Liverpool v Southampton, Brighton v Fulham, and more: football – live

Woah. Arne Slot might be in the stands again but he’s made his presence felt at halftime with a triple change.

On for Liverpool are Andy Robertson, Harvey Elliott and Alexis Mac Allister. Tsimikas, Jones and Szoboszlai are hooked.

League One: Demetri Mitchell has doubled Exeter’s lead over Shrewsbury while Sam Smith (not that one … or the other one) has broken the deadlock for Wrexham at home to Rotherham.

Plenty of games are back under way now. What does the second half have in store for us?

It seems you guys are not convinced Southampton can hold on to their lead:

Adam Kline-Schoder: “Having made the mistake of supporting Southampton myself, I simply laughed when that goal went in. This game has got 3-1 to Liverpool written all over it, with the scoring starting in the 47th minute — although Saints have played really (surprisingly) decently at times. Incidentally, I think Nuñez’s challenge merited just a yellow. Petulant yes, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him taken off at the half, but not for me, Clive, etc etc.”

Kári Tulinius: “As an Arsenal fan I’m absolutely not ready to disinter the hope I had buried in the backyard. Especially not because of a one goal lead by the league’s bottom club. Not going to start hoping. Nuh uh. Oh, who am I kidding, I’ll go get my shovel.”

Nobody gave Southampton a prayer and this halftime scoreline will send shockwaves throughout the Premier League and beyond.

Alisson and Virgil van Dijk must take the brunt of blame for the goal, while Mo Salah has been uncharacteristically quiet. There’ll be no panic yet from Arne Slot, but murmurs of discontent at Anfield could be heard as the players went in for the break.

Half time scores in the Premier League:

Nunez stays on the pitch after that VAR check. I wonder if a few rival supporters might have some thoughts on that decision …

Darwin Nunez might be a bit fortunate to stay on the pitch after a reckless challenge in first half added time at Anfield. Will VAR take a look at this? He’s been shown a yellow card initially. It’s all been a bit ragged from Liverpool, albeit they started the game well.

“Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a town surpasses, For honest men and bonnie lasses”

Viktor Burakov emails to say: “Surely an educated man such as yourself knows the source, Dominic?”

I’m sorry Viktor, I did study English Lit at university but never Scottish Literature. Hence my knowledge of Scottish nicknames is ropey to say the least.

GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Southampton (Smallbone, 45+1)

There’s been a flurry of goals in the Championship in the final few minutes before the break.

Cardiff have levelled at Sunderland via Isaak Davies (1-1) and former Bluebird Callum Paterson has doubled Sheffield Wednesday’s lead at Plymouth (2-0), with Sheffield United v Preston the only game goalless in the second tier as the half-time whistles prepare to sound.

42 mins: Are Southampton about to survive until half-time at Anfield? They’ve defended manfully and actually played some decent stuff at times to frustrate the league leaders.

Still a long, LONG way to go.

GOAL! Brighton 1-1 Fulham (Van Hecke, 41)

Championship: Derby went bang bang inside seven minutes but Makhtar Gueye has pegged them back for Blackburn just before the break. West Brom have been given a soft penalty at home to QPR, which Adam Armstrong has converted.

Burnley have doubled their lead over 10-man Luton through Lyle Foster.

More from Scotland, with regular contributor Simon McMahon in touch:

“Afternoon Dom. It’s Scottish Cup day long weekend up north. Hearts beat Dundee 3-1 last night, meaning the Dens Park side’s 115 year drought in the competition continues. Aberdeen beat Queen’s Park, conquerors of Rangers in the previous round, 4-1 earlier, Celtic play Hibs tomorrow and then it’s St. Johnstone v Livingston on Monday night. All of which is a rather long winded way of saying there is no Scottish Premier action this weekend. You’re welcome.”

And Graeme Barrie says: “I’m sure that Clyde’s nickname was The Bully Wee.”

A few half-time scores from the Bundesliga:

GOAL! Brighton 0-1 Fulham (Jiménez, 35)

Championship: And there is the goal for Burnley, although it’s come from a Luton player, Mark McGuiness putting into his own net. The Hatters now have a tall task ahead of them at Turf Moor, now a goal and a man down.

In fairness there have been plenty of chances for both Crystal Palace and Ipswich at Selhurst Park, yet neither side have found their finishing touch so far.

Brighton have been superior to Fulham so far but have also been far from clinical.

Ever since I wrote this piece on Swansea’s struggles, they’ve been markedly improved, thanks to interim manager Alan Sheehan. And they’ve just taken the lead at home to Middlesbrough today, courtesy of Ji-Sung Eom. You’re welcome Swans fans.

Premier League: There’s been precious little to report from the games at Brighton and Crystal Palace so far, so we await our first top flight goal of the afternoon …

Alexander-Arnold is starting to pull the strings for Liverpool, but Arne Slot’s side cannot quite get their final ball right.

