So there we go. Thanks all for your company and comments – sorry I couldn’t use them all – and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Ta-ra.
And here’s our match report.
Sad news: Kevin McCarra has died. Here’s our tribute to a football-writing pioneer.
Back to the red, here’s Gary Naylor: “I’m an Everton fan and it’s textbook. “Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.”
I’m not sure we can call it a lunge; it looked to me like he trod on him in the course of running in the usual manner.
Elsewhere, Newcastle seem to have picked six wingers for their trip to Wolves. I’m buzzing to see how they make that boring.
“How many times does Digne try to bring someone down without trying to play the ball before it becomes deliberate?” asks Stephen Henderson.
Yes, a fair question. But the first attempt is a booking, so maybe two yellows and a one-match ban is the correct outcome here.
Fun and games from elsewhere...
OK, we’ve just see it again, and I’m actually leaning towards the two Robbies in terms of intent – he probably didn’t do it on purpose – but the law doesn’t require it to be. If it’s strict liability, then it’s a red I guess, but it shouldn’t be.
“Robbie is on NBC giving the ‘his hands were in the air’ defence, it’s a yellow card. Rubbish. I am a Everton fan but you are responsible for your studs.”
Hands in the air is as close as football gets to a smoking gun. I guess we’ll see it again in a minute.
Ward-Prowse says his team didn’t like the idea of a team coming to play them unbeaten, and said that if they can get to the ball first, they’re well organised and have the firepower to score goals. He’s also pleased with his goal – and knows he needs to score more, as the manager is demanding of him – but thinks they should’ve won by more.
“Sashes - hope I’m not too late,” says James Bolle. “I’m biased but it’s not been bettered.”
Imagine telling Malcolm Shotton he had to go to work in that!
“Digne red,” says Arran Ridley. “Digne means worthy in French.”
Affaire classée, Lieutenant Columbo.
Big picture: Southampton vault up to fifth, three points off the lead; Everton stay top.
“Fitting, perhaps, that Everton are decked out in seafoam as they wave goodbye to their unbeaten run,” emails Grant Tennille.
Also, since when was foam green?
Full-time: Southampton 2-0 Everton
Southampton were excellent, Everton abject.
90+5 min “Six points separate the top fifteen teams,” says Bill Hargreaves, “some of which have a game in hand. The bottom five have had it, in terms of title aspirations. Probably.”
It’s great, isn’t it? Before the season, I’d have backed Man City, but having watched them a few times I’m beginning to wonder if this side is finished, and whether Guardiola has the ability or desire to rebuild. So I’d back Liverpool.
90+4 min Alan Smith gives Redmond the man of the match award, which is fair enough, but I’d probably have gone for Ings.
90+2 min Calvert-Lewin leaves a boot in on Vestergaard and is booked. He’s had better days.
90+1 min “Not quite a sash,” says Justin Kavanagh, “but let’s mention the finest Manchester United second strip of all, this three-striped wonder from the 1977 Charity Shield. That game was shown last night on Irish TV and, fool that I am, I watched it through, not remembering that it was a 0-0 draw. Better than their 0-0 draw earlier in the day, mind. There’s a full lockdown in Ireland, in my defence.”
Oh my days, that is inspired scheduling!
90 min There’ll be five additional minutes.
90 min “I watched the replay five times,” returns Mike MacKenzie. “It was a deserved red as Digne’s studs raked Water-Peters achilles area (and it was of course from behind). NBC commentators are useless.”
That was certainly my reading of it.
89 min Another change for Southamton, Dan N’Lundulu making his Premier League debut by replacing Che Adams.
87 min “I’d certainly agree that the Saints have been good overall last season and this one so far,” says Mike MacKenzie. “But I think it shows the main problem with the PL which is unequal distribution of revenue among teams. A team like Southampton (or Wolves in recent years) can become quite decent but it reaches a plateau. Getting better means buying more expensive players which they can’t afford and then the rich teams come calling for their top players. Better revenue sharing is essential to make the league competitive in the long run.”
