Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

Atlético Madrid 3-2 Levante | La Liga match report
Mourinho ends feud with Villas-Boas
Chelsea's José Mourinho praises 'phenomenal' Mesut Özil of Arsenal
Arsène Wenger ready to rewrite Arsenal's story of the Blues
Steven Pienaar runs with Roberto Martínez positive thinking at Everton
Melbourne Heart 1-3 Melbourne Victory | A-League match report
Raja Casablanca 0-2 Bayern Munich
Arsène Wenger asks Uefa to ban the away goals rule
Eddie Izzard: Why football is weird, tense, deadly serious and magical
267. Eddie Izzard, Crystal Palace
Borussia Dortmund 1-2 Hertha Berlin | Bundesliga match report
Football League: your thoughts | Nick Miller
Gary Mackay-Steven's goal seals win for Dundee United over Ross County
Celtic 2-0 Hearts | Scottish Premiership match report
David Coleman obituary
Ipswich Town 1-1 Watford | Championship match report
Malky Mackay adamant he will not quit Cardiff despite Vincent Tan pressure
Fulham 2-4 Manchester City
Man Utd 3-1 West Ham
Sunderland 0-0 Norwich City | Premier League match report
Stoke City 2-1 Aston Villa | Premier League match report
West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Hull City | Premier League match report
Crystal Palace 0-3 Newcastle United | Premier League match report
Man Utd 3-1 West Ham
Premier League clockwatch – as it happened | Nick Miller

Atlético Madrid 3-2 Levante | La Liga match report

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 03:08 PM PST

• Atlético Madrid 3-2 Levante

Diego Costa scored twice as Atlético Madrid came from behind to beat Levante 3-2 at home to go three points clear at the top of La Liga.

The Brazilian striker scored the winner from the spot 13 minutes from time to become La Liga's top scorer, with 19 goals this season, two more than Cristiano Ronaldo.

Atlético go into the winter break with 46 points and a 100% home record. Barcelona, second with 43 points, can draw level with a win at Getafe on Sunday. Real Madrid, eight points adrift of Atlético, face Valencia on Sunday.

Levante began with a five-man defence and the clear intention of defending deeply, but they were able to cause Atlético problems going forwards in the opening stages, as the home side lacked concentration.

Diego Simeone's side have been a model of consistency so far, but they left gaps and failed to pick up their men in defence. Levante made them pay in the first minute, when a pass by Nikolaos Karabelas split the defence and Andreas Ivanschitz fired the ball past goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Moments later, Courtois made a fine stop to deny David Barral before Atlético began to threaten. They probed a well-organised Levante rearguard and found a way through in the 30th minute when Diego Godin steered a strong header into the top corner.

Atlético appeared back on track when Costa volleyed them in front from a 47th-minute Gabi Fernández free-kick, but as they pushed forward, they were exposed defensively, and Pedro Ríos sprinted clear to make it 2-2 after 55 minutes.

With 13 minutes to go, Juanfran Torres was brought down in the box by Rubén García and Costa converted the penalty.

The night got worse for Levante as Juanfran Garcia was given a red card for an altercation with Filipe Luís.

"Diego Costa had a great game, which he demonstrated with the way he took his penalty. The Atlético fans need to praise these players because they deserve it," the Atlético coach, Simeone, said.

"There are errors in football and we are not exempt. However, the team had the heart and desire to keep going. It was a historic game for Atlético."

Mourinho ends feud with Villas-Boas

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST

• Chelsea manager commiserates with former assistant
• Mourinho says he feels secure at Stamford Bridge

José Mourinho has put his long-running feud with André Villas-Boas to one side to commiserate with his former colleague over his sacking by Tottenham Hotspur.

The pair have barely spoken in recent years since the breakdown of their once strong relationship; Villas-Boas had worked under Mourinho at Porto, Chelsea and Internazionale before striking out on his own. But Mourinho said that he had reached out to Villas-Boas in an attempt to pep up his spirits after his White Hart Lane dismissal last Monday.

"I spoke with André, in the last six months, three times," the Chelsea manager said. "Once in that managers' meeting [at the start of the season]; another one when we played against them [on 28 September] and another one a couple of days ago. I didn't speak about his case. I speak just about: 'Come on, the world didn't finish, let's go. Tomorrow is another day and another job will come. So, Happy Christmas.'

"In football, nothing surprises me, anything can happen. Of course, I have sympathy. When Tottenham gave him a long contract, they did it because they trusted him, because they think he's the right man. They had a couple of bad results and [it] gives reason to change that trust and change their manager."

Mourinho said that he felt secure at Chelsea, ahead of Monday's Premier League derby at Arsenal. "In football, nobody is untouchable, but I will not be looking over my shoulder [if Chelsea lose]," he said. "I know for which reason I come and I know which kind of job I was asked to do.

"And I think to prepare this Chelsea, a new team that we expect is Chelsea's team for about a decade ... the same way that the Chelsea team was for almost a decade ... I don't think Chelsea can have a better manager than I am. I'm the right person to do the job. A bad result doesn't change the perspective."

David Hytner

Chelsea's José Mourinho praises 'phenomenal' Mesut Özil of Arsenal

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST

• Mesut Özil was the final piece in the jigsaw for Arsenal
• Mourinho admits Chelsea may have to wait for success

José Mourinho might have struck a chord with Arsenal supporters, as he looked ahead to Chelsea's visit to the Emirates on Monday night and considered how best to shape a squad to win the Premier League title. "If you are just building, building, building … probably, you will never get there," the Chelsea manager said.

The development of players, Mourinho continued, would always be key but there comes the time when a club has to write a cheque to "complete the puzzle", he suggested. Arsenal did so in the summer. Their fans had shouted themselves hoarse demanding a superstar signing but they could revel in the eventual capture of Mesut Özil for £42.5m from Real Madrid.

Mourinho loves Özil. He worked with him at Real over the previous three seasons and he was fulsome in his praise of the attacking midfielder. With Özil, he indicated, Arsenal had found the missing ingredient. They were now complete; capable of staying the championship course.

He could be forgiven for feeling envious. He had identified his final piece in Wayne Rooney but Chelsea could not get the striker out of Manchester United. As a result, and as Mourinho has said on many occasions, his club must contend with something of a transitional season.

"Next season, Chelsea will have a phenomenal team," Mourinho said. "Between the work we are doing [on] the evolution of the players and a couple of clinical signings [next summer] … When you buy two clinical players to complete the puzzle you are building, I think that Chelsea next season will have a really very good team."

Perhaps one of them could yet be Rooney. But Mourinho must wait, temper his natural impatience and deal with the scenario that he painted which, essentially, involved role reversal. According to him, Arsenal were no longer talking of fulfilling their potential; their time had arrived. Chelsea, by contrast, were caught between their younger players who would improve and the older ones that could no longer perform in every minute of every game.

"I think, in the deep of their souls, they [Arsenal] think they can [win the title], they believe they have the conditions to do it," Mourinho said. "In my previous time here, Walcott was a kid. He's now a man. Other players are in the best moment of their careers – Wilshere, Ramsey and Gibbs.

"I'm not saying Mesut transformed the team completely. The manager and the club has given players conditions and time to have great stability in their evolution. And now, when you buy Giroud and now Özil and some other players, the team becomes much better and ready to be doing what they are doing which is to fight for the title."

It is difficult to see Chelsea as the underdog, and not only because they spent rather more than Arsenal in the summer – around £58m on players who included Willian, André Schürrle, Samuel Eto'o and Marco van Ginkel. Mourinho has never lost to Wenger in nine previous meetings and there were flashes of that famous self-belief. "We can, we can," Mourinho replied, when asked whether Chelsea could send a message by toppling Arsenal.

Mourinho believes that the title race ought to have been shaped decisively. "In normal conditions, Manchester City should be far from the others because the squad, the maturity, the stability of the players, the potential of the striking force, the experience of the players …" Mourinho said, pretending to wave goodbye. "There is a difference. But the Premier League is being difficult for everybody, also for them. So, in this moment, everybody is there. So, I think: good fun."

Özil has been good fun, although he has shown signs of fatigue from the relentless demands of English football. "It's impossible to stop him over 90 minutes," Mourinho said, "… these kind of players will always have a moment or a couple of moments where they end up showing why they are so good.

"Mesut is a phenomenal player, one of these players that you buy to complete the puzzle of your team. You don't need time with him, you need nothing. The player just arrives. His quality and his maturity and his leadership … you put him in and you know automatically your team becomes better.

"There are many ways to improve your team. One of them is to work with young players and another is to go directly to the market and buy one of these finished products. Arsenal had the chance to do it with Mesut and they did very well."

