MIDWEEK SPORTS ROUNDUP: December 15

Football

Chelsea beat bottom placed club Sunderland 1-0 to record their tenth straight Premier League victory. The Stamford Bridge club are now sitting pretty, six points clear of both Arsenal and Liverpool.

Liverpool beat Middlesbrough 3-0 in the midweek league programme, with two goals from Adam Lallana, but Arsenal suffered their first league defeat since the opening day of the season when they lost 2-1 to Everton.

Manchester City stay fourth, seven points off the pace, after seeing off Watford 2-0.

Fifth placed Tottenham beat struggling Hull 3-0 - Christian Eriksen netting twice - and a late winner from Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave sixth placed Manchester United a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace.

Seventh placed West Brom continued their good recent run with a 3-1 win over Swansea. Salomon Rondon scored a second half hat-trick in the space of 13 minutes.

Leicester and Burnley both failed to halt their appalling run in away matches. The two sides lost 1-0 to Bournemouth and West Ham respectively. Their result lifts West Ham to 15^th place.

The bottom five clubs are now Crystal Palace (16^th), Middlesbrough (17^th), Swansea (18^th), Hull (19^th) and Sunderland (20^th). All five teams tasted defeat in the latest round of matches.

Stoke and Southampton fought out a goalless draw.

Good news for Manchester City and Chelsea is that they will not face a points deduction after the mass brawl near the end of their recent Premier League clash. The two clubs have only been fined.

Brazilian midfielder Oscar has opted to leave Chelsea, and will complete a £60 million move to Chinese side Shanghai in the January transfer window.

City will be without Ilkay Gundogan for several months after he suffered a serious knee injury.

Newcastle won 2-0 at Wigan to stay top of the Championship. Brighton remain one point behind after beating Blackburn 3-2, but third placed Reading are now a further eight points off the pace, having lost 2-0 to Leeds this week.

Gianfranco Zola is back in English football. The Italian has been appointed as manager of Championship side Birmingham City, who sacked Gary Rowett this week. Birmingham are currently eighth in the table.

Stourbridge, from the seventh tier of English football, booked their place in the third round of the FA Cup with a 1-0 win over League One high flyers Northampton in a delayed second round match. The Midlands club will play Wycombe in the third round.

Rugby Union

England captain Dylan Hartley has been banned for six weeks after his red card for striking an opponent during Northampton’s European clash with Leinster. This means he will be available for the full Six Nations campaign.

Cricket

Stuart Broad is hopeful of being fit for the fifth Test between England and India, which starts in Chennai on Friday. However, fellow pace bowler James Anderson has been ruled out, apparently because of more issues with his shoulder injury that kept him out of the early part of the series. India have already won the series, after winning the fourth Test to take an unassailable 3-0 lead.

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WEEKEND SPORTS ROUNDUP

Football

West Brom showed why they have been so difficult to beat lately as they pushed Chelsea all the way, before Antonio Conte’s side sneaked a 1-0 win that extends their winning run in the Premier League to nine matches.

Arsenal remain second, three points behind, after coming from behind to beat Stoke 3-1.

However, Manchester City and Liverpool both lost ground. Liverpool’s frailties in defence and in goal were again evident as they could only draw 2-2 at home to struggling West Ham, and are now six points off the pace.

Manchester City meanwhile were hit by a Jamie Vardy hat-trick as he broke his run of 16 matches without a goal for Leicester City. Leicester stormed into a 4-0 lead, and Manchester City could only manage two late consolation goals. Pep Guardiola’s side are now seven points behind Chelsea.

After an uncertain start, Henrikh Mkhitaryan is demonstrating exactly why he was voted Player of the Year in the Bundesliga last season. The Armenian midfielder scored a superb goal to give Manchester United a 1-0 win over Tottenham.

Burnley won at home once again, seeing off Bournemouth 3-2.

There were also goals galore at the KCOM Stadium, where a late equaliser from Fraizer Campbell secured Crystal Palace a 3-3 draw and deprived Hull of what would have been a vital win.

