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Manchester United's Wayne Rooney celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game.
AS IT HAPPENED

As it happened: Premier League 3pm kick-offs

There were some fantastic games this afternoon, including Liverpool v Reading and Man United v Stoke.

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Fulham 1-0 Aston Villa (FT)

Liverpool 1-0 Reading (FT)

Man United 4-2 Stoke (FT)

Swansea 2-1 Wigan (FT)

West Ham 4-1 Southampton (FT)

West Brom 1-2 Man City (FT)

Hello, and welcome to this afternoon’s liveblog.

There are six games in total taking place over the next two hours, while one is just ending.

Here are all the teams:

Fulham: Schwarzer, Riether, Hughes, Hangeland, Riise, Sidwell, Baird, Richardson, Rodallega, Berbatov, Petric. Subs: Stockdale, Senderos, Kasami, Karagounis, Diarra, Dejagah, Kacaniklic.

Aston Villa: Guzan, Lowton, Vlaar, Baker, Bennett, Ireland, El Ahmadi, Delph, Holman, Bent, Agbonlahor. Subs: Given, N’Zogbia, Albrighton, Benteke, Bannan, Weimann, Lichaj.

Man Utd: De Gea, Da Silva, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Valencia, Scholes, Carrick, Welbeck, van Persie, Rooney. Subs: Lindegaard, Anderson, Giggs, Hernandez, Nani, Powell, Wootton.

Stoke: Begovic, Cameron, Huth, Shawcross, Wilson, Nzonzi, Whitehead, Walters, Adam, Kightly, Crouch. Subs: Sorensen, Palacios, Jones, Owen, Upson, Etherington, Wilkinson.

West Ham: Jaaskelainen, Tomkins, Collins, Reid, McCartney, Noble, Diame, Benayoun, Nolan, Jarvis, Carroll. Subs: Spiegel, Cole, Maiga, Spence, O’Neil, Chambers, Hall.

Southampton: Boruc, Clyne, Hooiveld, Fonte, Yoshida, Puncheon, Schneiderlin, Steven Davis, Lallana, Rodriguez, Do Prado. Subs: Kelvin Davis, Lambert, Ward-Prowse, Mayuka, Seaborne, Chaplow, Reeves.

Liverpool: Jones, Wisdom, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Gerrard, Allen, Sahin, Fernandez Saez, Suarez, Sterling. Subs: Gulacsi, Jose Enrique, Assaidi, Henderson, Downing, Carragher, Shelvey.

Reading: McCarthy, Cummings, Gorkss, Mariappa, Shorey, Kebe, Guthrie, Leigertwood, Karacan, McAnuff, Pogrebnyak. Subs: Stuart Taylor, Gunter, Pearce, Le Fondre, McCleary, Robson-Kanu, Roberts.

Swansea: Vorm, Rangel, Chico, Williams, Davies, Routledge, de Guzman, Ki, Britton, Hernandez, Michu. Subs: Tremmel, Graham, Dyer, Monk, Shechter, Moore, Tiendalli.

Wigan: Al Habsi, Caldwell, Figueroa, Ramis, McCarthy, McArthur, Boyce, Beausejour, Kone, Maloney, Di Santo. Subs: Pollitt, Jones, Watson, Gomez, McManaman, Boselli, Miyaichi.

West Brom: Foster, Ridgewell, Olsson, McAuley, Tamas, Yacob, Mulumbu, Dorrans, Morrison, Fortune, Long. Subs: Luke Daniels, Popov, Rosenberg, Jara Reyes, Lukaku, Gera, Odemwingie.

Man City: Hart, Clichy, Lescott, Kompany, Richards, Milner, Barry, Nasri, Toure, Balotelli, Tevez. Subs: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Dzeko, Sinclair, Kolarov, Aguero, Toure.

We’ll be focusing primarily on the United match today, while also keeping you up to date with all today’s happenings in the other Premier League games.

Of course, Chelsea’s win means they’re currently seven points ahead of United, so Alex Ferguson’s men really need to be winning this game.

Stoke have a poor record away to United and the way this game has begun, it looks set to continue, with United pressing heavily.

Scholes is puling the strings in midfield, and his clever through ball finds Van Persie, though the Dutchman is adjudged to be offside.

Rio Ferdinand was the only player not wearing an anti-racism T-shirt before the game.

GOAL FOR STOKE!

A dangerous free-kick is played in and Wayne Rooney heads into his own net (11 mins).

David De Gea needed to be far more commanding, as he stayed glued to his line, when coming out to punch the ball away would have been advisable.