Yes, I agree with all of that, bar the use of Wolves as an example. It’s tricky, as I don’t believe in making players play anywhere they dom’t want to because their labour belongs to them. The single aspect that’d make the most difference, though, probably isn’t even a financial one, but just reducing the number of subs allowed.
86 min Southampton replace Armstrong, who’s put in a monstrous shift considering, with Diallo. Why we need a stadium announcer to tell us this, I’m not entirely certain.
85 min In fairness to Everton, assuming they lose this, they’ll still be top of the league at full-time.
84 min Lovely from Romeu, lifting insouciantly over the Everton defence, Schuster-style, for the scurrying Ward-Prowse, but he can’t quite catch up with it.
83 min This has been an absolutely comprehensive doing.
81 min “NBC commentator insists Digne red not called for,” tweets Ron Stack, “says a ‘more football-trained eye’ would see it differently.”
I don’t know – I’d need to see it again, because doing MBMs, you spend as much time watching fingers and console as the actual game, but it looked bang to rights on first half-glance. I’m not sure who gave that opinion, but I’ve been watching football for 38 years; how many are necessary to be deemed “football-trained”? I daresay the officials have a few years in them too.
80 min Everton finally get Calvert-Lewin on the ball in the box, but he’s double-teamed ad easily unloaded.
78 min Southampton fancy more here and win a corner down the right which Betrand swings in towards the far post, where Vestergaard, 9”4 tall, has somehow got himself in a battle with Gordon, 3”5 tall. But he can only head over the bar.
77 min “Sashed kits,” emails Ed Thorpe. “Can we have a shout-out for this lovely effort from Dulwich Hamlet Women, which is so nice the men sometimes borrow it as a third kit?”
A bit Party Rings, but very smart nevertheless.
76 min Calvert-Lewin has barely had a kick, and tearing down the left, he’s easily thwarted by Bednarek.
75 min Digne will miss the away games with Newcastle and Fulham, which sandwich the home game with Manchester United. With Richarlison also absent for the first two of those and Coleman out injured, they’ve got a problem.
73 min Digne insists he didn’t mean it and hoofs something on his way down the tunnel; if only there was some course of dealing to give us an insight into his intention.
72 min RED CARD! Lucas Digne is sent off!
Dearie me, what a misplacing of noggin that is! Walker-Peters runs away from Digne, who has a hack, misses, raises arms which makes all the difference, then administers a stamp to the achilles. See you in three games mate; absolute later.
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71 min “It would be helpful for the neutral if Southampton could decide if they’re going to be woeful or decent,” says Stephen Carr, “as I’m struggling to keep up.”
They’ve been good for quite sometime, I’d say, and they’ve been very good tonight.
70 min Bern “bites yer legs” Ard accidentally clatters Walker-Peters, who comes through on his blind side. He’s down briefly, but we’re quickly on with the game.
69 min Everton are pressing now, but still struggling to create. A clincher looks more likely than a livener.
67 min This is it.
65 min I’ve just discovered the Clive Allen played for seven London clubs, if we count his not playing for Arsenal. Can anyone beat that? I also recall the absolutely lush kit he wore for Bordeaux, complete with long shorts. This isn’t quite it, but is also nice.
64 min In a game almost entirely devoid of reducers, it takes the smallest man on the pitch to administer one, Bernard clattering Romeu. He’s booked, and would be well advised to watch his step from here on in.
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63 min Looking again, Ings might’ve been marginally ahead of play. He must’ve left it for the man coming in.
62 min What?! Redmond collects a loose ball after useful foraging by Adams, slipping outside him to Armstrong; his cross is a doozy, but somehow Ings manages to avoid tapping it home! Not a clue.
61 min I saw Gordon play for Everton in the League Cup game against Salford. He looked a serious talent, and my guess is he’ll play in behind Calvert-Lewin.
59 min “No discussion on sash kits would be complete without mentioning Crystal Palace. Here’s a mid-80s beauty.”
The one I found was earlier than that, but it’s the same idea. I assume the photo was taken after Allen signed for Palace from Arsenal, who he’d joined for £1.25m only to leave without playing a game, in a swap deal for Kenny Sansom.
58 min Ancelotti goes again, bringing on the extremely exciting Anthony Gordon for Doucoure, and also sending on Delph for Sigurdsson.