After three wins in four matches, Sunderland suffered a setback as they lost 3-0 at fellow strugglers Swansea. Fernando Llorente again scored twice. Sunderland return to bottom spot, one point behind both Swansea and Hull and two behind West Ham.

Southampton beat Middlesbrough 1-0, but less welcome news for the Saints is that leading scorer Charlie Austin could be out for as long as four months after dislocating his shoulder when they exited the Europa League against Hapoel Beer Sheva last Thursday.

Watford’s Italian striker Stefano Okaka scored his first two goals for Watford as they continued Everton’s recent woes by beating them 3-2 at Vicarage Road.

Saturday’s six Premier League games produced a total of 29 goals, with the home team scoring at least three in all of these matches. Sunday’s four matches produced less in the way of goalmouth action, with three resulting in 1-0 home wins.

Newcastle remain one point clear of Brighton at the top of the Championship after both sides won this weekend. The Magpies thrashed Birmingham 4-0 and Brighton beat Leeds 2-1.

Cricket

India won the fourth Test in Mumbai by an innings and 36 runs to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series. England thought they had made a solid total of 400 batting first, with Keaton Jennings making 112 on debut. However, India replied with a mammoth 631 – Murali Vijay made 136 opening the innings and the damage was really done when Virat Kohli (235) and Jayant Yadav (104) added 241 for the eighth wicket. Second time around, England could only manage 195, despite defiant half-centuries from Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. Ravichandran Ashwin took 12 wickets in the match.

Rugby Union

England captain Dylan Hartley faces the prospect of being banned for the start of the Six Nations after being sent off in Northampton’s 37-10 defeat to Leinster in the European Cup. The result leaves Northampton needing to win all three remaining group matches to stand a good chance of reaching the quarter-finals.

Saracens thrashed Sale 50-3 to maintain their 100% record in Pool Three of the same competition, and Sale now require a miracle to progress. In the same pool, the hopes of Llanelli Scarlets hang by a thread after their 31-20 loss to Toulon.

Exeter also require a miracle in Pool Five in order to qualify, as they went down to their third defeat, losing 13-7 to Bordeaux-Begles. Ulster won a thriller against Clermont Auvergne in the same group, and their 39-32 win keeps the group wide open.

Wasps moved to the top of Pool Two after beating Connacht 32-17.

Glasgow had an excellent win away to Racing 92, winning 23-14, while Pool One leaders Munster beat Leicester 38-0, leaving Leicester with no room for error in their remaining matches, having now lost twice.

Boxing

Britain's Anthony Joshua retained his IBF world heavyweight title with a third-round stoppage of American Eric Molina. The bout was stopped shortly after Joshua had sent his opponent to the canvas. Joshua can now look forward to a showdown with former WBA, IBF and WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium on April 29.

On the same bill at the Manchester Arena, Britain gained another world champion when Kal Yafai beat Panama’s Luis Concepcion to become the WBA super-flyweight title holder. Concepcion had been stripped of the title prior to the fight after failing to make the weight, but Yafai opted to carry on with the bout anyway, and claimed the crown with a unanimous decision, winning by large margins on all three judges' scorecards.

Another Briton in line for a possible world heavyweight title is Dillian Whyte, who beat Dereck Chisora by the smallest of margins after that fight also went to the judges. The bout was an eliminator for Deontay Wilder’s WBC world heavyweight title.

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MIDWEEK SPORTS ROUND UP

Football

Arsenal won their last Champions League match with a 4-1 win away to Basel, where Lucas Perez bagged a hat-trick. With Paris Saint-Germain only drawing 2-2 at home to Ludogorets, the Gunners’ victory allowed them to leapfrog PSG into top spot in Group A.

Leicester already knew they had topped Group G and duly made 10 changes to their starting line-up for their trip to Porto. Leicester will nonetheless be hugely disappointed with their 5-0 defeat.

