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