So that’s your lot from this piping hot clockwatch, which has seen possibly the last day of Dick Advocaat’s managerial career, and potentially a killer blow to Tim Sherwood’s current job. Now head over to Scott Murray’s minute-by-minute of Chelsea v Southampton. John Terry is back, back, back kids. Thank you, and goodnight.
Two late goals in the Championship - MK Dons have snatched a 1-1 draw against Bristol City through Dan Powell, while Jay Emmanuel-Thomas scored in the 94th minute to claim a 4-3 victory over Bolton. Lordy.
Full-time: Sunderland 2-2 West Ham
Dick Advocaat and Slaven Bilic embrace after the game, and it could be the last time the former does that. After a game, not embrace someone. He’s not an emotionless robot.
Full-time: Norwich 1-2 Leicester
Leicester get back to winning ways.
Full-time: Manchester City 6-1 Newcastle
The very definition of hope crushed.
Full-time: Sevilla 2-1 Barcelona
Another defeat for Barca. Oh dear.
Full-time: Aston Villa 0-1 Stoke
Villa and Tim are in the doo-doo.
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Full-time: Bournemouth 1-1 Watford
All-square between the Championship’s top two from last season.
Erm, not much is happening. It’s like the entire Premier League has collectively decided to play out the last few minutes like some sort of Anschluss match.
Couple of goals in the Championship, though - Nick Blackman has slotted in a penalty for Reading to seal a 2-0 win and the points against Boro, while Wellington has levelled things for Bolton in what sounds like a 3-3 thriller at QPR.
Penalty to Bournemouth, although the Watford players aren’t convinced, to say the least. A bit of a theme in this fixture, after last season, and Glenn Murray steps up...BUT IT’S SAVED BY GOMES!
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Tough call, this one...
Time to vote for your #mcfc Man of the Match! Tweet #motm+player surname now (e.g. #motmgoater). Winner revealed at full time.
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) October 3, 2015
Tim Sherwood is trying to change things at Villa Park - Carles Gil is on in place of Ashley Westwood.
Barcelona have pulled one back against Sevilla - Neymar with the goal to make it 2-1 in Andalusia.
Ball in the net at Carrow Road - Leicester thought they had scored through Leonardo Ulloa, recently introduced as a sub, but the referee spots a push and his extensive celebrations are curtailed.
Fairly quiet second half in the in the Championship so far, but QPR have completed their comeback against Bolton, with a belter from Tjaronn Chery making it 3-2 to the Hoops.
GOAL! Norwich 1-2 Leicester
Game on at Carrow Road, as Norwich pull on back through Dieumerci Mbokani. That’s his first goal for the club since signing on loan from Dynamo Kiev.
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Lolz at City, where Aguero is taken off - no double hat-trick? Spoilsport, Manuel - and the Newcastle fans celebrate as if they’ve scored a goal.
Scotch update from Simon McMahon: “The Bowman-Dillon era at Dundee United will no doubt prove to be a short lived one, as United trail 2-0 at bottom club Partick Thistle. In contrast St. Johnstone, with a fraction of United’s budget and average crowds about half that of the Tannadice club, lead top of the table Aberdeen 5-1 at Pittodrie. Jesus wept.”
GOAL! Manchester City 6-1 Newcastle
Ah. Yes. Well. Five for Aguero, turning the ball home after De Bruyne crosses along the edge of the six-yard box. Five goals for City inside 13 minutes - Lewandowskian.
GOAL! Sunderland 2-2 West Ham
The Hammers don’t take long to make their man advantage count. Lanzini fires in a shot that swerved and dipped a bit but Costel Pantilimon should have done more than just patting it out back into the middle of the area, where Payet gobbles up the rebound.
GOAL! Manchester City 5-1 Newcastle
Remember that time Newcastle were quite good in the first-half at Manchester City? Yeah, not so much now. Aguero again, he’s basically allow to shift space for himself outside the box, open his body and curl it into the corner for his fourth of the afternoon.
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RED CARD! Lens (Sunderland)
Game on now at the Stadium of Light, as Jermain Lens tries a scissor challenge on Winston Reid that doesn’t go down well with the referee, so much so that he gives him a second yellow card and sends him on his way.
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Over in Spain, it’s been an eventful old time in Sevilla, who are now 2-0 up over Barcelona, with two quick goals from Krohn Delhi and Iborra. Another defeat ahoy for Luis Enrique’s men?