David Hytner

Arsène Wenger ready to rewrite Arsenal's story of the Blues

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST

Frenchman confident his team will bounce back against Chelsea on Monday as he seeks first win over José Mourinho

It came as no great surprise to Arsène Wenger to see his old adversary José Mourinho patrolling touchlines and cajoling the blue-shirted players of Chelsea again. Never go back? "I don't know if you can say never in our game," Wenger says. The Arsenal manager, who remains enthralled and endeared by English football, has heard it often enough. He has had numerous conversations with people who have left the Premier League, seduced to taste football overseas, only to pine for a return. The intensity of it gets under their skin. Wenger always felt that would be the case for Mourinho.

"It looks like it," he muses. "Players are the same. 'Ah, maybe I go to Italy, maybe I go to Spain.' But they always come back. Why? Because this is a football country. There is something special in this country about the game. When the foreign managers are here they do not always like all of it – but they all like to come back."

Wenger feels differently about taking on Mourinho's Chelsea these days. More equal. More calmly confident. In the first chapter of this duel, he had to absorb some painful body blows, but he senses Arsenal need no longer have any inferiority complex about a London rival that outpowered them for several years. "I think it is more of a level playing field," he says. "We had restricted financial resources for years. Everybody knows that. It's simple."

Chelsea's ascent, while Arsenal were scaling back to engineer the move to the Emirates Stadium, was the backdrop to Wenger's agonising record against Mourinho (no wins in nine encounters). Although the tables have not exactly turned, Arsenal feel readier than they have since their last league title a decade ago to square up to Chelsea, eyeball to eyeball.

Monday night's contest has heavy implications for Arsenal's title challenge, after Liverpool went top of the table on Saturday. Another defeat will leave Wenger's team one point behind the leaders and raise questions about their capacity against fellow title contenders after losses at the Etihad and Old Trafford. A victory will guarantee that they lead the Premier League at Christmas and prove they have more character nowadays to bounce back after a disappointment.

This is the third time this season that Arsenal have had to react quickly to a demoralising league defeat. After the opening-day loss to Aston Villa, they won eight out of nine games (and drew the other). After losing at Old Trafford, they won three on the spin.

Wenger reckons his team are rested, rebooted and ready to respond after a bad week. "We had three disappointing results – Everton, Naples and Man City. That's why it's enough. I don't feel the doubts have crept in. We have been in much more difficult situations. Three big games in six days was difficult and I knew that somewhere, at City, we were in trouble. I feel the team has the power to respond."

As for the suggestion that this game has special meaning because of Mourinho's unblemished record over him, Wenger insists that any remnants of an old feud are irrelevant. "What is important on the day of the game is the players, and that the managers sit back," he says. "I just want my players to be focused on the game and not what's happening between the two managers. That is not interesting."

It is, though. Pragmatist v purist; cut-throat winner v long-term dreamer – Mourinho and Wenger always seemed so at odds with each other's fundamental philosophies. Wenger's longevity during the tightened-belt years raised Mourinho's hackles. The ratio between the Frenchman's length of service and the number of years without delivering a trophy never made sense to a win-aholic such as Mourinho. Even on the eve of his first match back in the Premier League, the Portuguese suggested he would resign if he managed for three years without hoisting some silverware.

At times, it was difficult to argue Wenger's case for hanging on. But in an era when it is increasingly commonplace for Premier League managers to be pawns in the vanity projects of super-wealthy owners, who is to say that Arsenal were not right to stand by their man during the barren seasons? Is it right to measure achievement only by medals, or should Arsenal and Wenger be applauded for holding their nerve as they waited until they could be strong enough to compete more seriously?

Intriguingly, Mourinho rates his old charge Mesut Özil as the superstar signing who can sustain Arsenal's title chase. Wenger recognises his jewel is a little jaded and will give him a break "at some stage". But not now.

Özil is not used to festive football and that can be a tall order for a player new to English football. "We had that problem with Jens Lehmann when he came from Germany," Wenger recalls. "Mesut has played a lot, but now we had a little break, a little breather, hopefully he has recovered."

Wenger needs all of his weapons to ensure that the second chapter of his Mourinho experience turns into a different story.

Amy Lawrence

Steven Pienaar runs with Roberto Martínez positive thinking at Everton

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST

The manager's calls for his players to think positive, dominate and enjoy themselves have struck a chord with the South African

The moment Roberto Martínez visibly put his stamp on Everton arrived early in the second half of the Merseyside derby at Goodison when, with the home side trailing 2-1 and Leighton Baines injured, he sent the teenage Barcelona loanee Gerard Deulofeu on as a substitute.

Phil Jagielka has admitted to being surprised by the manager's thinking, wondering how an inexperienced attacking player was going to plug a defensive gap, and Steven Pienaar recalls being even more perplexed. "I thought I was going to get pushed to left-back at first," the Everton winger says. "Then I realised that the manager knew Gareth Barry had played a few games there before, so it was more of a like-for-like swap. Ross Barkley stepped back into midfield, Gerry went forward. We have a squad that can adapt to anything. That is something the manager is working really hard to promote."

Deulofeu introduced himself successfully against Liverpool, playing his part in Everton's best spell of the game, and Martínez earned praise for his own positive attitude. In subsequent performances, most notably the win at Old Trafford and the draw at the Emirates, Everton have pleased their supporters with tidy football and strong self-belief. Perhaps Everton always had strong self-belief under David Moyes, though it tended to go missing against top teams away from home. First Martínez spoke of the need to change a damage-limitation mentality and then, as he had at Swansea and Wigan, showed he could not only talk a good game but produce one.

Everton are at Swansea on Sunday and Pienaar would not be surprised if the match resembles a game of chess. "He started the way Swansea have been playing, so it's almost like two Martínez teams," he says. "I suppose it will come down to who wants it most in the end."

At Goodison since 2007, bar an unproductive January to January spell at Tottenham in 2011, Pienaar had only ever played at Everton under Moyes and must have had slightly mixed feelings at his replacement.

Martínez had won the FA Cup with Wigan, blitzing Goodison with three goals in four minutes along the way, but one of the immortal underdog triumphs had unquestionably been tarnished by relegation shortly afterwards.

So what did Pienaar and his teammates imagine they would be getting? "Personally I was excited," he says. "I was impressed with the way he had Wigan playing, they always tried to play in the right way and as a group of players we were up for a new challenge.

"We tried to play good football last season and the new manager actually hasn't tried to change that much because the core of the team is still here. We've just tried to be a bit more patient and not quite as direct. I think supporters at the start of the season were a bit uncertain about us building from the back but they are with it now; the results speak for themselves."

Pienaar dismisses suggestions that this mini-revolution has been achieved by Martínez demanding a certain number of passes per player per game. "We are passing the ball more but it is not really like that," he says. "The only demand the manager makes of us is to go out and dominate a game.

"It takes a lot of hard work and courage but the basic idea is that, if you can keep the ball, you are not working as hard as the other team. Keeping hold of the ball is not just about passing, it is about moving to find space and provide options, so you have to be fit. The work ethic of the team is unbelievable, though, and the manager is always relaxed. He never really gets angry, just more positive. Thinking about it, he might just be the most positive person I've ever come across; he's definitely up there.

"We beat Fulham 4-1 the other day and he was annoyed because some of the players hadn't looked like they were enjoying themselves. Winning is not enough, he wants us to win with a smile on our face."

Positivity has taken such a hold that, to the other players' amusement, Baines turned up for training the day after his injury. "He wants to be out there every day," Pienaar says. "After we had got over the shock we all said: 'Take a break! It's not going to happen overnight.'"

The South African can also laugh now about the reception he received when, tail somewhat between his legs, he returned from his spell at Tottenham to find his old dressing room locker waiting for him after being unused in his absence. "It was quite hard at the time," he says. "I had all sort of things coming at me. I got a lot of stick and I had to accept it.

"Eventually you get it out of the way and move on, everything is back to normal now. This is my sixth or seventh season in the Premier League. I didn't expect it to be so long, so perhaps Everton is a good match for me, a good fit."

Might Everton actually win something any time soon or possibly manage a top-four finish under Martínez? "Anything is possible, I think we have seen that," Pienaar says. "We don't want to get carried away, we just want to keep on winning, keep entertaining the supporters and then maybe see where we are around March.

"It is too early to talk of expectations at the moment, better just to keep on enjoying our football. That is all Martínez ever asks us to do. In the dressing room before the Arsenal game he just said: 'Get over your fears. This is a moment to enjoy.' That was his team talk. And the thing is, that is exactly what we did."

