Bournemouth equalise at the cottage! It’s a fine pass into the area from the right, and Evanilson runs onto it and executes a right-foot falling-over volley that sends the ball flying past Leno!
Great finish! Another goal from a corner, though this isn’t a simple header. The ball is cleared, it’s swung back in, it’s kind-of-semi-cleared and Eze is the first to react to a ball bouncing loose on the edge of the area, and he sprints onto it and arrows a low shot into the corner of the net!
Into the second half, then. Wolves make two half-timely substitutions, bringing on Strand Larsen and Goncalo Guedes and taking off Bellegarde and Matheus Cunha.
It looks like Manchester City are going to win a game of association football. Erling Haaland heads in Savinho’s cross, apparently their first effort on goal of the second half, and doubles the champions’ lead!
Here’s your half-timely score update. Particularly good opening 45s from Bristol City, Crawley Town and for Motherwell, who lead Rangers 2-0!
Premier League
Crystal Palace 1-1 Southampton
Everton 0-1 Nottingham Forest
Fulham 1-0 Bournemouth
Leicester 0-1 Man City (2.30pm)
Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Wolverhampton
West Ham v Liverpool (5.15pm)
Championship
Blackburn 0-0 Hull
Bristol City 3-0 Portsmouth
Coventry 0-0 Millwall
Derby v Leeds (5.45pm)
Middlesbrough v Burnley (8pm)
Norwich 1-1 QPR (final score)
Oxford Utd 1-0 Plymouth
Preston North End 3-1 Sheff Wed (final score)
Sheff Utd 1-1 West Brom (final score)
Stoke 0-0 Sunderland
Swansea 1-1 Luton
Watford 1-2 Cardiff
League One
Birmingham 0-0 Blackpool
Bolton 1-0 Lincoln City
Charlton 2-1 Wycombe (final score)
Exeter 1-4 Crawley Town
Huddersfield 0-1 Burton Albion
Leyton Orient 1-0 Cambridge Utd
Peterborough 0-0 Barnsley
Reading 1-1 Mansfield
Rotherham 1-1 Stockport County (final score)
Shrewsbury 0-0 Northampton
Stevenage 1-0 Bristol Rovers
Wrexham 0-0 Wigan
League Two
Bradford 1-1 Chesterfield
Bromley 1-1 Swindon (final score)
Carlisle 2-1 Accrington Stanley (final score)
Cheltenham 1-2 Notts County
Colchester 0-1 Doncaster
Fleetwood Town 1-1 Harrogate Town
Grimsby 1-0 Port Vale
Milton Keynes Dons 1-0 Crewe
Salford City 0-0 Morecambe
Tranmere 1-1 Barrow
Walsall 0-0 Newport County
Scottish Premiership
Celtic 1-0 St Johnstone
Dundee Utd v Aberdeen (5.15pm)
Hibernian 1-0 Kilmarnock
Motherwell 2-0 Rangers
Ross County 0-1 Hearts
St Mirren 1-1 Dundee
All the Premier League games are over for now. Everton go in a goal down and it could and probably should have been worse, after Tarkowski magically escaped a second yellow card for a very obvious, late and clumsy trip.
Now Spurs do have the lead! Kulusevski runs into the right side of the area, turns back and slides a pass into the run of Brennan Johnson, who whips a first-time finish past Jose Sa!
Brennan Johnson is fouled and Spurs get the penalty. Son’s effort isn’t bad, but it’s a nice height for the keeper José Sa and once he guesses the right way the rest is a formality. Still 1-1 there.
Fulham take the lead at Craven Cottage, and it’s another goal from a corner. Even so, Raul Jimenez meets it a decent way from goal, maybe 10 yards or so, level with the near post, but it’s a brilliant, brilliant header and it flies in at the back stick!
Crystal Palace really should be winning. Ramsdale makes two saves in quick succession, the latter to keep out Lerma’s overhead, and then a pull-back from the left runs to Mateta, who decides in his infinite wisdom to dummy it. Southampton clear.
