Goal/No Goal at St Jamesâ
Isak looked like he was clean through and slotted it into the bottom right corner. But he was offside. Itâs still 2-1 to Newcastle.
Meanwhile â Arne Slot makes wholesale changes â changing three including removing Gomes at the back.
City are 3-0 up against Forest and look comfortable. But then again remember Feyenoord?
Forest replace Chris Wood.
Goal!
Newcastle Utd 2 (Anthony Gordon 62) Liverpool 1
Goal!
Aston Villa 3 (Matty Cash 34) Brentford 0
Villa again! Itâs only 34 minutes in and they are cruising.
Goal!
Man City 3 (Jeremy Doku 57) Nottm Forest 0
Doku down the left, dinks inside and sends a great shot into the net. Pep celebrates on the side. Maybe heâll need the six fingers for the score today?
Goal!
Everton 3 (Craig Dawson Og 49) Wolves 0
Madness at St Jamesâ â Gakpo heads a ball across goal and Nunez misses with a lunge by a whisker.
Goal!
Aston Villa 2 (Ollie Watkins Pen 28) Brentford 0
Watkins slots it low to the right.
Penalty at Villa!
Goal!
Newcastle 1 Liverpool 1 (Curtis Jones 50)
Curtis Jones cracker!
Salah scoots down the right hand side and cuts the ball into the path of an onrushing Jones who slots it into the top right hand corner. Great move
Goal!
Aston Villa 1 (Morgan Rogers 21) Brentford 0
Back at the Etihad â theyâre off again. Man City are 2-0 up against Forest and in the driving seat.
No updates from Ian in the crowd at the Emirates â I think his signalâs gone.
From what I can see United â playing in a royal blue away strip â are holding their own. New manager Ruben Amorim is sipping water on the sidelines. Looks calm/comfortable so far.
Half time (at some matches)
Manchester City 2 Nottingham Forest 0
Newcastle United 1 Liverpool 0
Everton 2 Wolves 0
Southampton 1 Chelsea 3
I think those are all right. So much going on.
Close!
Arsenal set piece move â a corner whipped in and Thomas Partey misses a golden chance at the near post. Super close!
Analysis: TV folk think it was easier to score than miss. Which probably tells you it was a sitter.
Seven minutes gone at the Emirates â itâs Arsenal 0 Man Utd 0.
Also 0-0 in the clash between Villa and Brentford.
A period of some calm has descended.
The 8.15 matches are about to start â Arsenal v Man Utd at the Emirates and Villa vs Brentford at Villa Park
At Southampton it looks like a sending off. Referee goes to the pitchside screen and after a check the Saintsâ Jack Stephens is off. Didnât see what that was about but will report back.
Newsflash: it was for violent conduct.
More newsflash: It was pulling Cucurellaâs hair!
Meanwhile Aston Villa v Brentford team news:
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne, Kamara, Tielemans, Bailey, Rogers, McGinn, Watkins
Subs: Olsen, Diego Carlos, Barkley, Duran, Buendia, Torres, Philogene-Bidace,
Maatsen, Bogarde
Brentford: Flekken, van den Berg, Collins, Pinnock, Lewis-Potter, Yarmolyuk, Janelt, Mbeumo, Damsgaard, Schade, Wissa.
Subs: Valdimarsson, Thiago, Carvalho, Mee, Meghoma, Konak, Trevitt, Roerslev, Maghoma
Referee: Lewis Smith
Ok, Iâve copy and pasted Goal! and will just post it every minuteâ¦
Goal!
Everton 2 (Orel Mangala 33) Wolverhampton 0
Goal!
Southampton 1 Chelsea 3 (Noni Madueke 34)
At St Jamesâ there were nerves as VAR checks the goal. Itâs all right and Isak is back on form.
Goal!
Newcastle 1 (Alexander Isak 35) Liverpool 0
Goal!
Man City 2 (Kevin De Bruyne 31) Nottm Forest 0
Heâs back from injury and whacks it into the top right hand corner.
Newcastle 0 Liverpool 0
It is all action at St Jamesâ. Salah nearly latches onto a pass from Quansah who had gone on a bit of a run. Close after 27 minutes.
Calming down. There has been a break in the goalfest. A bit of a drought now ⦠must be at least 5 minute since one was slotted in.
No goal at Goodison!
Everton score again â or do they. Itâs being checked.
TV folk think itâs no goal.
And it has been ruled out. Still 1-0.
Nearly 18 minutes gone at the Etihad and Forest go close forcing a good save from Ortega at his right hand post. Itâs heating up nicely and Forest are playing their part.
Goal!