Paul Wilson

Melbourne Heart 1-3 Melbourne Victory | A-League match report

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 02:41 PM PST

A crude lunge from Patrick Kisnorbo handed Melbourne Victory a derby win on a platter

Raja Casablanca 0-2 Bayern Munich

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 02:34 PM PST

Raja Casablanca 0-2 Bayern Munich

The European champions Bayern Munich added the Club World Cup to their collection of trophies when they outplayed Raja Casablanca to win 2-0 in the final.

The defender Dante and midfielder Thiago Alcântara scored in the first 22 minutes as the German side followed up the Champions League, Bundesliga and DFB Cup treble they won last season.

Raja qualified for the tournament as champions of the host country Morocco. They were the second team from outside Europe or South America to reach the final since the tournament began in its current form in 2005 and were only briefly in the contest.

Mouhcine Iajour fired wide from a half-chance in the fifth minute but two minutes later Jérôme Boateng headed on a corner to the unmarked Dante. The Brazilian defender scored emphatically with a shot on the turn.

Alcântara added Bayern's second , scoring from the edge of the area after David Alaba pulled the ball back. In the second half Mouhcine Iajour forced the Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer into a smart save with a close-range header. Xherdan Shaqiri hit the bar late on for Bayern, who comfortably held out despite the occasional wobble at the back.

Arsène Wenger asks Uefa to ban the away goals rule

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 02:30 PM PST

• Wenger raised the subject at managers' meeting in Geneva
• Arsenal went out of Europe last season on away goals

Arsène Wenger has asked Uefa to ban the away goals rule. At the managers' meetings held in Geneva which bring together the top coaching minds to discuss trends in the game, Wenger brought up a subject he thinks is both unfair and outdated, and cost Arsenal last year as they fell out of the Champions League after a 3-3 aggregate draw against eventual winners Bayern Munich.

"Last year we went out on away goals and after that I asked for Uefa to cancel the away goals," Wenger said. "I think, for example, we lost 3-1 here and won 2-0 at Bayern. It is difficult to win 2-0 to Bayern without conceding a goal. The weight of the away goal is too heavy, too big and is not justifiable anymore."

There were some raised eyebrows at Uefa. "People are surprised by my question. But I think it's a problem in the modern game." Before the rule existed, teams would go away from home and, as Wenger put it, "get killed everywhere", but as it was not televised those performances were not challenged. "Nobody said a word, so to encourage the teams to play they said: 'OK, we give you an incentive for the away game.' In the modern game everything is on television and analysed. There is no big difference anymore. Sometimes I think there is a countereffect, as teams play at home not to concede goals. At home, the first thing managers say is let's not concede goals."

There are no plans to amend the rule, but Wenger hopes his team will be better equipped to play Bayern again in the last 16 this time.

Amy Lawrence

Eddie Izzard: Why football is weird, tense, deadly serious and magical

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 02:13 PM PST

The comedian, Crystal Palace fan and former St Bede's Prep School first XI ace explains why football can save the world
• You are the Ref Christmas special

I love football. I have a weird, tense relationship with it. But when I was 12 it was what I lived for.

I was a half-back: not the most talented, but I ran my arse off and, when I lost the ball, I would always go back and get it. The dream was a place in my boarding school's first team – but they were almost all 13 and it seemed a long way off. I remember on selection day I phoned my dad from a call box on the way down to training and told him: "Dad, I'm not going to make it."

When I got there, everyone picked for the first team was put in green shirts for a practice match. I was in white. But I noticed there was still one spot left on the green team: they only had 10 men. Then I overheard their centre-forward and inside-right saying they were going to play a one-two straight from the kick-off. So all I've got to do is cut it off … and, oh, it's at my feet! And I took it, and I took it, and I went on a nice run. The teacher blew and said: "OK, Izzard, change your shirt." Still gets me, just thinking about that moment.

Look at the team shot: some of the other kids were huge. Smedley, the goalkeeper, was over six feet at 13! So it was quite an honour to be playing with them at 12.

Before a Wednesday game they would read out the team in front of the whole school. "Isherwood – captain, Vincent, Askeroff, De Bruin, Izzard, Stephens, Gearing …" All these names – still remember them. "Everyone in the team, stand up, go and get your kit and meet by the minibus." And we'd stand up in front of the whole school – a God-like moment. I never had that feeling again until standup.

But then I went to a boarding school in Eastbourne that didn't bloody play football. It was rugby, cricket and field hockey. I mean, what the fuck is field hockey? So playing football was removed from my life.

They couldn't stop me watching it though and, as a teenager, I got into supporting Crystal Palace. My Aunty Bea and Uncle John lived at 167 Whitehorse Lane, right next to Palace's stadium, and, in 1969, John started taking us to matches, when Palace had just gone up to the First Division for the first time. We could go to the match and be back in time for the final scores on TV.

The 70s were special. Malcolm Allison, wearing his fedora, took us down to the Third Division, but in 1975‑76 we had a great FA Cup run, almost getting to the final. I went nuts. Kenny Sansom was the type of player I wanted to be. And we had Don Rogers! Outside-left in the early Seventies. "Give it to Don!" He'd just go off on runs on his own and we'd be like, "G'waaan Don!" We'd go insane.

But when Terry Venables's "Team of the Eighties" came crashing down, I began to back away from it all. I just couldn't take Palace not winning, England not winning and my career not winning. It wasn't that I lost interest: it was all too much at once. So I focused on my work – edged away from Palace and from football.

It took me years to come back to it. I was in America in 2008 and enjoying some success when I met a fantastic female footballer. As a teenager, she could do four- or five-thousand keepy-uppys, and she offered to give me some football training. I thought this is so weird, this is actually right. So I bought a ball – a gold one with USA stamps on it was all I could find – and it all came back to me in a rush. She comes on my tours to coach me now.

For me, football is some sort of magical place. And it can save the world I feel, because it gives dignity. They talk about "dignity deficit" in the Arabic countries – a guy set fire to himself because he felt he had a life but he didn't have dignity. In football, everyone has a chance. You never know who's going to win. Great teams have fallen. The African teams could be the teams of the future. There's the giant-killing runs. Remember Hereford way back when – Ronnie Radford scoring that unbelievable goal. I had a flickbook of that.

Football gives people a chance to dream. I ended up giving that gold ball away to a kid in America. I do that a lot now – just go to places with a lot of footballs and pumps and give them away. It opens up a world of imagination and self-belief.

When I met Paul Trevillion to discuss the You Are The Ref strip, he passed on something Pelé told him: "Even my bad games are good." That is the trick for professional standups too – to have the belief that our worst work is OK, and to know that, on the days when you're on it, zinging, it will all flow naturally.

But I don't see any comedy in football. It's all life and death. I'm still nine years old when I watch. There's no comedy, unless the other team kick it in their own net – but even then, I feel for them a little bit, unless it's a top-five team.

When Palace made me associate director of the club in 2012 – a great honour – I did say that all I wished for was for the club to win every match from here to eternity. And I stand by that statement. That's all every fan wants – you just want your team to win every single match.

Yesterday didn't go well, but under Mr Pulis, we might yet have turned a corner. It would be great if Palace became a fighting team that you could never write off and got established in the Premier League.

But even if we go down again, I don't really mind. The new owners, I like the cut of their jib, because they give a damn. They're going for the long term, so that's why I'm happy to be back with Palace. And I'd been away for a few decades, in my head.

Eddie Izzard Force Majeure is out now on Blu-ray and DVD. For a chance to win a signed copy, and see Eddie star in the You are the Ref Christmas special, click here.

267. Eddie Izzard, Crystal Palace

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 02:03 PM PST

Click to enlarge, and debate the strip below the line.

Keith Hackett's verdict appears here from Monday – while celebrity question-setter, Palace fan and former St Bede's Prep School first XI ace Eddie Izzard explains why football can save the world.

Competition: win a signed DVD

Eddie Izzard Force Majeure - filmed during Eddie's mammoth 2013/2014 tour - is out now on Blu-ray and DVD. For a chance to win one of eight exclusive limited edition signed copies, including photo book and bonus programme, send your name and address to you.are.the.ref@observer.co.uk before 1 January 2014. T&C apply.

For more on the fifty year history of You Are The Ref, click here.

Borussia Dortmund 1-2 Hertha Berlin | Bundesliga match report

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 01:10 PM PST

Borussia Dortmund 1-2 Hertha Berlin

Borussia Dortmund, last season's Champions League runners-up, will spend much of the five-week winter break trying to restore their mojo according to the manager,Jürgen Klopp, after a 2-1 defeat by promoted Hertha Berlin on Saturday.

It was their third straight Bundesliga home defeat and a fourth reverse in six league matches."We can really use this break now but it is only our fault," Kloppsaid. "Something that started well has ended badly."

