Right then, I’ll be off. Please head here to follow the latest from Aston Villa v Manchester United, where there’s been an early goal:

And peruse reports on the 2pm Premier League kick-offs here:

Brighton 2-0 Brentford
Crystal Palace 1-3 Liverpool
Ipswich 1-2 Bournemouth
Sunderland 1-0 Chelsea

Bye!

John Brewin was at the Amex Stadium, where Brighton cantered to victory over 10-man Brentford:

Who can stop Brighton’s ascension in English and European football? They continue to set standards, practices that leave almost everybody else trailing in their wake. Their second-place position in the Premier League would once have read like a glitch in a Football Manager session.

Come November 2026, they appear the only team capable of throwing down a challenge to Arsenal. Under low winter sun, Brentford, the club Brighton are often compared to, though one with a different outlook, were readily swatted aside. If Keith Andrews’ team, and their fans at the Amex, might level blame at a couple of refereeing decisions, it was a contest they were given little chance of rescuing anything from.

Much more here:

Andy Brassell saw Sunderland inflict a fourth defeat of the league season on Chelsea, the most of any team in the top nine:

A lot can change in five-and-half months, but as an early winter chill descended on Wearside this week – both meteorologically and metaphorically – Sunderland were determined that some things should remain the same.

Just as they had beaten Chelsea on the final day of last season in May to ensure European qualification for the first time in 53 years, they did so again on Sunday to lift themselves off the bottom of the Premier League. The real triumph was that a patched-up defence, without the injured Dan Ballard and the banned Omar Alderete, kept Chelsea at enough distance to allow Robin Roefs a tranquil afternoon. Chelsea may be developing into a chaotic must-watch under Xabi Alonso but they were subdued here, and fall out of the top four.

Much more here:

David Hytner was at Selhurst Park to see Liverpool snaffle three goals and as many points:

It was the moment when Liverpool knew they would win here in south London and so move on from the Premier League loss to Arsenal at Anfield last Sunday and the one in midweek at Fenerbahce in the Champions League.

Florian Wirtz had timed his run as Liverpool broke up the right and Bradley Barcola’s low pull back was made to measure. Wirtz had to take it on first time and it was a test of his technique under pressure. He never looked like failing it, not least because smoothness in this area is his calling card. Liverpool were 2-0 up, Alexis Mac Allister having headed them in front towards the end of the first-half, and all you could hear was the eruption of delight in the away supporters’ enclosure.

Much more here:

A report on Ipswich v Bournemouth:

Another Evanilson goal helped fire Marco Rose’s Bournemouth to an eighth straight victory with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Ipswich.

Evanilson failed to score in his first six appearances of the season but found the net for a fifth consecutive Premier League match and made it seven goals in eight after five minutes at Portman Road.

More here:

“Hi Simon,” writes Simon McMahon. Hello! “Couple of games in Scotland today, and get this, Falkirk are 4-0 up away to Hearts after the first 45! They will leapfrog the Tynecastle side into 3rd place, remarkable really for a team who were in Scottish League One only four seasons ago.” They’ve just made it 5-0, Jacob Murrell scoring in the 47th minute.

“As a Manchester United fan, I’m not sure I’ve ever been so disappointed to see Liverpool winning a game,” writes John Brennan. “United could be bottom of league in November. Think of the content, the takes, the banter. Give it to Dychey, Big Sam etc. And with the international break, we would have two whole weeks of it. For shame Liverpool, for shame.”

While I wait for some match reports and post-match reaction, Tim de Lisle is monitoring the Manchester United v Aston Villa game here:

We have now had all of the time and the Premier League scores are as follows:

Brighton 2-0 Brentford
Crystal Palace 1-3 Liverpool
Ipswich 1-2 Bournemouth
Sunderland 1-0 Chelsea

Meaning that the table currently looks like this:

Kari Tulinius has been monitoring this game. “When Sunderland can start Brobbey, the whole team is coherent,” he writes. “Even after he’s gone off the field, he’s created space for his replacement by tiring out the centre-backs. Chelsea, meanwhile, don’t make sense without João Pedro. They don’t have anyone else who can pull defenses this way and that with intelligence of movement and positioning.”

