Key events
Everton 0-1 Crystal Palace
“It’s a long time since I’ve seen a half like that one from Yeremy Pino,” writes Gary Naylor, as two-eyed as ever.
Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise were irreplaceable, individually and as a pair, but to get Pino and Ismaila Sarr for a combined £35m is exceptional business. Moneyball porn.
Half time: Newcastle 0-0 Nottm Forest
So far so good for Ange Postecoglou, whose team have defended solidly at St James’ Park. Matz Sels made one very good save to keep out Joelinton’s header but the stormy forecast has yet to materalise.
Half time: Aston Villa 1-0 Burnley
A strong first-half performance from Villa, who are ahead thanks to a classy finish from Donyell Malen.
Half time: Wolves 1-0 Brighton
Wolves lead thanks to a desperately unfortunate own goal from Brighton keeper Bart Verbruggen. It was missed by Wolves boss Vitor Pereira, who was on his way to the stands after being sent off.
Half time: Everton 0-1 Crystal Palace
The brilliant Daniel Munoz – arguably the Premier League’s best right-back – has given Crystal Palace the lead at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
45 min: Newcastle 0-0 Nottm Forest A bit of a flare up at St James’ Park, though it’s not clear why. The referee calms everything down quickly enough.
41 min: Everton 0-1 Crystal Palace That Munoz goal stemmed from a superb turn by Yeremy Pino, who looks such a bargain at £21.6m.
Palace’s attacking square – the two central midfielders and the two No10s – really is full of class: Kamada, Wharton, Pino and Sarr. And between them they cost barely £50m.
40 min: Aston Villa 1-0 Burnley Villa have a big penalty appeal turned down. Morgan Rogers tried to run onto a return pass from John McGinn and went over after a slight tug of shirt from Axel Tuanzebe. The referee, and Team VAR, decided there wasn’t enough contact for a penalty.
GOAL! Everton 0-1 Crystal Palace (Munoz 37)
The bullet train gives Crystal Palace the lead at Hill Dickinson Stadium! Yeremy Pino and Ismaila Sarr combined superbly to release the tireless Daniel Munoz, who slid the ball under Pickford from the angle.
36 min: Aston Villa 1-0 Burnley I think a Burnley corner just swirled onto the top of the crossbar, though I’m not 100 per cent sure because there are four games going on at the same time!
35 min: Aston Villa 1-0 Burnley A long throw for Burnley is half cleared towards Josh Cullen on the edge of the area. He cracks a low shot that is fingertipped round the post by the diving Martinez. That’s a very good save.
Championship match report: Ipswich 3-1 Norwich
33 min: Newcastle 0-0 Nottm Forest Neco Williams does get a yellow card for a trrp on Tonali.
31 min: Newcastle 0-0 Nottm Forest Ryan Yates catches Bruno Guimaraes in the face with his elbow while trying to hold him off. VAR has a look but there wasn’t enough force to justify a red card.
28 min: Everton 0-0 Crystal Palace That Mitchell chance came in transition but Palace have had 68 per cent possession so far.
26 min: Everton 0-0 Crystal Palace Tyrick Mitchell misses a half chance for Palace thrashing just wide on the counter-attack. Did that brush the near post? Not sure. It wasn’t a goal so pipe down.
Premier League latest
GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Burnley (Malen 25)
Villa’s resurgence continues. Donyell Malen runs onto a terrific through ball from Kamara, slides forward and screws the ball carefully across Dubravka. Nice finish.
23 min: Newcastle 0-0 Nottm Forest Gibbs-White’s cross from the right finds Wood unmarked at the far post. He can’t decide whether to shoot first time or control the ball, and in the end does neither. That’s Forest’s best chance to date.
GOAL! Wolves 1-0 Brighton (Verbruggen og 22)
Vitor Pereira is in the bowels of Molineux right now so he won’t have seen this opening goal. Marshall Munetsi’s sizzling volley was tipped brilliantly onto the underside of the bar by Verbruggen – but the ball rebounded off his trailing arm and into the net. Dumb luck for Verbruggen and Brighton.