Dortmund fans continued to show their backing after Saturday's game, unfurling banners of support and thanking the players for a great year. But the Bundesliga crown looks out of reach for Klopp's third-placed team at the halfway point of the season, 12 points adrift of Bayern Munich with the leaders also having a game in hand.

"This is hard and it will take some time to process," Klopp added. Dortmund also had to wait nervously until the last group match to advance to the last 16 in the Champions League where they will meet Zenit St Petersburg over two legs in February and March.

"I can say a lot of things in support of the team but we should have lost none of the games that we lost this season," said Klopp.

Hit by a seemingly endless string of injuries that severely reduced his options, especially in defence, Klopp has seldom had the luxury of choice. The Dortmund coach has been forced to bring in a number of youngsters this season to compensate for losing players like Mats Hummels, Neven Subotic and Ilkay Gündogan.

Two youngsters, Erik Durm and Marian Sarr, lost possession of the ball to hand the Hertha pair Adrian Ramos and Sami Allagui their first-half goals after Marco Reus had put the home team in front after seven minutes. "The way we reacted after the second goal was clearly not good; that much I can say," said Klopp. "We let Hertha back into the game completely unnecessarily."

Football League: your thoughts | Nick Miller

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 12:04 PM PST

Burnley top the Championship after a squirrel and a Joey Barton red card thwart QPR; Leyton Orient are surprised at home

Championship

Burnley returned to the top of the Championship after fighting off a considerable challenge from Blackpool to secure a 2-1 win at Turf Moor, with Danny Ings and Scott Arfield scoring the goals for Sean Dyche's side. They moved above QPR, who lost the lunchtime kick-off 1-0 to third-placed Leicester City, in a game that saw Joey Barton sent off and a squirrel invade the pitch, holding up play by a few minutes. Barton described the red card as 'ridiculous' on Twitter after the game. His thoughts on whether the squirrel had any bearing on the outcome or his dismissal are thus far unknown.

Derby County are now two points off the automatic promotion places after recording their seventh win in a row, securing a relatively straightforward 3-1 win over Doncaster Rovers with goals from Jamie Ward, Craig Bryson and Simon Dawkins.

Leeds United stay in the play-off places following a 0-0 draw with Barnsley while Reading also remain in the top six despite losing 2-1 to Wigan Athletic, with Manchester United loanee Nick Powell scoring for the Latics. Nottingham Forest, who had Darius Henderson sent off seven minutes after coming on as a substitute, are seventh after drawing 0-0 with Birmingham City.

Brighton and Ipswich stay just outside the top six after drawing with Huddersfield and Watford respectively while Blackburn Rovers grabbed a 1-0 win at Yeovil thanks to a goal from, unsurprisingly, Jordan Rhodes.

At the other end of the table the bottom three remain as they were, with Sheffield Wednesday still just above Yeovil and Barnsley, following their 2-1 home defeat by Bournemouth. The Owls are still without a permanent manager, despite sacking Dave Jones at the start of December. Charlton and Bolton drew 1-1.

League One

The surprise result of the day in League One came at Brisbane Road, where top-of-the-table Leyton Orient lost 3-2 to Crawley. They remain at the summit on goal difference after Wolves could not take full advantage of their slip. Kenny Jackett's side drew 3-3 at Rotherham, salvaging a point after going down 3-1, James Henry and Bakary Sako scoring the point-saving goals.

Brentford are a point behind the top two after a convincing 3-0 victory at Preston, over whom Peterborough jumped thanks to their 2-1 victory at home to Bradford. Swindon came from a goal down to beat Coventry 2-1 while MK Dons stayed in touch with the play-off spots after beating Port Vale 3-0.

The big game at the bottom of the table saw Notts County and Bristol City draw 1-1, a result not particularly useful to either side, with both remaining in the relegation zone. They are accompanied by Crewe and Stevenage, who drew with Shrewsbury and Sheffield United respectively.

League Two

Oxford United missed the chance to move back ahead of Chesterfield – who beat Exeter 2-0 on Friday night - at the top of League Two, after they could only draw 0-0 with York City. Scunthorpe moved into the automatic promotion spots after they beat Morecambe 2-0 and Fleetwood fell to a 2-0 defeat by Cheltenham.

Southend and Rochdale's 1-1 draw on Friday night keeps both sides in the play-off chase but Burton Albion moved up to fifth with their 1-1 draw at Hartlepool. Accrington Stanley completed a remarkable comeback against Mansfield, scoring twice in injury-time to beat the Stags 3-2 at Field Mill.

Portsmouth's slide down the table continued as they lost 2-0 to Bristol Rovers while Bury went back into the bottom two after a 2-1 defeat by Plymouth Argyle. Only Northampton are below them, after their 4-1 hiding at the hands of Wycombe, a game that cost manager Aidy Boothroyd his job, while Torquay United are out of the drop zone thanks to their 1-0 win at Dagenham and Redbridge.

Nick Miller

Gary Mackay-Steven's goal seals win for Dundee United over Ross County

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 11:32 AM PST

• Terry Butcher winless after six games in charge of Hibs
• Kilmarnock edge 2-1 victory against Partick

Gary Mackay-Steven's goal proved enough to earn Dundee United a narrow home win over Ross County at Tannadice. United dominated possession for long spells and Mackay-Steven's close-range finish to a fine attacking move involving substitute David Goodwillie and Stuart Armstrong after 69 minutes was enough to seal the three points for the hosts. The victory moves the Tangerines up to second place and extends their winning run to six matches. Meanwhile, Derek Adams and his County side have not won a match since October.

Loanees Henri Anier and Lionel Ainsworth both scored to inspire Motherwell to a 3-0 victory over St Mirren. Anier reached seven goals for the season with confident finishes in each half and Ainsworth calmly finished a well-worked move in between as 'Well secured their 10th Scottish Premiership win and their first Fir Park victory over St Mirren for three years.

Kris Boyd's second-half winner allowed Kilmarnock to leapfrog Partick Thistle into ninth place with a 2-1 win at Rugby Park. The former Scotland striker struck 20 minutes from time to take his tally to nine for the season and continue his impressive goal in every two games goal ratio. The in-form winger Chris Johnston contributed his third goal in four games with the opener after 41 minutes, but the hosts were pegged back soon after the interval as Kris Doolan levelled the scores for Thistle. Stevie Lawless missed a glaring chance to level for 2-2 from five yards out.

St Johnstone fought for more than an hour with 10 men to claim a well-deserved 0-0 draw at Terry Butcher's Hibs to leave the new manager winless after six games. Less than a minute after entering the fray, replacing the injured Murray Davidson, former Hibs midfielder Paddy Cregg was sent off for a desperate two-footed challenge on Paul Cairney. Despite their numerical advantage, the hosts struggled to break down a stoic Saints rearguard.

Nial Briggs

Celtic 2-0 Hearts | Scottish Premiership match report

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 10:53 AM PST

If there really was a footballing god, he would have determined that the first goal of this match was the winner and thereby allowed the crowd of more than 46,000 to get back to enjoying their Christmas build-up.

This was a turgid affair, played against the backdrop of a non-existent atmosphere at a stadium which looked little over a third full. Celtic were the dominant force and duly won, as was predictable, but even the home support could barely have enjoyed what was played out in front of them.

Hearts will make no apology for the defensive tactics which so determined the shape of this game. The last time these sides met Celtic inflicted a 7-0 hammering on the Edinburgh side. Hearts arrived in Glasgow having won only twice in the last 15 league matches, still well adrift at the foot of the table and with damage limitation in mind.

The Hearts manager, Gary Locke, named only five substitutes, which was either the latest indictment of Hearts' impoverished state or the taking of an opportunity to prove a point towards Scotland's footballing authorities. From the entire squad which was stripped at Celtic Hearts had only two players aged above 22. In his quiet moments, Locke may well have feared another mauling here but Celtic have failed to recapture their routine, rampant domestic performances on the road when in front of their own supporters.

It took the half-time introduction of James Forrest to add at least a modicum of Celtic vim. Earlier they had played into Hearts' hands with an attacking display which lacked imagination and pace. Celtic also faced a Hearts goalkeeper in Jamie MacDonald who proved in inspired form. And yet Hearts had the temerity almost to snatch a draw. In the last minute of regulation time Dylan McGowan's header from a David Smith corner was headed off the line by Kris Commons. By the end of stoppage time Forrest had doubled Celtic's advantage.

MacDonald's early interventions had been to deny Commons and, more spectacularly, Anthony Stokes. The goalkeeper's finest save of the first half arrived after 34 minutes, when Joe Ledley was denied at point-blank range. Hearts, as well drilled defensively as they were, offered nothing going forward.