Southampton 1 Chelsea 2 (Christopher Nkunku 17)
Back at St Jamesâ Park itâs still 0-0 after 15 minutes although Liverpool are pressing hard forcing a save out of Pope before then hitting the post with a Mac Allister shot from outside the area.
Goal!
Itâs raining goals!
Everton 1 (Ashley Young 10) Wolverhampton 0
I only have two hands. I need Pepâs fingers as well.
Goal!
Southampton 1 (Joe Aribo 11) Chelsea 1
Goal!
Manchester City 1 Nottingham Forest 0
De Bruyne heads across the Forest goal â and Silva tucks the ball in from a couple of metres. A strong start for Forest snuffed out.
Goal!
Southampton 0 Chelsea 1
Southampton let one in. Axel Disasi on the mark.
Six minutes in and Newcastle having the best of the ball. They win a free kick but that floats into Kelleherâs arms.
Newcastle go close!
One minute in and Tomali forces a save out of Kelleher. Corner to Newcastle but that comes to nothing. Good start for NFC.
7.30pm: KICK OFF
Four matches under way!
My person-in-the-crowd at the Emirates (thatâs you Ian) isnât overly happy with the Arsenal line up:
âRelatively weak defence for Arsenal so I think we will concede. Just hope that our attacking players score more than we let in!â.
Arsenal v Man Utd team news
Thatâs one of the 8.15 kick offs.
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Partey, Rice, Saka, Havertz, Martinelli
Subs: Tierney, Gabriel Jesus, Trossard, Jorginho, Merino, Sterling, Nwaneri,
Heaven, Neto
Man Utd: Onana, Mazraoui, de Ligt, Maguire, Dalot, Ugarte, Fernandes, Malacia, Mount, Garnacho, Hojlund
Subs: Bayindir, Rashford, Zirkzee, Eriksen, Yoro, Diallo, Casemiro, Antony,
Kukonki
Referee: Sam Barrott
Top tip: Arsenal are celebrating 500 games tonight at Ashburton Grove the Emirates. The club moved out of Highbury in 2006 to their new home built on the old rubbish/recycling tip. Used to go there myself back in the day.
BTW – Theo Walcott played 212 of those games – the most of any player
Foden out with bronchitis
Pep Guardiola confirms Phil Foden wonât play but he welcomes back De Bruyne.
Asked about the the significance of the Belgianâs starting return PG says: âHeâs important. Itâs a long time that he does not play. Itâs important for us.â
He says De Bruyne will take it âstep by stepâ.
Southampton v Chelsea
Southampton: Lumley, Walker-Peters, Bree, Wood-Gordon, Stephens, Manning, Armstrong, Aribo, Fernandes, Fraser, Archer
Subs: McCarthy, Edwards, Sugawara, Brereton, Sulemana, Taylor, Cornet, Amo-Ameyaw, OâBrien-Whitmarsh
Chelsea: Jorgensen, Gusto, Disasi, Adarabioyo, Cucurella, Fernandez, Caicedo, Madueke, Palmer, Joao Felix, Nkunku
Subs: Badiashile, Colwill, Pedro Neto, Jackson, Sancho, Dewsbury-Hall, Veiga, Lavia, Sanchez
Referee: Tony Harrington
Everton v Wolves team news:
Everton: Pickford, Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Gueye, Mangala, McNeil, Doucoure, Ndiaye, Calvert-Lewin
Subs: Virginia, Patterson, Harrison, Beto, OâBrien, Broja, Coleman,
Armstrong, Lindstrom
Wolves: Jose Sa, Doherty, Bueno, Dawson, Ait Nouri, Andre Trindade, Lemina, Joao Gomes, Cunha, Larsen, Goncalo Guedes
Subs: Bentley, Johnstone, Hwang, Rodrigo Gomes, Doyle, Toti Gomes, Forbs, Bellegarde, Pedro Lima
Referee: Michael Salisbury
Newcastle v Liverpool team news:
Newcastle: Pope, Livramento, Schar, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Guimaraes, Joelinton, Jacob Murphy, Isak, Gordon
Subs: Dubravka, Wilson, Barnes, Targett, Osula, Almiron, Kelly, Willock, Longstaff
Liverpool: Kelleher, Gomez, Quansah, van Dijk, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Jones, Gakpo, Nunez
Subs: Endo, Diaz, Szoboszlai, Elliott, Alexander-Arnold, Morton, Nyoni, Jaros, Nallo
Referee: Andrew Madley
Farewell John Docherty
While Brentford take on Aston Villa the Bees are also mourning the passing of John Docherty – former manager and player who died today aged 84. Docherty also managed Millwall, taking them into the old Division 1.
Last game of the evening to mention sees Aston Villa take on Brentford in the late(r) kick off. Weâll be monitoring that one as well.