57 min Digne crosses and Walker-Peters has both hands above his head, giving Everton a free-kick just outside the box, left-hand side. Sigurdsson decides to swing it out, but can’t avoid the first man.
56 min Whatever Ancelotti said at half-time, it hasn’t worked. Problem being, he’s not replete with options that might solve it. Two strikers would at least change things though.
54 min But look at this work of art from Southampton, as referenced earlier.
52 min Godfrey chases Bertrnad into the box and Bertrand falls, but there’s not enough contact for either ref or VAR to award a penalty.
51 min “I HATE it when team turn out in totally unnecessary alternative strips,” emails Simon Gill. “Example 1: Everton today. Seafoam green and charcoal indeed. What would the likes of Shanks or Cloughie have had to say about that? Example 2: Wolves at Leeds the other day. The old gold and black is iconic; turning out in something like the castoffs from a Portugal training strip is not. Even if that is meant to be somehow referential, it still sucks.”
Tangentially, I used to like my team playing away to Southampton because we got to see the blue third kit RIP, of which I’m struggling to find a snap.
50 min On which point, Ralph Hasenhuttl very clearly knows some things. If I was a rich club contemplating a change of manager, he’d be near the top of my list, with Marco Rose and Julian Nagelsmann.
49 min So far, the second half looks a lot like the first. This match-is not suiting Everton.
47 min “I’m not against sashes on kits,” says Chris Fowler, “and I like Rayo Vallecano’s model. But, although I know that in the early days Saints kit had a sash, I always prefer their kit, at least, to be red and white stripes. Like the good old days (the 1970s, when I first went to the Dell, for example), when the same strip was used season after season,
The stripes didn’t have to be necessarily all the same, mind you, and I really liked the kit when Keegan played for us at the beginning of the 1980s, with its wide 2 red and 1 white stripes with a black pinstripe between them. The two shades of blue away kit was a cracker, too.”
Yes, agreed on all counts. I remember a blue away kit a little later too, George Lawrence era, maybe worn in the 1986 cup semi against Liverpool.
Ah, here we go.
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46 min Immediately, Southampton get the ball into Adams, who holds up then swivels and shoots straight at Pickford.
46 min We go again. Everton send Bernard on for Iwobi, but I’m not certain what that’s going to achieve – the problem seemed to be one of shape rather than personnel.
“Being at the top of the table this far into the season has been a dream,” says Mary Waltz. “Well it is quite obvious from this first half that it is still 2020, Trump is still President, and I am no longer dreaming and I am wide awake. My boys look like they have been reading their clippings and have been played off the field.”
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Half-time entertainment:
Half-time: Southampton 2-0 Everton
Southampton have been excellent, while Everton have been poor. I doubt things’ll proceed quite like that, so the second half should be decent.
45+1 min Godfrey, who’s had a stressful baptism, finds himself in space down the right and considers a cross, which ends up flying behind. Whoops.
45 min There’ll be one additional minute.
44 min There’s not much rhythm to Everton’s play. I’m sure being without Richarlison is bothering them, but they’re also missing the width they get from Coleman down the right, and I wonder if changing to a diamond or a 4-4-2 would help them get into the game. Or maybe they might just play better.
43 min James finds Doucoure, and the ball ends up with Iwobi, but Ings is back by his own box to tackle. What a very very good player he is – you could tell when he was at Burnley in that first season they came back up, a one-man forward line and doing brilliantly in the bigger games. It didn’t work out at Liverpool, but right now he’d be a really good alternative to Firmino.
40 min Here come Southampton again, and Adams looks offside, but the flag stays down because this is now the procedure. Armstrong then drills home what looks like number three, but the flag is then raised. Southampton look dangerous every time they go forward, and though Everton look good for at least one, they’re struggling to create and still look likelier to concede.
37 min “It’s one of the better kits of the 2020 PL lot,” says Mike Hollitscher. “You take the River Plate/Rayo Vallecano sash and reverse the colours. I don’t get why some don’t seem to like it. Is it too Johnny Foreigner?”
