Key events
Because of Szoboszlai’s injury they were anyway playing six minutes of stoppage time at Brentford, and with that VAR delay they’re now in the 55th minute of the first half, and still going.
Brentford down to 10 men!
Yehor Yarmoliuk is sent off! Darren England, the VAR, took an age to pick up on the foul, but got there in the end. There was not a lot to it, and Jacquet certainly made the most of it, but there was definitely aggressive movement there, and I suppose that’s enough.
It takes a while for the VAR to get involved, but eventually the referee is asked to go to his screen.
Handbags! Jeremy Jacquet goes down inside the Brentford penalty area as a corner comes in, and it looks like there might have been a headbutt there from Yarmoliuk!
Half time: Fulham 1-0 Hull City
The whistle blows at Craven Cottage, where Fulham have been completely dominant: 79% possession, 10-2 ahead on shots, 25-3 up on touches in the opposition box.
GOAL! Brentford 1-0 Liverpool (Lewis-Potter, 44 mins)
And now Liverpool are behind! It’s just an excellent cross and an excellent header from Potter, who has ghosted unmarked into the heart of the area from midfield.
It’s Dango Ouattara, who dives at the ball and somehow contrives to backheel it away from Mac Allister! The players then come together, and the Argentinian goes down, and given the speed at which it all happens it’s an understandable decision in the moment. It’s also an easy intervention for VAR and precisely the kind of decision that’s there to deal with.
Penalty to Liverpool (but it’ll be overturned)!
Now the referee does point to the spot! But it’s actually a brilliant bit of defending, and he’ll have to overturn this.
At Brentford, Wirtz goes down in the area with a defender’s arm across him, as he tries to spin onto a ball that was probably hit too firmly for him anyway. It’s not nothing, but nor is it enough. Play on.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 Ipswich (Haaland, 34 mins)
The leaders retake the lead! Kovacic crosses from the right, and Haaland runs onto it and sends a low header bouncing into the corner!
Liverpool have indeed taken off Szoboszlai, with Trey Nyoni replacing him.
GOAL! Fulham 1-0 Hull City (Iwobi, 33 mins)
A precious lead for Fulham! A nice finish from the edge of the area, teed up by Berge, though Hull certainly contributed – they give the ball away inside their own area with a mishit clearance, and then the goalkeeper dives over the shot in a way that looks extremely clumsy.
At Brentford, Barcola is booked for pulling back Kayode. Very little contact there, though, and I’m far from certain it was even a free kick. Worse still for Liverpool, Szoboszlai is on the ground and looking grumpy, and they’re preparing a substitution.
Ross County latest: they’re now 4-0 up at Queen of the South, after 25 minutes, and this could get very ugly.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Ipswich (Maeda, 21 mins)
Ipswich equalise within moments! Maeda holds off the defender, convinces Donnarumma that he’s going to shoot towards the far post and instead passes inside the near!
Meanwhile Liverpool really should be in the lead at Brenford: Barcola runs clean through on goal, and has all sorts of time and space to draw the keeper and choose how to finish, but he shoots the wrong side of the post!
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Ipswich (Foden, 18 mins)
A good first-time finish from Foden, after he was set up by Doku’s square pass, puts the league leaders ahead!
West Brom may have started the day above Blackburn in the Championship table but they’re below them now: Andri Gudjohnsen has scored twice in the first 12 minutes and Blackburn are currently in the top eight!
Here’s the Scottish League One table, while there isn’t much else to chat about. Today the team with the worst goal difference (Queen of the South on -19 having conceded 29) is up against the team with the best (Ross County’s +29 having scored 33), so this kind of outcome was pretty predictable.
Mismatch of the day contender: In Scottish League One, Ross County are 3-0 up at Queen of the South with only 10 minutes played. Ross County have a +29 goal difference after nine-and-a-ninth completed games
8 mins: Early days yet, but Liverpool have had their first shot of the day, Szoboszlai completely skying a first-time effort from the edge of the area.