GOAL! Manchester City 4-1 Newcastle
That’s three goals in five minutes for City, as Kevin de Bruyne hits a looping volley - could be deliberately guided, could be a slight miskick - over Krul and into the far corner. What on earth has happened to Newcastle after the break?
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GOAL! Aston Villa 0-1 Stoke City
It’s been coming, but Stoke are ahead, a neat ball from Johnson into Arnautovic in space on the edge of the area resulting in the Stoke forward controlling, spinning and turning it home.
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GOAL! Manchester 3-1 Newcastle - Aguero hat-trick!
But there’s no luck about this one. Simple as you like, Aguero slipped through on goal, he draws Krul then delicately clips the ball over the advancing Dutchman. That would seem to be that in this game, and City will go top of the table, at least until tomorrow.
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GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 Newcastle
Oy vey, those missed Newcastle chances are really biting now. Sergio Aguero gets the ball on the edge of the box, shifts himself into some space and hits a slightly unconvincing shot that takes a deflection and goes past the fooled Krul.
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GOAL! Norwich 0-2 Leicester
And there’s the first Premier League goal of the second-half. Jeffrey Schlupp belts the ball home from just inside the area on the left, and their run looks like it’s going to continue, despite that beating at the hands of Arsenal last week.
We’re away again. By which I mean games are starting up for the second half. No goals of note yet. Apart from in the Scottish Premiership, where St Johnstone have just gone 4-1 up at Aberdeen. Ye gads.
And in the Championship...
Premier League half-time scores
A few goals in the Championship - Tom Ince has doubled Derby’s lead over Brentford, Abel Hernandez has put Hull 1-0 up over Forest, Leroy Fer has levelled things at 2-2 for QPR against Bolton while Sheffield Wednesday are 1-0 up against Preston, thanks to Kieran Lee.
GOAL! Sunderland 2-1 West Ham
And the Hammers have pulled one back. Victor Moses jinks hither and thither on the left, gets to the byline and drives a slightly unconvincing cross into the middle, where Carl Jenkinson arrives from deep to force it home. Will that put the willies up Sunderland, who to this point have been excellent?
GOAL! Bournemouth 1-1 Watford
Oh lord, the holy goalie has dropped one here, as Artur Boruc presents Odion Ighalo with the easiest of tasks to level things up on the south coast.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Newcastle
Ah, those missed chances coming back to bite Newcastle now. City are level, after a cross from the right is nodded back into the middle, the offside flag stays down and Sergio Aguero heads in from close range.
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In the Championship, Brighton have levelled things at home to Cardiff - Dale Stephens scores to make it 1-1 there.
What a chance for Sunderland! Fabio Borini is clean through on goal after some lovely slick passing - from Sunderland! What’s going on? - but he slides the shot just wide of the near post. Should’ve scored and basically wrapped up the game before half-time.
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Potentially nasty incident at the Etihad - Zabaleta and Vernon Anita go in hard on each other, both with studs raised, but the City man went down hurt so Anita gets a booking. A slightly weird situation, there.
Stoke have the ball in the net at Villa Park, but it’s offside. Arnautovic is the man who turns it home after a one-two with Mr Bojan ‘Goals’ Krkic, but the linesman spots a slight offside.
Demarai Gray has put Birmingham 1-0 up over Leeds at Elland Road, while at the City Ground Hull have missed a penalty, Forest keeper Dorus De Vries saving Abel Hernandez’s effort from 12 yards.
Good lord Newcastle should be at least 2-0 up over City, if not more. Mitrovic misses two good chances, the first a header that goes just over the bar, the second what should’ve been a simple clip home from a Janmaat cross, but Joe Hart saved it with his feet. Yet again, colossal holes in the City defence.
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GOAL! Bournemouth 1-0 Watford
We haven’t heard much from Dean Court, or whatever the hell that ground is called these days. Glenn Murray is filling Callum Wilson’s boots with aplomb, converting a ball into the box from Matt Ritchie.
GOAL! Norwich 0-1 Leicester
And Jamie Vardy’s piping hot streak continues, as he converts a penalty won after Sebastian Bassong tripped him up.
Newcastle have the ball in the net again in Manchester, but this time the lino’s flag goes up. Mitrovic again was the man in an astonishing amount of space, but he was offside from Janmaat’s cross.
