Key events
GOAL! Bournemouth 1-2 Ipswich (Evanilson, 67 mins)
I can’t say I’ve seen this one, but it sounded pretty scrappy. They all count, etc.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-1 Brentford (Mbeumo, 65 mins)
The keeper doesn’t really go the wrong way, but he hints at diving to his right and ends up just standing there wrongfooted as the ball is coolly sent to his left!
Penalty for Brentford! Wissa runs onto Mbeumo’s pass, Pope comes out, Wisa gets there first and goes down, and the referee points to the spot!
Here’s that David McGoldrick goal from a little earlier. Delicious. Notts County have since added a second through Nicholas Tsaroulla.
Penalty to Bournemouth! But no! Semenyo goes down and the referee points to the spot, but the VAR eventually tells him to point for a free-kick instead.
GOAL! Bournemouth 0-2 Ipswich (Delap, 60 mins)
Ipswich are winning a game by two clear goals! A long crossfield pass finds Delap on the left. He waits for Townsend to scream past on the overlap, lays the ball off, spins and runs into the middle; Townsend picks him out with the pull-back and Delap’s finish is beautifully, gloriously emphatic.
Another disallowed goal, and a let-off for Aston Villa. The ball is chipped over the Villa defence, hits Mitoma and deflects to the keeper’s left. He dives to his left and pushes it away a bit limply, and Adingra is first to it, spins and slams it in. But it very clearly hit Mitoma’s arm, and you’re not supposed to do that.
GOAL! Brighton 0-1 Aston Villa (Rashford, 51 mins)
Brighton have a corner, send in a header and Martinez takes an easy catch. He quickly rolls the ball out to Rogers, who plays a 50-yard defence-unlocking pass to Rashford, who runs to the edge of the area, pushes the ball past Verbruggen and it rolls into the net!
Jack Grealish dribbles into the penalty area, gets within shooting range, lifts his right foot, swings and … completely misses the ball and falls over. He wants a penalty, but you don’t get penalties for that.
David McGoldrick slams in a glorious left-footed shot from the edge of the area, rising all the time, to put Notts County 1-0 up at home to MK Dons and take them up to fourth in the as-it-stands table, just a couple of points off the automatic promotion places.
Alexander Isak has become – wait for it – the first Newcastle player since Alan Shearer, or possibly Andy Cole, to score 10 goals both at home and away in a single league season. He’s now one away from Erling Haaland’s 21 league goals this season: here are the latest capocannonieri rankings:
It is now mainly half-time, except at Anfield. Two currently goalless games, three with one goal, and Manchester City have two. But then they’re playing a flimsy simulacrum of a football team.
Everton should be in front now: Beto runs clear after a Van Dijk defensive howler – you read that right – but he shoots into Kelleher!
GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 Brentford (Isak, 45+2 mins)
That’s how to finish a chance! A fine ball in from Murphy on the right, Mbeumo falls over at the worst possible time and Isak behind him is left with a tap-in!
Another disallowed goal, at St James’s Park this time. Isak is played into all sorts of space on the right, he cuts inside the only defender in the neighbourhood, then when he might have just score he cuts back outside again, allows the keeper to come out and then hits him with his shot. The ball deflects to Barnes, who turns it in but is marginally offside.
Brighton then hit the post from a free-kick, and the ball rebounds off the woodwork into the arm of a defender. He didn’t know much about it but his arm was not by his side, and that falls into the seen-’em-given category. It is not given.
At Anfield Everton have the ball in the net, but Beto was just offside when he was played through. Meanwhile at Brighton there’s a long VAR check after Jacob Ramsey goes down in the area. It looks marginally more a penalty than not, but the VAR goes with not.
GOAL! Bournemouth 0-1 Ipswich (Broadhead, 34 mins)
Broadhead is just onside as he’s played in on the right of the penalty area and from there he’s delightfully calm, checking back and prodding the ball through the legs of the goalkeeper.
Really the question was less whether Tarkowski deserved a red card than how many he should have got.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-0 Leicester (Marmoush, 29 mins)
Defensive calamity for Leicester: the ball is chipped into the area, Hermansen comes for it but Faes runs across, and possibly actually into, him as he prepares to gather and the ball breaks to Marmoush, who needs only to roll the ball into an empty net. He doesn’t, mind – he lashes it into the roof of the net for added artistic merit.
