Manchester United 1-0 Leicester, Wolves 2-5 Chelsea: clockwatch – live!

Paul Doyle was at Molineux for today’s bumper goal feast:

This was supposed to be a day of celebration for Wolves, as they marked the 130th anniversary of their first match at Molineux. Instead a new Chelsea goalscoring hero stole the show, as Tammy Abraham struck his first hat-trick for the club after Fikayo Tomori started the rout by opening his own account with a wonderful strike from long-range. Late goals for Romain Saïss and Patrick Cutrone gave the hosts a little cheer and took away some of Chelsea’s satisfaction. Mason Mount restored some it by making the score 5-2 in stoppage time.

Dear old Molineux had been a fortress for Wolves for most of this year, with the home side unbeaten in any competition here since January, but by half-time that was all irrelevant history. They were 3-0 down and in danger of an even worse mauling.

Much more here:

Jacob Steinberg was at White Hart Lane:

When was the last time Tottenham produced a performance this complete in a league game? You’d probably have to go back to last season’s Boxing Day victory over Bournemouth to find one, which goes to show how long it has been since Mauricio Pochettino’s side played with this much energy, class and craft.

In that context this thrashing of Crystal Palace could end up being remembered as one of the most important victories of the Pochettino era. After a spluttering start to the season, not to mention all the angst caused by the uncertainty over Christian Eriksen’s future during the summer, Spurs demonstrated that there is plenty of life left in them yet by devouring a ragged Palace side during a first half in which Son Heung-min stole the show with two goals of the highest quality.

Much more here:

Daniel Taylor has filed his match report from Old Trafford:

The good news for Manchester United is that they have rediscovered their winning habit. They won this game despite missing a number of key players with injury and, for that alone, Ole Gunnar Solskjær can probably accept the fact their performance never got any higher than six out of ten – lots of huffing and puffing, but none of the old panache.

Leicester certainly had enough of the ball to believe they ought to have extended United’s winless sequence to four matches. Ultimately, though, Solskjær and his players can reflect on a decent afternoon’s work bearing in mind Leicester have ambitions of their own to break into the Premier League’s top four this season.

Much more here:

Rochdale finished with 64% of possession, which they managed to translate into absolutely no shots on target and a 6-0 defeat at Peterborough. Are the stats wrong, or was this the most hapless performance in the entire history of football?

The match reports are starting to drop. To kick things off, here’s Paul Wilson at Bramall Lane:

Being billed as the new Sadio Mané gives 21-year-old Moussa Djenepo a lot to live up to, though in his brief appearances since a £15m move from Standard Liege the Malian winger has proved he can score spectacular goals.

This was his first start in Saints colours, and he decorated it with a memorable solo strike that deserved to take all three points.

Much more here:

Conscious though I am that Manchester United have had a few penalties of late, I remain astonished by this:

After Southampton took the lead Sheffield United huffed and puffed, but blew their chance when Billy Sharp got harshly sent off.

Marcus Rashford’s early penalty is the only goal of the game as Manchester United snaffle victory over Leicester.

And that is the last meaningful action at Molineux! It’s been an absolute goal feast, at the end of which Chelsea pocket the points.

GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-5 Chelsea (Mount, 90+6 mins) Mason Mount gets the ball on the left, just outside the area, and dances into the box, feints this way and that, then cuts onto his right foot and curls a nonchalant finish past Rui Patricio!

I don’t know what Spurs were playing at in the second half, in which they completely and miserably failed to score. No matter, they won at a canter.

“How’s it going at Old Trafford?” asks Julian Smith. Quietly, though Leicester have been prodding, poking and vaguely threatening for much of the second half, to no avail.

And now it’s all over at the Amex. That’s going to smart.

Painful statistic department: That was Burnley’s first shot on target.

GOAL! Brighton 1-1 Burnley (Hendrick, 90+1 mins) A lovely backheel lay-off from Vydra is followed by a beautiful shot, pinged low from 23 yards (or so) right into the right-hand corner of goal! That is delicious!

Chelsea have let in 11 goals in five league games, all while basically being quite impressive.

GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-4 Chelsea (Cutrone, 85 mins) Cutrone bundles in from the closest possible range after Kepa saved, er, someone else’s shot!

Billy Sharp is off, and Sheffield United’s chance of rescuing a point at home to Southampton surely goes with him. That looked very harsh – he threw out a leg, realised he wouldn’t get near the ball and pulled it back again before any contact was made with his opponent, Stuart Armstrong.

Here are the teams for the Premier League’s late kick-off. Norwich have two goalkeepers on the bench, and could probably do with having both of them on the pitch:

Norwich: Krul, Byram, Amadou, Godfrey, Lewis, McLean, Tettey, Emi, Stiepermann, Cantwell, Pukki. Subs: Hanley, Heise, Drmic, Fahrmann, Srbeny, McGovern, Idah.
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Otamendi, Zinchenko, Gundogan, Rodri, Silva, Bernardo Silva, Aguero, Sterling. Subs: Bravo, Gabriel Jesus, De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Joao Cancelo, Foden.
Referee: Kevin Friend.

Scott Murray is all over the build-up to this one:

Now confirmed by official decision-making types. Abraham will do no further scoring, as he’s just gone off to be replaced by Batchuayi.

Apparently Rochdale have had 69% of possession at Peterborough, which is quite impressive and must make it really very galling that they’re now 6-0 down.

Apparently that Wolves goal might, like three of Chelsea’s, have been scored by Tammy Abraham.

GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-4 Chelsea (Saiss, 69 mins) A corner from the left is headed behind, and the ensuing corner from the right is headed pretty much straight at Kepa, but firmly enough to get past him anyway!

GOAL! Sheffield United 0-1 Southampton (Djenepo, 66 mins) Oooh, hello! The Blades idiotically give the ball away in their own half, but when Djenepo gets it, 50 yards from goal, there is no obvious danger. But he turns, holds off a first challenge, heads towards the box, dances past a couple of very half-hearted attempts to close him down, and then it in nicely!

A little over an hour ago I mentioned that Bolton had just scored their first goal in 11 league matches to take the lead at Rotherham. Bolton’s good times didn’t last long: Carlton Morris has just put Rotherham 5-1 up.

GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-4 Chelsea (Abraham, 56 mins) This is superb goalmanship. The ball is tossed forward to Abraham, who has Coady sticking to him like so much velcro, but the Chelsea forward turns back away from goal, spins round again, tricks his way into space and then slaps the ball inside the far post from 15 yards!

Jude Bellingham has just put Birmingham City 1-0 at high-flying Charlton. He was born in 2003. It’s his second goal of the season.

Disallowed goal! Sheffield United 0-0 Southampton! A free-kick from the right is sent into the area and bounces through to McBurnie, who nods in at the far post! The Blades celebrate, but then notice the referee has his finger in his ear and is busy chatting to VAR HQ. Turns out half the United team was offside when the ball was played in. As you were.

GOAL! Brighton 1-0 Burnley (Maupay, 51 mins) The goalkeeper bowls the ball out to the right, where Burn picks it up and carries it forward with menace. Then he lays it off, Brighton mess about on the right, seem to have wasted their opportunity, and then dink in a cross that Maupay stylishly converts with a scissor kick!

Tottenham nearly score 28 seconds into the second half, with a low shot from the edge of the area, but this time Guaita saves.

Two substitutions at Molineux, where the home side bring on Patrick Cutrone for Leander Dendoncker, and Chelsea take off Anthony Rudiger, who appeared to twang something just before half-time, for Kurt Zouma.