Just before that Palace goal, a moment of comedy at White Hart Lane as Kulusevski pulled the ball back and both Solanke and Bentancur ran onto it, the two of them colliding with each other at the very moment both wanted to be shooting. They both ended up on the ground while the ball rolled on unbothered, but luckily Kulusevski was offside and it didn’t actually matter.
The ball’s in the back of the net at Fulham, again a header from a corner, but James Hill’s effort is disallowed for a foul on a defender. Seems harsh, that one.
Will Hughes swings in a corner, Chalobah heads it in at the near post. Southampton are unimpressed, insisting that Ramsdale was impeded as the ball came in, but the referee’s having none of it and the VAR backs him up.
Spurs go close to a second goal, and like the one they did score it comes from a Pedro Porro right-wing corner. This one is won by Dragusin, but his header bounces just wide of the far post with the keeper beaten.
“Is Ange in or out” wonders Paul Fourmy. “We concede and he’s out, we equalize and it’s the corner being turned. I’m yo yo’ing hard.” These are indeed confusing times.
So that’s four goals in our four Premier League games, and we only 20 minutes have been played. At this rate there’ll have been 18 by the time the final whistles go.
Brooks goes close again for Bournemouth, this time with a rabona that curls only just over the top corner.
No clean sheet for Everton today! It’s a really good goal: the ball is pumped forwards to Wood, who nods it on to Elanga, who nods it back to Wood, who lifts it beautifully over the keeper! Elanga’s header and the finish are both really very tasty.
The tappiest of tap-ins for Tyler Dibling to put Southampton ahead at Selhurst Park. Kyle Walker-Peters does the hard work down the left, he passes infield to, well, someone else, who nudges it to Dibling, six yards away from an empty goal, who does the rest.
Sheffield United and West Brom battled to a 1-1 draw in one of today’s lunchtimely kick-offs, and Neil Squires was there to see it. Here’s the proof:
When does a stutter become a stumble? After a first home defeat of the season against Burnley on Boxing Day, the erstwhile Championship leaders Sheffield United dropped two more home points against West Bromwich Albion. Perhaps we should not overreact and Chris Wilder has been around long enough not to, but with a trip to promotion rivals Sunderland up next on New Year’s Day, this is shaping to be an uncomfortable period for his blunted Blades.
Much more here:
A lightning-fast equaliser for Spurs: Bentancur meets a corner at the near post and hammers a header into the net!
An early booking for Everton’s James Tarkowski against Nottingham Forest. And A decent save at the Cottage to stop David Brooks putting Bournemouth ahead.
A free-kick near the right corner of the penalty area is rolled along the edge of the box to Hee-Chan Hwang, who sends a first-time right-footed curler off the post and into the net!
3.01pm, and off has been kicked. And also, Watford are losing. Cardiff’s Callum Robinson with the first goal of this part of the day.
Elsewhere, players are coming out ahead of the 3pm kick-offs. A feast of football awaits.
A goal for Manchester City! Jamie Vardy just missed a chance after latching on to Gvardiol’s back-header, but now Savinho runs tonto the rebound after Foden’s shot is saved and lashes it into the back of the net!
And here’s Will Unwin on the miraculous transformation of Nottingham Forest under Nuno Espirito Santo:
It is just over a year since Nuno Espírito Santo arrived at the City Ground with the task of turning the ship around. The Portuguese found Nottingham Forest in a battle for survival, sitting one place above the relegation zone, which is exactly where they finished the season, confirming their top-flight status only on the final day. It was an effective first few months in charge but did not suggest Forest would become Champions League challengers as 2025 approaches.
Forest visit Goodison Park on Sunday, the scene of their lowest moment since returning to the Premier League in 2022 when an emotional social media post from the club’s X account lambasted the officials during Everton’s 2-0 victory in April. At that point Forest looked like a circus and the prospect of reacquainting themselves with the Championship was a serious possibility, but they did just enough by winning four of their final 18 games. Eight months on the club’s X account is used for marking victories, having already surpassed last season’s tally. What started as a surprising run has become a genuine push for European qualification.