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GOAL! Sunderland 2-0 West Ham
Scenes! What’s going on at the Stadium of Light? Sunderland are winning, that’s what’s going on. Absolutely delicious strike from Jermain Lens, who finds himself in some space following some horrible defending on the edge of the West Ham box, he spots Adrian off his line and offers a sort of chip scoop thing that loops over the keeper and, for extra points, hits the bar before bouncing over the line. Lovely stuff. Decision time for Dick Advocaat.
Derby seem to be clicking into some form - they’re in the lead over Brentford, in Lee Carsley’s first game as Bees boss, with Chris Martin making it 1-0.
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GOAL! Manchester City 0-1 Newcastle
Well well well well well well well. Newcastle, the shambles club who seemingly couldn’t find their arse with both hands at the start of the season, are ahead at the Etihad. Aleksandar Mitrovic is the man with the goal, his first for the club, finding himself completely unmarked on the edge of the six-yard box after a little cross from Wijnaldum with the outside of his right foot. Nice cross, neat header, rotten defending.
Ben Lake has a theory on the Sunderland/Newcastle/shambles debate:
“With regard to the unfair characterisation of Newcastle as the most loony of the North East clubs, I have my own little theory.
“While it is most ceartainly true that Newcastle have had a lot of highs in recent memory and a much higher fall from grace, Sunderland of the last few years of lurched from glory to complete nonsense with no discernable pattern. Remember all those great escapes? Every year for what, the last three years? Remember who ended Chelsea’s winning streak at Stamford bridge? Remember when Manchester City couldn’t stop losing to Sunderland?
“We remember all these moments and forget for the majority of the time, Sunderland are awful. Really really dreadful. The football hivemind has a tendency to gloss over the details and remember instead, the overiding emotions. This is how Sunderland, are not completely appreciated in their insanity.
“That plus, the problem with Newcastle is obvious, it’s owner. The issues with Sunderland, much harder to pin down.”
Another for Bolton at Loftus Road - Liam Feeney has scored another after just 11 min...oh, no, wait, QPR have pulled one back, through Jay Emmanuel Thomas - it’s QPR 1-2 Bolton. Meanwhile, Jordan Rhodes has put Blackburn 1-0 up over Ipswich from the penalty spot.
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GOAL! Sunderland 1-0 West Ham
And the strugglers take the lead at the Stadium of Light. It’s a nicely-worked free-kick in the corner, cut back by Yann M’Vila into the middle, where Steven Fletcher lashes it home past an unsighted Adrian in nets.
Few goals in the Championship. Gary Madine has made it QPR 0-1 Bolton at Loftus Road, Cardiff are 1-0 up over Brighton and Jonathan Kodjia has put Bristol City ahead against MK Dons.
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Proper goalmouth scramble in City v Newcastle. Kevin de Bruyne takes a free-kick that is saved at the near-post by Tim Krul, David Silva clips the rebound back into the middle where Fernando is lurking, but he’s not exactly a dead-eyed goal poacher, and he can’t turn the ball home.
Chance for Stoke at Villa, as they slice through the home defence like a blade through warm brie, but Micah Richards does well to deny Mame Biram Diouf.
First big goal of the day, and Reading have taken the lead over Middlesbrough, Danny Williams scoring to make it 1-0 there.
It is all, quite literally, kicking off. It being a series of football matches, of course.
“The goings-on at Sunderland got me thinking,” muses Shaun Wilkinson, “they have had six managers in four years, now seemingly another Sporting Director on his way after the De Fanti shambles, one shocking team after another that somehow stays up despite itself, obscene amounts of wages paid for below-standard players...and yet Newcastle are always referred to as the ‘basketcase’ club. Why do you think it is that Sunderland’s own shambolic way of going about their business flies a lot further under the radar than that of their neighbours? Are they just better at media-relations?”
They’re just a slightly lower-profile club, and presumably people generally associate them with struggling, whereas people remember Keegan and so forth at Newcastle and think more of them. That’s one theory, anyway. Any other ideas?
Scottish update from Simon McMahon, here: “Afternoon Nick. Huge game in Scotland at Firhill as Dundee United, having sacked the beleaguered Jackie McNamara after just one win from their first nine league games, embark on a new era with Dave Bowman and Sean Dillon in temporary charge. United should certainly be fired up for the visit to Glasgow to play Partick Thistle, the only team below them in the league, with both sides desperate for points. So, a draw it is then. Elsewhere in the SPFL there’s a Highland derby between Ross County and Inverness, and a couple of tasty looking games in the Scottish Championship as Hibs travel to Dumfries to face Queen of the South, and Falkirk take on the leaders at Ibrox.”
