That’s the blog done for today. Thanks, as always, for reading. As I wave goodbye, Arsenal have taken the lead at West Ham. Bye!
And the final Premier League match report from the 3pm games. A record-breaking day for Justin Kluivert but a troublesome one for Wolves boss Gary O’Neill.
A round-up of today’s action in the Championship. Burnley up to second after Leeds lost at Blackburn.
Some unlikely headline makers in the Premier League today. Daniel Muñoz was one of them as Ed Aarons explains.
Mayne emails with an alternative to the potential ‘Ruud awakening’ headlines. “Cue ‘Schade Freude’ puns in the papers tomorrow.”
It was a landmark day for Chris Wood, whose penalty gave Nottingham Forest a 1-0 win over Ipswich. Will Unwin was there.
Here’s the first of our Premier League reports. A good day for Kevin Schade. A bad day for Ruud van Nistelrooy. Yara El-Shaboury was at the Gtech.
Ben Fisher was there to see Frank Lampard’s first game as Coventry boss. It almost went very wrong.
West Ham v Arsenal is not the only MBM in town. Oh no. Because it’s England v the USA. It’s Sarina Wiegman v Emma Hayes. Scott Murray will guide you through this one which kicks off in about 10 minutes.
An eventful day in the Premier League and we’ll have match reports shortly.
Attention now turns to the London Stadium where it’s West Ham v Arsenal. Emillia Hawkins is on the MBM for this one.
FT scores - SPL
Celtic 5-0 Ross County
Dundee United 2-0 St Mirren
Kilmarnock 1-1 Dundee
Motherwell 0-3 Hibernian
FT scores - Championship
Bristol City 4-0 Plymouth
Coventry 2-2 Cardiff
Norwich 4-2 Luton
Preston 1-1 West Brom
Stoke 0-2 Burnley
Swansea 2-2 Portsmouth
Middlesbrough 3-1 Hull
Oxford 1-1 Millwall
Watford 0-0 QPR
Blackburn 1-0 Leeds
FT scores - Premier League
Brentford 4-1 Leicester
Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle
Nottingham Forest 1-0 Ipswich
Wolves 2-4 Bournemouth
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle
The Magpies go to sleep and guess who cashes in? Munoz! Despite his horrendous miss earlier, it seems he was destined to get his first Palace goal today and this back-post header from a Guehi cross looks to have nicked a point for the hosts.
Updated
More penalty hat-trick news in this one from the archives. Morrissey a figure of interest for quirky reasons in those days.
Updated
It’s a bad day for Wayne Rooney with Plymouth losing 4-0 at Bristol City. In more positive Rooney news, Colleen is second favourite for I’m A Celebrity. Meanwhile, better news for Frank Lampard’s Coventry as they pull level at 2-2 with Cardiff thanks to an 86th-minute penalty.
Kluivert won’t be scoring another penalty however as his work here is done. Claps to the away fans. What a day for Patrick’s boy.
As for his fellow hat-trick hero today, Kevin Schade is only the fourth German to score a hat-trick in the Premier League.
Harry Kane got a hat-trick of penalties for Bayern recently I think. Although it’s easy to lose count. The England skipper is in action in the big one in Germany soon as Bayern take on Borussia Dortmund at 5.30pm.
And OptaJoe is indeed on the case…
Justin Kluivert is the first player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick of penalties in a single match, with teammate Evanilson also the first to win three penalties in the same game in the competition. Spotted.
GOAL! Wolves 2-4 Bournemouth
Sa clatters Evanilson, who has now won all three penalties. But Kluivert will deservedly get all the headlines as he converts yet again to complete a hat-trick of spot-kicks. OptaJoe will be busy now.
Updated
GOAL! Wolves 2-3 Bournemouth
Game on at Molineux where the home crowd have been roused again. Bournemouth get caught in possession, Guedes breaks and Strand Larsen chips the ball home for his second of the game to narrow the gap. But wait… we have another penalty to Bournemouth!
Updated
Not a good day for famous footballers turned managers. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Leicester are losing 4-1 at Brentford, Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth are 3-0 down at Bristol City and Frank Lampard’s Coventry trail 2-1 at home to Cardiff.