Ollie Arblaster has scored the first goal in the Championship’s 3pm kick-offs, putting Sheffield United one up at Bristol City. A “controlled strike from the edge of the box”, apparently.
Andy Hunter’s match report from the Hill Dickinson is here, and you can find it below.
Chelsea have returned from the international break with an authority that augurs well for Xabi Alonso. A brace from Pedro Neto condemned Everton to an inaugural defeat of the season as the visitors climbed to fourth on the back of their first Premier League clean sheet since January. A head injury sustained by Emi Martínez, who was carried off on a stretcher after seven minutes of treatment, was the only concern from a mature display in the Merseyside sunshine for Alonso’s team.
There were goalkeeping issues at both ends of the field with Jordan Pickford unconvincing for the second week in succession as David Moyes’ side suffered self-inflicted wounds. But Everton could have no complaints about the merits of Chelsea’s victory given their contrasting performances in the second half.
Much more here:
Peeeeeep! It is three o’clock!
A pre-match missive from Billy Munday, our actual correspondent at Craven Cottage!
Fulham and Hull have emerged from the cottage at, er, Craven Cottage with the home side and their manager in particular need of a positive result. Fulham are one of three remaining teams in the Premier League without a win and that means Álvaro Arbeloa is under increasing pressure since his appointment in the summer. This fixture is the second of three of Fulham’s triple header against the promoted sides, having surrendered a lead in the dying minutes at Ipswich last Saturday. It’s a full house.
Voluntary Scotland correspondent Simon McMahon gets in touch: “Hi Simon,” he writes. Hello! “Game of the day in Scotland is at a beautifully sunny McDiarmid Park in Perth where a resurgent Dundee United, having moved into the top six after winning their last two games, face St Johnstone. The Saints themselves have started well after gaining promotion last season, and sit above United on goal difference, so it should be a cracker. The other 3 o’clock kick offs are Aberdeen v St Mirren, Hibs v Falkirk and Kilmarnock v Motherwell. Rangers go to Dundee tonight in the evening kick off while league leaders/crisis club Celtic welcome Hearts tomorrow.”
It’s all over at the Hill Dickinson, where Chelsea have wrapped up a 2-0 win. It’s Chelsea’s first Premier League clean sheet since they beat Brenford at home by the same scoreline exactly and to the day nine months ago.
Meanwhile Chelsea lead 2-0 at Everton, where they are in the third of 11 – eleven – minutes of stoppage time.
BREAKING NEWS: A professional commentator has just described Watford as “majestic”. Today is a remarkable day already.
Will Unwin
The sun is shining at the Etihad Stadium where stalls are eagerly selling inflated bananas at an inflated price. The plastic fruit offers a jovial element amid the crisis swirling around East Manchester. For the fans in attendance, football is the distraction they need, where they can air support for the team and offer their backing to a hierarchy that has brought them unimagined joy in recent times.
There is, however, concern about the predicament they find themselves in, desperately wanting to believe what the executives have told them over the years – but the ruling was damning from the independent commission and at this point the club’s historic name is being dragged through the mud based on a win-at-all-costs model. City are top of the league with a 100% record but the focus will not solely be on results for a very long time until the entire process has concluded, and no one knows when that will be.
Premier League team news
Team news has landed, and here are the lineups in the three 3pm kick-offs in the English top flight:
Brentford v Liverpool
Brentford: Kelleher, Kayode, Ajer, van den Berg, Lewis-Potter, Yarmolyuk, Janelt, Ouattara, Jensen, Anthony, Thiago. Subs: Valdimarsson, Hickey, Schade, Wilson, Carvalho, Sangare, Collins, Damsgaard, Diouf.
Liverpool: Alisson, Araujo, Jacquet, van Dijk, Kerkez, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Munoz, Wirtz, Barcola, Isak. Subs: Mamardashvili, Gomez, Endo, Gakpo, Tsimikas, Frimpong, Nyoni, Koumas, Ngumoha.
Referee: John Brooks.