Celtic's improvement after the break owed everything to the introduction of Forrest, who replaced the ineffectual Nir Biton. Yet Neil Lennon's two strikers, Stokes and Teemu Pukki, were dire both individually and as a partnership. Stokes's form has regressed notably in recent times. A second-half booking to Jamie Hamill will trigger a suspension which will place further strain on Hearts' resources. At least that was merited, unlike the one dished out to Jamie Walker after the midfielder not unreasonably complained about the decision of the referee, Euan Norris, to award a goal-kick rather than a corner from a clearly deflected attempt at goal.

Norris again played a part as Celtic took the lead, this time awarding a throw-in to the league leaders which should have gone the opposite way. That started a move which culminated in Scott Brown feeding Commons, who scored his 13th goal of the season. For all Hearts' grievances, they should still have defended better. Either side of that goal MacDonald denied Commons with excellent saves from a shot and a header. McGowan's attempt provided only brief Celtic palpitations. As if to express their annoyance at Hearts' belated flirtation with their goalmouth, Celtic added gloss with the final kick of the match. Georgios Samaras, who is almost certainly entering the closing stages of his time in Glasgow, played in the marauding Forrest. With MacDonald exposed, the young winger supplied a cool finish.

Ewan Murray

David Coleman obituary

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 10:19 AM PST

The BBC's leading sports presenter for more than four decades

The death of David Coleman at the age of 87 signs off an already distant era when television broadcasts of Britain's national sporting events – the so-called "crown jewels" – were almost the sole and exclusive preserve of the BBC. Coleman was the very embodiment of that pre-eminence. As the corporation's champion sports presenter through much of the second half of the 20th century, he had an enthusiastic, knowing, taut professional style and a crisp, classless delivery that seemed all-pervading. In addition, he was the pathfinding master of ceremonies for such long-running regulars as Grandstand, Sportsnight and A Question of Sport.

In all, Coleman led the BBC's coverage at 16 Olympic games (summer and winter), five World Cup football tournaments and many FA Cup finals and Grand National steeplechases. He realised that the knack of successful television commentary required both passion and brevity, as well as, for the most important passages, bestowing a significantly precise top and tail to frame the occasion for posterity – as in: "This then, the start of the 200 metres of the 1976 Olympic games…" to "Oh, what a run, what a run, truly magnificent!"

Following his final Olympiad at Sydney in 2000, and only months from his 75th birthday, at a ceremony at the International Olympic Committee's base in Lausanne, Switzerland, the IOC president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, pinned to Coleman's lapel the rare Olympic Order medal. The television man was touchingly moved. He was the first broadcaster or journalist ever to be so honoured, joining such lustrous performers on the plinth as Jesse Owens, Fanny Blankers-Koen and Emil Zatopek.

Throughout his broadcasting career, he saw himself as the hard-nosed, everyman-journalist. He was no celebrity presenter, and could be scathingly dismissive about more starry, chummy screen performers chosen more for winsome looks and winning smiles.

Rivals were never comfortable with Coleman. In the mid-1960s when ITV hired the popular, amiable Eamonn Andrews to launch its Saturday afternoon World of Sport magazine programme to take on the BBC's Grandstand, Coleman dismissively told Andrews: "I'll blow you out of the water!" To all intents, that was, mercilessly, what he did.

Similarly, at the end of that decade, when ITV attempted to challenge BBC's football monopoly, Coleman would refuse, before cup finals at Wembley, even to shake the hand when proffered with a "good luck for a good commentary" from the commercial channel's comradely Brian Moore. The two remained distanced rivals for almost 30 years. Moore recalled: "All round the world, David offered no real friendship. He was so spiky. If he even said 'hello', it was more with a sneer than a smile. But while his temper was short, his standards were immensely high. His hard edge made him as formidable a journalist as he was an opponent. He knew he was the best and professionally, all said and done, we knew he had set the standard and there was simply nothing we could do but admire and respect his talent."

When the fledgling BBC television service resumed after the second world war, it was still very much the corporation's junior service, available only in parts of the south-east, with its performers recruited occasionally from radio, though more usually, it seemed, from the officers' mess or the old boy network. Certainly, up in Cheshire, young Coleman had never seen television as a boy. His route was to be journalism's traditional one.

He was born in Alderley Edge, into a family that hailed from County Cork, and he went to a local grammar school. An introduction as a trainee on his local Stockport Express gave him an entree, followed by call-up for two years of national service in 1946, into the army's newspaper unit, where he had postings in West Germany and east Africa.

On demobilisation, he joined Kemsley newspapers in Manchester before becoming a youthful editor of the weekly Cheshire County Press. He was a gifted amateur runner and in 1949 won the annual Manchester Mile, at the time, he would insist, the only non-international ever to have done so. After injuries prevented him from entering trials for the 1952 British Olympic team, he wrote to the BBC.

By 1953, Coleman was putting in regular scriptwriting shifts in the BBC northern region's Manchester newsroom, and the following year joined its staff in Birmingham, concentrating on sport in the Midlands. At once came the opportunity of which ambitious juniors dream.

On 6 May 1954 Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. While the BBC's sports department in London, led by Peter Dimmock, was scouring the metropolis desperately for the shy hero (who was lying low in Clement Freud's restaurant at the Royal Court theatre in Sloane Square), they filled in time with an interview by a fresh-faced newcomer from the Midlands of the popular Argentinian golfer Roberto de Vicenzo.

Thus, Coleman was up and running and soon, as BBC Midlands' new sports editor, he was being accepted by London as the likeliest of bright lads. In 1958 Dimmock launched Grandstand on the national network. He introduced the inaugural programmes himself and then handed over to Coleman, "who's 20 times better at it than me". Coleman's marathon had begun.

A professional perfectionist, he could be a hard man to work with. Coleman could reduce insecure minions to tears, and often did. He liked cold-eyed, no-nonsense journalists around him, not television's regular vaudevilleans. He had always – and with good reason – a fine conceit of his own value.

A contract wrangle kept him off the screen for almost 12 months in the mid-1970s. It was less about money and more about editorial control and the number of events he would cover.

In the studio or on location, Coleman's unflappability at taking a producer's direction, in spite of the din either all around him or through his earpiece, was legendary and, however many top-dog stars have since tried, his legend has never been outshone. Masterly, too, was his breathless and awesome command of the live teatime-scores teleprinter – "Queen of the South one, Airdrie one, means Airdrie move up three places on goal difference, but Queen of the South slip a place because Brechin won today."

His race-reading of successive Olympic 100 metres finals, from Rome in 1960 to Sydney in 2000, was even more an epic and genius party-piece of splendour – spot-on identification of eight men tearing headlong at him in a less than 10-second blur. But his most resplendent journalistic hour – or rather hours – came with his prolonged and distressingly sombre vigil, working from just one, distant, fixed camera, throughout the dreadful day of the murders of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic village in 1972.

"Colemanballs" in Private Eye – a fortnightly log of commentators' gaffes and tautologies – irritated him to the point of anger, and Coleman denied just about all the entries attributed to him. But the national treasure had mellowed by the time Spitting Image came along in the 1980s, and he could engagingly chortle at himself as a crazed, check-capped puppet, finger in earpeiece, squealing: "Er, reallyquiteremarkable and, er, I'vegonetooearlyand Ithinkit'simpossdibletokeep upthislevelofexcitement withoutmyheadexploding…"

Coleman, who was appointed OBE in 1992, resented retirement in 2000 as a slight, but he had set the standards. When, for all those decades, BBC television ruled the waves, for most of the time he was master-commander and buccaneering captain on the quarterdeck.

After he had fronted Grandstand for a decade, he moved to a midweek slot with Sportsnight (1968-73), though later returned to the Saturday programme. From the early 1970s he was the BBC's senior football commentator, and from the early 80s concentrated on athletics. He brought a businesslike geniality to his time chairing A Question of Sport (1979-97); the programme's only other two presenters have been David Vine from its start in 1970, and Sue Barker till the present. He was also a co-host of the BBC Sports Review of the Year (1961-83).

Few acts have been harder to follow. Yet Coleman never played the celeb superstar, and resisted the after-dinner circuit – to be sure, in many ways there was an appealing privacy, even shyness in him, and however high his professional attainment, you knew, deep down, that he was most proud of hearth, home, his wife, Barbara, and their three daughters and three sons.

• David Coleman, broadcaster and commentator, born 26 April 1926; died 21 December 2013

• Frank Keating died earlier this year

Frank Keating

Ipswich Town 1-1 Watford | Championship match report

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 09:44 AM PST

Troy Deeney rescued a point for Watford in a 1-1 draw at Ipswich Town to ensure his new manager, Giuseppe Sannino, did not start his tenure with a defeat.