At Anfield, Tarkowski clears the ball as Mac Allister comes across to close him down. The ball is close to Tarkowski and I don’t think he has to throw himself at it at all, but he flies in, clears the ball and clatters violently into the Argentinian. Somehow VAR decides not to get involved and he ends up with just a yellow card.
GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Crystal Palace (Onuachu, 20 mins)
Southampton are winning a game of football! It’s a decent cross from the right and a good header from Paul Onuachu, from maybe 15 yards or so. I’m not entirely sure how it ends up in the net, though: the ball is low and reasonably powerful but nowhere near the corner, and while Henderson gets a good hand to it he somehow manages only to send it squirming slowly over the line.
Danny Mills, watching the Manchester City game, says he is “confused” by a Leicester side that is “almost waving a white flag”.
Ten minutes into the Manchester City game, and a load of fans are just coming in. The protest seems to have had decent numbers, even if the majority of supporters – certainly in the stand that runs along the side of the pitch opposite the TV cameras – were in their seats before kick-off.
A chance for Aston Villa at Brighton: a fine move works the ball from back to front, Digne’s cross finds McGinn in the middle, but his header flies a yard or two wide.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Leicester City (Grealish, 2 mins)
That is an absurdly easy goal to score in the second minute of a game. Leicester lose the ball in their own half and Manchester City work it to the right touchline. Grealish stands in the middle, 15 yards out, with his arms out and the ball is passed, not even very quickly, through the area to him, and he strokes it in!
In their last four games Leicester have won no points, scored no goals, conceded 10 and have generally been in all ways utterly abysmal (if still not as abysmal as Southampton, who have also won no points but have a goal difference of -11). But Manchester City are a lowly 16th in a last-four-game table with four points, and are without Erling Haaland. Is there just a glimmer of hope there for the visitors?
No, probably not.
Meanwhile outside the Etihad Stadium fans are protesting about the club’s decision to partner with Viagogo, a ticket resale site – the club’s ninth third-party ticket-selling partner. Fans groups are calling on supporters not to go to their seats until nine minutes into the game, or failing that to remain silent for the first nine minutes.
Viagogo added as official touting partner, no price freeze on STs, long-standing and loyal fans consistently overlooked. It’s time to take action.
Please support this no-show for the first 9 minutes against Leicester.
Proud to back this alongside @WeAre1894 and @MCFCfoodbank pic.twitter.com/ljD22PlzwJ
— Trade Union Blues (@tradeunionblues) March 28, 2025
Stephy Mavididi is on the bench for Leicester against Manchester City tonight, having apparently had a couple of headphone issues in the build-up. There was one-ear Mavididi:
And then no-ear Mavididi. This is not my understanding of how headphones work:
Liverpool v Everton has its own liveblog, so if you want to focus on that one game may I suggest you join Michael Butler here. But I won’t be ignoring it, and here are the line-ups:
Liverpool: Kelleher, Jones, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Szoboszlai, Diaz, Jota. Subs: Jaros, Endo, Nunez, Chiesa, Gakpo, Elliott, Tsimikas, McConnell, Quansah.
Everton: Pickford, O’Brien, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Gueye, Garner, Harrison, Doucoure, Alcaraz, Beto. Subs: Virginia, Patterson, Keane, Ndiaye, Chermiti, Young, Broja, Coleman, Iroegbunam.
Referee: Sam Barrott.
Premier League teams
Team news is filtering through. I’ll put all the Premier League line-ups here, shall I?
Bournemouth v Ipswich
Bournemouth: Arrizabalaga, Smith, Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Kerkez, Christie, Cook, Ouattara, Scott, Semenyo, Evanilson. Subs: Dennis, Senesi, Brooks, Adams, Soler, Jebbison, Hill, Silcott-Duberry, Winterburn.
Ipswich: Palmer, Tuanzebe, O’Shea, Burgess, Townsend, Morsy, Cajuste, Johnson, Enciso, Broadhead, Delap. Subs: Walton, Woolfenden, Phillips, Chaplin, Jack Taylor, Greaves, Hirst, Philogene-Bidace, Clarke.