Vitor Pereira sent off
21 min: Wolves 0-0 Brighton The Wolves head coach Vitor Pereira is off to the stands after being shown a red card. We’re not sure why at this stage, but as soon as somebody else reports it we’ll furnish you with second-hand information!
20 min: Newcastle 0-0 Nottm Forest Free-kick to Forest just outside the area. Gibbs-White whips it over the wall and Nick Pope beats it away; a comfortable enough save.
Just before that, Jordan Pickford threw up his left hand to keep out Marc Guehi’s deflected snapshot. Good save.
17 min After 68 minutes (17×4) it’s still goalless in the inaugural Sky Sports multiview.
15 min: Newcastle 0-0 Nottm Forest A terrific save from Matz Sels, who reaches to his right to claw away Joelinton’s close-range header.
14 min Anyone else got a headache?
13 min: Aston Villa 0-0 Burnley Morgan Rogers’ shot takes a big deflection and loops just wide of the far post. The corner is headed towards goal by Ezri Konsa and pushed away dramatically by the diving Martin Dubravka. Good save.
12 min: Newcastle 0-0 Nottm Forest At St James’, Joelinton shoots too close to Matz Sels from about 12 yards. That was a pretty good chance.
10 min: Aston Villa 0-0 Burnley The Burnley left wing-back Quilindschy Hartman is put through on goal and denied by a fine save by Emi Martinez.
9 min: Everton 0-0 Crystal Palace Jack Grealish drives a crisp low shot from 15 yards that is saved comfortably by Dean Henderson. It looks an open game at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
5 min: Aston Villa 0-0 Burnley Nothing to report from the first five minutes at Villa Park. Villa will fancy their chances of making it four wins in a row in all competitions.
2 min: Everton 0-0 Crystal Palace Okay, I’m giving the multiview a go; it’s worth suffering a bit of pain for the greater good, eh?
As I type, Jordan Pickford makes a good diving save from Yeremy Pino, whose shot from the edge of the area came through a crowd of players.
1 min: Newcastle 0-0 Nottm Forest Peep peep! We’re under way at St James’ Park and, presumably, in the other three games as well.
It’s almost time for the action. Sky Sports are showing all four games on one screen, a first for their Premier League coverage, but it’s a bit headache-inducing and I’m already feeling unwell, so we’ll probably switch between the matches.
On this day in 1997 … Patrick Berger scores a hat-trick against Ruud Gullit’s Chelsea.
“Interesting to see that Forest’s pre-match tracksuits are beige, a reflection perhaps of their bland performances and results since ‘Big’ Ange took the helm,” says Jeremy Boyce. “But seriously, what was he thinking of, taking the Marinakis shilling? Or did he swallow it by accident?”
That confused me too, because he must have known it would take time to implement such a fundamental change of style. Maybe he was desperate to FURB Spurs.
Newcastle v Nottm Forest
“Just quietly, mate, I don’t think Forest have been bad under Ange,” writes Chris Paraskevas. “The results are a little misleading: having watched a few of their games, they’ve either been genuinely unlucky, finished poorly or had every outfield player (including their goalkeeper), along with substitutes, all the backroom staff, the team bus driver, the mascot and the tea lady all pushed up for a (short) corner in the dying embers of a match.
“I’m not Ange’s biggest fan for a bunch of reasons*, but I’m seriously wary of Forest’s attacking quality (including on their bench). Could be a few twists and turns in this one.
* He rejected my ‘connection request’ on LinkedIn.”
I can’t get my head round Ange Postecoglou being under so much pressure. He’s been there less a month. The only legitimate reason for sacking him at this stage would be if he slagged off Brian Clough’s green jumper, and even then a public apology would probably suffice.
Everton v Crystal Palace
“A beautiful day at this beautiful stadium for two very decent sides facing off,” writes your friend and mine, Gary Naylor. “Talking to some Palace lads on the way up, they were expecting a tough match, but agreed with me that JP Mateta is the difference.
“Still, good to feel apprehension rather than fear… for now.”