And he hasn’t aged a day...
On this day in 1981, @BryanRobson put pen to paper and joined #mufc - on the Old Trafford pitch! pic.twitter.com/QY56A4tcYa
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 3, 2015
And that’s all over at Palace. They’ve won 2-0, thanks to that Bolasie header and a dubiously-awarded penalty converted by Yohan Cabaye. Here’s how it all happened.
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One thing worth noting about today is the countrywide protests against ticket pricing, organised by the Football Supporters’ Federation. Twenty’s Plenty is the self-explanatory slogan, directed at clubs and their pricing of away tickets.
@The_FSF #TwentysPlenty at Villa Park pic.twitter.com/HYN9c6UuVu
— Charlie Cox (@charlcox6) October 3, 2015
Our own Owen Gibson has written a piece on the protest, read that one here:
The last knockings of Crystal Palace v West Brom over here, with your old pal Scotty Murray. It’s currently 1-0 to Alan Pardew’s boys, thanks to a Yannick Bolasie header.
So from that team news, the interesting points are that Pablo Zabaleta gets his first start of the season for Manchester City, while Wilfried Bony is back on the bench after his injury. Jack Grealish isn’t in a rather eccentric looking Aston Villa starting XI v Stoke, not entirely sure why there. Curious one for Leicester as Riyad Mahrez is left on the bench, the Italian possibly trying to tighten them up for an away game. Any other points of note? Your thoughts to Nick.Miller@theGuardian.com.
Team news
Aston Villa v Stoke City
Guzan, Hutton, Richards, Lescott, Amavi, Crespo, Westwood, Gueye, Veretout, Gestede, Sinclair. Subs: Bacuna, Richardson, Ayew, Sanchez, Gil, Bunn, Grealish.
Butland, Johnson, Cameron, Wollscheid, Pieters, Adam, Whelan, Walters, Krkic, Arnautovic, Diouf. Subs: Muniesa, Ireland, Joselu, Afellay, van Ginkel, Given, Crouch.
Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire)
Bournemouth v Watford
Boruc, Francis, Cook, Distin, Daniels, Ritchie, Gosling, Surman, Pugh, King, Murray. Subs: Smith, Kermorgant, Federici, Tomlin, O’Kane, Bennett, Cargill.
Gomes, Nyom, Prodl, Cathcart, Ake, Abdi, Watson, Capoue, Anya, Ighalo, Deeney. Subs: Britos, Paredes, Guedioura, Ibarbo, Diamanti, Dyer, Arlauskis.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland)
Manchester City v Newcastle United
Hart, Zabaleta, Otamendi, Mangala, Kolarov, Fernando, Fernandinho, Silva, Sterling, De Bruyne, Aguero. Subs: Caballero, Demichelis, Sagna, M.Garcia, Navas, Bony, Iheanacho
Krul; Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Mbabu; Sissoko, Anita, Gouffran, Wijnaldum; Perez, Mitrović. Subs: Elliot, Lascelles, Williamson, Tiote, Thauvin, de Jong, Cissé.
Referee: Kevin Friend (Leicestershire)
Norwich City v Leicester City
Ruddy, Whittaker, Martin, Bassong, Brady, Jarvis, Tettey, Dorrans, Howson, Hoolahan, Jerome. Subs: Mbokani, Rudd, Lafferty, Redmond, Olsson, Ryan Bennett, O’Neil.
Schmeichel, Simpson, Huth, Morgan, Schlupp, Albrighton, Kante, Drinkwater, Fuchs, Okazaki, Vardy. Subs: De Laet, King, Ulloa, Mahrez, Benalouane, Schwarzer, Inler.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear)
Sunderland v West Ham United
Pantilimon, Jones, Yedlin, O’Shea, Coates, Cattermole, M’Vila, Toivonen, Lens, Borini, Fletcher. Subs: Mannone, Van Aanholt, Brown, Larsson, Rodwell, Gomez, Defoe.
