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Key events
After all that drama, these are the final scores in our featured games
Premier League
Scottish Premiership
Championship
GOAL! Cardiff 2-3 Swansea (Cabango 90+9) Ben Cabango has just scored a 99th-minute winner in the South Wales derby!
Snakes and ladders latest
Full time: Rangers 2-0 Dundee Utd
Two goals for Mark Tillman gave Rangers a routine victory at Ibrox.
Full times: Norwich 0-1 Sheff Utd, Huddersfield 4-2 Middlesbrough
Boro’s hopes of automatic promotion may be over after a dramatic collapse at Huddersfield. They are six points behind Sheffield United, who earned a big victory at Carrow Road.
Full time: Brighton 3-3 Brentford
Handshakes all round after a marvellous game at the Amex, where Brighton thrice came from behind against their European rivals Brentford. In their own different ways, these two teams are making the world a better place.
Full time: Nottm Forest 1-1 Wolves
Daniel Podence scored a vital late equaliser and was then accused of spitting in Brennan Johnson’s face.
Full time: Arsenal 4-1 Leeds
Gabriel Jesus scored twice on his return to the starting XI as Arsenal hammered Leeds to move eight points clear at the top.
Full time: Crystal Palace 2-1 Leicester
Palace win their first game of 2023, and now Leicester are officially embroiled.
Full time: Bournemouth 2-1 Fulham
Bournemouth jump from 19th to 15th (provisionally) after a vital second-half comeback.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 2-1 Leicester (Mateta 90+4)
Roy Hodgson is 17 years old again! The substitute Jean-Philippe Mateta has scored a superb goal in the fourth minute of added time!
“I appreciate your opinion about Patrick Kluivert but, for me at least, Batistuta was one of the best strikers ever,” says Bogdan Kotarlic. “He had a great, thundering shot, he was consistent, scoring something like 20 goals in the Serie A every season and he could score some incredible goals.”
He was a magnificent monster. But he was fairly one-dimensional, no? That’s my point about Kluivert really – when he was at his best (‘when’ doing a lot of work there), he had an allround game that arguably nobody in the world could match.
Nottm Forest 1-1 Wolves The Sky Sports pundits are saying that Daniel Podence may have spat in the face of Brennan Johnson – but the replays can’t be conclusive because VAR hasn’t intervened. We’ll hear more about that, I’m sure.
GOAL! Brighton 3-3 Brentford (Mac Allister 90 pen)
Alexis Mac Allister scores Brighton’s third equaliser, smashing the penalty past David Raya.
Penalty to Brighton! Deniz Undav’s goalbound shot is handled by Aaron Hickey, and a penalty is given after advice from VAR. Hickey is booked, which Brighton aren’t thrilled about.
GOAL! Arsenal 4-1 Leeds (Xhaka 87)
A superb header from Granit Xhaka restores Arsenal’s three-goal lead. Since that little blip in February they have won seven league games in a row.
The latest scores in our featured games
Premier League
Scottish Premiership
Championship
GOAL! Nottm Forest 1-1 Wolves (Podence 83)
Another twist at the bottom! Daniel Podence finishes emphatically to bring Wolves level at the City Ground. That’s a problem for Forest, who have stopped winning at home.
“If you’re looking for mid-season signings that maintained momentum,” says Andy Flintoff, “then Ronny Rosenthal in 1990 helped that creaking Liverpool team over the line. Arguably Dalglish’s best signing towards the end of his first spell as manager.”
Funnily enough, he’s on the longlist (along with Avi Cohen) for another Joy of Six I’ve been planning: unlikely title-race heroes.
“Kluivert was a great talent,” says Robert Lin, “but there is really no argument to be made for him as a superior striker to the likes of Ronaldo, Batistuta, Raul or even Shearer.”
Really? I think in the late 1990s, there’s a case he was better than all of them. Ronaldo and Shearer weren’t the same players after injury (and Ronaldo was out most of the time), and none of the four you mention had Kluivert’s range of skills. There was a window of maybe 2-3 years when I thought he was fantastic.
GOAL! Arsenal 3-1 Leeds (Kristensen 76)
Rasmus Kristensen’s shot deflects past Aaron Ramsdale to give Leeds a consolation goal.
GOAL! Bournemouth 2-1 Fulham (Solanke 79)
Oof, this is a huge goal at the Vitality Stadium. Dominic Solanke gobbles up the rebound after a save from Bernd Leno, and as things stand Bournemouth are out of the relegation places. In fact, they’re not even in the picture.
GOAL! Huddersfield 4-2 Middlesbrough (Akpom 74)
What the Klaxons and Grace said.
“Good word, rumpus,” says Rob Wolf Petersen. “Underused, for mine. I wonder how one describes more than one rumpus. Rumpi? Rumpum?
“Hope it’s not rumpuses. That would be far too workaday. Also sounds like it should refer to numerous peculiar cats, as opposed to numerous colourful altercations.”
Apparently it is, alas, rumpuses. Oh well, we’ll always have Miller’s Crossing.
Brighton 2-3 Brentford Lewis Dunk has missed a great chance for Brighton, whose xG has apparently been through the roof in the second half.
Arsenal 3-0 Leeds “He’s going completely under the radar,” says Andrew Hurley, “but has any January signing ever had the stats Trossard has to date?”
