Premier League: Live scores and updates from a huge day in the relegation dogfight as Forest equalise against Sheffield United

Half-time across the grounds after what feels like a breathless first half of football this afternoon.

Still goalless at Brentford, but Newcastle have put three past Burnley and Sheffield Utd and Forest are putting one something of an end-to-end classic over at Bramall Lane.

Phew – take a breather everyone, and will run through all the action so far in time for the second half!

Anthony Gordon wins a free-kick on the stroke of half-time at Turf Moor in a dangerous area.

But rather than send Burnley well and truly packing, he sends it straight into the wall in surely the last big chance of the half.

And there’s a re-shuffle at Brentford, with Ajer forced off for Roerslev.

A centre back off for a midfielder is never a change any manager will want to make, but thankfully he just needs to see off the last couple of added minutes before half-time when he can reset.

An injury to Esteve as he’s replaced by Ekdal inside added time.

Still no goals from west London, but Keane Lewis-Potter comes close.

The wide man cuts in off his left wing to attempt the most contemptuous of dinks over Bernd Leno but Issa Diop gets back fantastically to ut him off.

No goals yet, but definitely not a snore-fest in the derby!

They’ve got another! Bruno Guimaraes with the goal.

This is turning ugly for the hosts – that’s the 73rd goal they’ve conceded all season!

Newcastle are well in their rhythm now as Gordon slides it across to Guimaraes to tap home after it looked for all the world like the England starlet was going to have a go himself.

It’s not even half-time, but you really worry for Burnley being able to get back into this one.

Sheffield United get chance after chance as they lay siege to Nottingham Forest’s goal.

Brereton Diaz, Hamer and Archer all come close, but Sels holds firm in the net for the visitors.

Archer in particular will be kicking himself, after he went throguh one on one, but a heavy touch let him down and it’s still all level at Bramall Lane.

‘Sean Longstaff, he’s one of our own!’ sing the crowd.

In truth it’s good work from Wilson and Murphy to tee up the goal, but it’s still a great finish from inside the box after Murphy’s cut back.

Burnley were great in the opening exchanges but they’ve just picked up one heck of a double suckerpunch.

Long way back now for Kompany’s side.

Alex Iwobi continues to be the go-to guy on the counter for Fulham, and is playing brilliantly in partnership with Pereira in the middle.

Flekken is called upon again to claim a Willian cross, before saving well from an Iwobi effort.

Fulham ratcheting up the pressure now in the derby…

Burnley came flying out of the blocks, but their backs are to the wall at the moment.

Newcastle have been flooding forward, and Wilson and Livramento link up to create a chance the really should have doubled the lead for the visitors, but Muric is able to get something behind the ball.

All Magpies right now, but that goal from Bramall Lane will be trickling in soon with Burnley looking to get out of the bottom three today.

Gordon has a brilliant shot saved well again by Muric – he’s been a busy boy this afternoon!

TOM COLLOMOSSE AT BRAMALL LANE:

For all their poor play, Forest have individual quality in attacking positions to bail them out – exactly as we saw Hudson-Odoi there.

A finish reminiscent of a young Alessandro Del Piero (for those lucky devils young enough not to have seen him play, look him up on YouTube)

The visitors are back in it and in some fashion!

The former Chelsea star puts one right int he top corner from the edge of the box to draw the Tricky Trees back level with a massive goal in the relegation battle!

Right then Fulham and Brentford, can you match us?

Nothing in the shape of goals so far in west London, but Andreas Pereira has a dig from range, which he won’t really be wanting to see again.

The visitors remain on top, though, with Flekken’s penalty area for Brentford seemingly at constant threat right now, with Iwobi again a dangerous outlet for Fulham.

Just second start of 2024, but Wilson gives the visitors the lead against the run of play!

It’s a tap in for the England international after a great ball from Murphy and now the Clarets, despite their dominance so far, have it all to do!

TOM COLLOMOSSE AT THE CITY GROUND:

Dreadful start from Forest but also noticeable how many players keep losing their footing on the pitch.

It was a poor challenge from Montiel made worse by his inability to control his slide.

Brereton Diaz steps up to take the penalty….

The striker was clever in getting himself into a dangerous area, sees the defender coming in and gets something on the ball, and then stands up to do the business when it counts!

Massive goal in the relegation battle for Forest, but can they get something back?

But there is a penalty at Bramall Lane!

Montiel, who was moments ago down hurt in a heap, has clattered into Brereton-Diaz and brings down the Baldes striker for a spot-kick!

