Tottenham 2-2 Wolves, Everton 0-2 Nottingham Forest, and more: football – live

Boos ring out as the final whistle blows and Spurs are held to a point, Ange Postecoglou’s magic, such as it is, just refusing to rub off on his charges. This was Tottenham’s 19th game of the season, and they are in 11th at their halfway point (and there are three teams within three points of them who have a game in hand).

More than eight minutes of stoppage time are played at Craven Cottage, and the spoils are shared there. Fulham led twice, but Bournemouth had more shots, more shots on target and almost double the home side’s expected goals.

A straightforward win at Everton, and Nottingham Forest are second in the league on 29 December! It’s five wins in a row now, and look at the state of this:

The final whistle sounds at Selhurst Park, and Palace have bagged three precious points at home for just the second time this season, while Southampton remain marooned at the bottom.

Semenyo has the ball on the left of the area, but there are too many defenders in his way so he slides it across to Ouattara, whose first touch is a bit heavy but whose second lifts the ball niftily over the advancing Leno!

Wolves draw level at Spurs! The ball is played through to Strand Larsen, who is just onside (just behind him Rodrigo Gomes, another substitute, is definitely offside, but no matter). The Norwegian’s first touch takes him a bit wide, but he still manages to lash a vicious shot into the roof of the net!

And Fulham make them pay! Robinson crosses from the left with his right foot, and Harry Wilson gets plenty of power on the header to leave Kepa flat-footed!

A second for second-place Forest! They play it forward to Wood, who picks a lovely pass across the area from the left to Gibbs-White on the right, who cuts inside Doucoure before shooting past Pickford!

Bournemouth equalise at the cottage! It’s a fine pass into the area from the right, and Evanilson runs onto it and executes a right-foot falling-over volley that sends the ball flying past Leno!

Great finish! Another goal from a corner, though this isn’t a simple header. The ball is cleared, it’s swung back in, it’s kind-of-semi-cleared and Eze is the first to react to a ball bouncing loose on the edge of the area, and he sprints onto it and arrows a low shot into the corner of the net!

It looks like Manchester City are going to win a game of association football. Erling Haaland heads in Savinho’s cross, apparently their first effort on goal of the second half, and doubles the champions’ lead!

All the Premier League games are over for now. Everton go in a goal down and it could and probably should have been worse, after Tarkowski magically escaped a second yellow card for a very obvious, late and clumsy trip.

Now Spurs do have the lead! Kulusevski runs into the right side of the area, turns back and slides a pass into the run of Brennan Johnson, who whips a first-time finish past Jose Sa!

Brennan Johnson is fouled and Spurs get the penalty. Son’s effort isn’t bad, but it’s a nice height for the keeper José Sa and once he guesses the right way the rest is a formality. Still 1-1 there.

Fulham take the lead at Craven Cottage, and it’s another goal from a corner. Even so, Raul Jimenez meets it a decent way from goal, maybe 10 yards or so, level with the near post, but it’s a brilliant, brilliant header and it flies in at the back stick!

Will Hughes swings in a corner, Chalobah heads it in at the near post. Southampton are unimpressed, insisting that Ramsdale was impeded as the ball came in, but the referee’s having none of it and the VAR backs him up.

No clean sheet for Everton today! It’s a really good goal: the ball is pumped forwards to Wood, who nods it on to Elanga, who nods it back to Wood, who lifts it beautifully over the keeper! Elanga’s header and the finish are both really very tasty.

The tappiest of tap-ins for Tyler Dibling to put Southampton ahead at Selhurst Park. Kyle Walker-Peters does the hard work down the left, he passes infield to, well, someone else, who nudges it to Dibling, six yards away from an empty goal, who does the rest.

A lightning-fast equaliser for Spurs: Bentancur meets a corner at the near post and hammers a header into the net!

A free-kick near the right corner of the penalty area is rolled along the edge of the box to Hee-Chan Hwang, who sends a first-time right-footed curler off the post and into the net!

