOAL! Leicester 0-1 Manchester City
Gabriel Jesus completes a lovely move, and City take the lead!
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This doesn’t sound good. Dover lead 1-0, the wonderfully-named Nortei Nortey with the goal.
Interesting thing just happened. Dover right-back Passley slams into hoardings, hits head but manager Chris Kinnear rushes him back on. Dover physio goes mad at the bench and a minute later he collapses in a heap. Very dangerous. pic.twitter.com/gOYjHZDKNC
— Fred Nathan (@FreddieNathan) November 18, 2017
So there have been at least two goals in every Premier League game except at Leicester, where the nation’s finest attacking side is being held to a goalless draw.
GOAL! Liverpool 2-0 Southampton!
Salah is on the scoresheet again! Coutinho’s through-ball is perfect in both weight and timing, and the Egyptian runs onto it and sends it bobbling over Forster!
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GOAL! Burnley 2-0 Swansea
Swansea have the ball in their own half. They play it right, they play it left, they work it right again, then they give it away for little reason, and Burnley swiftly play it to Barnes, running into the penalty area, and he smashes it inside the near post from 18 yards!
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GOAL! West Brom 0-3 Chelsea!
Chelsea have a free kick just outside the left side of the penalty area. Fabregas chips it to the back post, where Alonso is all alone and volleys in from an acute angle!
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That was a lovely cross as well, drilled low and hard by Ward, zipping diagonally across the penalty area and presenting Zaha with a tap-in at the back post.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 2-1 Everton!
Wilf Zaha converts a low cross and Palace are in the lead once more!
GOAL! Bournemouth 2-0 Huddersfield!
Callum Wilson didn’t have to wait very long for his third league goal of 2017, as Bournemouth make another set-piece count.
Surman's low free-kick is played in and evades all the Huddersfield defenders, Wilson is there to fire past Lossl!#BOUHUD 🍒 2-0 🔵⚪ (30)
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) November 18, 2017
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GOAL! Liverpool 1-0 Southampton
That’s a fine goal, curled into the far corner by Mo Salah with his left foot from 20 yards (though how Southampton so horribly messed up an opportunity to break from a defensive corner I do not know).
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GOAL! Burnley 1-0 Swansea!
Jack Cork has scored against his former club, with the simplest of headers after he ghosted into the penalty area utterly unmarked!
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GOAL! Bournemouth 1-0 Huddersfield
Callum Wilson scores from a corner, his second league goal of 2017 and first since 3 January.
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GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 West Brom
So much for Tony Pulis’s hope for a scrappy 1-0. Morata’s flick releases Hazard, and he goes round Foster before scoring.
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This does not sound good.
Sunderland keeper Robbin Ruiter has just committed 2 massive howlers in 2 minutes. Through his legs for 1-1. Palms identical free kick in for 1-2 Millwall
— Simon Bird (@SimonBird_) November 18, 2017
Now it’s Sunderland 1-2 Millwall. Saville gets another, both his goals coming direct from free kicks.
GOAL! West Brom 0-1 Chelsea!
Alvaro Morata with a 17th-minute strike, tucking in the loose ball after Foster saved Eden Hazard’s low shot.
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Before today Sunderland had led at home for just three minutes all season. Today they scored in the 12th minute through Lewis Grabban, and conceded in the 16th, George Saville equalising for Millwall. Still, that’s their total tally of home leadership more than doubled.
Bad news for Plymouth, for whom Ryan Edwards has been sent of for a professional foul. He conceded a penalty in the process, and Ryan Ledson has converted it to put Oxford 1-0 up.
I’ve just seen that penalty incident, and Oumar Niasse could be on his way to a three-match ban for a ludicrous dive. Baines’s penalty was emphatic, shooting low to his left while the goalkeeper went the other way.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-1 Everton
Leighton Baines equalises for Everton, with six minutes on the clock!
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Now Everton have a penalty!