A loss for Watford looked likely when the home side were given a controversial penalty, stroked home by David McGoldrick in the 73rd minute, but the lead lasted just eight minutes before Deeney slid home from Marco Cassetti's cross.

In truth, a draw was a fair result in a largely dismal affair. Neither side gave an inch in a cagy opening, and the first shot at either goal did not come until the 22nd minute.

Watford edged the early proceedings and came closest to scoring, in the 25th minute, when Diego Fabbrini found space in the area and cannoned a shot against the near post from an acute angle. But Ipswich fought back and the visitors were indebted to the agility of the recalled Manuel Almunia, who tipped over McGoldrick's 25-yard shot.

As in the first half, the second 45 minutes took time to get going. It was Watford who almost made the breakthrough when the impressive Fabbrini dissected the home defence and Sean Murray's goalbound shot was smartly turned around by Dean Gerken.

Just as the game was drifting into a drab goalless draw, Ipswich were given a chance to open the scoring. Frank Nouble's weak cross deflected off the arm of Gabriele Angella and the referee, Graham Scott, had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. After furious Watford protests died down, McGoldrick stroked home his ninth goal of the season.

But with nine minutes left Watford were level. The substitute Cristian Battocchio slid a teasing cross into the six-yard area and Deeney beat Smith to slide the ball home.

Ipswich came close to a winner in the 87th minute when McGoldrick found some rare space in the Watford box, but his shot was parried by Almunia, and Luke Hyam's header from the rebound came back off the crossbar.

Malky Mackay adamant he will not quit Cardiff despite Vincent Tan pressure

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 09:26 AM PST

• Manager restates commitment after 3-1 defeat at Liverpool
• Fans stage lengthy protest at Tan's call for Mackay to resign

Malky Mackay insisted he would not bow to Vincent Tan's request to resign as manager of Cardiff City after receiving impassioned support from fans before, during and after a 3-1 defeat at Liverpool.

Cardiff supporters staged a lengthy protest against Tan, the club's controversial owner who was present, following his attempt to force Mackay out of the club. The Malaysian was driven out of the Shankly Gates in a blacked-out van as fans continued to chant Mackay's name an hour after the game, and the Scot later held talks on the Anfield pitch with the chief executive of the League Managers Association, Richard Bevan.

Tan refused to comment on Mackay's position after the game, except to say: "We will do what's best for the interests of Cardiff." The businessman had asked the Scot to resign or be sacked in an email, but Mackay was adamant he will not walk away from a club he took into the Premier League last season.

"I will absolutely not be resigning from the football club. I don't think there is any reason why that should happen," said the Cardiff manager, who did not speak to the club's owner after the match. "That's not something that normally happens. I'll be heading back to Wales on a plane.

"I will be in work if it's got anything do with me. I want to make it crystal clear that I won't be resigning as manager of the football club. I have great respect and a great relationship with the staff, the players and the fans and I'm not going to walk away from them."

Mackay's name was chanted throughout by Cardiff's travelling support and he remained on the pitch to thank their efforts after the defeat, pointing to his head as he did so.

He said: "I am very humbled that our fans have taken to myself, my staff and the team like they have. We have a connection with our fans. They should really be enjoying their football this season. That's why I have apologised to them for what they have had to put up with."

Liverpool fans also applauded Mackay as Luis Suárez inspired a win that took their team to the top of the Premier League, and their manager, Brendan Rodgers, hailed the Scot as the finest manager in Cardiff's history.

Rodgers said: "It is a sad day. Malky is a wonderful professional, he is the best manager in the history of Cardiff City, he got them promoted to the Premier League, which was worth £90m to the club, and they are now in the most competitive league in the world. They will stay up with him at the helm and he finds himself under immense scrutiny for doing an outstanding job.

"It's not everyone at Cardiff, it's one guy who feels he wants to change things, and he'll be losing the best manager in Cardiff's history."

Andy Hunter

Fulham 2-4 Manchester City

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 09:14 AM PST

• In pictures: all the action from Saturday's matches

Manchester City have an addiction to making life more difficult for themselves than it might be but they raised the bar here to freakish new heights. At 2-0 up this contest looked over and it promised to be a rather less harrowing away-day experience than some of those that have scarred the club's push to regain the Premier League title.

But with Fulham refusing to go quietly, and back in the game thanks largely to the dynamism of Adel Taarabt, Vincent Kompany scored an own-goal that will have him waking up in cold sweats. Sascha Riether's cross from the right was tame but, when Kompany swung his left boot to clear, he succeeded only in slicing it. Almost in slow motion the ball arced up and back and dropped inside the far corner of the net. Fulham did not know whether to celebrate or laugh.

With David Silva irrepressible, City created so many chances it seemed faintly ridiculous that they should face the prospect of further dropped points away from home, however boldly Fulham contributed to a real thriller. Yet City's firepower is such that they could still dig themselves out of the hole.

Manuel Pellegrini had already introduced Jesús Navas and he would send on James Milner and both of them scored to ensure that this would not be filed together with Cardiff, Stoke, Aston Villa and Sunderland in the roll call of careless City slips. Navas's goal was the crucial one, drilled through the legs of the goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg from Silva's pass, and Milner's added the belated gloss from Alvaro Negredo's wonderful outside-of-the-boot pass.

There were positives for Fulham in the performance, if not the result – a third defeat in four matches under René Meulensteen. He spoke afterwards of his team's "energy" and "positivity", together with the need to keep faith in what they were doing in order to emerge from the relegation places.

But City made the statement, closing again to within a point of the new leaders, Liverpool, with Arsenal at home to Chelsea night. City face Liverpool at the Etihad on Boxing Day.

Even without the injured Sergio Agüero the depth and quality of City's offensive options was intimidating. One particular statistic was telling. When Yaya Touré opened the scoring with his ninth league goal of the season he had three more in the competition than Fulham's entire starting XI. Only Liverpool come close to City's haul of 51 league goals thus far. Pellegrini's team are the most exciting in England.

"The second goal that we conceded was bad luck but the reaction of the team was important," Pellegrini said. "It was a really difficult game because the pitch was not good and it was also very windy. But Navas and Milner made huge contributions."

Fulham started well but City drew first blood. Steve Sidwell will regret the tackle that sent Silva spinning on the very edge of the area because the Spaniard had lost control of the ball ahead of him; Touré's free-kick was calibrated perfectly for the top corner.

The entertainment value was excellent, with City looking particularly menacing on the counterattack. Silva had rattled the crossbar in the 13th minute following a slick break and Edin Dzeko's lay-off, although Fulham might already have led.

Pellegrini had started with Joe Hart for the first time in the league since the goalkeeper's personal disaster at Chelsea on 27 October and he saved smartly from Taarabt's low shot, which stemmed from Gaël Clichy's mis-control. Pellegrini indicated that Hart would retain his place against Liverpool.

Fulham had set up with three in central midfield and without Dimitar Berbatov, who was a late withdrawal with groin trouble. Taarabt played as a false nine and he and his team contributed richly in an attacking sense. Taarabt repeatedly tested Hart's handling in the first half, with a low drive on 32 minutes standing out. The goalkeeper turned past the post.

At the other end Dzeko ignored Fernandinho, who was in a better position, to see a shot blocked and he had another effort from Aleksandar Kolorov's cross saved by Stekelenburg. City's second followed the familiar narrative of Fulham switching off at a set piece. Martín Demichelis's intelligent run got him round the back on Silva's free-kick and, when Stekelenburg saved his header, Kompany prodded home for his first goal of the season.

Fulham and Taarabt showed their spirit. They fashioned a foothold when Taarabt streaked clear to cross for Kieran Richardson, who beat Hart from close-range. Moments earlier Stekelenburg had saved at full stretch from Silva. It was frenetic stuff. Navas shot wastefully for City and Fulham continued to push, with the substitute Pajtim Kasami going close. Kompany made his unwanted bid for the headlines but, ultimately, City had too much.

David Hytner

Man Utd 3-1 West Ham

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 09:10 AM PST

• In pictures: all the action from Saturday's matches

Manchester United's crisis of confidence appears to be over. It could simply be down to the good fortune of meeting four teams from the bottom half of the table in the league run up to the end of the year, but after the consecutive home defeats to Everton and Newcastle, David Moyes has seen his side put together four straight wins in different competitions with only one goal conceded. As that goal came less than 10 minutes from the end of this all too comfortable victory, when Carlton Cole wandered into an almost empty Manchester United half to take advantage of a comically optimistic attempt at an offside trap, it probably spoiled Moyes' afternoon.

