West Ham v Brighton, Ipswich v Newcastle, and more: football – live

Ipswich 0-2 Newcastle “Oh my days…” says Chris Paraskevas. “Jacob Murphy isn’t just doing tame non-threatening half-cross shots anymore… he’s actually hitting them straight.”

Ipswich 0-2 Newcastle As things stand Newcastle are only three points off a Champions League place. They’re hitting form at a very good time.

“After that update about Claudia Schiffer, it seems the only venues worth being at on this grim midwinter’s day are Stonehenge and the Gtech stadium,” writes Hasan Minhas. “Could that be the secret to Brentford’s sterling home form? Visiting teams being too starstruck to focus on the game? Let’s hope Forest don’t fall for it today…”

They’re doing okay so far. By this stage of Brentford’s last home game, against Newcastle, it was 2-2.

GOAL! Ipswich 0-2 Newcastle (Murphy 32)

West Ham 0-0 Brighton West Ham keeper Lukasz Fabianski has just made a good save from a Kaoru Mitoma volley.

The lastest scores in our featured games

Premier League

Championship

• Cardiff 0-0 Sheff Utd

• Leeds 1-0 Oxford Utd

• Sunderland 0-1 Norwich

Scottish Premiership

• Aberdeen 1-1 Hibernian

• Rangers 0-0 Dundee

Brentford 0-0 Nottm Forest It sounds fairly dull at the Gtech Stadium, with no goals and not many chances. Give it time.

“My lazy Saturdays seem to always coincide with your clockwatch,” says Martin Widdicks. “Anxiously watching Forest at Brentford. Despite our heady league position it’s still tense every week. Forest and Brentford have a strange mini-rivalry so a little bit of extra needle today. Forest may miss Yates winding up the Brentford midfield.”

I’m fascinated by rivalries that have nothing do with geography or supremacy. See also: Swindon v Gillingham.

“G’day Rob,” writes Chris Paraskevas, our Australian Newcastle fan. “Early goal for Isak means tonight’s ‘fuelling session’ didn’t completely go to waste:

• 0.5 L Mountain Dew

• Homemade ‘pizza’

• An unhealthy amount of Tim Tams

• Salt and vinegar chips (make-do sorbet)

• …not consistently consumed in that order.”

I’ll be real with you, Chris: when I saw the phrase ‘fuelling session’, I didn’t expect to read that you’d been quaffing Mountain Dew.

GOAL! Sunderland 0-1 Norwich (Ben Slimane 23) Talking of Norwich, Anis Ben Slimane has just put them in front at the Stadium of Light after a well-worked corner.

On this day in 1992… Ipswich stun the Premier League leaders Norwich in the first Old Farm league derby since 1985.

GOAL! Aberdeen 1-1 Hilbernian (Youan 18) That didn’t take long. Some blooper DVD defending has allowed Elie Youan to equalise for Hibs at Pittodrie.

On this day in 1985… Charlie Nicholas scores a late winner for Arsenal at Old Trafford. Niall Quinn, whose shot led to the goal, later described the match as “caveman football”.

GOAL! Aberdeen 1-0 Hibernian (Keskinen 14) Topi Keskinen’s deflected shot has put Aberdeen in front at Pittodrie.

Ipswich 0-1 Newcastle Anthony Gordon has missed a good headed chance for Newcastle, who have by all accounts started superbly at Portman Road.

The lastest scores in our featured games

Premier League

Championship

• Cardiff 0-0 Sheff Utd

• Leeds 1-0 Oxford Utd

• Sunderland 0-0 Norwich

Scottish Premiership

• Aberdeen 0-0 Hibernian

• Rangers 0-0 Dundee

“How could you forget?” sniffs Simon McMahon. “Also on this day, Rob, ten years ago, was the last time Dundee United beat Celtic, 2-1 at Tannadice, the goals coming from Nadir Cifcti and Stuart Armstrong. We play them tomorrow, in what will be Brendan Rodgers’ first visit to Tannadice, as United spent the entirety of his first spell at Celtic, and also last season, in the Scottish Championship, so I’m sure all United fans will be keen to wish him a Merry Christmas…”

GOAL! Leeds 1-0 Oxford (James 9)

Isak ran onto a cross that wasn’t properly cleared and rattled a first-time shot past Muric. The goal was scored after 25 seconds, though it took a couple of minutes to be awarded.

