Preston 0-1 Norwich Teemu Pukki has spanked a shot off the underside of the bar for the leaders Norwich. If they win today they will be 17 points clear of third-placed Swansea, who have two games in hand.
Championship
Derby are on course for their first win since February: Graeme Shinnie’s penalty has put them 2-0 up at home to Luton.
Peep peep! The second halves are under way.
Here’s Pep Guardiola on the news that Manchester City don’t need no Erling Haaland to ride this train
Half-time reading
Peep peep! It’s half time in all the 3pm games, and you can get all the latest scores here. This is the state of play in our featured games:
Championship
- Bournemouth 1-0 Middlesbrough
- Preston 0-1 Norwich
- Watford 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday
League One
- Crewe Alexandra 0-0 Hull City
- Fleetwood 0-0 Peterborough
- Sunderland 1-1 Oxford
League Two
- Cheltenham 3-0 Tranmere
Lynden Gooch equalises for Sunderland, tapping in from three yards after some delightful wingplay from Jordan Jones.
Cheltenham are running riot in the League Two top-of-the-table clash. This one didn’t come from a long throw, but it was self inflicted. Peter Clarke’s pass out of defence was intercepted by Liam Sercombe. He played the ball through to Alife May, who finished with a confident low drive into the far corner.
League One As things stand, there are only two points separating six teams who are chasing the last play-off place. Crikey.
Preston 0-1 Norwich Teemu Pukki has missed an excellent chance to make it two, dragging his shot wide after being put through by Buendia.
Chelsea news
The latest scores in our featured games
Championship
- Bournemouth 1-0 Middlesbrough
- Preston 0-1 Norwich
- Watford 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday
League One
- Crewe Alexandra 0-0 Hull City
- Fleetwood 0-0 Peterborough
- Sunderland 0-1 Oxford
League Two
- Cheltenham 2-0 Tranmere
James Henry has put Oxford ahead at the Stadium of Light with a cracking low drive from the edge of the area. That’s an excellent goal.
Everton news
Jean-Philippe Gbamin is finally ready to launch his Everton career under Carlo Ancelotti 20 months after his last appearance for the club.
The Ivory Coast international has endured a torrid time with injury since being signed for £22.5m from Mainz in August 2019 as the intended replacement for Idrissa Gana Gueye. Having returned to full training a fortnight ago, however, the 25-year-old is in contention to make his comeback against Crystal Palace on Monday.
“Gbamin is in good condition,” confirmed Ancelotti, who will also have James Rodriguez back from injury for the visit of Roy Hodgson’s side. “It is really good news. He did well and he feels comfortable. I think the medical staff did a fantastic job with him. He is ready to play.
“He will put physicality and quality into the squad, and a strong desire to play. It is like we have a new player. We are really pleased to have him back but we have to consider the fact he didn’t play for at least one year and a half. I don’t know if he is going to play on Monday but, for sure, he will be available.”
Jordan Pickford remains sidelined with the abdominal problem that forced the goalkeeper to miss England’s recent World Cup qualifiers but Robin Olsen, who has also been absent through injury, will be available.
A touch of class from Emi Buendia puts the leaders in front. He swerved away from a defender on the edge of the D and cracked a beautiful shot into the bottom corner with his left foot.
Another long throw from Ben Tozer, another goal! It was flapped away by the keeper Joe Murphy towards Callum Wright. He smacked the ball back into the six-yard box and Will Boyle divered it into the net.
Philip Billing has put Bournemouth ahead in the Woodgate derby. It was a precise finish, forced past Marcus Bettinelli after Danjuma lobbed the ball over his head.
In other news
Watford are ahead at Vicarage Road. Ismaila Sarr’s superb low cross has been put into his own net by Tom Lees, who had to do something with a Watford player waiting behind him to score. He probably didn’t have that in mind, though.
An early goal in the big League Two match. Conor Thomas has put Cheltenham ahead, scoring from close range after a long throw from Ben Tozer caused the intended chaos in the Tranmere area.
Peeeeeeeep peeeeeeeeep! The 3pm games are under way.
League Two
The two early games have finished goalless: Scunthorpe 0-0 Crawley and Bolton 0-0 Colchester. That’s a disappointing result for promotion-chasing Bolton, who have been in outstanding form.