Less than two minutes on the clock and Vincent Kompany could have been sent off – Vardy spins away from him and is heading towards goal when he’s tripped from behind. The referee brings out a yellow!
Everton had one touch of the ball before they fell behind, and that was Pickford, pushing Loftus-Cheek’s shot straight to McArthur after 48 seconds!
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-0 Everton
Well, that didn’t take long. James McArthur is on the scoresheet already!
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3pm: They’re off!
Kick-off is but a few moments away. Use up those moments by reading about today’s early kick-offs:
Tony Pulis speaks ahead of his side’s game against Chelsea, in which they will seek their first league win for three months:
We need a result. There’s no hiding the fact that this is a results business. I could do with one just going over the line for us and getting a scrappy 1-0. The players have worked really hard, it just hasn’t broke for us. That happens now and then. If I can get out of this run then I’ll be pleased as punch.
Recommended pre-match reading:
Players wearing headphones dept:
Premier League teams!
Premier League teams! Get your Premier League teams here! If you want to know any other teams, you need only ask …
Bournemouth v Huddersfield
Bournemouth: Begovic, Francis, Steve Cook, Ake, Daniels, Ibe, Surman, Arter, Pugh, King, Callum Wilson. Subs: Boruc, Gosling, Afobe, Adam Smith, Lewis Cook, Fraser, Mousset.
Huddersfield: Lossl, Hadergjonaj, Jorgensen, Cranie, Malone, van La Parra, Mooy, Williams, Ince, Kachunga, Depoitre. Subs: Smith, Whitehead, Sabiri, Coleman, Lowe, Quaner, Mounie.
Referee: Lee Probert.
Burnley v Swansea
Burnley: Pope, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Ward, Gudmundsson, Defour, Cork, Brady, Hendrick, Barnes. Subs: Taylor, Vokes, Westwood, Wells, Lindegaard, Long, Arfield.
Swansea: Fabianski, Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson, Fer, Sanches, Clucas, Dyer, Abraham, Ayew. Subs: Bony, Ki, van der Hoorn, Narsingh, Nordfeldt, Carroll, Routledge.
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
Crystal Palace v Everton
Crystal Palace: Speroni, Ward, Dann, Sakho, Schlupp, Loftus-Cheek, Cabaye, Milivojevic, McArthur, Townsend, Zaha. Subs: Tomkins, Hennessey, Benteke, Souare, Fosu-Mensah, Sako, Puncheon.
Everton: Pickford, Kenny, Keane, Jagielka, Baines, Schneiderlin, Gueye, Lennon, Sigurdsson, Lookman, Niasse. Subs: Williams, Sandro, Rooney, Martina, Davies, Calvert-Lewin, Robles.
Referee: Anthony Taylor.
Leicester v Manchester City
Leicester: Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Maguire, Fuchs, Mahrez, Iborra, Ndidi, Albrighton, Gray, Vardy. Subs: Chilwell, Iheanacho, King, Hamer, Dragovic, Slimani, Okazaki.
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Kompany, Delph, De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Silva, Sterling, Gabriel Jesus, Sane. Subs: Bravo, Danilo, Gundogan, Aguero, Mangala, Bernardo Silva, Toure.
Referee: Graham Scott.
Liverpool v Southampton
Liverpool: Mignolet, Alexander-Arnold, Klavan, Lovren, Moreno, Coutinho, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino, Mane. Subs: Karius, Milner, Gomez, Sturridge, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Can, Solanke.
Southampton: Forster, Cedric, Hoedt, van Dijk, Bertrand, Davis, Romeu, Tadic, Boufal, Redmond, Long. Subs: Yoshida, Austin, McCarthy, Ward-Prowse, Gabbiadini, Hojbjerg, Targett.
Referee: Mike Jones.