Villa havenât won a football match since October. Theyâre also hoping global eyeballs will spur them on.
An interesting fact delivered by scrolling â even if it is three days old
Manchester City and Nottingham Forest team news:
Kevin de Bruyne starts.
Man City: Ortega, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Gvardiol, Silva, Gundogan,
De Bruyne, Doku, Haaland, Grealish
Subs: Ederson, Carson, Walker, Savio, Matheus Luiz, Wright, OâReilly, Lewis, McAtee
Forest: Sels, Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Alex, Yates, Dominguez, Elanga, Gibbs-White, Jota Silva, Wood
Subs: Carlos Miguel, Morato, Williams, Anderson, Awoniyi, Hudson-Odoi,
Moreira, Ward-Prowse, Sosa
Referee: Michael Oliver
Back on the blue side of Liverpool, Everton take on Wolves. Both are in the lower reaches of the table.
Sean Dyche knows he is under pressure to improve his teamâs performances.
âMe, my staff and the players, sometimes we havenât done it as well as we could do, but we work tirelessly, I can assure you. This is the most work Iâve done in all my years of management at this football club, without a shadow of a doubt.â
Meanwhile Wolves are welcoming a global audience â are you watching Greater Fort Lauderdale?
Over to bottom-of-the-table Southampton who are up against a Chelsea team who have sparkled of late and now sit in third.
Bluesâ boss Enzo Maresca is not taking anything for granted.
âThe moment we lose games, there will be doubts â I know how it worksâ.
âItâs difficult to continue the whole season in the way we are now. For sure, a different moment will come and we need to manage that and deal with that.â
Over to the Emirates and Arsenal against Man Utd
Ruben Amorim brings his side to North London after a 4-0 thwacking of Everton. And Arsenalâs Mikel Arteta is wary.
âYou can see his fingerprints in what he wants to do straight away,â said Arteta. âHeâs been very clear with what he wants to do. What he did with Sporting was remarkable after so many years. Especially the way he did it and the way his teams are playing. It brings energy to a new club and the players which is always positive. But we have to focus on what weâre doing.â
Meanwhile Amorim is showering praise on Arteta.
âSometimes coaches are just judged about the titles, but what he has been doing in Arsenal is amazing.
âIt transformed the team. He bought some youngsters that now are the big talents in this country. I hope to have the same mindset that he had in the difficult moments because I followed the Premier League for a long time.â
Pep G and Man City host Nottingham Forest
There is pressure on the City manager. If his team donât emerge victorious tonight then Pep will have gone eight games without a win. Thatâs eight fingers!
BTW â heâs been talking about his six-fingered gesture to Liverpool fans at Anfield after that 2-0 defeat last weekend.
âIt [Guardiolaâs gesture] was just to make our fans feel that what we have done is extraordinary,â he says. âI want to prove that we are an incrediÂble football club. Sooner or later itâs going to be the end [of Cityâs success], but I will try to extend as much as possible for the best of my club.â
You can read more here:
And hereâs a pic of Pep not scratching his head
Newcastle take on leaders Liverpool
Still a while to go before it all kicks off but worth casting your eye over a few interviews making the news.
Louise Taylor has an interesting take on the issues at St James Park â with Eddie Howe opening up about the problems at the club.
Howe: âWe have had a lot of issues this summer and we continue to have them.
âWeâre not quite at our best. Iâve had several meetings with all the players to try and get them at their best levels to solve little issues we may have.â
âWithout talking about individuals you need your best players at their best levels,â Howe said, rather pointedly.
Is he pointing to underwhelming performances from Bruno Guimarães, Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon?
âThe squad we have is a very good squad,â Howe said. âItâs our job to do better with it. Iâm confident in the players and Iâm confident in our methods of work. Iâve got no doubts weâll re-find our touch.â Maybe tonight?
Read more here:
Meanwhile Liverpool are pumped up
So this is what we are looking at tonight:
Arsenal v. Man Utd (KO 8.15)
Aston Villa v. Brentford (KO 8.15)
Everton v. Wolverhampton (KO 7.30)
Man City v. Nottm Forest (KO 7.30)
Newcastle v. Liverpool (KO 7.30)
Southampton v. Chelsea (KO 7.30)
And here is the table as it stands
Hello, good evening, afternoon or morning depending where in the world you may be reading this.
Joyous news â weâve got six premier league matches tonight. Six!
So many plots and subplots. Itâs like one of those Christopher Nolan films â but all about football.
Questions Iâm asking are: will Pep Guardiola have enough fingers (and toes) to count his teamâs defeats by Xmas? Will Eddie Howe stop a soaring Liverpool and can Manchester Unitedâs resurgency scupper Arsenal at the Emirates? Lots of questions.