GOAL! Ipswich 0-1 Newcastle (Isak 1)

VAR check! Ipswich 0-0 Newcastle An early goal from Alexander Isak was ruled out for offside but it’s being checked, and checked, and checked. And…

“Talking about managers, while Manchester suffers, the Steel City is enjoying some strength just now,” writes Jeremy Boyce. “Chris Wilder is doing his stuff with the Blades and looking good for a return to the Prem, meanwhile Danny Rohl has done a great job with the Owls since the Munoz fiasco, despite their financial difficulties, currently up in ninth and threatening the play-off places. The next derby could be pretty tasty.”

It’s Saturday, it’s 3pm. It’s fitba o’clock.

West Ham v Brighton Before kick off at the London Stadium, West Ham are paying tribute to Oscar Fairs, the Academy goalkeeper who died tragically aged just 15.

“Could Ipswich Town v Newcastle United be the Ed Sheeran – Mark Knopfler Derby?” asks Peter Oh.

I mean it could, but isn’t it just quicker to say ‘Ipswich v Newcastle’? Six syllables rather than eight. I’m all about economising these days.

Here’s more on a memorable day for Callum Lang, who scored all four goals as Portsmouth took Frank Lampard’s Coventry to the cleaners.

On this day in 1997… Peter Schmeichel makes two save-of-the-season contenders at St James’ Park.

The crowd for Brentford v Nottm Forest includes Claudia Schiffer, who has clearly got wind of Brentford’s coruscating home form. On that subject, this was a lot of fun to research a couple of weeks ago.

On this day in 1998… an own-goal from Charlton’s Richard Rufus ensures John Gregory’s Aston Villa will be top of the Premier League at Christmas.

On this day in 1991… two quite brilliant lobs from David White give Man City a draw at Anfield. We forget how good White was between maybe 1990 and 1993.

The excellent Ben Fisher was at Villa Park to see Aston Villa overwhelm Manchester City. Here’s his report.

Championship results (12.30pm kick-offs)

There was also a post-match rumpus at the Memorial Stadium after Bristol Rovers’ 1-1 draw with Wrexham in League One. I don’t think punches were thrown but there was more to it than the usual posturing.

Leeds v Oxford team news

Leeds Meslier, Bogle, Rodon, Ampadu, Byram, Tanaka, Rothwell, James, Aaronson, Solomon, Piroe.
Subs: Darlow, Schmidt, Struijk, Chambers, Guilavogui, Ramazani, Gnonto, Fernandez, Bamford.

Oxford Utd Cumming, Kioso, Moore, Brown, Leigh, Goodrham, Brannagan, Vaulks, Dale, Placheta, Harris.
Subs: Ingram, Long, McEachran, El Mizouni, Rodrigues, ter Avest, Goodwin, Edwards, Scarlett.

Aberdeen v Hibernian team news

Aberdeen Doohan, Devlin, Rubezic, Molloy, MacKenzie, Nilsen, Shinnie, Keskinen, Clarkson, McGrath, Sokler.
Subs: Ritchie, Polvara, Nisbet, Lopes, McGarry, Palaversa, Morris, MacDonald, Ambrose.

Hibernian Smith, O’Hora, Bushiri, Iredale, Chris Cadden, Triantis, Newell, Nicky Cadden, Campbell, Boyle, Youan.
Subs: Bursik, Miller, Levitt, Amos, Kwon, Obita, Moriah-Welsh,
Hoilett, Gayle.

That result moves Villa above City and into fifth place. Imagine if you’d spent the last two months at a digital retreat in the Kerguelen Islands and you had this waved under your nose when you got off the plane.

Full time: Aston Villa 2-1 Man City

GOAL! Aston Villa 2-1 Man City (Foden 90+3) An accomplished finish from Phil Foden, his first Premier League goal of the season, has cost me four FPL points given City an outside chance at Villa Park.