Adrian, Jenkinson, Reid, Tomkins, Cresswell, Noble, Kouyate, Moses, Payet, Lanzini, Sakho. Subs: Randolph, Zarate, Obiang, Collins, Jelavic, Antonio, Oxford
Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire)
Preamble
We’ll level with you. Most of the choice cuts in the Premier League have been snaffled by the telly, like an eager tourist at an all-inclusive buffet gathering the best bits from the cold meat platter before anyone else can get in there. So there are five games kicking off at 3pm today, but the best ones are elsewhere. Honesty is usually the best policy with these things. You’re intelligent people, and there’s no point in lying to you.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun, right? Because there still is plenty of interest this afternoon. Take Sunderland, for example. Not only are they really, really bad, losing games and whatnot all over the shop, but this could be the last hoorah of Dick Advocaat, who has apparently decided that enough is enough and he’ll do one from the managerial black hole that is the Stadium of Light, even before those lovely flowers the fans sent his wife have perished. And added to that, sporting director Lee Congleton will also reportedly be sitting around in his grundies having decided that enough is enough too. So it’s a mess, a shambles, a chaotic disaster, but before everyone hands in their cards there’s the matter of a game against West Ham to cope with, the Hammers strutting into town with wins at Anfield, the Emirates and the Etihad under their belts. Will Sunderland send Dick on his way with a lovely win, or with the more predictable result of a big fat defeat?
Then there’s Manchester City, a victim of West Ham’s curiously fine travelling form. They just about got away with it in Europe, but go into their clash with Newcastle on the back of two league defeats. Of course Newcastle aren’t too clever either, despite drawing with Chelsea. Manuel Pellegrini was a little prickly when talking to the press this week, and he’ll be without Vinny Kompany despite an impending call-up to the Belgium squad that everyone in Manchester could probably do without, and Yaya Toure won’t be around due to his own brand of knack.
Bournemouth v Watford could have a little zippedy do-dah to it as well, the best two teams in the Championship last season who are developing a pretty decent rivalry due to some refereeing/diving/cheating stuff in the games between the two. The big question there is how the Cherries will cope without Callum Wilson, a subject covered at more length by Simon Burnton in our Ten Things To Look Out For This Premier League Weekend:
5) How will Bournemouth cope without Wilson?
As they battle to establish themselves in the Premier League there is something particularly meaningful about matches between recent promotees. Bournemouth have already played, and lost, one of them, going down 3-1 at Norwich last month, and now face a Watford side that has lost just one of their last 12 away league games, and that at Manchester City. Both sides have shown the potential to keep their places in the top flight, though the way they are going about it could hardly be more different: Watford’s last six matches combined have featured precisely as many goals as Bournemouth’s rip-roaring 4-3 win at West Ham. Only one of the two, though, appears to be battling fate. After losing £15m of summer signings in Tyrone Mings and Max Gradel, Bournemouth’s top scorer Callum Wilson this week became their third victim of long-term anterior cruciate ligament injuries this season. Whether Eddie Howe can somehow convince his players to see this as a challenge rather than a curse remains to be seen, but it will certainly make their lives harder against opponents whose defensive record is bettered only by Manchester United and Tottenham. Watford, by contrast, are almost cruelly injury-free so far this season, and haven’t been given any reason to consider the world slanted against them since they last visited the Vitality Stadium in January, when their centre-back Gabriele Angella was wrongly sent off (the red card was later rescinded) after just 28 seconds and they lost 2-0, the only defeat in their last six league meetings with the Cherries.
The freshly English Jack Grealish will be on duty for Aston Villa against Stoke, with the Potters hoping that their victory over Bournemouth last weekend will spark something in their season, that being their first win of the campaign. Actually, this might be something of a fumbling mess of a game, given that Villa themselves haven’t won since the opening day, with Tim Sherwood’s eyes sinking deeper into his face by the day, surrounded by dark bags and a haunted air. “I’m always under pressure – that’s part and parcel of the job. I take the brunt of it, but that’s why I’m sitting here. I’m okay. I’m calm,” Sherwood said this week. “I’d rather do without it. It’s not only the fans in the ground, it’s a tougher job now with all the social media and the faceless people who have an opinion.”
And finally we have Norwich v Leicester, a game in which we shall see if the high flying Foxes will maintain that altitude, where they have been implausibly cruising since the spring. Will the Jamie Vardy bubble burst? Will Claudio Ranieri crack one joke too many? Will Riyad Mahrez ever pass to a teammate? The answer lies within, friends.
Plus there’s a chocca programme of white hot Football League action, with Reading v Middlesbrough the pick of the games in the Championship, plus if I remember there will be news of any goals from Sevilla v Barcelona over in Spain, and if anything interesting happens in the other European games, you’ll know about that too.
So forget the fancy, high-profile, la-di-dah telly games and instead enjoy the earthier fare on offer today. It’s going to be wonderful.
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