Crystal Palace piling on the pressure against Newcastle as they chase an equaliser. Sarr’s shot is saved by Pope and Dan Burn, who sounds like a security guard for a US president, hurls himself in front of the bullet to block Munoz’s follow-up effort.
GOAL! Brentford 4-1 Leicester
Cue the ‘Ruud awakening’ headlines although Kevin Schade will feel he should be the story here as he completes a hat-trick. Woeful defending from Leicester. Great work from Collins as he puts Schade through to fire home his third.
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West Ham v Arsenal team news
West Ham: Fabiański, Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Kilman, Emerson, Soler, Souček, Bowen, Paquetá, Summerville, Antonio.
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Jorginho, Rice, Ødegaard, Saka, Trossard, Havertz.
Table news. If results stay the same, Forest would go sixth, Newcastle seventh and Brentford eighth.
It looks like another miserable away day for Wayne Rooney and Plymouth as they go 1-0 down at Bristol City. If they lose this one, Rooney’s away points tally will be two from 30. They’ve only lost once at home though to be fair. #discrepancy
GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Newcastle
A clever free-kick routine from the visitors ends with Anthony Gordon’s deflected strike coming off Marc Guehi for an own goal. Tonali involved too. 1-0 to the visitors.
Updated
Burnley can go second in the table with victory at Stoke and they’re on target to do so as Smiths fan Jay Rodriguez find the net. Some goals are bigger than others.
GOAL! Nottingham Forest 1-0 Ipswich
Chris Wood smashes home the penalty and Forest lead 1-0. That makes him the Trees’ all-time top Premier League scorer alongside Bryan Roy. The affable Kiwi got the chance to join the Dutchman after Silva was brought down by Szmodics. Ipswich like a draw though so don’t rule them out just yet.
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PEEP! Second-half matches in play
Here we go again. A strange split of goals in the Premier League in that first 45 minutes. Two games with four goals in them and two still goalless. Although… Nottingham Forest have a penalty!
And read here how Barcelona were stunned 2-1 at home by Las Palmas. That’s now just one point in the last nine for the leaders.
Key event
Here’s the match report of Blackburn’s 1-0 win over Leeds.
HT scores - SPL
Celtic 5-0 Ross County
Dundee United 0-0 St Mirren
Kilmarnock 0-0 Dundee
Motherwell 0-2 Hibernian
HT scores - Championship
Bristol City 0-0 Plymouth
Coventry 1-1 Cardiff
Norwich 2-1 Luton
Preston 0-1 West Brom
Stoke 0-0 Burnley
Swansea 1-2 Portsmouth
Results in early games
Middlesbrough 3-1 Hull
Oxford 1-1 Millwall
Watford 0-0 QPR
Blackburn 1-0 Leeds
Scenes at Molineux at the break as goalkeeper Jose Sa goes into the crowd to confront a fan, who is then removed.
Updated
HT scores - Premier League
Brentford 3-1 Leicester
Crystal Palace 0-0 Newcastle
Nottingham Forest 0-0 Ipswich
Wolves 1-3 Bournemouth
GOAL! Brentford 3-1 Leicester
This could be a tough afternoon for Ruud van Nistelrooy now. The Bees add a third in the seventh minute of added time as Schade dinks a lovely finish over Hermansen after being put in by Damsgaard. That’s his second of the game and, fun fact, it was Brentford’s 17th first-half goal of the season. That’s the best in the league.
Updated
Simon McMahon is back. “Maybe Celtic will score 36? They’re 5-0 up now and look like scoring every time they have the ball.”
Spotter’s badge for Rob Moore. “In Where Are They Now? news, in the 92nd minute of their big win, Las Palmas brought on a certain Oli McBurnie.”
News from our resident fitba correspondent, Simon McMahon. “Afternoon David. In the Scottish Premier Celtic have taken an early lead at home to Ross County, the other games, including Dundee United v St. Mirren, remain goalless. It’s also Scottish Cup third round day, but not much to report so far, other than to say I doubt Arbroath will be winning 36-0, as they are currently goalless at home to Queen of the South. Still plenty time, I suppose.”
Some feedback from reader Kári Tulinius on Barcelona’s shock 2-1 home defeat to Las Palmas.