Full time: Doncaster 0-1 Charlton That’s an excellent win for Charlton, their first under Nigel Adkins. Ian Maatsen, on loan from Chelsea, scored the only goal to lift Charlton from 10th to fifth in the table, at least for the next couple of hours.
Preston North End v Norwich team news
Preston North End Iversen, van den Berg, Storey, Lindsay, Hughes, Barkhuizen, Ledson, Johnson, Sinclair, Jakobsen, Evans.
Subs: Bayliss, Whiteman, Molumby, Huntington, Maguire, Hudson, Bodin, Gordon, Potts.
Norwich Krul, Mumba, Hanley, Omobamidele, Quintilla, McLean, Sorensen, Emi, Dowell, Cantwell, Pukki.
Subs: Vrancic, Hugill, Placheta, Nyland, Stiepermann, Skipp, Martin, Hernandez, Tettey.
Referee Dean Whitestone (Northamptonshire)
Bournemouth v Middlesbrough team news
Bournemouth Begovic, Smith, Carter-Vickers, Steve Cook, Rico, Lerma, Wilshere, Stanislas, Billing, Danjuma, Solanke.
Subs: Kelly, Mepham, Long, Surridge, Stacey, Riquelme, Pearson, Travers, Anthony.
Middlesbrough Bettinelli, Fisher, Hall, McNair, Bola, Morsy, Howson, Mendez-Laing, Kebano, Watmore, Bolasie.
Subs: Johnson, Akpom, Ashley Fletcher, Archer, Saville, Spence, Coulson, Coburn.
Referee Simon Hooper (Wiltshire)
Sunderland v Oxford team news
Sunderland Burge, McLaughlin, Sanderson, O’Nien, McFadzean, Power, Scowen, Jones, McGeady, Gooch, Wyke.
Subs: Maguire, O’Brien, Matthews, Diamond, Leadbitter, Winchester, Stewart.
Oxford Utd Stevens, Forde, Moore, Atkinson, Hanson, Henry, Brannagan, Sykes, Shodipo, Taylor, Barker.
Subs: Eastwood, McNally, Winnall, Agyei, Grayson, Lee, Kelly.
Referee Trevor Kettle (Rutland)
Cheltenham v Tranmere team news
Cheltenham Griffiths, Long, Tozer, Boyle, Blair, Sercombe, Thomas, Wright, Hussey, Smith, May.
Subs: Flinders, Raglan, Williams, Azaz, Lloyd, Chapman, Vassilev.
Tranmere Murphy, Khan, Clarke, Ray, MacDonald, O’Connor, Spearing, Woolery, Feeney, Morris, Lewis.
Subs: Ridehalgh, Nelson, Jones, Crawford, Kirby, David Nugent, Lloyd.
Referee John Busby (Oxfordshire)
Fleetwood Town v Peterborough team news
Fleetwood Town Cairns, Hill, Connolly, Holgate, Burns, Batty, Rossiter, Finley, Andrew, Garner, Vassell.
Subs: Coleman, Camps, McKay, Saunders, Donacien, Biggins, Rydel.
Peterborough Pym, Thompson, Kent, Beevers, Butler, Brown, Reed, Ward, Szmodics, Burrows, Clarke-Harris.
Subs: Eisa, Taylor, Dembele, Gyollai, Kanu, Hamilton, Mason.
Referee Ben Speedie (Liverpool)
Crewe v Hull team news
Crewe Jaaskelainen, Daniels, Beckles, Lancashire, Pickering, Lowery, Wintle, Ainley, Dale, Porter, Kirk.
Subs: Mandron, Richards, Offord, Murphy, Walker, Evans, Wood-Gordon.
Hull Ingram, Coyle, Alfie Jones, Greaves, Elder, Slater, Docherty, Wilks, Honeyman, Lewis-Potter, Eaves.
Subs: Long, Emmanuel, McLoughlin, Crowley, Whyte, Magennis, Callum Jones.
Referee Chris Pollard (Suffolk)
Watford v Sheffield Wednesday team news
Watford Bachmann, Femenia, Troost-Ekong, Sierralta, Masina, Hughes, Chalobah, Zinckernagel, Sarr, Success, Joao Pedro.