Since we’ve been on air Algeria’s USM Alger have snaffled the African Super Cup, Ahmed Khaldi scoring one goal and setting up another as they stunned hosts ⁠Mamelodi Sundowns from ⁠South ​Africa with a 3-1 victory at a rain-soaked Loftus Versfeld Stadium. Khaldi curled in ⁠a superb shot from outside the box ​10 minutes into ‌the second ‌half, having set up an early goal ‌for Zakaria Draoui as USM claimed the trophy for the second time after a maiden success in 2023. Saadi Radouani also found the back of the ‌net for the visitors, while Iqraam Rayners’ first-half penalty for Sundowns ​proved a consolation. The start of the second half was delayed by around 30 minutes after a heavy downpour in ⁠Pretoria

Chance for Isak, but Henderson saves! Liverpool break from their own penalty area: Wirtz hoofs the ball clear, Isak and Munoz exchange passes and the Swede carries it to the edge of the area before shooting low, hard, and too close to the keeper.

Munoz tees up Wirtz for another first-time shot, but this one’s too close to Henderson. It hasn’t been an overwhelming performance from Liverpool by any means, but Palace look a beaten side now (cue inevitable comeback).

Munoz throws himself over Lerma’s foot and is rightly booked for diving. Mac Allister confronts Lerma in the aftermath, and both players also end up with yellow cards.

Rio Ngumoha, a 76th-minute substitute, takes an extraordinarily optimistic shot, from maybe three yards short of the byline and 15 yards wide of goal. It had almost no chance of going in even if it was on target, which it very emphatically was not.

Brilliant chance for Crystal Palace! A defensive slip allows Richards to run through on the right and square to Pino, but it’s a bit behind him and he’s forced to take a touch, and by the time he shoots Alisson has raced off his line and the shot hits the keeper!

Team news has dropped for the late Premier League game, and here is is. As it stands Manchester United will start the game in 19th place:

Man Utd: Lammens, Mazraoui, Yoro, Maguire, Dalot, Tielemans, Mainoo, Diallo, Fernandes, Cunha, Mbeumo. Subs: Darlow, de Ligt, Mount, Zirkzee, Dorgu, Santos, Heaven, Lacey, Jack Fletcher.
Aston Villa: Suzuki, Lindelof, Harwood-Bellis, Torres, Maatsen, Kamara, Goretzka, Alysson, McGinn, Manzambi, Jackson. Subs: Bizot, Mings, Barkley, Buendia, Mbaye, Joao Gomes, Madjo, Cisse, Hemmings.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh.

A double change for Liverpool, who bring Szoboszlai and Barcola off and Munoz and Nyoni on.

Palace are trying, a bit clumsily at present, to find a way back into this game. Osorio tries to find a way past Kerkez, but the Liverpool defender throws himself to the ground and wins a free kick.

Yellow card! The specific thing Barcola was threatening there was Pino’s ankle, and into the book he goes.

Another chance for Liverpool, but Mitchell slides in to block a cross-shot from Barcola, who has switched to the right flank at half-time and looks much more threatening for it.

A point of information from Grant Kempton, regarding the Igor Thiago red card: “Just to correct. Chema was booked ... taken off at half time because of the booking. But its still force into the face so booking and red card sounds right.” Ah fair dos.

Two players run clear for Crystal Palace, and Wharton just has to slide the ball across for Strand Larsen to turn it in! But his pass is abysmal, Strand Larsen can’t reach it, and he’ll be grateful in the circumstances that he was about 10 yards offside when the ball was played through.

“Re the Thiago sending-off, we saw last week with the shirt-pull on Isak that wasn’t punished precisely why players over-exaggerate,” writes Andy Flintoff. For sure, but if someone hits your chin and you go down holding your forehead, you’re not drawing the referee’s attention to a foul, you’re cheating.

“I haven’t seen the hands to the face, I’m busy cooking and with no TV in the kitchen I can’t watch but am just following here,” writes George Ronczy. “If Andres was hit in the neck and grabbed his forehead, he should get booked for simulation.” Absolute and complete agreement from me: the officials may decide that Igor Thiago’s push was violent enough to deserve a red card, it seemed harsh to me but an argument can be made for it. However Andres certainly overdramatised the situation and there should be repercussions for that also.