Much more here:
Here’s Ben McAleer of WhoScored on Tottenham’s task against Matheus Cunha this afternoon:
Cunha’s overperforming his expected goal haul by 6.02 is the biggest overperformance in the division. He should, given the quality of the chances presented to him, have scored just four league goals this season. While it’s not sustainable, Cunha’s final third showings are a core reason behind the 29 league goals Wolves have scored in 2024-25 – just one short of defending Premier League champions Manchester City – and are now outside of the relegation zone by a point.
The 25-year-old is the driving force for this Wolves side in the final third having completed the fifth most dribbles (38) and made the 11th most key passes (33), the former key for a Wolves side is averaging the seventh lowest possession return (46.6%) as they aim to ease pressure on the defence. It’s this ability to ghost past a marker that’ll undoubtedly prove key in Sunday’s game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Much more here:
The team sheets have been handed in, and the line-ups for the four 3pm games look like this:
Crystal Palace v Southampton
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Chalobah, Lacroix, Richards, Munoz, Hughes, Lerma, Mitchell, Sarr, Eze, Mateta. Subs: Turner, Nketiah, Schlupp, Clyne, Kamada, Doucoure, Riad, Devenny, Kporha.
Southampton: Ramsdale, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Wood-Gordon, Bree, Aribo, Fernandes, Walker-Peters, Dibling, Armstrong, Onuachu. Subs: McCarthy, Manning, Lallana, Sugawara, Archer, Sulemana, Taylor, Ugochukwu, Bella-Kotchap.
Referee: Michael Salisbury.
Everton v Nottm Forest
Everton: Pickford, Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Mangala, Gueye, Doucoure, Harrison, Broja, Ndiaye. Subs: Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Calvert-Lewin, Beto, O’Brien, Chermiti, Lindstrom, Armstrong.
Nottm Forest: Sels, Milenkovic, Murillo, Morato, Aina, Dominguez, Anderson, Williams, Elanga, Gibbs-White, Wood. Subs: Carlos Miguel, Awoniyi, Toffolo, Moreira, Ward-Prowse, Jota Silva, Sosa, Boly, Abbott.
Referee: Tony Harrington.
Fulham v Bournemouth
Fulham: Leno, Castagne, Diop, Andersen, Bassey, Wilson, Andreas Pereira, Lukic, Iwobi, Robinson, Jimenez. Subs: Benda, Rodrigo Muniz, Cairney, Traore, Vinicius, Cuenca, King, Sessegnon, Smith Rowe.
Bournemouth: Arrizabalaga, Hill, Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Kerkez, Billing, Cook, Brooks, Christie, Semenyo, Evanilson. Subs: Dennis, Travers, Ouattara, Unal, Aarons, Winterburn, Kinsey-Wellings, Harris, Rees-Dottin.
Referee: Robert Jones.
Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton
Tottenham Hotspur: Forster, Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Udogie, Bentancur, Bissouma, Johnson, Kulusevski, Son, Solanke. Subs: Austin, Reguilon, Maddison, Bergvall, Werner, Sarr, Lankshear, Dorrington, Olusesi.
Wolverhampton: Jose Sa, Doherty, Dawson, Bueno, Nelson Semedo, Andre Trindade, Joao Gomes, Ait Nouri, Bellegarde, Cunha, Hwang. Subs: Larsen, Johnstone, Rodrigo Gomes, Doyle, Forbs, Goncalo Guedes, Meupiyou, Pedro Lima, Pond.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh.
Welcome! It’s going to be another packed afternoon as the festive fixturefest continues, so let’s get stuck straight into the fixtures, shall we?
Premier League
Crystal Palace v Southampton
Palace have only won one league game at home this season, and that was in October. Southampton, who don’t have any away wins to their name at all, would dearly love to keep that run going. Here’s Palace’s Oliver Glasner on this time of year:
It’s unusual but I never complain. As soon as I signed here I knew what would come. I told my family it will be Christmas [working]. Very often it’s, when you work in Germany, off for one week, 10 days but I also didn’t go home then, we always go somewhere in the south for warm weather and this time it’s different. But this is a good experience and I choose this life so nobody to blame. Here, many years ago, the Premier League decided to play over Christmas because the fans love it and everything we do we do for our fans.
Hmmm, I’d say that last point is debatable. Best not get me started on that one.
