Key events
GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Crystal Palace (Onuachu, 20 mins)
Southampton are winning a game of football! It’s a decent cross from the right and a good header from Paul Onuachu, from maybe 15 yards or so. I’m not entirely sure how it ends up in the net, though: the ball is low and reasonably powerful but nowhere near the corner, and while Henderson gets a good hand to it he somehow manages only to send it squirming slowly over the line.
Danny Mills, watching the Manchester City game, says he is “confused” by a Leicester side that is “almost waving a white flag”.
Ten minutes into the Manchester City game, and a load of fans are just coming in. The protest seems to have had decent numbers, even if the majority of supporters – certainly in the stand that runs along the side of the pitch opposite the TV cameras – were in their seats before kick-off.
A chance for Aston Villa at Brighton: a fine move works the ball from back to front, Digne’s cross finds McGinn in the middle, but his header flies a yard or two wide.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Leicester City (Grealish, 2 mins)
That is an absurdly easy goal to score in the second minute of a game. Leicester lose the ball in their own half and Manchester City work it to the right touchline. Grealish stands in the middle, 15 yards out, with his arms out and the ball is passed, not even very quickly, through the area to him, and he strokes it in!
In their last four games Leicester have won no points, scored no goals, conceded 10 and have generally been in all ways utterly abysmal (if still not as abysmal as Southampton, who have also won no points but have a goal difference of -11). But Manchester City are a lowly 16th in a last-four-game table with four points, and are without Erling Haaland. Is there just a glimmer of hope there for the visitors?
No, probably not.
Meanwhile outside the Etihad Stadium fans are protesting about the club’s decision to partner with Viagogo, a ticket resale site – the club’s ninth third-party ticket-selling partner. Fans groups are calling on supporters not to go to their seats until nine minutes into the game, or failing that to remain silent for the first nine minutes.
Viagogo added as official touting partner, no price freeze on STs, long-standing and loyal fans consistently overlooked. It’s time to take action.
Please support this no-show for the first 9 minutes against Leicester.
Proud to back this alongside @WeAre1894 and @MCFCfoodbank pic.twitter.com/ljD22PlzwJ
— Trade Union Blues (@tradeunionblues) March 28, 2025
Stephy Mavididi is on the bench for Leicester against Manchester City tonight, having apparently had a couple of headphone issues in the build-up. There was one-ear Mavididi:
And then no-ear Mavididi. This is not my understanding of how headphones work:
Liverpool v Everton has its own liveblog, so if you want to focus on that one game may I suggest you join Michael Butler here. But I won’t be ignoring it, and here are the line-ups:
Liverpool: Kelleher, Jones, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Szoboszlai, Diaz, Jota. Subs: Jaros, Endo, Nunez, Chiesa, Gakpo, Elliott, Tsimikas, McConnell, Quansah.
Everton: Pickford, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Gueye, Garner, Harrison, Doucoure, Alcaraz, Beto. Subs: Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Ndiaye, Chermiti, Young, Broja, Coleman, Iroegbunam.
Referee: Sam Barrott.
Premier League teams
Team news is filtering through. I’ll put all the Premier League line-ups here, shall I?
Bournemouth v Ipswich
Bournemouth: Arrizabalaga, Smith, Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Kerkez, Christie, Cook, Ouattara, Scott, Semenyo, Evanilson. Subs: Dennis, Senesi, Brooks, Adams, Soler, Jebbison, Hill, Silcott-Duberry, Winterburn.
Ipswich: Palmer, Tuanzebe, O’Shea, Burgess, Townsend, Morsy, Cajuste, Johnson, Enciso, Broadhead, Delap. Subs: Walton, Woolfenden, Phillips, Chaplin, Jack Taylor, Greaves, Hirst, Philogene-Bidace, Clarke.
Referee: Robert Jones.