A goal for Manchester City! Jamie Vardy just missed a chance after latching on to Gvardiol’s back-header, but now Savinho runs tonto the rebound after Foden’s shot is saved and lashes it into the back of the net!

The team sheets have been handed in, and the line-ups for the four 3pm games look like this:

Crystal Palace v Southampton
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Chalobah, Lacroix, Richards, Munoz, Hughes, Lerma, Mitchell, Sarr, Eze, Mateta. Subs: Turner, Nketiah, Schlupp, Clyne, Kamada, Doucoure, Riad, Devenny, Kporha.
Southampton: Ramsdale, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek, Wood-Gordon, Bree, Aribo, Fernandes, Walker-Peters, Dibling, Armstrong, Onuachu. Subs: McCarthy, Manning, Lallana, Sugawara, Archer, Sulemana, Taylor, Ugochukwu, Bella-Kotchap.
Referee: Michael Salisbury.

Everton v Nottm Forest
Everton: Pickford, Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Mangala, Gueye, Doucoure, Harrison, Broja, Ndiaye. Subs: Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Calvert-Lewin, Beto, O’Brien, Chermiti, Lindstrom, Armstrong.
Nottm Forest: Sels, Milenkovic, Murillo, Morato, Aina, Dominguez, Anderson, Williams, Elanga, Gibbs-White, Wood. Subs: Carlos Miguel, Awoniyi, Toffolo, Moreira, Ward-Prowse, Jota Silva, Sosa, Boly, Abbott.
Referee: Tony Harrington.

Fulham v Bournemouth
Fulham: Leno, Castagne, Diop, Andersen, Bassey, Wilson, Andreas Pereira, Lukic, Iwobi, Robinson, Jimenez. Subs: Benda, Rodrigo Muniz, Cairney, Traore, Vinicius, Cuenca, King, Sessegnon, Smith Rowe.
Bournemouth: Arrizabalaga, Hill, Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Kerkez, Billing, Cook, Brooks, Christie, Semenyo, Evanilson. Subs: Dennis, Travers, Ouattara, Unal, Aarons, Winterburn, Kinsey-Wellings, Harris, Rees-Dottin.
Referee: Robert Jones.

Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton
Tottenham Hotspur: Forster, Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Udogie, Bentancur, Bissouma, Johnson, Kulusevski, Son, Solanke. Subs: Austin, Reguilon, Maddison, Bergvall, Werner, Sarr, Lankshear, Dorrington, Olusesi.
Wolverhampton: Jose Sa, Doherty, Dawson, Bueno, Nelson Semedo, Andre Trindade, Joao Gomes, Ait Nouri, Bellegarde, Cunha, Hwang. Subs: Larsen, Johnstone, Rodrigo Gomes, Doyle, Forbs, Goncalo Guedes, Meupiyou, Pedro Lima, Pond.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh.

Welcome! It’s going to be another packed afternoon as the festive fixturefest continues, so let’s get stuck straight into the fixtures, shall we?

Premier League

Crystal Palace v Southampton

Palace have only won one league game at home this season, and that was in October. Southampton, who don’t have any away wins to their name at all, would dearly love to keep that run going. Here’s Palace’s Oliver Glasner on this time of year:

It’s unusual but I never complain. As soon as I signed here I knew what would come. I told my family it will be Christmas [working]. Very often it’s, when you work in Germany, off for one week, 10 days but I also didn’t go home then, we always go somewhere in the south for warm weather and this time it’s different. But this is a good experience and I choose this life so nobody to blame. Here, many years ago, the Premier League decided to play over Christmas because the fans love it and everything we do we do for our fans.

Hmmm, I’d say that last point is debatable. Best not get me started on that one.