Manchester City already knew they would finish second ahead of their final group match, and also opted to rest some key players. Celtic, who already knew they would finish bottom of Group C, came away with a 1-1 draw after their goal was scored by Patrick Roberts, who is on loan from City.

Tottenham’s hopes of Champions League qualification ended in the last round of matches, but they made sure of third place in Group E, and a place in the Europa League knockout stage, with a  3-1 win over CSKA Moscow.

The draw for the knockout stages of the European club competitions takes place on Monday.

In the FA Cup third round draw, the most eye-catching ties are West Ham’s home draw with Manchester City, and Liverpool being drawn to host Newport or Plymouth. Manchester United will play Reading – managed by former United defender Jaap Stam – at home, Chelsea host Peterborough or Notts County and Arsenal travel to Preston.

Lincoln became the fourth non-league side to guarantee a place in the third round when they beat League One Oldham 3-2.

The 'Baggies' one of four clubs
charged by the FA this week

Manchester City, Chelsea, Watford and West Brom have all been charged with failing to control their players after incidents in the matches at the Etihad Stadium and the Hawthorns at the weekend.

Everton’s Yannick Bolasie and Sunderland’s Duncan Watmore are both facing lengthy lay-offs with serious knee injuries – neither is expected to play again this season and Bolasie may be absent for as long as 12 months.

West Ham have agreed a deal to sign Turkish midfielder Murat Saglam on a free from Wolfsburg in the summer. He has been offered a five-year contract.

Cricket

Keaton Jennings had a dream debut as he made a century on the first day of his Test career. The Durham opening batsman made 112, initially adding 99 for the first wicket with Alastair Cook (46), and then adding a further 94 for the third wicket with Moeen Ali (50). Late on the first day, England were 230-4. Stuart Broad lost his battle to be fit, with Jake Ball granted an opportunity as the fourth seamer.

Form 2017, umpires are expected to be granted the power to ‘send off’ a player for serious disciplinary breaches.

Golf

Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn has been named as Europe’s captain for the 2018 Ryder Cup, which will be staged in Paris for the first time.

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MIDWEEK SPORTS ROUNDUP: December 1

Football

Ben Woodburn became Liverpool’s youngest ever goalscorer during their 2-0 win over Leeds in the EFL Cup quarter-finals.

Also through to the last four a re Hull, who were able to temporarily forget their Premier League relegation battle to beat Championship leaders Newcastle on penalties. Hull won the shoot-out 3-1 after the sides had been locked at 1-1 after extra time.

In Wednesday’s matches, Arsenal’s unbeaten run in all competitions going back to the first day of the season ended as a much-changed Gunners side lost 2-0 to Southampton.

Manchester United made some changes but still picked a very strong side, and Anthony Martial made the most of a rare start by scoring twice. There were also two goals for Zlatan Ibrahimovic in United’s 4-1 win over West Ham.

The semi-final draw sees United play Hull, while Southampton face Liverpool. Matches will be played over two legs in January.

As had been widely predicted, Gareth Southgate has been appointed as the permanent manager of the English national team. Southgate, who had been in caretaker charge for the last four matches, has signed a contract until 2020.

Cricket

England cannot now win the Test series in India as they lost the third Test by eight wickets and went 2-0 down with two to play. England batted disappointingly in the first innings and posted just 283, with Jonny Bairstow top scoring with 89. India took a commanding lead after replying with 417, and although Ben Stokes took five wickets and Adil Rashid four, India’s lower order prospered – number eight Ravindra Jadeja top scored with 90, and Ravi Ashwin and Jayant Yadav also made half-centuries in the latter part of the Indian innings. England made 236 second time around, with fifties for Joe Root and Haseeb Hameed – the latter batting with a broken finger – and India then comfortably knocked off the 103 runs they required in the fourth innings.

Hameed will now fly home for an operation and Durham batsman Keaton Jennings replaces him in the squad. Hampshire spinner Liam Dawson will also fly out to join the squad. The fourth Test starts in Mumbai on December 8.

