3.42pm Paul Merson is flapping his gums giddily in the Sky Soccer Saturday studio. "That's the worst I've ever seen!" he says. Eventually he tells us that Ákos Buzsáky has hit the post from four yards, a few seconds after Adel Taarabt hit the post from distance. 3.42pm "Having heard the teams and the first five minutes of Manchester City vs Bolton Wanderers," begins Gary Naylor. I was reminded of Spitting Image's sketch that pitted Henry Cooper against Julian Lloyd Webber commentated by a breathless Harry Carpenter. It appears to be unavailable on YouTube, which is a shame. The top teams have certainly become more dominant at home in the Premier League era. 3.40pm West Brom are still dominating Chelsea at the Hawthorns, although Ben Foster has just made a decent save from Michael Essien's long-range curler. 3.39pm "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Rob," says Chris Gannon, "but Triggs is dead." We had this discussion* the other week, and couldn't find conclusive proof either way. Can somebody who lives near Roy Keane give him a knock and ask him? 'Discussion' is a rather grandiose term for someone saying "Is Triggs dead?" and another person replying "Dunno." 3.38pm A mistake from Kolo Toure - imagine - gives Ryo Miyaichi a great chance to equalise at the Etihad Stadium. He sets a curler towards the far corner, and Joe Hart makes a brilliant one-handed save. Toure, by the way, came on for the injured Zabaleta after 20 minutes. 3.36pm: QPR 1-1 Everton (Zamora 35) QPR are level at Loftus Road. Bobby Zamora heads Buszáky's free-kick through Tim Howard and into the net. 3.33pm "Got to be a shoo-in for the Joy of Six," says D Bartlett. Ah yes, a splendid suggestion. For two weeks in the summer of 1996, young, impressionable, delicate aesthetes up and England fell madly in love with Davor Suker. All 12 of them. The rest were busy shouting INGERLUND and beating up foreigners. 3.32pm: QPR 0-1 Everton (Drenthe 31) A long-range screamer from the mohican-sporting Royston Drenthe has put in-form Everton ahead at Loftus Road. 3.30pm Jordan Rhodes has only scored twice in the first half hour of Huddersfield's game at Bury. They lead 3-0 and Rhodes has 30 in 28 games this season. I wonder what Roy Keane, who let him leave Ipswich, makes it of all. Triggs probably winces every time he says GOAL! Rhodes on the TV screen. 3.29pm "Oh Rob what have you done!" says Alex Hanton. Presumably you're used to dealing with the comparatively mild football pedant but now you've started attracting the famously humourless and puritan music pedants. Expect a lengthy email about the influence of Husker Du on the pixies early work any second now [it definitely won't be from me because I'm better than that probably]. 3.27pm So, congratulations to Manchester City, who move five points clear at the top of the table and make it 19 consecutive home wins in the Premier League. 3.24pm: Manchester City 1-0 Bolton (Steinsson own goal 23); Blackburn 0-1 Aston Villa (N'Zogbia 24) At the Etihad, Gael Clichy's shot deflected takes a big decisive deflection off Gretar Steinsson; at Ewood Park, the talented, feckless Charles Insomnia has given Villa a deserved lead with a beautiful strike. 3.24pm "If you do end up producing that Joy of Six it'll be pretty easy," says Owen Thorpe. Just show this one then head to the pub. Nothing else will ever come close... That is wonderful, although it's a bit of a genre bender. I think of it as a great first touch first, and a great one-on-one finish second, if that makes sense. It doesn't make sense. 3.23pm At Loftus Road, the excellent Tim Howard makes a fine save from Ákos Buzsáky's curling free kick. I know this, because Paul Merson knows this. 3.21pm Can one of you footballer types bother a net, please? 3.19pm "I didn't enter the 'Who wants to be an MBMer?'competition because I looked at the question and said to myself, "Exactly. What kind of a fool would want to do that (putting aside, for the moment, the dizzying paychecks and the casual death threats)?'" says Mac Millings. Other that that, I'm all for this open journalism thing. I don't actually read the SportBlog because, well, y'know, but I assume that the new model has brought a sharp decrease in 'do you actually get paid for this rubbish?' comments, and if it hasn't also cut down the number of posts that say 'I expect better from the Guardian', don't worry - it will soon. I love the Sportblog. I think of it as a kind of professional puberty, with all the exhilarating self-discovery that suggests. 