Category: Football (Soccer)

Nikola Milenkovic, Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood got the goals as Nottingham Forest emerged as more than worthy winners

• Read Jamie Jackson’s match report from Old Trafford

Everton P-P Liverpool

Aston Villa 1-0 Southampton

Brentford 4-2 Newcastle United

Crystal Palace 2-2 Manchester City

Manchester United v Nottingham Forest

View the Premier League table

To Ruben Amorim’s recent buzzwords of “suffer” and “storm” Manchester United’s manager can add “defending” after a rearguard horror show culpable for all three Nottingham Forest goals.

As Amorim had mentioned before kick-off, the blustery conditions were no excuse, as the Old Trafford bowl offers protection, while André Onana, Matthijs de Ligt, Lisandro Martínez and Leny Yoro are elite players.

City had to come from behind twice to earn a point, Brentford were impressive at home again and Aston Villa edged past Southampton

Paul MacInnes on an important topic – how clubs are squeezing the pips of fans.

It is time for unity.

Jeremy Boyce gets in touch: “Looking forward to your MostlyPremierLeagueClockwatch. There could be plenty of slapstick, given the weather conditions, and possibly a custard pie in the face for are they/aren’t they ? Citeh at Selhurst Park, one of the most difficult grounds to get to I can remember from my days following Shrewsbury Town round the 2nd and 3rd division in London back in the day (Griffin Park (RIP), Brisbane Road (RIP), The Old Den (RIP) etc.... Thanks for the update on my other team, NotAsNastyAsTheyUsedToBeLeeds.”

The way things have been going for Pep Guardiola, this could have been much worse. With his side having twice fallen behind to a Crystal Palace side brimming with renewed confidence, the Manchester City manager saw Erling Haaland end his mini drought with a 13th Premier League goal of the season before Rico Lewis equalised again to end the losing run of five successive away matches.

Even if this was another afternoon to forget for the underperforming Kyle Walker, whose mistakes helped Daniel Muñoz and Maxence Lacroix establish the lead, City will be thankful to have emerged with something after Lewis was shown a second yellow card in the later stages.

• Safety risk at Goodison Park with rain and 70mph wind
• Leaders left with little leeway in their packed calendar

Liverpool are facing acute ­fixture congestion after Saturday’s ­postponement of the Merseyside derby because of Storm Darragh. Should the Premier League leaders win their Carabao Cup quarter-final at Southampton on 18 December they will have a midweek game every week until mid-February, with the exception of new year.

That would leave them with little leeway in a packed calendar to face Everton for the 245th edition of the derby and the final one in the league at Goodison Park. Liverpool’s next game will be against Girona in the Champions League on Tuesday with Everton travelling to Arsenal next Saturday.

Dribbling runners such as Tyler Dibling are exhilarating to watch, and a reminder that football always finds new forms

The Premier League has got more exciting. And it’s fine, really. For the more grudging among us it can be hard to accept this at face value, if only because the league is always telling you how exciting it already is, the regular in-house TV hosts styling the whole experience with the glazed and proselytising look of shopping channel presenters trying to sell you a hamper of executive cheese.

But sometimes the hamper of cheese is just good. The games are exciting right now. The median standard of teams is high. Financial power, improved scouting, the presence of clued-up global data nerds mean even the weaker teams are studded with mindbogglingly good footballing hyper-athletes. Ah yes, club that was quite recently in League One and represented on the pitch by men who look as if they’ve just been dishonourably discharged from the navy. You appear to have signed a 21-year-old Paraguayan genius made entirely from elastic and feathers.

Leaders Liverpool travel to Goodison Park bidding for a 100th victory in the Merseyside derby against Everton

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue Goodison Park