Subs: Foster, Ngakia, Sema, Gosling, Lazaar, Gray, Kabasele, Sanchez,
Hungbo.
Sheff Wed Wildsmith, Lees, Hutchinson, Borner, Urhoghide, Pelupessy, Bannan, Reach, Windass, Rhodes, Paterson.
Subs: Palmer, Harris, Penney, Green, Brown, Shaw, Hunt, Jackson, Kachunga.
Referee Chris Kavanagh (Lancashire)
You can see a full list of today’s games here. These are the 3pm kick-offs that we’ll be featuring.
Championship
- Bournemouth v Middlesbrough
- Preston v Norwich
- Watford v Sheffield Wednesday
League One
- Crewe Alexandra v Hull City
- Fleetwood v Peterborough
- Sunderland v Oxford
League Two
- Cheltenham v Tranmere
Manchester City
There is a ... big chance that maybe we are not going to sign a striker for next season
So says Pep Guardiola. It’s a quote that might be worth revisiting in July, especially if Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi are cavorting about the Etihad.
League One There are just over 20 minutes remaining at Doncaster, where Charlton lead 1-0 through a goal from Ian Maatsen. There are also two early games in League Two, both of which at half-time: Bolton 0-0 Colchester and Scunthorpe 0-0 Crawley.
It’s Friday, so José Mourinho must have had a whinge. And so he has, this time at the Premier League for having to play Southampton in the week of the Carabao Cup final. .
Spurs will play Southampton at home on April 21, four days before the April 25 showpiece at Wembley. City play Aston Villa the same evening.
I am happy that it is Wednesday, I thought it could have been Thursday or Friday. In the beginning of the competition it is nothing that surprises me. In fact when we were knocked out of the Europa League and we had all these midweeks open I immediately thought that the game against Southampton was not going to be played in one of these weeks. It is not something that surprises me. I don’t want to speak about it more. But on April 25, we will be there.
Actual team news, and it’s good news for Spurs fans. Son Heung-min will return against Newcastle after the hamstring injury he suffered in the north London derby.
Son is good. He will be selected. He was injured, he trained with the team fully for the first time this morning. Yesterday he was coming to do partial exercises, not a complete session, this morning was the first day he did it. Last week he didn’t train at all so it was completely impossible to play international. This time was a good chance for him to recover.
Oh Ole, oh no. Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood are doubts for Manchester United’s return to Premier League action against Brighton on Sunday.
Martial picked up a knee injury on France duty, though Rashford and Greenwood are in training after they pulled out of the England senior and Under-21 squads respectively. Ole seems positive about them.
Always when you send them away on an international break, you keep your fingers crossed that they’ll be available for you. I don’t know about Anthony, he didn’t join in the training this morning. But Marcus and Mason, they trained for the first time this morning and hopefully they can get through that today with no reaction for tomorrow. If they complete the session tomorrow, then they might be available for selection.
And on Dean Henderson v David de Gea? Henderson has started the last six United matches.
You know, I have the great option of two top goalkeepers and it’s a pleasure to have them here. We’ve got hopefully got nine plus five games to go - we want to go all the way in the Europa League as well. I’m sure you’ll see both of them playing in goal for us.
Rather like Hansi Flick, Robert Lewandowski and Poland, Zinedine Zidane has been forced say he doesn’t blame Spain for captain Sergio Ramos’s latest injury.
Ramos picked up a calf injury while doing warm-down exercises with Spain after their 3-1 victory over Kosovo. He had only come on as an 86th-minute substitute in the World Cup qualifier and will miss both legs of the Champions League quarter-final meeting with Liverpool, as well as next Saturday’s Clasico against Barcelona.
“We always want Sergio to be fit and available, but now we just have to focus on the players who we’ve got,” Zidane said ahead of Saturday’s visit from Eibar. “These things happen in football, the part of the game we don’t like. But things happen and you just have to accept them. We want him to recover and be back as soon as possible. We know what a player and captain he is. I’d obviously like to have all my players fit, but that’s not the case. We’ve got 10 games to go in La Liga and we need to focus.”
Toni Kroos and Eden Hazard (remember him?) have returned to training.