Everton v Nottingham Forest

Everton are eighth in the last-four-games form table, with no defeats and only one goal conceded, but Forest are top of it, the only side with a last-four-games 100% record. Here’s Sean Dyche on Everton’s upturn:

I have massive respect for players. When they’re delivering as they are doing, the willingness, the desire to work as a team, is a powerful thing. I think we’re showing that. But it’s one game at a time. I’ve always believed in that mentality, but it’s nice when you’ve got an underbelly of desire from a group of players who want to make a difference. I think we’re slowly but surely building. Now it’s about taking the next games on and trying to turn draws into wins but, if you can’t, then still not getting beaten and staying true to that mentality.

“Underbelly of desire” is a lovely phrase. I think I’m going to keep that one. It might even make a good adults-only Harry Potter sequel.

Fulham v Bournemouth

Fulham are joint top of the both-teams-score-in-our-games table – in fully 77.8% of their league matches this season both sides have got on the scoresheet (Leicester, Brentford and Brighton have matched them), but at home it’s 88.9% (with only Brentford keeping up in this one). The only time any side failed to score at Craven Cottage this season neither did, and that was their last home game, against Southampton a week ago. Here’s Marco Silva (who was pleasingly effusive about Alex Iwobi: “He’s been great. Last season he was top and this season he’s doing much better”) on the Bournemouth challenge:

What a battle it’s going to be. Iraola’s doing a great job, it’s always a tight game against them, competitive games, it’s going to be another one. They’re a really physical side, their front line is top level, they have pace, capacity for both full-backs, they are intense off the ball, aggressive and it’ll be a great challenge for us and we want to make it the same for them too.

Leicester v Man City (2.30pm)

I’ll keep you updated with significant developments in this one, but it’s also got it’s own liveblog with Scott Murray at the helm:

Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton

Never mind the Vitor Pereira bounce, Wolves have been better than Spurs for ages: across their last eight games, for example, a period that includes a run so bad it got the last manager the sack, they have won 12 points to Tottenham’s seven; even over the last 12 they’re 14-13 up. Is this the first game this season they’ve gone into as favourites? Here’s Ange Postecoglou keeping his chin up:

I get where people kind of look at my situation and think ‘Jeez, he needs to do something or else he is in trouble,’ but I don’t think that way. It’s not how I am wired. I’m not concerned about that aspect of this role. What excites me about this role and what I love about doing what I do is the possibilities you can create something special and that’s what I am going to try and do. Our league position is not great but it’s super tight and we’re not that far off. There’s still everything to play for, for us this year to make it a season where we can have success.”

West Ham v Liverpool (5.15pm)

Rob Smyth will be here in due course to take you through this one, so let’s not steal his thunder, eh?

Championship

Blackburn v Hull
Bristol City v Portsmouth
Coventry v Millwall
Derby v Leeds (5.45pm)
Middlesbrough v Burnley (8pm)
Norwich v QPR (12.30pm)
Oxford Utd v Plymouth
Preston North End v Sheff Wed (12.30pm)
Sheff Utd v West Brom (12.30pm)
Stoke v Sunderland
Swansea v Luton
Watford v Cardiff

League One

Birmingham v Blackpool
Bolton v Lincoln City
Charlton v Wycombe (12.30pm)
Exeter v Crawley Town
Huddersfield v Burton Albion
Leyton Orient v Cambridge Utd
Peterborough v Barnsley
Reading v Mansfield
Rotherham v Stockport County (12.30pm)
Shrewsbury v Northampton
Stevenage v Bristol Rovers
Wrexham v Wigan

League Two

Bradford v Chesterfield
Bromley v Swindon (12.30pm)
Carlisle v Accrington Stanley (12.30pm)
Cheltenham v Notts County
Colchester v Doncaster
Fleetwood Town v Harrogate Town
Grimsby v Port Vale
Milton Keynes Dons v Crewe
Salford City v Morecambe
Tranmere v Barrow
Walsall v Newport County

Scottish Premiership

Celtic v St Johnstone
Dundee Utd v Aberdeen (5.15pm)
Hibernian v Kilmarnock
Motherwell v Rangers
Ross County v Hearts
St Mirren v Dundee.