“Everyone who I consider smarter than me about football, a long list, thinks otherwise, but I’ve long been skeptical of Hansi Flick as a manager. I also realize his six trophy season in charge of Bayern is a point against me, but then he benefited from following a disciplinarian who’d whipped FC Hollywood into shape, and so that collection of brilliant talent was pulling in the same direction. His tenure as Germany manager was a disaster, and I suspect his Barcelona team will fade away. Now that I’ve said it out loud, I’ve probably reverse jinxed the Blaugrana into another six trophy season.”
Still 0-0 at the City Ground. Nottingham Forest have managed seven shots to Ipswich’s three although both have had two on target and the visitors are starting to look much more threatening. One concern for Ipswich is that two of their defenders – O’Shea and Tuanzebe – are on yellow cards after early bookings.
An incredible miss at Selhurst Park! Munoz arrives at the far post to tap home from three yards following a cross from Sarr and great work from Eze but somehow fluffs his lines. How are Crystal Palace not in front? Relief for Newcastle.
FT: Blackburn 1-0 Leeds. Even with 10 minutes of added time, Leeds can’t find the net and it’s defeat at Ewood Park. They stay second, three points behind Sheffield United, while Blackburn are up to eighth in the live table thanks to Todd Cantwell’s penalty. A missed opportunity for Leeds, who had a late ‘goal’ ruled out.
Updated
GOAL! Brentford 2-1 Leicester
And Leicester’s task is even harder now as Brentford complete the turnaround with two inside five minutes. Schade, who set up the first, fires home the second from a Bryan Mbeumo cross.
Updated
GOAL! Brentford 1-1 Leicester
Leicester’s lead didn’t last long as a first-time finish from Yoane Wissa from a Schade cross gives Brentford a deserved equaliser with 25 minutes on the clock. The Bees have won more home points than anyone in the Premier League this season so Leicester will do well to take something from this having been pegged back so soon.
Updated
Bad news for Newcastle – and fantasy managers – as Isak can’t continue and is replaced by Harvey Barnes.
GOAL! Brentford 0-1 Leicester
A goal against the run of play. Jamie Vardy, still a zippy customer, cuts the ball back to the unmarked Facundo Buonanotte, who taps home inside the six-yard box to put the Foxes in front.
Updated
As for those other Premier League games, Forest started brightly at home to Ipswich but the visitors are finding their way back into it, Brentford are turning up the heat on Leicester although can’t find a breakthrough and lots of Newcastle players seem to be needing treatment at Crystal Palace. Isak is one of them although he seems fine to continue.
GOAL! Wolves 1-3 Bournemouth
Kluivert slams home his second penalty, this time going to the goalkeeper’s right, and Bournemouth are 3-1 up. Four goals in this one; none elsewhere in the Premier League.
Updated
Bournemouth have been given a second penalty at Molineux! A dithering Jose Sa takes fouls Evanilson, who earlier missed a sitter, and the Cherries are on the brink of a 3-1 lead.
Updated
Brentford 0-0 Leicester. It’s Brentford, not Bournemouth, who have made a reputation for early goals but they haven’t managed one yet against Leicester. That said, it took a brilliant save from Foxes goalkeeper Mads Hermansen to keep out Kevin Schade’s fifth-minute header.
GOAL! Wolves 1-2 Bournemouth
And straight back to Molineux where there’s a third goal in a bonkers opening eight minutes. The Cherries are back in front via a beauty from flying full-back Milos Kerkez, who slams home into the top corner after being set up by Tavernier.
Updated
Coventry 1-1 Cardiff. And quite a start in Frank Lampard’s first game in charge of Coventry. Cardiff take the lead through Yakou Meite but Ephron Mason-Clark has Frank smiling again just 90 seconds later.
GOAL! Wolves 1-1 Bournemouth
What a start at Molineux. The visitors are level as Bellegarde crosses from the right and Strand Larsen heads home the equaliser. Quite the opening five minutes.
Updated
Wow! Barcelona have lost 2-1 at home to Las Palmas. Barca were 1/10 to win that.
GOAL! Wolves 0-1 Bournemouth
Justin Kluivert strokes home the penalty and the visitors lead 1-0 after just three minutes.