3.16pm Still no goals in the Premier League. Do they get paid for this? 3.15pm Mario Balotelli misses a half-chance at the Etihad. It's interesting that City are so dominant at home these days (in the league at least) that they can absolutely batter weaker teams even without Aguero and Silva. In that respect they are benefitting from all the credit they have put in the bank in that run of 18 home wins in the last 12 months. Many teams now go there aiming for little more than an honourable defeat, and the whole darned thing perpetuates itself. 3.14pm "Points of order: Pixies predated Nirvana," says Paul Griffin. Neither takes a definite article. I'll allow the second, as I used to get inordinately exasperated with talk of 'The Doves' back in the day. The first was obviously a lame joke. The clue was in the suggestion that Michael Laudrup had ripped off a goal scored 13 years in the future. 3.12pm "This is a great one-on-one finish," says Phil Cowen. Berbatov having a bit of fun with a spinning ball. Casual. Berbarotica. 3.10pm West Brom are dominating Chelsea, according to Charlie Nicholas on Sky. Odemwingie is apparently given Ashley Cole a bit of a chasing. "Cole looks a bit slow," says a surprised Charlie Nicholas. History will, or at least should, record Cole as the most consistently excellent of the Golden Generation, but he is on his way down from the top of the hill, isn't he? 3.07pm "Maybe you only came about listening to The Pixies after it was featured in that movie Fight Club but Kurt Cobain himself said Nirvana owed a great debt to bands like The Pixies...without which Nirvana never would have come in to being. Stick that in your collective pipe. That's Eoghan Hanrahan, emphatically getting the joke. 3.06pm Manchester City take a 3-0 moral lead against Bolton, with someone - I didn't hear who it was - missing a great chance. On the scoreboard it's still 0-0, but not, you suspect, for long. Can I revise that 4-0 prediction? 3.05pm "A speech jammer for Christmas?" says Paul Szabo. Why wait? It would make a doozy of a wedding present. 3.03pm Mario Balotelli has hit the post for Manchester City against Bolton, with Adam Bogdan brilliantly saving Samir Nasri's follow up. At Loftus Road, Tim Cahill has hit the bar for Everton with a long-range blooter. 3pm It's all kicking off. 2.59pm "Hi Rob, I'm at WBA v CFC," says muy colleague Jamie Jackson, "and the word is that if CFC go down AVB might be hearin a verse or three of the executioner's song. Then, again, this is Chelsea, so he might not... And the whole darned Chelsea comedy keeps perpetuating itself. Roman Abramovic will never settle on one manager, will he? 2.45pm Arsenal have won 2-1 at Anfield, with Robin van Persie's injury-time winner a thing of rare technical beauty. What are Arsenal going to do without him? They can fall off that bridge when they come to it. For now they can celebrate moving to within just four points of Spurs. Spurs have their best team for 25 years, Arsenal their worst for nearly 20. Surely Spurs couldn't Spurs this and finish below Arsenal, couldn't they? 2.43pm Kalle Weis-Fogh has suggested this for the list of great one-on-ones. Lovely goal and all, but a blatant rip-off of Kanu's finish. Bit like how the Pixies ripped off Nirvana. West Brom v Chelsea team news Frank plays. West Brom: Foster, Reid, McAuley, Olsson, Ridgewell, Andrews, Mulumbu, Morrison, Odemwingie, Fortune, Thomas. Subs: Fulop, Long, Brunt, Dorrans, Shorey, Tamas, Cox. Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Cahill, Cole, Ramires, Essien, Lampard, Sturridge, Drogba, Mata. Subs: Turnbull, Romeu, Torres, Mikel, Malouda, Meireles, Hutchinson. Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire) 2.36pm Robin van Persie has just put Arsenal 2-1 ahead in injury time at Anfield with a wonderful sidefooted volley. Scott Murray has more. 2.34pm " Martin gets his hose out?" Eh? Either way, Martin Keown is now the first footballer to appear on the cover of Time Magazine and have a Football Focus appearance interrupted by a fire alarm. Wigan v Swansea team news Wigan: Al Habsi, Alcaraz, Boyce, Caldwell, Figueroa, Gomez, McArthur, McCarthy, Beausejour, Sammon, Di Santo. Subs: Kirkland, Crusat, Ben Watson, Moses, Rodallega, Diame, Stam. Swansea: Vorm, Taylor, Williams, Caulker, Rangel, Britton, Allen, Sigurdsson, Dyer, Sinclair, Graham. Subs: Tremmel, Tate, Routledge, Monk, McEachran, Moore, Gower. Referee: Andre Marriner (W Midlands) QPR v Everton team news QPR: Kenny, Onuoha, Ferdinand, Hill, Traore, Derry, Barton, Wright-Phillips, Buzsaky, Taarabt, Zamora. Subs: Cerny, Gabbidon, Bothroyd, Mackie, Young, Smith, Taiwo. Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Heitinga, Distin, Baines, Drenthe, Fellaini, Neville, Pienaar, Cahill, Stracqualursi. Subs: Mucha, Jagielka, Jelavic, Gueye, Barkley, Osman, Coleman. Referee: Kevin Friend (Leicestershire) Blackburn v Aston Villa team news Blackburn: Robinson, Orr, Dann, Hanley, Martin Olsson, Petrovic, Nzonzi, Pedersen, Formica, Hoilett, Yakubu. Subs: Bunn, Dunn, Modeste, Marcus Olsson, Goodwillie, Vukcevic, Henley. Aston Villa: Given, Hutton, Collins, Cuellar, Warnock, Petrov, Herd, Albrighton, Ireland, N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor. Subs: Guzan, Heskey, Bannan, Weimann, Lichaj, Baker, Gardner. Referee: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire) Stoke v Norwich team news Stoke: Begovic, Wilkinson, Shawcross, Huth, Wilson, Shotton, Whelan, Whitehead, Etherington, Walters, Crouch. Subs: Sorensen, Jones, Fuller, Diao, Pennant, Upson, Jerome. Norwich: Ruddy, Martin, Ward, Whitbread, Naughton, Pilkington, Howson, Johnson, E Bennett, Surman, Holt. Subs: Steer, Morison, Jackson, Hoolahan, Fox, Wilbraham, Ryan Bennett. Underrated referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland) Man City v Bolton team news Mario Balotelli starts despite being pictured in an entirely sober state outside a legal establishment "36 hours before the game." Man City: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy, Pizarro, Barry, Johnson, the good Toure, Nasri, Balotelli Subs: Pantilimon, Milner, Dzeko, Kolarov, Aguero, Silva, K Toure. Bolton: Bogdan, Steinsson, Knight, Ream, Wheater, Ricketts, Mark Davies, Reo-Coker, Pratley, Miyaichi, Ngog. Subs: Jaaskelainen, Robinson, Muamba, Eagles, Petrov, Klasnic, Sordell. Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear) 2.08pm It's still 1-1 in an eventful game at Anfield, which has included a freak injury to Mikel Arteta. Liverpool have some played some excellent stuff and should probably be out of sight. You can follow the rest of the game with Scott Murray. Something to talk about today/do my job for me/open journalism/do my job for me For the last few months I've been begging The Man to allow me to write a Joy of Six on one-on-one finishes. When that glorious day comes, what should I include? These two are inked in: Kanu sitting the goalkeeper down, and Careca finishing with a smoothness that bordered on erotica. Preamble P18 W18 D0 L0 F52 A7. That's Manchester City's home record in the league over the last 12 months, and they are approximately 100.000000 per cent certain to make it 19 wins in a row against Bolton this afternoon. It would/will also be their 14th consecutive home league victory this season, which would be a new English top-flight record. City are currently equal with Newcastle, who won their first 13 games at the stadium formerly known as St James' Park in 1995-96. All hail the Etihad Unstoppables, or some such rubbish name. City certainly need three points today, because this is their last really easy game for a while. Their next five league fixtures are Swansea (a), Chelsea (h), Stoke (a), Sunderland (h) and Arsenal (a). Today's 4-0 victory over Bolton is one of six 3pm fixtures, which involve clubs in all four divisions of the Premier League. Here they are, with predictions on which you are strongly advised not to stake your last Rolo. Blackburn 2-1 Aston Villa Manchester City 4-0 Bolton QPR 1-2 Everton Stoke 2-1 Norwich West Brom 1-1 Chelsea Wigan 0-2 Swansea