Referee: Robert Jones.
Brighton v Aston Villa
Brighton: Verbruggen, Hinshelwood, van Hecke, Dunk, Estupinan, Gomez, Ayari, Adingra, Gruda, Mitoma, Joao Pedro. Subs: Rushworth, March, Cashin, Minteh, Welbeck, Baleba, O’Riley, Tasker, Wieffer.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne, Kamara, Tielemans, Rogers, McGinn, Ramsey, Rashford. Subs: Olsen, Disasi, Mings, Watkins, Garcia, Malen, Maatsen, Onana, Asensio.
Referee: Stuart Attwell.
Manchester City v Leicester
Manchester City: Ederson, Matheus Luiz, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Gonzalez, Gundogan, Savio, Grealish, Doku, Marmoush. Subs: Ortega, Kovacic, De Bruyne, Silva, Vitor Reis, Foden, Bobb, Lewis, McAtee.
Leicester: Hermansen, Faes, Coady, Thomas, Justin, Ndidi, Soumare, Kristiansen, Daka, El Khannous, Vardy. Subs: Buonanotte, Coulibaly, Skipp, Ricardo Pereira, Ayew, De Cordova-Reid, Okoli, Mavididi, Stolarczyk.
Referee: Darren England.
Newcastle v Brentford
Newcastle: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento, Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton, Murphy, Isak, Barnes. Subs: Dubravka, Wilson, Krafth, Osula, Willock, Longstaff, Miley, Neave, Shahar.
Brentford: Flekken, van den Berg, Collins, Pinnock, Lewis-Potter, Norgaard, Janelt, Mbeumo, Yarmolyuk, Schade, Wissa. Subs: Valdimarsson, Mee, Ajer, Damsgaard, Konak, Maghoma, Kayode, Kim, Morgan.
Referee: Peter Bankes.
Southampton v Crystal Palace
Southampton: Ramsdale, Stephens, Bednarek, Harwood-Bellis, Walker-Peters, Downes, Ugochukwu, Manning, Fernandes, Onuachu, Sulemana. Subs: McCarthy, Aribo, Bree, Wood-Gordon, Sugawara, Archer, Dibling, Welington, Bella-Kotchap.
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Clyne, Lacroix, Guehi, Munoz, Wharton, Lerma, Mitchell, Sarr, Eze, Mateta. Subs: Turner, Ward, Nketiah, Franca, Kamada, Esse, Chilwell, Devenny, Kporha.
Referee: Andrew Madley.
Hell world!
The season will be all over next month. The end is nigh. And by now every team’s situation has crystalised. At this point they know what they are competing for, and they know more or less what they need to get there.
Take, for example, Newcastle and Eddie Howe: “There are 10 games, there are a lot of teams competing for those [Champions League] places. It’s one of the tightest Premier Leagues that we’ve seen in recent times, very little between the teams competing for those places, so it’s going to come down to who is the most consistent. Of course, we want that to be us and in those 10 games, we are going to have to give everything to get there.” Or Aston Villa: “There are a lot of teams there fighting for these positions. In the FA Cup we’re playing a semi-final and in the Champions League a quarter-final – it’s amazing how we are facing the last part of the season. We are aware of the difficulties we are going to face and how much we are going to have to get better,” said Unai Emery. Or take Southampton’s Ivan Juric: “I don’t want it to be that we are the worst team in the history of Premier League. If we can be not the last on the table, we have to do our best, so in this moment, this is our goal.”
Tonight things might just clarify a little further. Do Ipswich or Leicester have any kind of hope of survival? Is anyone going to fall off the back of the pack of Champions League aspirants? And there’s a little bonus serving of Championship survival battle and League Two promotion scrap. Here, then, are tonight’s fixtures in full (7.45pm BST kick-offs unless stated):
Bournemouth v Ipswich
Brighton v Aston Villa
Liverpool v Everton (8pm)
Manchester City v Leicester City
Newcastle United v Brentford
Southampton v Crystal Palace
Plus in the Championship:
Derby County v Preston North End
And in League Two:
Notts County v Milton Keynes Dons
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