Burnley manager Vincent Kompany is fuming!

He thinks his side should have a foul in the penlaty box on Assignon, but there is nothing given.

Replays look to show there’s some contact, and it looks a harsh decision, but Newcastle get away with one.

Back to west London where we started off with Brentford edging the possession, but it’s the visitors who are now on top.

Sasa Lukic got in behind and had one miss the target, but Alex Iwobi has been dangerous too down the right.

No goals yet across the grounds, but plenty to be excited about so far!

Simmered down a little bit at Bramall Lane after that early miss from Chris Wood.

He really should have scored, the big Kiwi striker, but he’ll have to put that out of his mind and get his focus on making it right and helping his side’s survival bid.

Over in west London, Brentford are getting plenty of the ball, but there’s not quite been the close chances we’ve had at our other two games.

Mind you, we’re only seven or so minutes in, so there’s still plenty of time!

And Burnley have come flying out the blocks against Newcastle in yet another must-win game.

Dubravka has already been called into action once, and Burnley have begun thumping on the door in no time at all.

Can Newcastle weather the storm and land a counter blow?

Well it’s almost the perfect start for Nottingham Forest, and it’s Chris Wood who’s spurned a great chance.

He hit the headlines last time out for his wasteful finishing, but he’s tried to palce one at the back post from a great Morgan Gibbs-White delivery, but he’s just a hairs-width wide of the post!

Kick-off across the 3pm games – strap yourselves in!

And maybe the most important picture you’ll see today, here’s a look at my new favourite football fan.

Not long to go until kick-off until this west London dogfight…

Here’s the man to watch for Brentford today…

Rodrigo Muniz turns 23 today, but has nine goals to his name and is becoming only the fourth player in Fulham history to get to double figures in his first campaign.

The other three? Aleksandar Mitrovic, Dimitar Berbatov and Andy Cole.

Less than 10 minutes to go before kick-off and it’s a cloudy, humid 12 degrees up at Turf Moor.

Not the sunniest of May days here in London either, and pretty similar over at Bramall Lane.

Someone let them know it’s meant to be the start of the summer, please!

Tom Collomosse at Bramall Lane:

Strange how things work out. Forest made the play-off final two years ago when Morgan Gibbs-White missed the decisive kick in the shoot-out for Sheffield United in the semi-final.

Today Gibbs-White represents one of Forest’s main hopes of staying in the top flight following his £25m move from Wolves two years ago.

We’ve already had one game this afternoon of course, and Arsenal have just gone four clear at the top after putting three past Bournemouth.

Declan Rice played out of his skin and got the goal to go with it, the third after Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard got on the scoresheet.

That puts penty of pressure on Man City – who play later tonight – as this title race looks set to go down to the wire.

You can check out more on that one below…

And speaking of Nuno and Forest…

Mail Sport columnist Martin Keown – who knows a thing or two about defending himself – has given his verdict on how the back three can be vital to Forest’s survival push.

Seems that Keown and Collomosse are on a similar vein while Nuno has gone with the unexpected.

Our Midlands football reporter Tom Collomosse is at Bramall Lane, and he’s a little bit surprised by Espirito Santo’s system choice…

Have to say I’m surprised Nuno has reverted to 4-2-3-1. The back three served him so well at Wolves and Forest produced one of their better displays of his time in charge against Manchester City last week.

A memorable day for one Newcastle star in particular.

It’s a century of Newcastle appearances from the crowd favourite Dan Burn!

Yes, all our eyes are firmly planted on the Premier League action today, but many of you will of course know that today was teh final day of the Championship regular season.

And Ipswich have done it! The newly-promoted side have won a spot in next year’s top-flight after beating Huddersfield Town 2-0 earlier on.

For more on next term’s newest arrivals in the Premier League, check out this one below!

Well we’ve got an answer to our earlier question.

Sheffield United have partnered with their charity partners to raise some funds for dementia care – an undeniably brilliant cause and well done to the Blades.

If you ask me, more games should have a fancy dress element, would make for a great watch.

Given it’s May the fourth, I’ll leave you to piece together the Star Wars costumes…

There’s no doubting his calibre – the guy’s scored for England if justification were needed – but Toney has been going through something of a lean patch.

The Bees talisman has gone nine league matches without a goal.

He’s not gone longer since misfiring for 10 in a row with Peterborough United between February and April 2019.