It shouldn't spoil his Christmas though. With games against Hull and Norwich while the other top four contenders are busy meeting each other, United's league position could look much healthier by New Year's Day. That is more than West Ham dare hope for, since for a Sam Allardyce side the visitors were pallid here, almost as much of a pushover as the Blackburn rabble that went down 7-1 three years ago at Old Trafford in a result that altered the course of events at Ewood and ultimately Upton Park.

Manchester United did much as they pleased from the outset, with the much improved Tom Cleverley bringing a notable save from Adrián when the game was barely a minute old. Cleverley's was just one of a number of outstanding individual performances that made one wonder how United ever managed to lack confidence, with players as influential as Wayne Rooney and Adnan Januzaj to call upon. This was one of Rooney's quieter performances, with Januzaj, Danny Welbeck and Antonio Valencia also providing energy and inspiration there was no need for anything extravagant, yet the way he constantly dropped back in search of the ball then distributed it with calm authority was still impressive.

The home side were playing with the same central midfield – Cleverley and Phil Jones – that Newcastle were able to dominate, yet it was clear from the early stages that West Ham would be a different story. Both Cleverley and Jones made surging solo runs in the first few minutes and found the West Ham cover backing off obligingly, so much so that Jones tried his luck with a shot and brought another save from Adrián. It was a Cleverley pass that led to the first goal, though after Welbeck had instinctively found Rooney with a first time flick, it was the precision and weight of the return that set up a shooting chance. Rooney's short ball forward allowed Welbeck to remain onside and beat Adrián from a narrow angle, with James Collins forced to turn so sharply he fell over.

Collins would not have felt much better about the second goal his side conceded, scored from a similar position after Januzaj took a pass from Welbeck and effortlessly dragged the ball back round the defender to make space for a shot. Januzaj might have had a penalty moments earlier when Mark Noble was slightly fortunate to get away with barging him over in the area, though the young Belgian is beginning to acquire a reputation for going to ground easily, if not actually diving, and referee Mike Jones probably got it right just before the interval when he booked him for an over-theatrical fall following a challenge by Collins.

West Ham could easily have gone three behind before half-time had Valencia shown more composure in front of goal after initiating a high-speed breakaway down the vacant right flank. When the return pass came in from the charging Rafael it was perfect, and it found Valencia ideally placed in the centre, though that was the end of the superlatives. Valencia snatched at his shot and wafted it over the crossbar without really looking up to weigh his options.

The visitors improved slightly in the second half so that Manchester United had to wait almost half an hour for their next goal, though Welbeck had a great chance froma Januzaj cross minutes after the restart. When the goal came it was another anti-hero gradually winning his way back into Old Trafford favour, Ashley Young, who finished as cleanly as he had done at Stoke in midweek when Rooney unselfishly set him up for a shot from the edge of the area. United were hungrily looking for more goals when Cole caught them with too many men upfield nine minutes from time, an endearing trait that Moyes would be unwise to try to stamp out. Enthusiastic cheers from the travelling fans greeted West Ham's arrival on the scoresheet, though even the most optimistic Iron knew they were not about to score three.

Paul Wilson

Sunderland 0-0 Norwich City | Premier League match report

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 09:08 AM PST

• In pictures: all the action from Saturday's matches

Sunderland have improved under Gus Poyet's management but they are taking baby steps at a time when incremental progress punctuated by the odd regressive wobble simply will not do.

Teams stuck to the bottom of the Premier League at Christmas require great leaps forward if relegation is to be avoided, yet Norwich's collection of a most straightforward point suggests Poyet's players remain an awful long way from making a great leap forward.

Last Tuesday night's extra-time League Cup quarter-final win against Chelsea appeared even more of a damaging irrelevance on a day when, looking anything but sure-footed, Sunderland lost their new found balance.

Poyet's mood was not improved by the late, arguably harsh, red card shown to Wes Brown for a stupid challenge on Ricky van Wolfswinkel. Martin Atkinson could possibly have been more lenient but Brown did jump in with reckless abandon and Sunderland will not win any appeal.

"It's disappointing, I wasn't expecting this," said a deeply downcast Poyet. "We have no excuses. I'm not going to comment on the referee's decision. That's life. It's getting more and more difficult for us. The quality is what you see, there is no more but there were things that happened today that are difficult to explain."

With Sunderland distinctly edgy, Chris Hughton's side passed and moved smoothly enough as Leroy Fer proved his midfield worth. When Robert Snodgrass crumpled under Phil Bardsley's challenge, Norwich appealed for a penalty but Snodgrass's collapse was a little dramatic for Atkinson's tastes.

Nathan Redmond unleashed a swerving shot from distance but Vito Mannone turned it around a post quite brilliantly. The odd cameo from the clearly talented Fabio Borini apart, John Ruddy had very little to do, the visiting goalkeeper suffering a few minor frights.

Despite Lee Cattermole's best efforts, Sunderland struggled to force any sort of tempo and, with Norwich coasting comfortably, the atmosphere remained stubbornly flat. Exploiting space vacated by the out-of-position Sebastien Bassong, Borini shot. It flew wide. The same fate met an overly ponderous Jozy Altidore whose physical presence and nuisance value do not compensate for his lack of goals.

Altidore and friends struggled to make much happen, let alone actually get behind a visiting defence they were playing virtually all their football in front of.

It could have been worse. When John O'Shea missed a header the ball fell invitingly to Gary Hooper but, taken by surprise, the striker could not react swiftly enough. Judging by Poyet's expression half-time came as a relief.

His side began the second half in more dominant fashion but failed to move the ball quickly enough. Weathering this gentle breeze, Norwich reasserted themselves and, clearly increasingly alarmed by so much home puffing and huffing, Poyet replaced Emmanuele Giaccherini with Adam Johnson. With Altidore's lack of movement glaringly apparent, the crowd agitated for Steven Fletcher's liberation from the bench and, taking the hint, Sunderland's manager threw him on.

When Brown's header brushed the outside of an upright after a Sebastian Larsson corner provoked rare dissaray in the Norwich defence, hope flickered. It flared again when Michael Turner's superb, last ditch, tackle denied Fletcher a goal.

Poyet's substitutions were working but Wearsiders groaned when Norwich's key striker and record signing Van Wolfswinkel marked his return from a lengthy injury by stepping off the bench. Undeterred, Ki Sung-yueng spotted that Ruddy had been drawn off his line but his intended chip into an empty net ended up floating fractionally over the bar.

It served as a microcosm of a grey Wearside day about to be blemished by Brown's dismissal. Hughton, though, could see only blue sky. "A draw and a clean sheet away is always a good result," he said. "Wes Brown's challenge was definitely a red but it was a shame because it wasn't that sort of game."

Louise Taylor

Stoke City 2-1 Aston Villa | Premier League match report

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 09:07 AM PST

• In pictures: all the action from Saturday's matches

As more than a quarter of Stoke's fixtures are against some of Peter Crouch's many former clubs, there appear to be familiar faces at every turn. This, however, was a reunion to remember. He fashioned their first goal and scored their second to elevate Stoke into the upper half of the table and answer a few questions about his own future.

There was the thought that, come January, Stoke would join the long list of Crouch's old employers. Not so, according to Mark Hughes. "He is not going anywhere," said the Stoke manager. "He has been playing at this level for a long time and you don't do that unless you are a good player."

Indeed, Crouch's Premier League debut came for Aston Villa, almost a dozen years ago, and barring a loan spell at Norwich, he has not returned to the lower divisions since. The chances of Stoke beating a retreat to the Championship have decreased too, after a revival that has yielded seven points in three games. Crouch has scored in successive home wins against Chelsea and Villa, bringing a reward for the buffeting he takes from central defenders.

"He gives a focus to our attacking play," Hughes said. "I played that role for many years with your back to the goal and it is a thankless task on occasion. You have to take the hits for the team. That is what Peter did but he is an accomplished player."

He illustrated as much with a delightful backheeled volley against the post. It would have been a worthier winner than this decider. Nevertheless, it was all too apt that it came from a defensive mix-up: this was a game pockmarked by errors.

When Geoff Cameron curled in a cross, Chris Herd and Brad Guzan missed it and Crouch dispatched his shot into the empty net with a cathartic thump. He had played a pivotal part in the opener and while Hughes made his contribution with a catalytic substitution, this was a goal from the Tony Pulis handbook.

Crouch flicked on the influential Cameron's free kick, Charlie Adam controlled the ball on his chest, held off Nathan Baker and angled a shot past Guzan. He had only been on the pitch for five minutes. "I'm not going to take all the credit – you can give it to me if you want – but Charlie came on and made an impact," Hughes said.