Everton v Nottingham Forest
Everton are eighth in the last-four-games form table, with no defeats and only one goal conceded, but Forest are top of it, the only side with a last-four-games 100% record. Here’s Sean Dyche on Everton’s upturn:
I have massive respect for players. When they’re delivering as they are doing, the willingness, the desire to work as a team, is a powerful thing. I think we’re showing that. But it’s one game at a time. I’ve always believed in that mentality, but it’s nice when you’ve got an underbelly of desire from a group of players who want to make a difference. I think we’re slowly but surely building. Now it’s about taking the next games on and trying to turn draws into wins but, if you can’t, then still not getting beaten and staying true to that mentality.
“Underbelly of desire” is a lovely phrase. I think I’m going to keep that one. It might even make a good adults-only Harry Potter sequel.
Fulham v Bournemouth
Fulham are joint top of the both-teams-score-in-our-games table – in fully 77.8% of their league matches this season both sides have got on the scoresheet (Leicester, Brentford and Brighton have matched them), but at home it’s 88.9% (with only Brentford keeping up in this one). The only time any side failed to score at Craven Cottage this season neither did, and that was their last home game, against Southampton a week ago. Here’s Marco Silva (who was pleasingly effusive about Alex Iwobi: “He’s been great. Last season he was top and this season he’s doing much better”) on the Bournemouth challenge:
What a battle it’s going to be. Iraola’s doing a great job, it’s always a tight game against them, competitive games, it’s going to be another one. They’re a really physical side, their front line is top level, they have pace, capacity for both full-backs, they are intense off the ball, aggressive and it’ll be a great challenge for us and we want to make it the same for them too.
Leicester v Man City (2.30pm)
I’ll keep you updated with significant developments in this one, but it’s also got it’s own liveblog with Scott Murray at the helm:
Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton
Never mind the Vitor Pereira bounce, Wolves have been better than Spurs for ages: across their last eight games, for example, a period that includes a run so bad it got the last manager the sack, they have won 12 points to Tottenham’s seven; even over the last 12 they’re 14-13 up. Is this the first game this season they’ve gone into as favourites? Here’s Ange Postecoglou keeping his chin up:
I get where people kind of look at my situation and think ‘Jeez, he needs to do something or else he is in trouble,’ but I don’t think that way. It’s not how I am wired. I’m not concerned about that aspect of this role. What excites me about this role and what I love about doing what I do is the possibilities you can create something special and that’s what I am going to try and do. Our league position is not great but it’s super tight and we’re not that far off. There’s still everything to play for, for us this year to make it a season where we can have success.”
West Ham v Liverpool (5.15pm)
Rob Smyth will be here in due course to take you through this one, so let’s not steal his thunder, eh?
Championship
Blackburn v Hull
Bristol City v Portsmouth
Coventry v Millwall
Derby v Leeds (5.45pm)
Middlesbrough v Burnley (8pm)
Norwich v QPR (12.30pm)
Oxford Utd v Plymouth
Preston North End v Sheff Wed (12.30pm)
Sheff Utd v West Brom (12.30pm)
Stoke v Sunderland
Swansea v Luton
Watford v Cardiff
League One
Birmingham v Blackpool
Bolton v Lincoln City
Charlton v Wycombe (12.30pm)
Exeter v Crawley Town
Huddersfield v Burton Albion
Leyton Orient v Cambridge Utd
Peterborough v Barnsley
Reading v Mansfield
Rotherham v Stockport County (12.30pm)
Shrewsbury v Northampton
Stevenage v Bristol Rovers
Wrexham v Wigan
League Two
Bradford v Chesterfield
Bromley v Swindon (12.30pm)
Carlisle v Accrington Stanley (12.30pm)
Cheltenham v Notts County
Colchester v Doncaster
Fleetwood Town v Harrogate Town
Grimsby v Port Vale
Milton Keynes Dons v Crewe
Salford City v Morecambe
Tranmere v Barrow
Walsall v Newport County
Scottish Premiership
Celtic v St Johnstone
Dundee Utd v Aberdeen (5.15pm)
Hibernian v Kilmarnock
Motherwell v Rangers
Ross County v Hearts
St Mirren v Dundee.
Source: theguardian.com