I’m reliably informed by Adam Bell on another email that Partick Thistle were known as The Maryhill Magyars after playing Honvex in the Cup Winners’ Cup. Cowdenbeath are, of course, known as The Blue Brazil. Love it.

24 mins: Southampton are having themselves a bit of a spell at Liverpool. They’ve even won a corner.

Re Scottish nicknames I’ve had an email from Tony Hughes:

I grew up in the Eastern part of Fife. Local team, uh, East Fife. One of their nicknames is/ was ‘The Methil Milan’. Methil being the part of Fife where their former ground was located. Other nicknames so not creative: The Fife and The Fifers.

Methil Men is a goody, Tony.

Another red card has been shown in the Championship. Luton’s Kai Naismith has received it at Burnley. They may have conceded against Cardiff to break that phenomenal run of clean sheets, but you’d think the Clarets’ goal would be safe this afternoon. They need three points too to keep up their promotion hunt.

Champ stuff.

Championship: After 13 minutes, Hull City’s João Pedro scored the opener at Bristol City.

After 14 minutes he was sent off for serious foul play.

Talk about hero to zero.

14 mins: There’s been some dicey stuff from Southampton playing out from the back at Liverpool. Russell Martin might have encouraged it, but it doesn’t seem too wise a tactic on today of all days.

There’s a delay after a worrying clash of heads between Southampton’s Jan Bednarek and Ryan Manning.

League One: Lowly Northampton and Bristol Rovers have taken 1-0 leads over playoff-pushing Leyton Orient and Huddersfield, respectively. The third tier can be tremendously topsy-turvy at times.

The Honest Men of Ayr (their genuine nickname) lead 1-0 at Greenock Morton. Scotland does tend to throw up some cracking nicknames. Any others? Get them to me on email.

I’m feeling a little sluggish after a pain au chocolat and a piece of bread with nutella on it, pre-shift. Not sure they were both necessary.

In news less related to chocolate, Southampton have survived to the 10-minute mark at Anfield. Tick them off in tens, lads.

John Eustance must be buzzing! Derby, the bottom club in the Championship, now lead 2-0 against Blackburn inside seven minutes. Fancy that. Ebou Adams has scored.

6 mins: Curtis Jones has already had a couple of chances for Liverpool, the latest of which has just gone wide. Southampton are going to need some luck to survive this onslaught.

Championship: Sunderland v Cardiff looked like a banker for the Black Cats before kickoff and it’s not taken them long to go ahed, Eliezer Mayenda with another strike. And Derby finally have lift-off under John Eustance against his former club Blackburn, the veteran Craig Forsyth has scored. Good game, good game.

2 mins: Liverpool have started in dominant fashion, backed by the usual wall of sound at Anfield. How long will it take for them to breach this porous Southampton defence?

There are some cracking reads on the website right now. Get around them before the madness truly kicks in.

KICK OFF

We’re about to get under way around the country …

The report via Peter Lansley has dropped from the City Ground.

As he rightly writes: “Manchester City continued their plummet from Premier League champions to scrambling to qualify for the Champions League, but the achievements of [Nottingham Forest] deserve full recognition”.

We don’t usually dabble with bookies or odds here at The Guardian, but it’s quite telling that Liverpool are an astonishing 1-12 to win today. You can back a Southampton win at 22-1 if you are.

Even the draw is 10-1. It seems the Saints don’t even have a prayer.

Good grief, Frank Lampard really cannot do any wrong right now. Coventry snatch the three points late on against Stoke, a win that will taste all the sweeter for Lamps as it came against his Sky Blues predecessor, Mark Robins. Bobby Thomas scored the winner in the 97th minute. It’s an eighth win in nine league games for Lampard’s Cov.

This is a handy tool to keep on top of the Premier League’s Golden Boot race when the goals start flying in later on today. Can anyone stop Mo Salah? (Surely not Southampton… )

Full time: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Manchester City. Ooosh. What a result for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side, who continue to defy all the odds this season. City? Well, they look to be left in an almighty scrap for a top four/five spot, which is some fall from grace after four successive titles, many of them won at a stroll.

This was the goal that did it:

Oh, hang on… Coventry had the lead after fighting back from a goal down – but Mark Robins’ Stoke have hit back against his former side. Sam Gallagher has a brace.

Crawley have also equalised late on via Panutche Camará.

Callum Hudson Odoi has snatched the lead for Nottingham Forest late on against Manchester City. A big goal in the race for Champions League qualification? The City Ground is bouncing.

In the early kickoffs down the leagues, Coventry are on course for yet another win under Frank Lampard – they lead Stoke 2-1; Millwall are winning by the same score away at Watford; while in League One there’s only been one goal in the Crawley v Reading and Stockport v Charlton games. That’s been scored by the Royals’ Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan. League Two leaders Walsall are on course for a home defeat by Grimsby Town and AFC Wimbledon are cruising 2-0 at home to Notts County.

Premier League team news

There’s 20 minutes or so remaining at the City Ground in the big early kickoff and Scott Murray is all over it for us.

Preamble