I doubt it – the whole culture is influenced by fashion from elsewhere. I can only speak for myself, and say that on its own, it’s not bad even if it looks like they’re in a beauty pageant, but it’s not what I’d expect from a Southampton kit. And this Everton one, modelled by the HILARIOUS John Bailey, what a CHARACTER is also a jazzer.
GOAL! Southampton 2-0 Everton (Adams 35)
Danny Ings, the creator supreme! This time, he turns up on the left, bustling away from poor Godfrey and slapping over a low cross that falls nicely for Adams. He takes a touch, ponders the ultimate futility of existence, as the 35 defenders inside the box run about in circles, then cracks a low one past Pickford with the help of a slight deflection. I’m not sure that was in the corner.
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33 min “Jumping in on the kit chat,” says Barry Brian, “there are some disastrous kits this year (Chelsea’s blue and pink, Man United’s black and white, Inter home), but this Everton number certainly isn’t one of them. As for Southampton, I love a sash but fear we are in danger of overuse in recent years.”
I quite like the United one, though it reeks of people with attention-seeking facial hair and glasses – yes, I realise that these days, that narrows things down to about 42 percent of the world’s population – doing themselves mischiefs trying to design something “iconic”. As for this Everton one, it’s a nice colour, but very toothpaste.
31 min “It looks like whoever designed the kit has been watching the Canadian Premier League, says Kevin Smith, attaching a picture of Calgary’s Cavalry FC.
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29 min Both sides are playing well, but Southampton have looked the incisive to this point, and ought really to have scored sooner. Everton need to get James on the ball and give Calvert-Lewin some decent service, or failing that, some service.
GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Everton (Ward-Prowse 27)
Twenty-four seconds later, poor Pickford is picking a pot of pickled peppers the ball out of his net, and what lovely reason he was given. Ward-Prowse finds Ings, who feeds him back in with a megs pass, and a deft first touch puts him in prime position to absolutely shmice a fine finish into the far bottom corner!
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26 min Nice from Southampton, Redmond again on the ball and sliding back and across for Romeu, tanking onto it ... and he absolutely lamps it, a little flick off Keane forcing Pickford into a plunging save!
25 min “Everton’s kit is officially ‘seafoam green and charcoal’, by the way,” emails Andrew Goudie. That reminds me of the salmon and pink classic.
23 min Ings sticks one out wide to Bertrand, and another low cross finds Armstrong, but he’s kind of side-on to it so that when the ball arrives at speed he can’t quite resolve the conundrum of his feet, tentatively poking at a backheel that gets nowhere.
21 min How do we feel about this Southampton rig? Do they look like contestants in a beauty pageant?
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19 min How! Again, Everton switch the ball left, this time to Sigurdsson, and he has a look the larrups a shot which looks to be flying over and plenty ... until it dips mid-swerve and crack the crossbar!
17 min Redmond gets himself at Godfrey again, but this time opts to go inside. The attack continues, the ball comes back to him, and this time he sticks Betrand in behind yerman – he needs help from Doucoure, who I think is the midfielder on that side. This time, though, he escapes when Bertrand’s low cross goes into the side-netting.
16 min ...James gets a decent connection and goes around the wall, but McCarthy waits for him, collecting the ball without needing to move. This is a good game so far.
15 min A foul on Calvert-Lewin gives Everton a free-kick 25 yards out, marginally right of centre. Sigurdsson fancies it, but not a chance James is stepping aside, armband or not...
13 min Everton are finding Iwobi constantly, and this time he comes in off the left and drags a shot towards the near post which is deflected just wide. The corner comes to nowt.
12 min Lovely from Southampton, Ings finding Redmond, who runs away from Godfrey – there it is! – then cuts back for Adams, arriving onto it just as you’d like. But he doesn’t make the connection he’s after, bumbling a shot that skips just wide.
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11 min Godfrey misplaces a pass and Adams snaffles the loose ball, running away from Allan, but though Ings is moving for him he’s forced backwards and Southampton must build again.
10 min Everton are pushing.
8 min “I was there!” says Richard Adams of the Plymouth-Watford game. “And yes I can confirm that Reilly is hated in Plymouth for scoring against us. Pic: Umbrella Vi. Stood on the halfway line of the Lyndhurst End every home game for decades.”