Paul Scholes illustrated a familiar failing of his in the build-up to that goal, conceding a needless free-kick with a poor tackle.

It’s an enthralling encounter so far, with both sides looking threatening every time they attack.

Still no goals in any of the other games.

Meanwhile, Van Persie and Welbeck play a clever one-two, before the latter drags a disappointing attempt at a shot well wide.

Walters has just forced a decent save out of De Gea.

The Irish striker tried to place his shot from the edge of the box, when he probably would have been better off blasting it.

GOAL FOR MAN UNITED!

Great, pinpoint cross from Van Persie, and Rooney’s downward header gives the Stoke keeper no chance (27 mins).

It’s been an incredibly open game thus far, and more goals seem inevitable.

GOAL FOR LIVERPOOL!

Sterling has given his side the lead against Reading (30 mins).

RED CARD FOR MAN CITY!

James Milner has been sent off for a dangerous tackle.

United have had more of a solid look about them since equalising.

Stoke appear to have lost some confidence and are attacking less, while Rooney continues to look a threat, with Scholes increasingly beginning to exert his influence as the game progresses.

Scholes has been booked for a ridiculously rash challenge.

No surprise there really.

GOAL FOR MAN UNITED!

Valencia drills a cross into the box, and Van Persie slots the ball into the net, giving United the lead (45 mins).

A little harsh on Stoke perhaps, though they’ve always looked vulnerable when United attack them.

HALF-TIME: MAN UNITED 2-1 STOKE

Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand (left) during the warm up as his teammate Wayne Rooney (right) wears Kick It Out anti-racism campaign t-shirt (Martin Rickett/PA Wire/Press Association Images).

Meanwhile, it’s been relatively quiet in the other Premier League games, with only one goal scored from Liverpool’s Sterling.

So at half-time, United appear to be in control of this game.

They’ve done well to fight their way back into it, after that early setback, and have dominated the midfield battle for the most part.

However, Stoke continue to pose a threat on the break, with Crouch’s height occasionally being used to full effect, so it would be foolish to write the visitors off at this stage.

The Setanta pundits are speculating that Alex Ferguson may be tempted to take Paul Scholes off.

The midfielder has played well, but his consistently rash tackles are in danger of getting him sent off.

GOAL FOR MAN UNITED!

An excellent cross from Rooney fins Welbeck unmarked, and the England striker makes no mistake, heading into the corner of the net.

Stoke have contributed to their own downfall, with some lax marking from crosses.

GOAL FOR WEST HAM!

Kevin Nolan has put Sam Allardyce’s men in front (45 mins).

United are threatening to run riot at the moment.

Welbeck has narrowly failed to connect with Rafael’s dangerous cross.

GOAL FOR STOKE!

Out of nowhere, Kightly goes on a driving run, evading a limp Ferdinand challenge, and beating De Gea with aplomb (59 mins).

Stoke are right back in this game, as Man United’s dodgy defence costs them again.

GOAL FOR MAN UNITED!

An unmarked Wayne Rooney slots home, after a Van Persie corner falls kindly for him.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, all four of the goals that Stoke have conceded have come from balls into the box.

GOAL FOR WEST BROM!

Shane  Long has given them the lead.

The goals are flying in at the moment – Swansea lead Wigan 2-1, while West Ham are 3-1 up against Southampton.

Michael Owen is coming on for the last few minutes against his former club, as he replaces Kightly.

As the scoreline suggests, it’s been a game in which some excellent attack play has been combined with several instances of truly woeful defending by both sides.

While Alex Ferguson will be pleased with what ultimately looks to be a comfortable win for United, he’ll be concerned at the at times unconvincing manner of their defending.

Both De Gea and Ferdinand were poor for their opponents’ first and second goals respectively.

Good news for Arsenal and England fans.

GOAL FOR FULHAM!

Chris Baird has scored late on against Aston Villa.

Unsurprisingly, the United match has hit a bit of a lull in recent minutes, caused by a mass substitutions, in addition to the fact that United have effectively had the game won for quite some time.

Robin van Persie has deservedly been named man of the match, though Rooney was another contender.

FULL-TIME: MAN UNITED 4-2 STOKE

GOAL FOR MAN CITY!

Dzeko has hit a late winner for the champions (90 mins).

It’s full-time, and despite a few scares for the big clubs, there’s been no real surprises today ultimately.

Right, that’s it from me for now.

Thanks for reading and commenting, and don’t forget, we’ll be back shortly to liveblog Arsenal v Norwich.

LIVE: Tottenham v Chelsea, Premier League>

John Terry to carry on as Chelsea captain>

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