Fulham v Hull
Fulham: Leno, Castagne, Affengruber, Bassey, Robinson, Berge, Charles, Bobb, King, Iwobi, Garcia. Subs: Lecomte, Tete, Andersen, Palacios, Rodrigo Muniz, Cairney, Kevin, Angel, Sessegnon.
Hull: Tzolakis, Coyle, Ajayi, Egan, Herrington, Norton-Cuffy, Belloumi, Crooks, Slater, Thomas, McBurnie. Subs: Phillips, Giles, Morita, Gelhardt, Hjerto-Dahl, McNair, Stroud, Iroegbunam, Vaz.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh.
Man City v Ipswich
Man City: Donnarumma, Matheus Luiz, Dias, Guehi, O’Reilly, Kovacic, Bouaddi, Ndiaye, Foden, Doku, Haaland. Subs: Rulli, Anderson, Cherki, Fernandez, Ait Nouri, Gvardiol, Allan, Semenyo, Khusanov.
Ipswich: Walton, O’Shea, Diop, Greaves, Davis, Florentino, Palacios, Ouattara, Enciso, Maeda, Emersonn. Subs: Scherpen, Furlong, Kipre, Matusiwa, Fatawu, Flemming, Philogene-Bidace, Akpom, Clarke.
Referee: Farai Hallam.
Preamble
Hello world! Big day today, is it not? Yes, yes it is. Partly because Watford, West Brom, Wrexham, Wigan and Wycombe are all at home, leaving us just just a Walsall away from every-W-team-at-home-at-once full house (if you classify AFC Wimbledon as an A). But also because the 3pm kick-offs include the teams at the top of the Premier League and at the bottom, plus a Liverpool team approaching a semblance of what you might call form visiting a Brentford side that is yet to lose a game all season. Meanwhile in the Championship it’s first against third as Swansea host West Ham, and fourth against fifth as Birmingham host QPR. League One has first (Plymouth) hosting fourth (Huddersfield) while in League Two it’s top (Salford) against bottom (Crawley).
So, without further procrastination, today’s fixtures (3pm unless stated):
Premier League
Brentford v Liverpool
Everton v Chelsea (12.30pm)
Fulham v Hull
Man City v Ipswich
Newcastle v Aston Villa (5.30pm)
Championship
Birmingham v QPR
Bristol City v Sheff Utd
Derby v Stoke
Middlesbrough v Cardiff (12.30pm)
Millwall v Lincoln (12.30pm)
Norwich v Portsmouth
Southampton v Bolton
Swansea v West Ham
Watford v Charlton (12.30pm)
West Brom v Blackburn
Wrexham v Preston
League One
Barnsley v Cambridge
Bradford v Stevenage
Leicester v Doncaster
Leyton Orient v Blackpool
MK Dons v Luton (12.30pm)
Peterborough v Burton (12.30pm)
Plymouth v Huddersfield
Sheff Wed v AFC Wimbledon
Stockport v Bromley
Wigan v Reading
Wycombe v Notts County
League Two
Accrington v Gillingham
Colchester v Exeter
Crewe v Rochdale
Fleetwood v Rotherham (12.30pm)
Grimsby v Northampton
Newport v York
Oldham v Cheltenham
Port Vale v Chesterfield
Salford v Crawley
Shrewsbury v Bristol Rovers (12.30pm)
Swindon v Walsall
Tranmere v Barnet
National League
Aldershot v Wealdstone
Barrow v Forest Green
Boreham Wood v AFC Fylde
Eastleigh v Boston Utd (12.30pm)
Harrogate Town v Sutton Utd (12.30pm)
Hartlepool v Hornchurch
Kidderminster v Worthing (5.30pm)
Scunthorpe v Woking
Solihull Moors v Carlisle
Southend v Halifax
Yeovil v Altrincham
Scottish Premiership
Aberdeen v St Mirren
Dundee v Rangers (8pm)
Hibernian v Falkirk
Kilmarnock v Motherwell
St Johnstone v Dundee Utd