Can an end have a halfway line? But yes, I love this stuff – my mate’s nan is Man City’s longest-serving season-ticket holder. Here she is.
Tiny slice of Manchester brilliance: a mate's gran is City's longest-serving ST holder, 85 years. Yesterday, there was a knock at the door. pic.twitter.com/edPSibyIbz
— Daniel Harris (@DanielHarris) May 23, 2017
6 min “The Lomana Lua Lua incident actually led to the introduction of the exclusion rule barring on-loanees from playing against the parent club, as this Guardian article so eloquently explains,” emails Clive Naylor.
It’s one of those that seems counter-intuitive. Of course they should play, but not allowing it guards against skulduggery.
5 min Nice from Everton, Allan spinning and laying back to Keane, who unleashes a gorgeous, er, “diag” to Iwobi. It’s about a yard too long.
4 min “A year to the day since this,” says Andrew Goudie, although that’s nothing compared to Ajax’s tonking yesterday of VVV Venlo (surely the only team with four consecutive Vs in their name).”
Just when I thought we’d managed not to raise it. That will haunt all involved forever.
3 min It comes to nowt.
2 min Southampton win a free-kick out on the left, ideal for Ward-Prowse to swing in, and Calvert-Lewin is up first, but a shout from Keane allows him to escape at cost of a corner.
1 min I feel like Allan is the new Belgium, a player everyone knows and accepts is good, but is discussed like some sort of secret whose contributions are noticeable only to the highly enlightened.
1 min Off we go!
The players take a knee. Let’s support them by donating, educating others and educating ourselves.
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The players are out!
“I was on the North Bank when Inchy Heath scored that goal,” says Gary Naylor. “It’s hard to put into words how much the FA Cup meant back then, and the feeling of going to Wembley after being at Elland Road in 1980 watching Frank Lampard run round the corner flag. Happiest of days.”
Yup, I remember. My parents went to the 1983 reply without me (I was deemed too young, aged four) and I’ve never quite forgiven them. And my team winning it the following year remains an extremely special memory. “Manchester United, playing with great pluck and intelligence, this player Hughes coming into it more and more...”
On which point, did we have way better commentators then, whose lines we recall like that, or are we just old with too much football on to allow us to remember any of it?
Oh yes! This from the game in question.
Goodness me! Here’s Mac Millings with further details: “In the other semi-final of the ‘84 FA Cup, the mighty Watford FC defeated Plymouth Argyle by the odd goal. Perhaps the most notable footnote to that game was the reaction of one Plymouth fan to Watford’s goalscorer, George Reilly. Key line: ‘The attacker chewed off one of Reilly’s ears and whispered ‘Plymouth’ into the other one.’”
I remember the game, but I did not know that.
Ralph tells Sky that it’s been a “very intense time with lots of ups and downs,” and recently, performances have stabilised. The team, aren’t as far in development as they think they can be and still have things to improve, but they like to learn and have a good chance to win every game. Today, he thinks, is a good test against a strong side, and though the table doesn’t tell you everything after five games, it’s not a coincidence that they’re top.
“Not sure about the Pennant one,” says Adam Griffiths, “but Lomana Lua Lua scored a last kick of the game equaliser for Portsmouth against Newcastle in 2004, while on loan from Newcastle. For reasons that are unclear, Newcastle hadn’t insisted on a ‘you can’t play against us’ clause. And yes, he did the full celebration.”
Lovely stuff.
Email! “As a neutral Mancunian (who only got Sky recently after hearing Murdoch had left) I’m really looking forward to this. Everton turned a corner this season and Southampton did last season. Both seem to want to control the game rather than sitting back defending.”
Yes, I really like both of these too, and think we’ll see a decent game. One of the reasons the league table is as it is is because of corona, one way and another, but another reason is that almost every club has serious players who can hurt you. Which I guess brings us back to Sky.
What Southampton need to beware is Everton’s attackers darting between the lines of what can be quite a rigid formation, and losing the numbers game in midfield. My guess is that they’ll have made specific plans for dealing with James.