It was the goal a dreadful game needed. It was fitting that the first flashpoint stemmed from a mistake. Andreas Weimann anticipated Marc Wilson's poor touch to dispossess the Irishman who, in his attempts to make amends, upended the Austrian. The Villa supporters called for a red card; the referee, Craig Pawson, opted for yellow.

Then, when Guzan was tested by a vicious effort struck, it was a misplaced cross from Cameron. And, after Adam made the breakthrough and Baker spurned a fine chance to equalise, Villa's leveller came from another blunder. Libor Kozak latched on to a terrible back header from Erik Pieters to slot the ball past Asmir Begovic.

"Kozak was excellent," said the Villa manager, Paul Lambert. The understudy has provided some solace as Christian Benteke has gone three months without goal. A knee injury kept the Belgian out and renders him a doubt for the Boxing Day game against Crystal Palace. "Hopefully the rest will do him the world of good," Lambert said, before turning his attention to the result. "I never thought we deserved to lose."

After three successive losses, however, his present is a little more unpleasant after a defeat inflicted by the ghost of Villa past.

Richard Jolly

West Bromwich Albion 1-1 Hull City | Premier League match report

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 09:05 AM PST

• In pictures: all the action from Saturday's matches

The West Bromwich Albion board may not intend to rush into appointing a successor to the sacked Steve Clarke but the size of the task facing the Baggies' next manager will be considerable.

Matej Vydra's late goal, the former Watford striker's first for the club, prevented Albion being beaten for a fifth successive game but it was not so much the result which upset those supporters who greeted the final whistle with a chorus of half-hearted booing as a performance during which they rarely looked capable of breaking down a solid if unambitious Hull side.

On the other hand, as caretaker manager Keith Downing pointed out, at least the rot has been stopped. Downing, who reiterated that he did not want the job on a full-time basis, said whoever comes in will inherit "a good club".

He can also take considerable credit for the fact that the equaliser was made by one of his substitutes, Zoltán Gera, and scored by another. The former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder will prepare the side for the Boxing Day fixture at Spurs and the match at West Ham 48 hours later.

"I was looking for a response and got it," said Downing. "The players have big hearts and never gave up."

Hull's manager, Steve Bruce, can plan rather further ahead and would have done so in a much happier frame of mind if his side had hung on for the three points that appeared to be there for the taking.

"The dressing room is devastated; it feels as if we've been beaten," he admitted. "To have been on 22 points at Christmas would have been lovely though, if someone had offered us 20 at the start of the season, we'd have taken it. Of course we would.

"But we're making a fist of it and hopefully I can bring in one or two in January to add a bit of quality."

City created the first opportunity, James Chester heading Tom Huddlestone's corner wide in the 10th minute. In terms of goalmouth incident, or indeed action, that was about it for the first quarter, so the opener shortly before the half-hour came as something of a bolt from the blue.

It certainly did as far as the Albion back-line, caught badly square by David Meyler's long ball out of defence, was concerned.

James Morrison was still appealing for a foul after going down under Huddlestone's challenge in the City penalty area when Meyler picked out Danny Graham's run down the right. Graham waited before weighting a pass into Jake Livermore's path as the midfielder ran diagonally across him into the Albion penalty area and, though Ben Foster rushed out to block, Livermore hit his first-time shot firmly under the Albion goalkeeper.

With Huddlestone, Livermore and Meyler breaking up most attacks before they threatened the Hull back-line, such opportunities as Albion did create were coming largely from set pieces. Even then Chris Brunt's left-footed delivery was often poor, though one corner did result in a Gareth McAuley header straight at the Hull goalkeeper, Allan McGregor.

Hull almost doubled their lead after an hour when, following a swift break, Huddlestone's crisp angled drive brought an excellent save from Foster. The rebound came to Ahmed Elmohamady coming in on the right side of the Albion penalty area but Foster again excelled, using his feet to keep out the Egyptian's low shot.

That would have been that but, with only one goal in it, the home side were always in the game and, with five minutes remaining, Youssouf Mulumbu slipped the ball to Long in the City penalty area. The Ireland striker picked out Gera, who in turn found Vydra in space, and the Czech beat McGregor to rescue a point.

Richard Rae

Crystal Palace 0-3 Newcastle United | Premier League match report

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 09:00 AM PST

• In pictures: all the action from Saturday's matches

This time two months ago Newcastle were three points off the relegation zone and, with last season's substandard campaign still in mind, Alan Pardew's job was said to be in jeopardy. Now they are three points off fourth-placed Chelsea. This emphatic victory at the ground where Pardew made his name as a player was Newcastle's sixth in eight matches and the latest evidence that Mike Ashley was right not to be panicked into replacing his manager.

Pardew says he does not know how high his team can go but he is certainly not talking them down. "The truth of it is we're playing really well," said Pardew. "We have a team that looks dangerous and even the top teams will not relish playing us."

Palace surely did not enjoy the experience. They had been in impressive form themselves going into this game but they emerged from it with a reminder of how precarious their Premier League survival remains, especially with seven players still missing through injury.

At first there was little difference between the sides. Newcastle wore their Brazil-inspired yellow and blue away kit but the wind and driving rain stressed that Croydon is a long way from the Copacabana and the opening exchanges owed more to punk than samba. There was ample energy but little finesse.

Only after 15 minutes of midfield skirmishing did a goalkeeper have to make a save, with Tim Krul comfortably holding a 25-yard Barry Bannan free-kick.

Gradually Newcastle introduced beauty to the game. The return of Yohan Cabaye meant they fielded the same side that had beaten Manchester United in their last away trip and in the 17th minute they finally worked their way in behind a Palace defence that had conceded only three goals in the previous six matches.

Fittingly, the opportunity was created by two players whose improvement in the last two months has been integral to Newcastle's strong run, as an astute pass by Vurnon Anita sent Mathieu Debuchy racing down the right. The full-back delivered a dangerous cross towards Loic Rémy, only for Danny Gabbidon to intervene. Cabaye took the resultant corner and Debuchy met it at the near post, glancing a header narrowly wide.

Palace's forwards frequently had to retreat to defend but Marouane Chamakh was made to look inadequate in the 25th minute when Moussa Sissoko tricked his way past him in the right-back position and then teed up Cabaye, whose first-time effort from 12 yards took a slight deflection as it whizzed past Julián Speroni and into the net.

Palace responded well, with Cameron Jerome forcing an awkward save from Krul on the half-hour mark. The goalkeeper bungled badly from the ensuing corner, surging off his line with his arm in the air like a man hailing an invisible taxi as the ball flew way over his head. Mike Williamson, taken by surprise, diverted it towards his own goal and was grateful to see Anita wallop it clear. However, the Palace insurrection was soon suppressed, as in the 39th minute Gabbidon, perhaps duped by the skiddy surface, diverted another Debuchy cross into his own goal.

With Sissoko and Debuchy tormenting Dean Moxey, Tony Pulis made two half-time substitutions to change his left flank but Newcastle remained in control. A ferocious 25-yard free-kick from Cabaye almost swerved past Speroni but the goalkeeper improvised well to swipe it away with his trailing leg.

Palace's best chance came in the 68th minute, when Chamakh nodded a Jason Puncheon free-kick back across goal but Cameron Jerome failed to control his volley, wafting it into the stands from eight yards. "If he scores that, it could be a different game," lamented Tony Pulis.

Moments later a Newcastle counterattack led to the excellent Cabaye curling a shot inches wide from the corner of the home box. Cabaye then wasted a glaring chance when put clean through. Yoan Gouffran struck the crossbar late on but, in the end, the near misses did not matter.

Newcastle had already made sure of victory on an afternoon when the only negative was another bland display by Rémy, whose fifth successive match without a goal ended early as he was replaced by Shola Ameobi. The Nigeria international won a penalty in the dying minutes when he was brought down by Jonathan Parr, enabling Hatem Ben Arfa to complete the scoring. "Irrespective of our performance, I have to say Newcastle were excellent," admitted Pulis.

Paul Doyle

Man Utd 3-1 West Ham

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 08:57 AM PST

Premier League: Adnan Januzaj was impressive as David Moyes's side got back to winning ways at Old Trafford

Premier League clockwatch – as it happened | Nick Miller

Posted: 21 Dec 2013 08:56 AM PST

Manchester United made short work of West Ham, Newcastle spanked Crystal Palace while Manchester City survived a comeback and a comedy own-goal to beat Fulham 4-2...

Nick Miller

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Sunday, 22 December 2013

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

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Sunday, 22 December 2013

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

07:26

Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com

Competition: win a signed DVD

Championship

League One

League Two

Written by TBMU Admin

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