Updated
A penalty at Molineux! It’s to Bournemouth although there’s a check going on. Evanilson is the man brought down. Groans in the Wolves crowd as it’s given.
Updated
PEEP! 3pm games underway
The four 3pm matches in the Premier League are in play, as are lots of others in the EFL, FA Cup and many places abroad.
Hopefully, that ‘text message’ news below will answer Frank from Missouri’s curiosity. “As the only Leicester fan I know, I’m wondering what, if any, influence Ruud will have on today’s game, given that (1) he only got appointed hours ago and (2) he’ll be watching from the stands. I’m looking for a ray of hope here, after the blah start to the season.”
Jeremy Boyce is back in touch. “I am beginning to wonder if Leeds shouldn’t officially change their name to Leeds 69% Possession United. It’s the same every match every week, and they either score a hatful or none at all.” They’ve actually had 76% in the second half, Jeremy, but remain 1-0 down to Blackburn at Ewood Park. Soz.
A relaxed Ruud van Nistelrooy has arrived at Brentford and will take his place up in the stands. Apparently, he exchanged text messages with stand-in Ben Dawson last night, presumably to do with Leicester’s line-up rather than any good Netflix recommendations.
Updated
In the Bundesliga, what are fourth-placed Leipzig playing at? Less than 20 minutes gone and they’re 3-0 down at home to Wolfsburg.
Barcelona are seven minutes away from a shock 2-1 home loss to Las Palmas. If is stays like that, Real Madrid can go top by winning their two games in hand. The first of those is at home to Getafe on Sunday.
Como v Monza is a top-flight game in Italy. No, really (18th v 19th). That’ll cause furrowed brows to those who loved Serie A in the 90s but are a bit sketchy on who’s in the top-flight now. For such people, have a read of this and the others in the series. Oh, Como are leading 1-0 by the way.
Jeremy Boyce gets in touch via email.
“Leeds fan here, so “thanks” for the update from Ewood Park. The Forest - Ipswich match looks pretty tasty, and plenty riding on it for both teams. Ipswich desperately need to turn their agreeable playing style into points, Forest have already turned their agreeable style into surprisingly many points but need to get back on track after two reversals. Could be fun. 0-0 then."
Barcelona 1-2 Las Palmas. As I was saying, plenty of time for the hosts. Although I wasn’t thinking of a sentence ending ‘to ship another shock goal’. Good grief, the visitors are back in front. Fabio Silva with the goal to get the locals muttering again.
Updated
Barcelona 1-1 Las Palmas. Barca are level and it’s a tidy goal from Brazilian forward Raphinha. Still around half an hour to go there so plenty of time for the hosts.
As for Raphinha’s former team Leeds, they trail 1-0 at the break against Blackburn at Ewood Park. The visitors have had 69% possession but just haven’t done enough with it. The second half about to start.
Results from the early kick-offs in the Championship and League Two. Middlesbrough jump to fifth, edging (on goal difference) above Watford, who are held at home by second-bottom QPR.
Championship:
Middlesbrough 3-1 Hull
Oxford 1-1 Millwall
Watford 0-0 QPR
League Two:
Carlisle 1-1 Crewe
Fleetwood 0-0 Colchester
Oxford 1-1 Millwall. Tyler Goodrham looks to have rescued a point for Oxford with an equaliser four minutes from time.
Barcelona 0-1 Las Palmas. Yikes. The visitors take the lead in the 49th minute via Sandro Ramirez. What madness is this.
Updated
Just under 26 hours until Liverpool v Manchester City. Some previews to whet the appetite:
Barcelona 0-0 Las Palmas. Barca are dominant (68% possession, 10 shots to 3) but they’re drawing 0-0 at the break against Las Palmas.
Middlesbrough 3-1 Hull. After their glut of recent goals dried up in a 1-0 defeat to Blackburn, Middlesbrough are back at it and now have three against Hull. Tommy Conway’s second of the game with 11 minutes left looks likely to secure all three points.