So what’s going to happen in this game? If I was Ralph Hasenhuttl (for avoidance of doubt, I’m not), I’d be looking to get Redmond running at Godfrey wherever possible, but as early as possible too – as in-form him is not something to face at the best of times, never mind out of position, on debut.
Everton, meanwhile, need to beware the press that might stop the playing out, and in Romeu, Allan will find someone who delights in all the same things as him. Yet somehow I don’t think they’ll be friends.
Kieron Dyer then spoke really movingly about those men as his pioneers, leading into a discussion about the dearth of black managers. The lack of Rooney rule, and the lack of desire on the part of the Premier League to institute such a thing, tells us how much we still have to do.
On Sky at the moment, we’re watching a mini-doc on black players in the Premier League years, with Andy Cole, Paul Ince, John Barnes and Troy Townsend. Check it out, it’s really good. All black lives matter, people.
These teams met in the 1984 FA Cup semi-final, at Highbury.
Which ended in the traditional style.
Ancelotti tells Sky that James didn’t train much in the week, but has recovered from his knock. He also says that replacing Gomes with Sigurdsson - who captains the side – was a difficult decision, but he’s been training well and is rewarded for his attitude. Meanwhile, Ancelotti is confident in Jordan Pickford, and hopes his team play with ambition; though they’ve started well, they need to keep at it.
Everton, meanwhile, make three changes: Ben Godfrey makes his first Premier League start for the club, in for the injured Seamus Coleman; Gylfi Sigurdsson is in for Andre Gomes; and Alex Iwobi deputises for the suspended Richarlison. All of which tells us that James Rodriguez is good to go; good.
On which point, I might be misremembering – YouTube is silent on the matter – but didn’t Jermaine Pennant once score the winner for Leeds, when on loan to them from Arsenal?
Stuart Armstrong comes straight back for Southampton, following time out with corona; goodness me, if my experience is anything to go by he’ll find that an extremely taxing endeavour. He replaces Theo Walcott, not allowed to play according to the terms of his loan.
Teams!
Southampton (a throwback futuristic 4-4-2): McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Vestergaard, Bednarek, Bertrand; Armstrong, Romeu, Ward-Prowse, Redmond; Adams, Ings. Subs: Forster, Stephens, Long, Tella, Diallo, Vokins, N’Lundulu.
Everton (a simple complex 4-3-3): Pickford; Godfrey, Mina, Keane, Digne; Doucoure, Allan, Sigurdsson; Rodriguez, Calvert-Lewin, Iwobi. Subs: Olsen, Delph, Nkounkou, Bernard, Gomes, Gordon, Davies.
VAR’s straight man: Kevin Friend
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Preamble
The Premier League is absolute state – and for once, in the best possible way. Everton top, and with this game in hand, is one thing. But if Southampton win today, they move from 13 to fifth, which is to say that this is a whole new ball game.
I’m sure there’s a cheap gag to be made here, about Goodison and the world’s most perpetually indignant crowd, but anyway: Everton have very quickly become very good, and the way they’ve gone about it is telling. Carlo Ancelotti is a very particular kind of manager, who tends to inherit very good but very unhappy players, fortifying them with very good vibes and very minimalist tactics. And that lookslike what he’s done at Everton, finding the right few words for Dominic Calvert-Lewin – “one-touch finishes like Inzaghi” – then giving him, and Richarlison, all the scope that they need to show all that they have. First, he provided them with a happy working environment, then he contracted Abdoulaye Doucouré and Allan to build them a platform, and finally he asked James Rodríguez to decorate it. It’s extremely simple, but it’s also extremely difficult, because if it wasn’t, everyone would do it.
Southampton are slightly different. Like playing for Ancelotti, playing for Ralph Hasenhüttl looks a lot of fun, but with a lot more drilling - pressing triggers, half-spaces, and all that jazz. In the end, though, it works partly because his team run their arses off for him and partly because they have a pair of big, burly, classy centre-forwards, marking whom sounds like the absolute worst way to spend a Sunday lunch.
This should be really good.
Kick-off: 2pm GMT, 3pm BST
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