Chelsea v Southampton, Crystal Palace v Aston Villa, and more: football – live | Premier League

GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-0 Aston Villa (Sarr 29)

Bournemouth have made a change already, the injured Ryan Christie replaced by Alex Scott.

Anyway, enough football and on to the important stuff: who has a better beach, Brighton or Bournemouth? I’m going with the latter – the Jurrasic coast canes the Sussex coast – and i had some belting soft-serve there in the summer.

GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Fulham (Joao Gomes 18)

“Was wondering why you believe it is Arsenal that is over the apex, something I believe you expressed this weekend in the MB,” writes Ian Little. “Wouldn’t the obvious choices be City and Liverpool, given the age and contract-issues in the respective clubs? While I do think Arteta cycles will come fast because of the way they play, we are not there yet, and this year is an outlier IMO. Six games with red cards (I do not fault the refs with the exception of the MLS first one), numerous injuries to key players and yet only one club is even close to their quality. If they continue to add to the squad, having worked back to front, then I can only see them getting stronger. I don’t think their ‘if’ is as big as the other ‘ifs’ you will find at their closest rivals.”

I can’t remember how I phrased it, but generally speaking, you get four years out of a team before it needs refreshing, and Arteta’s have been together for three. I don’t know if they can find the elite attackers they need to take the final step and, as far as the other clubs you mention go, I think it’s fair to say Liverpool are taking advantage of a power vacuum, but I’d write off Arteta a long time before i’d write off Guardiola.

Back to Brighton, I’m extremely fond of Carlos Baleba. It’s not often you see a midfielder able to cover ground, tackle, ball-carry and create, but he does a bit of everything. I’m excited to see how he develops.

“Given the fact that Chelsea’s bench is mostly kids (a few very talented ones too),” begins Matt Muir, “it’s sad that Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is the person I would be least comfortable to see subbed on. We can’t possibly not win this (obvious foreshadowing), but it could get very whistle-y if it’s only 1-0 at 55 mins.”

It’s an odd do isn’t it? It’s almost as it buying everyone possible and sticking them on wild contracts isn’t the route to success.

GOAL! Brighton 1-0 Bournemouth (Pedro pen 12)

PENALTY TO BRIGHTON!

Brighton crank it up, the new kid, Diego Gomez, playing a lovely ball inside Lewis Cook – who, to him his due, does well to stick at it, forcing Mitoma to shoot under pressure, and the effort goes wide of the far post.

Good work from Baleba on the edge, then Kepa makes a mess of Brighton’s cross – don’t be unkind – but Joao Pedro directs his header wide.

At Palace, Guehi is down inside his own box. He’s soon up, though, and his side get a Villa corner away; he’s moving more easily now.

Ands how good it is to see him score. There was a right old fuss about him when he was younger and he’s not come close to delivering on the hype. At 24, he can’t have too many chances left at this level, and he’ll be well aware of that.

There’s a VAR check … but he’s in the clear.

GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Fulham (Sessegnon 2)

We’re away and immediately, Bournemouth are in among it, Outtara slipping Christie in at inside-left and his low wallop is turned away by Verbruggen at the far post.

l“Some very odd comments,” reckons Niall Fogarty. “Rashford’s problems were not and are not excused by the disarray at United. That’s cheap. And Palace will beat Villa tonight…”

Did you see the bit where I said “Obviously he needs to take responsibility for himself”? Yeah, that – but if he wasn’t affected by his environment, he’d be one in roughly seven billion.

Email! “It’s just not Rashford,” writes Robert Hisnay. “McTominay, Wan-Bissaka, Henderson, Elanga. Let alone the poor recruitment these past few years. Huijsen> Yoro as an example.”

I don’t know about that – I don’t think any of the others are proximate to good enough for a side trying to win the big pots and nothing I’ve seen since they moved has suggested they do. I’d also not be so quick to judge Leny Yoro – I didn’t see for Lille, but better judges than me think he could be the best of his generation.

Here come our teams!

I strongly fancy Villa to get a result at Palace. I know Palace can play – I really liked Daniel Munoz when I saw him live last season – but Villa have legs and quality in midfield, with goals on pitch and bench. If they defend sensibly, they’ll be hard to stop.

Ah man, it’s good to see Marcus Rashford smiling again. Obviously he needs to take responsibility for himself, and Ruben Amorim has been unequivocal that he desperately needs so talented a player but doesn’t feel Rashford is selectable. However it’s no great surprise that he’s been ground down by the misery at Old Trafford – if he’d been somewhere more wholesome, he might’ve matured into a world-beater – and the change should do him well.

Iraola has some terrific eyebrows. He’s also wearing a jumper like Bruce Grobbelaar’s in Panini 85. More news as I get it.

I’m glad Wharton’s back too. He was the guy, I’m told, England players were going back to their clubs and telling their managers to sign; I expected a big season from him and though it’s not worked out that way, his talent is not in question.

Oliver Glasner is glad to have Wharton back and glad he’s pain-free. Now he needs to get match-fit and the match-up works for him – he’s smart and good at finding players in the pocket.

Fabian Huerzler is glad to have Estupinan back, while Gomez has earned his start by training well. The data tells him Bournemouth are one of the most physical teams in the league, and he’s expecting a gouh game/

Ally McCoist, usually so sensible, just called the return of Jadon Sancho “a bonus”. I don’t even know where to begin with that.

More teams…

It’s a funny thing, really. The standard at the top of the league is not great – I don’t think it’s controversial to say the top few are way off the best we’ve seen – but the standard below has never been higher. Every side, down to Tyler Dibling at Southampton, has the capacity to hurt any opponent.

In particular, Milos Kerkez, Dean Huijsen and Antoine Semenyo are very tasty indeed. Let’s hope they stay put this summer and Iraola is allowed to build.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Bournemouth might be my favourite Premier League team. I love how hard they run, how brave they are and how good their individuals are. Andoni Iraola might be a superstar.

Wolves, who beat Bournemouth at the weekend, are understandably unchanged; Marco silva, though, makes five changes after defeat at Palace, the injured Emile Smith Rowe and Antonee Robinson, Calvin Bassey, Alex Iwobi and Raul Jimenez left out; Rodrigo Muniz, Jorge Cuenca, Andreas Pereira, Ryan Sessegnon and Issa Diop come in.

Over to Selhurst Park where Palace, who beat Fulham at the weekend, bring Adam Wharton for Jefferson Lerma; Villa, who saw off Chelsea, leave out Ian Maatsen, Tyrone Mings, Matt T. Cash and Marco Asensio; Andres Garcia, Axel Disasi, Lucas Digned and Lamare Bogarde come in.

Back to our teams: at the Amex, Brighton welcome back, as one is mandated to say, Pervis Estupinan, recovered from injury, with Diego Gomez, recently signed from Inter Miami, handed his first start for the club; Jack Hinshelwood and Yasin Ayari move to the bench.

Bournemouth, meanwhile, bring in Tyler Adams for the suspended Illia Zabarnyi, while David Brooks replaces Marcus Tavernier.

Tonight’s full fixture list:

Let’s have some teams…

Preamble