Bournemouth v Liverpool: Premier League – live

12 min Bournemouth have a chance to send Solanke through, but they mess it up. That’s the first time they’ve looked like a team from the lower half off the table.

10 min Bournemouth have had 59pc of the possession, although that may change soon as Liverpool are showing signs of life in midfield.

8 min This time Liverpool do escape. For a moment they have a three on two, but again Bournemouth stay calm at the back and Christie puts the fire out.

7 min Quarter-chance! Tavernier takes the corner short then shoots himself and goes close from a tight angle.

6 min Liverpool get forward at last as Jones and Jota threaten to cook something up down the left. But soon the ball is up the other end with Solanke racing onto a long throw. Another corner to Bournemouth.

4 min Bournemouth are also ahead in the sartorial stakes. Liverpool are wearing white shirts (with random green bits) and black shorts. Bournemouth are in there classic red-and-black stripes. No contest.

3 min Nothing comes of the second corner either, but when Liverpool try to get out on the counter, Chris Mepham is there to tidy up in composed fashion.

2 min The corner leads to some scrapping and another corner. Bournemouth are not remotely overawed.

1 min Bournemouth kick off, go long and get forward right away. Kluivert wins a corner on the right.

The cameras home in on Dominic Solanke, one of the best players in the Prem this season. And the one with the most shots (66). If he was still at Liverpool, he’d be playing today.

There’s another unfamiliar name on the lips of the commentators: Storm Isha. The wind is swirling around the ground. Can Liverpool’s big names do it on a blustery Sunday evening on the south coast?

Apparently we’re witnessing the closest title race, at this stage of the season, “for over 20 years”. Sky have just announced that without giving chapter and verse on what happened then. But it certainly is tasty, with only five points separating the top five teams. Can Liverpool stretch that to eight? We will soon see.

The sentence of the day comes from Rob Smyth, covering the other game. “David Moyes stomps off,” he writes, “with a face like the apocalypse.”

Oli McBurnie put the penalty away, so Sheffield United escape with a draw. It’s McBurnie time! They remain bottom of the table, but have reached double figures at last with 10 points from 21 games. West Ham stay sixth with 35 from 21 and miss the chance to make up significant ground on Spurs (40 from 21) or heap further embarrassment on Man United (32 from 21).

An odd feature of today’s games is that none of the four teams involved were in a position to move up or down the table. Whatever happens at the Vitality Stadium Liverpool will stay top, at least two points ahead of Man City for the moment. And Bournemouth will stay 12th, as they’re three points behind Wolves with a decidedly worse goal difference (-7 plays -1).

Twelfth, though, is riches for a team who were 19th on 20 October. After scraping three points from their first eight games, Bournemouth have raked in 22 from the past 11.

In today’s other game, Sheffield United are about to take a penalty in the 12th minute of added time … Do join Rob Smyth to see what happens next.

Can Liverpool stop City winning the title? Sachin Nakrani has been pondering that question and looking at the way Jurgen Klopp has revamped the midfield. Jordan who?

The unfamiliar names in those XIs are all at full-back. For Liverpool, the roles of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson (and Kostas Tsimikas) go to their understudies, Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez. For Bournemouth, the roles of Adam Smith and Milos Kerkez go to Max Aarons and James Hill, who has spent most of the season on loan at Blackburn. Hill is a centre-back, so it may be that Andoni Iraola is switching to a back three.

Bournemouth (possible 4-2-3-1) Neto; Aarons, Mepham, Zabarnyi, Hill; Cook, Christie; Sinisterra, Tavernier, Kluivert; Solanke.

Subs: Travers, Kelly, Greenwood, Marcondes, Scott, Brooks, Billing, Kilkenny, Moore.

Liverpool (forever 4-3-3) Alisson; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Gomez; Elliott, Mac Allister, Jones; Jota, Nunez, Diaz.

Subs: Adrian, Kelleher, Quansah, Beck, McConnell, Clark, Gravenberch, Gakpo.

Referee Andrew Madley.

Afternoon everyone and welcome to the teatime MBM. Premier League football is a simple game: 20 teams chase a trophy for nine months and then Man City win. Unless Jurgen Klopp can stop them.

There’s a widespread feeling that City have it in the bag again, after toying with us by getting only seven points from a run of six games before the Club World Cup. But they’re not top of the form table (which covers the last six games for every club) – Liverpool are. In fact, City are not even second: Bournemouth are.

After a sticky start Andoni Iraola has built on Gary O’Neil’s good work and got Bournemouth flying. His team know how to win, play proper football, and have gone from bad to excellent at home. Liverpool’s away form has improved too, going from middling to more than decent, but today they’re without their two most lethal weapons, Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Opta algorithm gives Bournemouth only a 15pc chance of a win today, but a mere human says it might make sense to double that.

Kick-off is at 4.30pm GMT and I’ll be back soon with the teams.