Key events
“That City line-up has a lot of left footers in it,” says Brendan Large. “Is that the most to start a PL game for one side?”
Look, I know I’m special, but I’m not so special I can instantly run through tens of thousands of Premier League line-ups in my head to see whether any team has started with more left-footers. Give me till 3.10pm at least.
How many left-footers do you make it? Ederson, Gvardiol, Foden, Savinho, Haaland?
On this day in 1999… Dennis Wise does San Siro.
There’s been all sorts of hype about Chido Obi-Martin, the Danish 16-year-old who recently joined Manchester United from Arsenal and made his debut today. Fair to say it went pretty well: he scored his first goal after 13 seconds.
Chido Obi-Martin bagged a hat-trick inside the first 15 minutes of his United debut! 🤌✨#MUFC || #MUAcademy
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 26, 2024
On this day in 1996… Southampton smash Manchester United 6-3, Matthew Le Tissier and Eyal Berkoviv score glorious goals and Roy Keane becomes the first player in football history to be sent off for sporting a menacing beard.
GOAL! Leipzig 0-1 Freiburg (Doan 16) First blood to Freiburg in the big Bundesliga game. Ritsu Doan gets in round the back to head Vincenzo Grifo’s excellent pass/cross into the net.
“Stress-free football weekend for us Forest fans as we keep rewatching the highlights of last night’s game,” chirps Martin Widdicks. “Trying to decide which of the four games to watch in my relaxed state – all bar the City game could be interesting although nothing will match that McClair goal…. John Helm is so annoyed!”
Have you seen McClair’s first goal a couple of minutes earlier? It’s almost as good/bad.
On this day in 1994… Ilie Dumitrescu is sent off as Notts County thrash Spurs in the League Cup.
EFL results
Championship
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Bristol City 0-0 Leeds
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Coventry 3-2 Luton
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Watford 1-0 Blackburn
League One
League Two
On this day in 1997… Emmanuel Petit puts hands on the referee Paul Durkin and is sent off.
Coventry have come from 2-0 down to lead Luton 3-2, with Haji Wright putting them ahead in the 92nd minute. I say!
84 min: Bristol City 0-0 Leeds
Still goalless at Ashton Gate, though it sounds like Leeds have been all over Bristol City in the second half.
On this day in 1991…
Brian McClair scores the greatest goal in football history.
Aston Villa v Bournemouth team news
Unai Emery makes two changes from last weekend’s win over Fulham: Ezri Konsa and John McGinn return for Villa in place of Diego Carlos and Leon Bailey.
Ryan Christie and Justin Kluivert, who came off the bench to score in Bournemouth’s win over Arsenal, come into the starting XI along with Mark Travers and Enes Unal. Alex Scott, Marcus Tavernier, Kepa and Evanilson drop out.
Brentford v Ipswich team news
Brentford are boosted by the return from injury of the excellent Yoane Wissa. He replaces Kevin Schade and Mads Roerslev is in for the injured Kristoffer Ajer.
Kieran McKenna has made six changes to his Ipswich side, although most are due to injury and illness. Harry Clarke, Jens Cajuste, Sam Szmodics, Chiedozie Ogbene, Conor Chaplin and George Hirst replace Luke Woolfenden, Omari Hutchinson, Sam Morsy, Wes Burns, Jack Clarke and Liam Delap.
Brighton v Wolves team news
Three changes for Brighton. Pervis Estupinan, Kaoru Mitoma and Jan Paul van Hecke come in for Igor Julio, Evan Ferguson and Jake Hinshelwood. That means Danny Welbeck is fit to start.
Just the one change for Wolves: Tommy Doyle replaces Andre in midfield.
Manchester City v Southampton
Our Pep makes three changes from last weekend’s win at Molineux. Manuel Akanji replaces goal machine John Stones, Phil Foden is in for Jeremy Doku and Matheus Nunes replaces Ilkay Gundogan. City have only named five outfield subs.
It looks like Southampton have switched to a back five. Jack Stephens, Adam Lallana come in for Yukinari Sugawara and Joe Aribo.
Your City line-up this afternoon! 🩵
XI | Ederson, Lewis, Akanji, Dias (C), Gvardiol, Kovacic, Bernardo, Nunes, Savinho, Foden, Haaland
SUBS | Ortega Moreno, Carson, Stones, Ake, Gundogan, O’Reilly, McAtee#ManCity | @etihad pic.twitter.com/ipKyuD4kua
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 26, 2024
On the same night… Dragan Stojkovic strolls through the legendary AC Milan defence.
On this day in 1988… a sizzling finish from Mike Phelan helps Norwich secure the second of five successive wins over Manchester United.
EFL latest
It’s half-time in the 12.30pm games. In-form Leeds are being held by Bristol City, whose manager Liam Manning is back in the dugout after the awful death of his young son Theo, while Luton are 2-0 up at Coventry.
Willum Willumsson has put the League One leaders Birmingham in front at Mansfield.
You can get the latest from all the games on our live scores page.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to another Saturday afternoon clockwatch. There are four games in the Premier League this afternoon, three of which involves teams still looking for their first win of the season: Ipswich, Southampton and Wolves. All have away games that range from tough to utterly, spirit-crushingly impossible.
There’s a full EFL program as well. And in Germany, second-placed Leipzig meet third-placed Freiburg. Our featured games are listed below; you can follow the rest via our live scores page.
Premier League
Championship
Bundesliga
Kick off 3pm unless stated