Cardiff v Sheff Utd team news

Cardiff Alnwick, Daland, Goutas, Chambers, Rinomhota, Siopis, Robertson, Bagan, El Ghazi, Meite, Willock.
Subs: Fish, Horvath, Davies, Kpakio, Colwill, Ashford, Robinson, Kanga, Perrett.

Sheff Utd Cooper, Gilchrist, Souttar, Robinson, Burrows, Peck, Tom Davies, Rak-Sakyi, O’Hare, Hamer, Moore.
Subs: Adam Davies, McCallum, Brewster, Baptiste, Norrington-Davies, Marsh, Brooks, Blacker, One.

Sunderland v Norwich team news

Sunderland Patterson, O’Nien, Mepham, Ballard, Cirkin, Neil, Bellingham, Roberts, Rigg, Mayenda, Isidor.
Subs: Moore, Hume, Hjelde, Alese, Aleksic, Aouchiche, Poveda-Ocampo, Connolly, Rusyn.

Norwich Gunn, Stacey, Duffy, Cordoba, Doyle, Marcondes, Nunez, Ben Slimane, Hernandez, Crnac, Sainz.
Subs: Long, Fisher, Hanley, Chrisene, Forson, Schwartau, Sorensen, Gordon, Barnes.

Rangers v Dundee team news

Rangers Butland, Tavernier, Sterling, Propper, Jefte, Raskin, Diomande, Hagi, Cerny, Igamane, Danilo.
Subs: Kelly, Cortes, Barron, Dessers, Bajrami, Dowell, Balogun, McCausland, Yilmaz.

Dundee Carson, Koumetio, Portales, Astley, Mulligan, Sylla, McGhee, Finlay Robertson, Cameron, Tiffoney, Palmer-Houlden.
Subs: McCracken, Sharp, Ingram, Main, Murray, Kelly, Braybrooke, Vetro.

83 min: Aston Villa 2-0 Man City Villa are battering City and would be further ahead but for Stefan Ortega, who has just made an important save from the substitute Ollie Watkins. It really is shocking to watch, if not necessarily surprising.

While he was in New Zealand, our cricket correspondent Ali Martin spoke to some of the key figures in Chris Wood’s development. It’s a cracking piece, well worth a read.

It came down to our last game and I told the boys: ‘We need to make a statement, win and we’re in the top 10 and go through.’ We were losing 3-0 with 15 mins to go, then Chris scored a hat-trick and we won on penalties. Afterwards he calmly walks over and says to me: ‘There’s our top-10 finish, coach.’ I was just astounded.

Ipswich v Newcastle team news

West Ham v Brighton team news

Brentford v Nottm Forest team news

GOAL! Aston Villa 2-0 Man City (Rogers 65)

It’s now Portsmouth 4-1 Coventry, Callum Lang 4-1 Coventry in the Championship. What a story!

60 min: Aston Villa 1-0 Man City

Jhon Duran has had a second goal ruled out for offside at Villa Park, where Villa are playing superbly. In fact, as I type, the outstanding Morgan Rogers has just rattled the outside of the post.

Look out!

Championship latest

There are three early games in the Championship. Callum Lang has just completed a hat-trick to put Portsmouth 3-1 up at home to Frank Lampard’s Coventry™.

Josh Windass has just scored the opening goal of the game for ten-man Sheffield Wednesday at home to Stoke (Di’Shon Bernard was given a second yellow card shortly before half-time). And Hull are drawing 1-1 at home to Swansea.

• Hull 1-1 Swansea

• Portsmouth 3-1 Coventrry

• Sheff Wed 1-0 Stoke

Read John Brewin on Brentford

Thomas Frank combines football-man nous and being ultra competitive – he rarely admits his team deserved to lose – with an adaptability to modern, US-style front-office stats. He, Matthew Benham and Phil Giles, the director of football, have decided attack is the best form of defence, the low quality of opposing Premier League defenders something to be exploited.

Brentford’s influence and innovation are recognised. The Arsenal set-piece guru Nicolas Jover, now celebrated by a mural outside the Emirates Stadium, and the Manchester United coach Andreas Georgson worked as specialists within Frank’s coaching team. Giles has been linked with replacing Edu as Arsenal’s sporting director.

Preamble