Edgar Davids? I suggested a Joy of Six on this – shrewd mid-season signings who quietly keep a title-chasing team on track. We tend to focus either on the gamechangers (Cantona) or the buzzkillers (Marsh, Asprilla, Cascarino), but Trossard has been an inspired signing.
GOAL! Huddersfield 4-1 Middlesbrough (Pearson 66)
Middlesbrough have gone to seed. Matty Pearson has scored his second goal and Huddersfield’s fourth of the second half.
Man City 4-1 Liverpool
“Few realise that Pep loves a big No9 with a good touch,” says Phil Podolsky. “Apparently since playing with Patrick Kluivert back in the day. The Zlatan saga at Barcelona was about that and had I watched the Bundesliga I’m convinced I could’ve provide another example to clinch it. Gomez? Lewandowski? That Italian guy? There must’ve been someone sizable.”
Kluivert is so underrated historically. I know he was erratic, but at his best, certainly in the late 1990s, he was arguably the best centre-forward in the world. Kluivert and Ruud van Nistelrooy were born on the same day, 1 July 1976, and if you combined their careers (Kluivert 1994-2001, van Nistelrooy 2001-12) you’d have one of the all-time greats.
Man Utd 7-1 West Ham (1 April 2000)
“Hi Rob,” says Liz White. “That West Ham game caused so many conflicting feelings. As a United fan, Solskjaer was always one of my favourite players, but as a Canadian, I was also a big fan of West Ham’s keeper, Craig Forrest. He was named the tournament MVP in Canadian men’s team Gold Cup win in 2000.
“After that, more Canadian fans started showing up for national team home games. Until then, most of the supporters would be there to cheer for the away team. The first football game I attended was a friendly between Canada and Jamaica in 1999, where I was about a third of the Canadian support, in a stadium where half the stands were condemned, and attendance in the open section was maybe two thousand.
“All that to say, it hurts my heart a little to watch one of my football heroes get absolutely creamed by one of my other football heroes.”
You say that, but in some ways it was a good day for Forrest: on his previous visit to Old Trafford, with Ipswich in 1995, he conceded nine.
Brighton 2-3 Brentford As things stand, Brentford are only four points away from a Champions League place! That really is astonishing.
Arsenal 3-0 Leeds “That goal by White is a perfect example of what’s so great about Arsenal this season,” says Kári Tulinius. “White, at the far end of the 18 yard box, signals to Martinelli, and without a second’s thought the winger drills a pass across the face of the goal. They all trust each other’s judgment, almost like they’re thinking collectively.”
GOALS! Huddersfield 3-1 Boro (Pearson 57); Norwich 0-1 Sheff Utd (McAtee 62)
At half-time, Middlesbrough were closing in on second-placed Sheffield United. Now, thanks to James McAtee’s goal at Carrow Road, United are six points clear with a game in hand.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-1 Leicester (Iversen 59 og)
Palace are level! Ebere Eze’s free-kick hits the bar, rebounds off the back of the keeper Daniel Iversen and into the net.
GOAL! Rangers 2-0 Dundee Utd (Tillman 55)
Rangers are cruising at Ibrox, where Mark Tillman has scored his second with the aid of a goalkeeping error.
GOAL! Arsenal 3-0 Leeds (Jesus 55)
Gabriel Jesus combines superbly with Leandro Trossard to score his second goal of the day and ensure that Arsenal will be eight points clear at the top of the table tonight. They really are running out of time to mess this up.
GOAL! Huddersfield 2-1 Middlesbrough (Koroma 54)
A big turnaround at Huddersfield, where Josh Koroma has curled the home side into the lead!
GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Leicester (Ricardo 56)
Rodgers in! Leicester have started the second half superbly at Selhurst Park, and now they lead through a screamer from Ricardo Pereira. That goal lifts Leicester above Palace in the as-it-stands table.
The latest scores in our featured games
Premier League
Scottish Premiership
Championship
Nottm Forest 1-0 Wolves Adama Traore goes down in the area after a risky challenge from Felipe. The penalty isn’t given, to Julen Lopetegui’s disgust, and then there’s a rumpus between the two benches. A member of the backroom staff on each side has been sent off.
Crystal Palace 0-0 Leicester
“Rodgers has been a victim of his own success at Leicester,” says Admir Pajic. “He has punched well above the weight with a thin squad that had an excellent XI and not so many options on the bench for the league marathon. That’s why they used to implode in the final month of the Champions League race.
“This season, it was a mix of a fixture list that didn’t allow them gain momentum (a streak of matches against big teams), defensive veterans not properly replaced (which is partly down to him though) and Jamie Vardy no longer being a goal-scoring machine.
“It’s always like this with Rodgers. You don’t know for certain if he is a good manager who is great in overachieving or a good manager who can’t live up with expectations set up by himself. It was like that in Liverpool, it is like that in Leicester.”
GOAL! Brighton 2-3 Brentford (Pinnock 49)
Brentford are ahead for the third time! Ethan Pinnock got the goal, flicking home from Bryan Mbeumo’s free-kick.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 Leeds (White 47)
Arsenal are going eight points clear: Ben White has scored against his old club after good play by the rejuvenated Gabriel Martinelli.
GOAL! Huddersfield 1-1 Middlesbrough (Ruffels 46)
Josh Ruffels equalises in the first minute of the second half.
GOAL! Bournemouth 1-1 Fulham (Tavernier 50)
A spectacular equaliser from the substitute Marcus Tavernier!
Peep peep! The second halves are under way.
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