Key events
There have been four early games in the Championship as well. Here are the luncheon-infused classifieds.
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Cardiff City 5-0 Plymouth Argyle
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Luton Town 3-0 Watford
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Oxford United 1-1 West Bromwich Albion
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Preston North End 1-0 Coventry City
Cardiff spring from the bottom of the table by routing the extremely hard-to-predict Plymouth Argyle. Luton also enjoy themselves with a big win, theirs coming over M1 rivals Watford. Coventry City, who in a parallel universe are the holders of the FA Cup, continue their worrying decline with defeat at Preston. And Oxford continue to go along nicely, like it was the mid-80s all over again, a late equaliser earning a point against promotion hopefuls West Brom. All of which means the table looks like this going into the 3pms …
The Premier League table. Here’s how everyone sits after Tottenham’s rout of their London rivals and ahead of the 3pms. Aston Villa, Brighton, Newcastle, Fulham and Brentford all have a chance to make some waves towards the top, but it’s down below where the real action is this afternoon, with relegation six-pointers involving Ipswich, Everton, Saints and Leicester. Manchester United meanwhile are loitering on the Purgatory Mezzanine, so expect plenty more noise coming from off-stage afterwards if they don’t pick up three points at Old Trafford.
FULL TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 West Ham United. The lunchtime match has just finished, and this time it’s been West Ham’s turn to implode in the second half. Spurs rebound from their capitulation at Brighton to move into sixth place in the Premier League … for a couple of hours at least. Ange Postecoglou’s side were full of the usual attacking verve, though the Hammers were a desperate shambles and Julen Lopetegui trotted off down the tunnel with a face on. Rob Smyth has all the details.
Celtic v Aberdeen teams
Kyogo, who replaced Adam Idah during Celtic’s 2-1 win at Ross County, does so from the start this time. Aberdeen meanwhile are unchanged; 13 wins out of 13 matches this season, you see.
Celtic: Schmeichel, Johnston, Trusty, Scales, Valle, Engels, McGregor, Hatate, Furuhashi, Kuhn, Maeda.
Subs: Sinisalo, Palma, Idah, Yang, McCowan, Bernardo, Forrest, Ralston, Welsh.
Aberdeen: Mitov, Devlin, Rubezic, Molloy, MacKenzie, Shinnie, Nilsen, Keskinen, Clarkson, McGrath, Nisbet.
Subs: Doohan, Lopes, Besuijen, Palaversa, Sokler, Morris, Milne, MacDonald, Ambrose.
Southampton v Leicester City teams
Cameron Archer replaces Ross Stewart, who went off injured during Southampton’s surprisingly resilient display at Arsenal. Leicester also make a switch in attack, calling up Bilal El Khannouss.
Southampton: Ramsdale, Sugawara, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Walker-Peters, Manning, Dibling, Aribo, Downes, Fernandes, Archer.
Subs: McCarthy, Smallbone, Armstrong, Lallana, Sulemana, Taylor, Fraser, Ugochukwu, Onuachu.
Leicester City: Hermansen, Justin, Faes, Okoli, Kristiansen, Ndidi, Skipp, Buonanotte, El Khannous, Mavididi, Vardy.
Subs: Ward, Coady, Fatawu, Winks, De Cordova-Reid, Ayew, Ricardo Pereira, Soumare, Edouard.
Newcastle United v Brighton & Hove Albion teams
It’s all about the big-name strikers at St James’ Park, the spiritual home of the archetypal number nine. Alexander Isak is back for Newcastle while comeback kings Brighton, high after their 3-2 win over Spurs, welcome back Evan Ferguson.
Newcastle United: Pope, Livramento, Schar, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Guimaraes, Joelinton, Jacob Murphy, Isak, Gordon.
Subs: Vlachodimos, Barnes, Krafth, Osula, Almiron, Kelly, Willock, Longstaff, Miley.
Brighton & Hove Albion: Verbruggen, Veltman, Dunk, Igor, Kadioglu, Rutter, Baleba, Hinshelwood, Ayari, Welbeck, Ferguson.
Subs: Steele, Lamptey, Gruda, Enciso, Moder, Mitoma, Wieffer, van Hecke, Estupinan.
Manchester United v Brentford teams
Matthijs de Ligt, Lisandro Martínez and Casemiro return for United after the goalless draw at Aston Villa. Brentford are unchanged following their 5-3 rout of Wolves.
Manchester United: Onana, Dalot, de Ligt, Evans, Martinez, Casemiro, Eriksen, Garnacho, Fernandes, Rashford, Hojlund.
Subs: Bayindir, Lindelof, Mazraoui, Zirkzee, Diallo, Antony, Ugarte, Wheatley, Fletcher.
Brentford: Flekken, van den Berg, Collins, Pinnock, Ajer, Janelt, Norgaard, Mbeumo, Damsgaard, Lewis-Potter, Schade.
Subs: Roerslev, Trevitt, Konak, Meghoma, Yarmolyuk, Mee, Carvalho, Wissa, Valdimarsson.
Ipswich Town v Everton teams
Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess step up for Ipswich in the wake of the 4-1 loss at West Ham. Everton also make two changes, after their goalless draw with Newcastle, Vitaly Mykolenko and Idrissa Gueye getting a start.
Ipswich Town: Muric, Woolfenden, O’Shea, Burgess, Davis, Morsy, Phillips, Burns, Hutchinson, Jack Clarke, Delap.
Subs: Walton, Harrison Clarke, Chaplin, Taylor, Ogbene, Townsend, Szmodics, Hirst, Broadhead.
Everton: Pickford, Young, Tarkowski, Keane, Mykolenko, Doucoure, Gueye, Harrison, McNeil, Ndiaye, Calvert-Lewin.
Subs: Virginia, Begovic, Patterson, Mangala, Beto, O’Brien, Coleman, Armstrong, Dixon.
Fulham v Aston Villa teams
Emile Smith Rowe returns for Fulham, who are attempting to bounce back from their brave 3-2 defeat at Manchester City. Aston Villa welcome back Diego Carlos, Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey, with goal machine Jhon Duran lurking on the bench, hoping to add to his season’s tally of six.
Fulham: Leno, Tete, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson, Pereira, Berge, Traore, Smith Rowe, Iwobi, Jimenez.
Subs: Benda, Reed, Wilson, Rodrigo Muniz, Cairney, Nelson, King, Sessegnon, Diop.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Diego Carlos, Torres, Digne, Onana, Tielemans, Bailey, Rogers, Ramsey, Watkins.
Subs: Gauci, Konsa, Barkley, McGinn, Duran, Buendia, Philogene-Bidace, Maatsen, Kamara.
Preamble
We chased our international pleasures here, dug our Nations League treasures there, and now we’ve broken through to the other side. The Premier League is back, baby, after its latest interminable hiatus, and while the Doors aren’t exactly a fashionable reference point these days, it was either them or the Mike Sammes Singers again. Anyway, here are the 3pm kick-offs …
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Fulham v Aston Villa
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Ipswich Town v Everton
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Manchester United v Brentford
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Newcastle United v Brighton & Hove Albion
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Southampton v Leicester City
… and in Scotland there’s the small matter of Celtic v Aberdeen, so we’ll have news of that 1980s nostalgia trip as well. We’ll post all the team news as it comes in. Forward we go.
