Leicester City v Norwich City, Chelsea v Bournemouth: clockwatch – live!

The flying Finn scores something of a pea-roller of a strike, and perhaps its lack of venom confused Kasper Schmeichel, who was rocking on his heels a little.

Brentford are leading Fulham 1-0 in the West London derby, with Bryan Mbuemo scoring a header.

Joshua Reynolds calls in: “Watching the Stoke/Reading game which has a Charlie Adam revenge wondergoal written all over it. But my real question is, was Sam Vokes ever good? I know he gets picked for Wales, but…”

It’s a great question I don’t have an answer to.

Bayern Munich were drawing 1-1 with Werder, and needed a Philippe Coutinho equaliser on the stroke of half-time to equalise…but here’s Robert Lewandowski has the ball in the net. There’s a VAR check and that’s a goal. FC Hollywood are 2-1 up!

Chelsea are in the ascendancy, with Tammy Abraham going close as the pressure is piled on Bournemouth.

Norwich miss a golden chance; Teemu Pukki had an open goal against Leicester but it stays at 0-0.

Sheff Wed now 2-0 up on Nottingham Forest, with Jordan Rhodes scoring a second. He hadn’t scored since January until now.

Penalty shout for Burnley against Newcastle for a Paul Dummett handball but VAR has waved that away.

Leeds are now 2-0 up, and heading back to the top of the Championship after a Patrick Bamford screamer. Sheffield Wednesday, another crisis club, lead Nottingham Forest after a goal from Jordan Rhodes.

Crisis club Macclesfield Town are 1-0 up on Walsall through Miles Welch-Hayes, a good Maxonian name. Come on Silkmen!

Chelsea have gone close through Mason Mount, which has gone against the run of play against Bournemouth.

Leeds United are 1-0 through Helder Costa against Cardiff. They are trying to keep pace with West Brom.

Sunderland’s season in hell continues as they go 1-0 down to Blackpool in League One through Matty Virtue. And Preston are 1-0 up on Luton as Paul Gallagher slots in a rebounded penalty.

Andy Carroll, who has started for Newcastle up front with Joelinton, has just headed wide against Burnley.

First goal in the EFL comes as Blackburn go 1-0 up on Bristol City; Bradley Johnson is the scorer.

Here’s Andy Hunter’s report from Anfield on yet another Liverpool win.

Worth mentioning West Brom’s 3-2 win at Birmingham, after being 1-0 and 2-1 down, and that puts them clear at the top of the Championship.

Ryan Grubb emails in, and he’s a Football Weekly listener. “Hello John. Happened to catch Nigel’s pre-match interview before the early kickoff and I have to say your impression from this weeks pod was spot on. It felt like an eternity between words. That 20 second interview took about a year and a half. Must make for interesting training sessions…Have a good one!”

Thanks, Ryan.

The team news below on Chelsea omitted to mention that Willy Caballero will the back-up goalkeeper.

Some Opta stats for the afternoon’s Premier League matches.

• Newcastle’s average possession figure this season is just 32.8%, the lowest in the Premier League. The Magpies are the only side yet to have more possession than their opponents in a single Premier League match this season.
• Bournemouth have lost each of their last six Premier League games in London, conceding 20 goals in the process.
• Aston Villa have won only one of their last 26 Premier League away games (D4 L21). (Sweet memories of Tim Sherwood and Remi Garde)
• No side has conceded the first goal in more Premier League games this season than Norwich (10), with the Canaries going on to lose every single one of those. Meanwhile, Leicester have won their last 19 Premier League games when scoring first.

Liverpool are absolutely cruising it. Poor, poor Pep.

They’ve been made to work for this by Nigel Pearson’s Watford but Liverpool are now 11 points clear at the top after a 2-0 win. Bit of pressure on Leicester, then.

His Tottenham team don’t play until tomorrow when they face Wolves, but Mourinho is the focus for this week’s column from Andrew Anthony.

After their game against Crewe last week was postponed after a players’ strike because of unpaid wages, Macclesfield do play today at Walsall in League Two after authorities stepped in to make sure they got paid.

The headline team news there is that Kurt Zouma is given another go by Frank Lampard after a harrowing day at Goodison Park last weekend. Leicester are unchanged from last week’s defeat of Aston Villa.