What can Kelechi do against his old club? James Maddison back, too?
That’s it from me for now. John Brewin will lovingly feed you team news and manager quotes for the next hour or so. Bye!
Arsenal v Liverpool Two of Arsenal’s bright young things, Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe, are doubtful for tomorrow’s match against Liverpool. But Martin Odegaard will be fit to start despite hurting his ankle while on international duty.
Southampton v Burnley Danny Ings and Theo Walcott should return from injury for Southampton, but they are likely to be without James Ward-Prowse. He picked up a calf injury with England.
“Hi Rob, Ian Copestake here,” says Ian Copestake. “Can you hear me? Happy Easter yeah to you and your “team.” I wonder if future generations of football fan will talk like Mikel Arteta, and head to the match to see how the project is going.”
I wish Brian Clough was still around. “Brian, three questions: how would you define your journey at Nottingham Forest so far, are you happy with the way the project is progressing and what changes have you made to the culture at the club?”
Newcastle v Tottenham Hotspur A soupçon of optimism for Newcastle fans: the wildly entertaining Allan Saint-Maximin is likely to return to their squad for the match against Spurs on Sunday.
Arsenal v Liverpool Mikel Arteta, who is in year two of his Arsenal journey (sic), has been full of praise for how Liverpool went from also-rans to the best team in the world.
“I don’t like to compare different projects - I think what they’ve done is remarkable. It’s been really intelligent. The way they managed resources and the way they have maximised resources has been exceptional. They’ve done it really, really well and now it is about sustaining that.
“We are in different phases of that project right now but we know exactly where we are and where we want to be and in the first one of two phases. We had some priorities that we had to address to be in a position to now evolve the squad, evolve the team and start to compete on a different level and this is where we are.”
Real Madrid meet Liverpool in the Champions League next week, and you know what that means: a whole lotta love for Andrea Dossena. Will Unwin has been speaking to him.
Iconic goal klaxon
Thirty-five years ago today, Johannes Antonius Bernardus Metgod got hold of one.
Hello, Rob here, taking over for a while so that John can rustle up his usual confit of salmon with new potato & crab crush & dill drizzle for lunch. Let’s start with a bit of not particularly surprising news: Thomas Tuchel has been named Premier League manager of the month for March. His Chelsea team beat Liverpool and Everton before drawing 0-0 at Leeds.
Premier League (@premierleague)
Bossing it on the touchline 🔵
March's @BarclaysFooty 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵: Thomas Tuchel 👏#PLAwards pic.twitter.com/8tndi8Wfg9
April 2, 2021
No Robert Lewandowski for quite a while for Bayern Munich (four weeks is the estimate), and Hansi Flick must shuffle his options ahead of a *big* game with RB Leipzig on Saturday. The Polish goal machine had scored 35 Bundesliga goals and looked on track to break the record 40-goal haul of Gerd Müller from the 1971-72 campaign. Perhaps not now. There are eight matches left of the season and Lewa will probably miss four of them at best.
“These are situations that coaches have to face,” Flick said. “I feel sorry for the player as well. I would have liked to have all the players. We all know that Robert is an important player. Now we have to see how we will solve this. We have players who can play that position. It is a challenge for us all and we have to tackle it.”
The Stoke City legend Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting is likely to replace Lewandowski at Leipzig.
Will Jordan Henderson and/or Virgil van Dijk go to the Euros? That’s up to their national teams, says Jürgen Klopp. Henderson had groin surgery in February, while Van Dijk ruptured his ACL damage in October. Frank de Boer says Van Dijk might be back, while Gareth Southgate was rather less optimistic about Henderson.
“I don’t want to take a player away from England or Holland, if they’re ready, they’re ready. It’s not down to me to make these decisions,” said Klopp at today’s press conference ahead of Liverrpool’s match with Arsenal. I have no idea about the Euros. Nothing has changed. They are where they should be at the moment. If they are ready then they are ready. They are in a rehab process.”
Congratulations, Kelechi. Seven goals in four matches (five in three in the Premier League) was pretty sensational, and the answer to Brendan’s prayers.
Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL)
Leicester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho has been named March’s Premier League player of the month.