Also, what’s on the menu?

In the third of three minutes’ stoppage time at Palace a Szoboszlai corner is flicked on to Araujo, five yards out, but he can’t react in time to do anything with it and the ball ends up in Henderson’s hands.

I’ve now seen the penalty incident at the Stadium of Light, and it looks to me like the main reason Brobbey went down was that his right foot caught his left ankle, and he thus tripped himself up. He was, though, being bothered by Colwill, who made no attempt to play the ball and may well have made contact with that right leg before the self-trippage.

The Palace game is pure chaos. About 80 seconds after his goal Mac Allister is flinging himself around the Liverpool penalty area to block Timber’s shot.

Saved! Mitchell’s deep cross falls to Kamada, and unlike Barcola he manages to control his volley. But the shot flies too close to Alisson, who pushes it away!

What a miss! Szoboszlai’s cross finds Barcola beyond the far post, completely unmarked and able to watch the ball dip towards his instep and pick his spot! Unfortunately the spot he picks is approximately 40 rows back in the stand.

The ball came off a Palace player, and offside it is. An escape for Liverpool, who were controlling this game for a while but are certainly not dominating it currently.

Goal disallowed! Some penalty-area ping-pong ends with the ball at Strand Larsen’s feet, five yards out, and he turns it in! But he’s given offside! VAR will have a look at this, of course, and the question is who the ball came off …

Strand Larsen is found in space, but by the time he’s shooting distance from goal Van Dijk has come across, and he gets in the way of the shot.

Another poor final pass from Liverpool, which allows Disasi to get there before Gakpo, and shepherd the ball out of play.

It’s much more open now at Selhurst Park. Araujo goes into the book for a foul, and then a Liverpool counter is curtailed by a poor pass and a good interception from Wharton.

“Liverpool fan here, but still, surely a push is a push?” writes Ric Latham of that push on Barcola. “It wasn’t shoulder to shoulder, the defender wasn’t challenging for the ball, all he was doing was (successfully) preventing Barcola from getting his head anywhere near it. It’s a stone cold pen in either box, and saying otherwise just normalises the idea that players should get away with things like this because it wasn’t clear enough. Maddening.” In the time it takes to read this email Tony Harrington, the referee, gives two soft free-kicks for pushing or blocking and it’s the inconsistency that’s really maddening. There were two hands on his back, but I didn’t see the defender’s arms straighten as they would if there was a real shove going on.

They have now! A lovely switch of play gives the ball to Mitchell, who passes inside to Pino, who hammers a shot into the Liverpool crossbar!

Szoboszlai now crosses from the left, Gakpo, beyond the far post, cushions it back across goal and it runs across the goalline without anyone there to turn it in! Palace haven’t been out of their half for a while.

Save! Szoboszlai sends in a low, bobbling shot from 23 yards or thereabouts, which Henderson turns round the post.

At Selhurst Park Barcola tries to meet a cross from the right and gets a fairly gentle push in the back as he does so. He goes down, but a penalty for that would be a bit much.

A glimpse of goal for Palace, as Mitchell’s driven cross is met by Strand Larsen, but he can’t do much more than get a foot to it, and he deflects it limply wide of goal, from where it’s cleared for a throw-in.

I’m focusing, for now, on Crystal Palace v Liverpool, where Isak has just had half a chance, but rather than racing onto the ball he rather meandered up to it, and his shot then hit a defender.

2.01pm: Football o’clock!

The players are out and action is imminent. There’ll be a minute’s silence before all the games, because it is Remembrance Sunday.

Weather update! It’s sunny in Brighton …

… cloudy in Ipswich …

… and it’s been raining in Sunderland.

Fabian Hurzeler on what makes Brighton good: “Brilliant at the basics. That’s our foundation. That’s what made us strong and hopefully will make us strong in the future. It’s not about first outplaying the opponent, it’s about outworking the opponent.”

Marco Rose is asked to identify Ipswich’s threat to Bournemouth today, and his response is, I have to say, vicious: “They want to win the game, I’m quite sure. It’s a nice ground.”