Chelsea v Bournemouth teams

Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Zouma, Emerson Palmieri, Kante, Jorginho, Willian, Mount, Pulisic, Abraham.
Subs: Christensen, Pedro, Kovacic, Hudson-Odoi, Batshuayi, James.

AFC Bournemouth: Ramsdale, Stacey, Francis, Mepham, Rico, Gosling, Lewis Cook, Lerma, Billing, Fraser, King.
Subs: Boruc, Surman, Solanke, Stanislas, Simpson, Kilkenny, Dobre.

Referee: Graham Scott (Oxfordshire)

Burnley v Newcastle teams

Burnley: Pope, Bardsley, Tarkowski, Mee, Pieters, Hendrick, Westwood, Cork, McNeil, Barnes, Wood.
Subs: Lowton, Drinkwater, Brady, Gibson, Rodriguez, Hart, Lennon.

Newcastle: Dubravka, Manquillo, Fernandez, Schar, Dummett, Willems, Atsu, Hayden, Sean Longstaff, Carroll, Joelinton.
Subs: Gayle, Muto, Krafth, Lejeune, Elliot, Yedlin, Matthew Longstaff.

Referee: Tim Robinson (West Sussex)

Leicester v Norwich teams

Leicester: Schmeichel, Ricardo Pereira, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell, Ndidi, Praet, Tielemans, Maddison, Iheanacho, Vardy.

Subs: Justin, Morgan, Gray, Albrighton, Ward, Barnes, Perez.

Norwich: Krul, Aarons, Zimmermann, Godfrey, Byram, Tettey, Trybull, Emi, McLean, Cantwell, Pukki.
Subs: Vrancic, Hernandez, Lewis, Stiepermann, Fahrmann, Amadou, Srbeny.

Referee: Andrew Madley (West Yorkshire)

Sheffield United v Aston Villa teams.

Sheff Utd: Henderson, Basham, Egan, O’Connell, Baldock, Lundstram, Norwood, Fleck, Stevens, Mousset, McGoldrick.
Subs: Luke Freeman, McBurnie, Sharp, Jagielka, Osborn, Moore, Besic.

Aston Villa: Heaton, Guilbert, Engels, Hause, Targett, McGinn, Nakamba, Lansbury, El Ghazi, Wesley, Grealish.
Subs: Taylor,Douglas Luiz, Konsa, Trezeguet, Nyland, Kodjia, Elmohamady.

Referee: Peter Bankes (Merseyside)

Things on a bit of a knife-edge at Anfield, with VAR playing its part.

Burnley’s star man will be in action this afternoon, and he spoke to Paul Wilson.

Can Frank Lampard’s Chelsea stop the rot? Can Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester keep winning? Those are the key, obvious questions of this Saturday afternoon after Liverpool’s game with Watford is completed.

Chelsea v Bournemouth

Neither team is in particularly good nick at the moment, with Bournemouth on a horrible run, having lost their five matches since beating Manchester United on November 2. Frank’s men have slowed up, having been Big Dunk-ed by Everton; they have won just one of their last five league matches.

Sheffield United v Aston Villa

Two promoted teams from last season have had converging campaigns. Blades have been the surprise package, and are yet to be worked out in the Premier League. Aston Villa, in 18th, struggle badly for goals, and have won just one of their last six matches. Much relies on the individual talent of Jack Grealish while Chris Wilder’s team operate as a unit. Having said that, last week’s defeat of Norwich was a first win in five.

Leicester v Norwich

A team that cannot stop scoring goals against another that cannot stop conceding, a 0-0 is almost guaranteed, though Jamie Vardy is looking to make it nine matches in a row in which he has scored. Norwich are second-bottom, Leicester are top and anything but a home win would be a surprise.

Burnley v Newcastle

One for the purists, almost certainly. Burnley are on a poor run, having lost their last three and having been dismantled last week by Tottenham. A Sean Dyche rocket has surely been launched in the Lancashire area. That defending for Son Heung-min’s goal was horrendous. Meanwhile, Newcastle are defying expectation and xG, and are in 11th.

All that and the latest news from the EFL, in which Leeds v Cardiff is the pick of the day. League Two leaders Wycombe host Burton, and in League Two, it’s Swindon v Oldham in which Eoin Doyle looks to add to his huge total of 18 goals so far this season.