Brighton v Aston Villa
Brighton: Verbruggen, Hinshelwood, van Hecke, Dunk, Estupinan, Gomez, Ayari, Adingra, Gruda, Mitoma, Joao Pedro. Subs: Rushworth, March, Cashin, Minteh, Welbeck, Baleba, O’Riley, Tasker, Wieffer.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne, Kamara, Tielemans, Rogers, McGinn, Ramsey, Rashford. Subs: Olsen, Disasi, Mings, Watkins, Garcia, Malen, Maatsen, Onana, Asensio.
Referee: Stuart Attwell.
Manchester City v Leicester
Manchester City: Ederson, Matheus Luiz, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Gonzalez, Gundogan, Savio, Grealish, Doku, Marmoush. Subs: Ortega, Kovacic, De Bruyne, Silva, Vitor Reis, Foden, Bobb, Lewis, McAtee.
Leicester: Hermansen, Faes, Coady, Thomas, Justin, Ndidi, Soumare, Kristiansen, Daka, El Khannous, Vardy. Subs: Buonanotte, Coulibaly, Skipp, Ricardo Pereira, Ayew, De Cordova-Reid, Okoli, Mavididi, Stolarczyk.
Referee: Darren England.
Newcastle v Brentford
Newcastle: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento, Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton, Murphy, Isak, Barnes. Subs: Dubravka, Wilson, Krafth, Osula, Willock, Longstaff, Miley, Neave, Shahar.
Brentford: Flekken, van den Berg, Collins, Pinnock, Lewis-Potter, Norgaard, Janelt, Mbeumo, Yarmolyuk, Schade, Wissa. Subs: Valdimarsson, Mee, Ajer, Damsgaard, Konak, Maghoma, Kayode, Kim, Morgan.
Referee: Peter Bankes.
Southampton v Crystal Palace
Southampton: Ramsdale, Stephens, Bednarek, Harwood-Bellis, Walker-Peters, Downes, Ugochukwu, Manning, Fernandes, Onuachu, Sulemana. Subs: McCarthy, Aribo, Bree, Wood-Gordon, Sugawara, Archer, Dibling, Welington, Bella-Kotchap.
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Clyne, Lacroix, Guehi, Munoz, Wharton, Lerma, Mitchell, Sarr, Eze, Mateta. Subs: Turner, Ward, Nketiah, Franca, Kamada, Esse, Chilwell, Devenny, Kporha.
Referee: Andrew Madley.
Hell world!
The season will be all over next month. The end is nigh. And by now every team’s situation has crystalised. At this point they know what they are competing for, and they know more or less what they need to get there.
Take, for example, Newcastle and Eddie Howe: “There are 10 games, there are a lot of teams competing for those [Champions League] places. It’s one of the tightest Premier Leagues that we’ve seen in recent times, very little between the teams competing for those places, so it’s going to come down to who is the most consistent. Of course, we want that to be us and in those 10 games, we are going to have to give everything to get there.” Or Aston Villa: “There are a lot of teams there fighting for these positions. In the FA Cup we’re playing a semi-final and in the Champions League a quarter-final – it’s amazing how we are facing the last part of the season. We are aware of the difficulties we are going to face and how much we are going to have to get better,” said Unai Emery. Or take Southampton’s Ivan Juric: “I don’t want it to be that we are the worst team in the history of Premier League. If we can be not the last on the table, we have to do our best, so in this moment, this is our goal.”
Tonight things might just clarify a little further. Do Ipswich or Leicester have any kind of hope of survival? Is anyone going to fall off the back of the pack of Champions League aspirants? And there’s a little bonus serving of Championship survival battle and League Two promotion scrap. Here, then, are tonight’s fixtures in full (7.45pm BST kick-offs unless stated):
Bournemouth v Ipswich
Brighton v Aston Villa
Liverpool v Everton (8pm)
Manchester City v Leicester City
Newcastle United v Brentford
Southampton v Crystal Palace
Plus in the Championship:
Derby County v Preston North End
And in League Two:
Notts County v Milton Keynes Dons