Updated
Premier League team news. So, digesting some of those starting XIs, it’s good news for Crystal Palace with Eberechi Eze returning following a hamstring injury. Jefferson Lerma also comes back. Nottingham Forest have made five changes from the team that lost at Arsenal, with Morgan Gibbs-White and Elliot Anderson among those returning. Antoine Semenyo and Lewis Cook are suspended for Bournemouth – that’s a blow – so Ryan Christie and David Brooks get the call. But perhaps the biggest eyebrow raising is at Leicester where first-team coach Ben Dawson, likely prompted by Ruud van Nistelrooy (sitting in the stands), has given first Premier League starts of the season to Conor Coady and Luke Thomas.
Nottingham Forest v Ipswich team news
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams, Yates, Anderson, Jota, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi, Wood.
Ipswich: Muric, Tuanzebe, O’Shea, Burgess, Davis, Morsy, Cajuste, Hutchinson, Chaplin, Szmodics, Delap.
Wolves v Bournemouth team news
Wolves: Sa, Semedo, Lemina, Toti, Ait-Nouri, Andre, J. Gomes, Bellegarde, R. Gomes, Cunha, Strand Larsen.
Bournemouth: Kepa, Kerkez, Senesi, Brooks, Evanilson, Christie, Adams, Smith, Tevernier, Kluivert, Zabarnyi.
Blackburn 1-0 Leeds. Bad news for the 7,000 travelling Leeds fans as Rovers go ahead via Todd Cantwell’s 22th-minute penalty.
Crystal Palace v Newcastle team news
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Munoz, Chalobah, Lacroix, Guehi, Mitchell, Lerma, Hughes, Eze, Mateta, Sarr.
Newcastle: Pope, Schar, Joelinton, Tonali, Gordon, Isak, Hall, Livramento, Willock, Burn, Guimaraes.
Brentford v Leicester team news
Brentford: Flekken, Van den Berg, Collins, Pinnock, Lewis-Potter, Norgaard, Jensen, Damsgaard, Schade, Mbeumo, Wissa.
Leicester: Hermansen, Justin, Faes, Coady, Okoli, Thomas, Ndidi, Soumare, Buonanotte, Ayew, Vardy.
Here’s the match report of Wycombe’s FA Cup win at Wealdstone. Our Simon Burnton was there.
As we await the starting XIs, here’s Will Unwin’s piece on how Liverpool have gone to the toppermost of the poppermost in both the Premier League and Champions League.
Premier League team news now drops 75 minutes before kick-off so (counts fingers, thumbs and toes) we’ll bring it to you very shortly.
Here’s a thing – Barcelona are in action right now too! Yes, you heard that right. The Catalans are top of La Liga but have stuttered recently with a draw and a loss in two away games. They remain perfect at home though and are looking to make it six wins out of six with victory over 17th-place Las Palmas. Nothing doing just yet though and it’s 0-0 with 30 minutes gone.
Half-times in the early kick-offs around the country below. We’ve already had one result in the FA Cup with League One Wycombe winning 2-0 at National League Wealdstone. Wycombe reach the third round for the first time since 2020/21.
Championship:
Middlesbrough 2-0 Hull
Oxford 0-1 Millwall
Watford 0-0 QPR
League Two:
Carlisle 1-0 Crewe
Fleetwood 0-0 Colchester
Preamble
Welcome! The weekend Premier League action got under way last night with Southampton earning a good point at Brighton and actually feeling aggrieved that it wasn’t all three after more VAR controversy. That means there’s no 12.30pm fixture today but there’s plenty to tuck into at 3pm with four top-flight games kicking off. Okay, none of the top six are in action but there’s plenty of intrigue in this quartet of fixtures:
Brentford v Leicester
Crystal Palace v Newcastle
Nottingham Forest v Ipswich
Wolves v Bournemouth
Can you look at any of those four and be confident of a winner? Okay, Brentford have been awesome at home (five wins and a draw in six matches). But what about the Ruud van Nistelrooy Leicester bump effect? There’s a sentence.
So there’s all that plus news from the EFL and Europe. Leeds can return to the top of the Championship with victory at Blackburn (1.30pm) while we’ll check in on the trio of live Championship games and also bring you hot news from the FA Cup second round. Sounds fun doesn’t it and for those looking for a further fix when this clockwatch shuts down, there’s West Ham v Arsenal in a separate MBM at 5.30pm. Join me!