Wolves v Brighton team news
Wolves (4-3-3) Johnstone; Tchatchoua, S Bueno, Krejci, H Bueno; Munetsi, Andre, Joao Gomes; Arias, Larsen, Hwang.
Subs: Jose Sa, Wolfe, Agbadou, Arokodare, Mosquera, Rodrigo Gomes, Hoever, Bellegarde, Lopez.
Brighton (4-2-3-1) Verbruggen; Wieffer, van Hecke, Dunk, Kadioglu; Baleba, Ayari; Gruda, Gomez, Minteh; Welbeck.
Subs: Steele, Tzimas, Rutter, Watson, Kostoulas, Milner, Boscagli, De Cuyper, Coppola.
Referee Jarred Gillett (Australia)
Newcastle v Nottm Forest team news
Newcastle (4-3-3) Pope; Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Burn; Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton; Elanga, Woltemade, Gordon.
Subs: Ramsdale, Schar, Lascelles, Barnes, Krafth, Osula, Jacob Murphy, Willock, Miley.
Nottm Forest (3-4-2-1)) Sels; Milenkovic, Jair Cunha, Morato; Savona, Anderson, Yates, Williams; Ndoye, Gibbs-White; Wood.
Subs: John Victor, Murillo, Sangare, Hudson-Odoi, Dominguez, Igor Jesus, Hutchinson, McAtee, Bakwa.
Referee Peter Bankes (Merseyside)
Everton v Crystal Palace team news
Everton (4-2-3-1) Pickford; O’Brien, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko; Garner, Gueye; Dibling, Ndiaye, Grealish; Barry.
Subs: Travers, King, Patterson, McNeil, Beto, Coleman, Alcaraz, Aznou, Iroegbunam.
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1) Henderson; Richards, Lacroix, Guehi; Munoz, Wharton, Kamada, Mitchell; Sarr, Pino; Mateta.
Subs: Benitez, Lerma, Nketiah, Uche, Hughes, Canvot, Sosa, Devenny, Cardines.
Referee Michael Salisbury (Lancashire)
Aston Villa v Burnley team news
Aston Villa (poss 4-2-3-1) Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne, Kamara, Bogarde; McGinn, Rogers, Malen; Watkins.
Subs: Bizot, Lindelof, Barkley, Elliott, Buendia, Jimoh, Maatsen, Onana, Guessand.
Burnley (5-4-1) Dubravka; Walker, Tuanzebe, Laurent, Esteve, Hartman; Tchaouna, Cullen, Florentino, Anthony; Foster.
Subs: Weiss, Worrall, Bruun Larsen, Ugochukwu, Edwards, Humphreys, Flemming, Broja, Mejbri.
Referee Andrew Kitchen (Durham)
Read Jonathan Wilson on Crystal Palace
All the talk is of where Oliver Glasner might go next. His contract expires at the end of the season and he has refused to sign an extension. He is 51; if he is going to take over a major club with the possibility of an extended spell in charge, he doesn’t have a huge amount of time to secure a move. Could he then be the solution for Manchester United? He does, after all, play the same 3-4-2-1 as Ruben Amorim, just rather more successfully.
Which raises the question of why a system that has drawn so much scepticism at United works so well at Palace. But it’s never just about the formation, nor is it the case – within reason – that one formation is intrinsically better than another. Rather certain formations, in combination with the style they are enacted, prioritise certain elements of play. It is, at the very least, intriguing that since Harry Catterick’s Everton won the championship in 1962-63 with a W-M, only one side has won the English league title playing with a back three: Antonio Conte’s Chelsea in 2016-17.
Newcastle v Nottm Forest
Ange Postecoglou was appointed as Nottingham Forest manager less than a month ago. According to some reports, he could be sacked if Forest lose at Newcastle today.
The Premier League table ahead of today’s action
Preamble
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to a four-pronged Premier League clockwatch. These are the matches we’ll be following:
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Aston Villa v Burnley
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Everton v Crystal Palace
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Newcastle v Nottm Forest
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Wolves v Brighton
All four games kick off at 2pm. We’ll have team news and build up before that.