April 2, 2021
Paul Heckingbottom faces the club where he had a brief but disappointing spell as manager, just like everyone else between David O’Leary and Marcelo Bielsa at Elland Road, aside perhaps from Simon Grayson.
Ben Fisher has spoken to the Brentford manager. His team begin the day back in fourth in the Championship, before they play Huddersfield on Saturday lunchtime.
Jack is back: Probably. Aston Villa will be able to welcome back Grealish when they play Fulham on Sunday. They have won just one of their six games without him. Dean Smith seems happy to have him back, while guarded.
He trained all week, he’s only had a few sessions but seems fit enough and has certainly put himself up for selection. The performances over the last six weeks haven’t been what they were previously. If anyone loses a player of the calibre of Jack you are going to struggle a bit. It will be a big boost for everyone to have Jack back.
There may be developments today on this story. Eddie Howe seems an odd fit but could he be a better manager than Stevie? It’s not impossible.
Manchester United have launched a new anti-racism campaign, See Red. The club’s players have been targeted, including Fred after last month’s FA Cup loss to Leicester. United have set up an online reporting system and is encouraging supporters to report incidents of racism or other hate crimes and speak out when there is discriminatory abuse.
Manchester United (@ManUtd)
🔴 We 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 the comments.
⚪️ We 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿 the abuse.
⚫️ We 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 the hatred.But without an inclusive and diverse history, what would we have?#allredallequal #SeeRed pic.twitter.com/m08smRuCIY
April 2, 2021
Roy Hodgson doesn’t much enjoy being asked about his future, as he was on Thursday ahead of Crystal Palace’s match with Everton on Monday.
Every week I get the same question, every week I give the same answer and I will continue doing that until such time I feel there is an announcement to be made. I am not interesting in having that discussion at the moment. I am interested in working very hard with the players to make certain we finish this season properly. As a result it is the games that are ahead of us which interest me much more than next season. When the time is right, we’ll discuss it.
The least surprising quote of the day award has already gone to Sam Allardyce for praising Thomas Tuchel for prioritising clean sheets.
West Brom go to the Bridge on Saturday and Big Sam genuflected: “Fantastic because he’s done the right thing. Start with clean sheets and then you build from there. He’s done that absolutely magnificently That’s not to say that Chelsea are not very entertaining, because the quality of the players they’ve got at the other end, they are, and obviously I’m very jealous about that.”
Let’s start this the usual way, with ten things to look out for this weekend, including Cavani, Mitrovic and Paul Heckingbottom.
It’s back, your actual football. Pack up your tedious talk of Gareth Southgate and defensive midfielders in your old kitbag. We’re back into the final straight of the Premier League this weekend, and there’ll be all the talk from the ‘pressers’ to come. But before that, the Championship takes its if-not-quite-traditional-but-now-regular centre stage on Good Friday. Time was when the old First Division would play all over Easter - in the final 1991-92 season before football was invented, Manchester United played on Maundy Thursday, Easter Saturday, Easter Monday and No More Chocolate Wednesday and completely blew the league title. This current lot, with their three matches a week and their Covid-19 protocols don’t know they’re born.
In the Championship, we have these matches to be played today, all kicking off at 3pm (BST) unless stated:
AFC Bournemouth v Middlesbrough
Barnsley v Reading (5.30pm)
Birmingham v Swansea (8pm)
Bristol City v Stoke
Cardiff v Nottingham Forest
Derby v Luton
Millwall v Rotherham
Preston North End v Norwich
QPR v Coventry
Watford v Sheff Wed
Wycombe v Blackburn
And in the Premier League, we’ll be looking ahead to following:
Arsenal v Liverpool (Saturday, 8pm)
Aston Villa v Fulham (Sunday, 4.30pm)
Chelsea v West Brom (Saturday, 12.30)
Everton v Crystal Palace (Monday, 6pm)
Leeds v Sheff Utd (Saturday, 3pm)
Leicester v Man City (Saturday, 5.30pm)
Man Utd v Brighton (Sunday, 7.15pm)
Newcastle v Tottenham Hotspur (2.05pm)
Southampton v Burnley (Sunday, 12pm)
Wolverhampton v West Ham (Monday, 8.15pm)
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