West Bromwich Albion v Chelsea
West Brom: Foster, McAuley, Hegazi, Evans, Phillips, Krychowiak, Barry, Livermore, Gibbs, Rondon, Rodriguez. Subs: Nyom, Robson-Kanu, Yacob, Brunt, Myhill, McClean, Burke.
Chelsea: Courtois, Christensen, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Kante, Zappacosta, Fabregas, Bakayoko, Alonso, Morata, Hazard. Subs: Caballero, Rudiger, Drinkwater, Pedro, Willian, Luiz, Ampadu.
Referee: Jon Moss.
Hello world!
Six top-flight matches top our 3pm menu, including the visit of our noble leaders, Manchester City, to Leicester, where they lost 4-2 in a memorable encounter last December. Chelsea beat West Brom 1-0 home and away last season, thanks to goals in the last quarter-hour from Diego Costa and Michy Batshuayi respectively, and have another go this afternoon, while Liverpool and Southampton met four times last season, with only two goals (both the Saints’) scored in those matches combined and both league encounters finishing goalless. No wonder in those circumstances that Jurgen Klopp ended the season thinking a Southampton defender might come in handy.
Premier League
Bournemouth v Huddersfield
Burnley v Swansea
Crystal Palace v Everton
Leicester v Man City
Liverpool v Southampton
Man Utd v Newcastle (5.30)
West Brom v Chelsea
Sky Bet Championship
QPR have only lost one home game all season, and in their last two home fixtures beat Wolves and Sheffield United, which makes Aston Villa’s task this afternoon look troublesome. Wolves will go top if they win at Reading, while both Cardiff and Bristol City need to win just to vaguely keep up with the top two. Sunderland meanwhile will climb off the foot of the table if they beat Millwall at home.
Birmingham v Nottm Forest
Cardiff v Brentford
Fulham v Derby (5.30)
Hull v Ipswich
Norwich v Barnsley
QPR v Aston Villa
Reading v Wolverhampton
Sheff Wed v Bristol City
Sunderland v Millwall
Sky Bet League One
Shrewsbury lost to Peterborough last time out, their first league defeat of the season, and could slip off the top of the table if they fail to see of Rotherham, though Wigan will have to get at least a point from their home game with Bradford if that’s to happen. Plymouth have won two and lost none of their last five games – compared with eight defeats and no wins in their previous 10 – to haul themselves off the foot of the table, and today are at home to Oxford. Northampton and Scunthorpe meet for the third time this month – the last two encounters coming in the FA Cup – with only one goal scored in their last two matches.
Bristol Rovers v AFC Wimbledon
Bury v Blackburn
Charlton v Milton Keynes Dons
Fleetwood Town v Doncaster
Northampton v Scunthorpe
Oldham v Rochdale
Peterborough v Blackpool
Plymouth v Oxford Utd
Portsmouth v Southend
Rotherham v Shrewsbury
Walsall v Gillingham
Wigan v Bradford
Sky Bet League Two
It remains tight at the top, with Notts County, Accrington Stanley, Exeter and Luton all capable of topping the table by 5pm. They will all be feeling confident, with none of them facing a team higher than Newport’s ninth and Exeter visiting rock-bottom Chesterfield. Lincoln and Coventry, two of three teams currently tied on 27 points on the edge of the play-off places, meet at Sincil Bank. Mark McGhee, newly-appointed manager of second-bottom Barnet, gets his tenure under way at Port Vale.
Accrington Stanley v Newport County
Chesterfield v Exeter
Colchester v Morecambe
Forest Green v Crewe
Grimsby v Carlisle
Lincoln City v Coventry
Luton v Cambridge Utd
Mansfield v Stevenage
Notts County v Cheltenham
Port Vale v Barnet
Wycombe v Crawley Town
Yeovil v Swindon
Around the world
There are plenty of matches kicking off at 3pm GMT, but none of them look particularly important – the best I can find involves the Serbian league leaders, Crvena Zvezda, who host struggling Rad.
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