This one has a whiff of someone finding the slow-mo feature on their camera and getting a little bit trigger happy with it…

Lovely looking ground is Brentford though, you’ve got to admit.

And on that note, it’s mighty impressive that in a season that feels like they’ve always got at least half their starting XI out injured Newcastle have already matched their 38-game Premier League goal-scoring record.

The Magpies have 74 this term, which draws them level with the team of 2001-02.

Alexander Isak has been such a huge part of that, and he is now one away from becoming just the fifth Newcastle striker to get 20 in a single top-flight season.

Newcastle have become synonymous with injuries this term – but they’ve got Pope, Joelinton and Almiron ALL returning to the bench!

That injured XI just got a heck of a lot weaker.

So we’ve got two changes each from Brentford and Fulham, with Lewis-Potter and Damsgaard in for Jensen and Wissa for the hosts, while Lukic is in for Reed and Willian comes in for De Cordova-Reid for Silva’s side.

Sheffield United meanwhile make just the one alteration with Robinson replacing Holgate, and Montiel and Yates get the nod ahead of Williams and Niakhate.

And lastly up at Turf Moor, it’s Brownhill replacing Fofana, and Howe brings in Krafth and Wilson for Schar and Anderson.

Plenty of changes across the grounds.

And last but by no means least…

Right then, whose ready for some team news?

Well for those looking at the numbers before kick-off at Bramall Lane – Sheffield United are three goals away from equalling the record for most goals conceded.

Swindon Town let in 100 in 1993-94 – back when we had 42-game seasons – and the Blades are currently on 97.

After this miserable campaign for Sheffield United, that is one record that they really could do without breaking.

As for Forest, what a few weeks it’s been up at the City Ground.

There was THAT tweet after the Everton game that seemed to light the football world on fire, and while that has largely died down, there was the news that Mark Clattenburg has left his role as a board consultant.

The former Premier League referee’s exit comes after manager Nuno Espirito Santo and Neco Williams were charged by the FA for comments made about officials’ integrity following the loss to Everton.

Oh, how they could do with a nice, quiet 2-0 win with no frills attached.

Newcastle aren’t the only ones enjoying a trip down memory lane ahead of KO.

It’s not been the most enjoyable season for the already-relegated Blades, but there was one moment of magic in their last clash with Forest.

Some way to open your account, eh?

And speaking of that rivalry, Brentford has been something of a horror trip for Fulham in recent seasons.

Fulham have lost six of their last seven trips to the Bees in all competitions, that one victory coming seven-and-a-half years ago in November 2016.

Not the best reading for Fulham fans, so sorry about that – but at least the Craven Cottage outfit have taken a club record 15 points from London derbies this term (4W 3D 4L), so there’s that…

This is about the point in the season where we look at games like Brentford vs Fulham and say things like ‘they’re already on the beach’ and ‘they’ll have taken their feet of the gas pedal by now’.

Brentford are out of the relegation battle, Fulham can’t get Europe, what else can there be to fight for!

Rubbish if you ask me – there’s still plenty of incentive for finishing as high up the table as possible, and that’s before you get into the local bragging rights for this west London derby.

Wondering what’s going on behind the scenes at St James’ Park? Eager to find the stories beyond the headlines? Just really like reading about Dougie Freedman?

Well for any of the above you can check out Craig Hope’s Newcastle Notebook at the link below…

Before the chaos of six different starting XIs dropping in about 25 minutes, let’s just take a look around the grounds…

First up is Newcastle and how about this one for a hit!

Good memories for the Magpies from their last clash with Vincent Kompany’s side

So, as we know now, we’ve got three games across the country with plenty on the line.

For Newcastle it’s a chance to solidify their European bid, while Burnley can move closer to surely the escape of all escapes with a win that would actually draw them out of the bottom three with results going their way.

Sheffield United might be down already, but Forest are also looking to beat the drop and would love to be able to capitalise on Luton’s 1-1 draw last night with a few points of their own to put some much needed daylight between them and the Hatters.

And then there’s the west London derby in the third game between local rivals Brentford and Fulham – what’s not to love?!

Good afternoon one and all and welcome to Mail Sport’s LIVE coverage of the three 3pm KOs for today.

We’ve got action from all across the country, with Brentford hosting Fulham, Newcastle travelling to Burnley, and Sheffield United welcoming Nottingham Forest to Bramall Lane.

Stick with us for the next 90 minutes or so as we build up to all three of those games with all the latest news and goings on from around the grounds!