Rugby Union

England, who conclude their autumn international series against Australia on Saturday, are expected to recall Marland Yarde on the wing and to give Nathan Hughes his first start as number eight forward. They will take the places of Elliot Daly, suspended after his red card against Argentina, and Billy Vunipola, who picked up a serious knee injury in the same match.

Athletics

Jessica Ennis-Hill will receive one last gold medal to crown her glittering career after Russia’s Tatyana Chernova was stripped of her 2011 world title for blood doping.

Tennis

Anne Keothavong, a former British number one ranked player, will succeed Judy Murray as captain of Britain’s team in the Federation Cup – the women’s tennis tournament for national teams. Mrs Murray has chosen to concentrate on her work in grassroots coaching.

Sports Awards

Andy Murray is hot favourite to win the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award for the third time, and for the second year in succession, after his superb year. The Scot regained the Wimbledon men’s singles title in 2016, as well as winning Olympic gold, the ATP World Tour Finals and a string of other ATP Tour titles on his way to reaching number one in the world rankings.

Murray is one of 16 shortlisted sporting superstars, 13 of whom won Olympic gold for Team GB. Despite the expanded shortlist, there is no room for three time Tour de France winner Chris Froome, a world heavyweight champion in Anthony Joshua or prolific England batsman Joe Root.

The full shortlist is:

Nicola Adams - Boxing, Gareth Bale - Football, Alistair Brownlee - Triathlon, Sophie Christiansen - Equestrian, Kadeena Cox - Athletics/Cycling, Mo Farah - Athletics, Jason Kenny - Cycling, Laura Kenny (Trott) – Cycling, Andy Murray - Tennis, Adam Peaty - Swimming, Kate Richardson-Walsh - Hockey, Nick Skelton - Equestrian, Dame Sarah Storey - Cycling, Jamie Vardy - Football, Max Whitlock - Gymnastics, Danny Willett - Golf.

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WEEKEND SPORTS ROUNDUP

Football

Chelsea are the new leaders in the tightly contested Premier League title race, but they were made to work hard for a 1-0 win at Middlesbrough.

Previous leaders Liverpool were held 0-0 at Southampton.

Manchester City are third, but level on points with Liverpool, and only one behind Chelsea, after finally coming through 2-1 against Crystal Palace. After appearing to be totally out of contention for a place in the team, Yaya Toure was not only recalled to the City starting line-up, but scored both of his side’s goals.

Arsenal and Manchester United are fourth and sixth respectively, after a late Olivier Giroud goal secured the Gunners a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.

Fifth placed Tottenham maintained their unbeaten league record after coming from behind in the dying minutes to beat West Ham 3-2. Spurs trailed 2-1 with two minutes of normal time remaining, before a Harry Kane brace turned the match on its head.

Swansea slipped to the foot of the table, and are still to win under new manager Bob Bradley, after a late Seamus Coleman goal gave Everton a share of the points in a 1-1 draw.

Sunderland moved off the bottom after beating fellow strugglers Hull 3-0, Leicester’s domestic woes deepened as they lost 2-1 at Watford, and Bournemouth beat Stoke 1-0.

Newcastle extended their lead at the top of the Championship to five points with a 2-0 victory at Leeds. Second placed Brighton were held 1-1 by Aston Villa, but the Seagulls retain a four point cushion over third placed Reading.

Tennis

Andy Murray’s glittering year ended in fine style as he beat his great rival Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the final of the ATP World Tour Finals. Brushing aside concerns that he may be jaded after both his semi-final and one of his group matches took over three hours to complete, Murray was in imperious form. In 2016 the Scot won his second Wimbledon title, won Olympic gold and ended the year with 24 straight wins and five consecutive tournament victories. Nevertheless, he still needed to win Sunday’s final to stay as world number one, ahead of Djokovic.

The older Murray brother, Jamie, and his Brazilian doubles partner Bruno Soares finished the year as the number one ranked doubles pairing. This was despite their semi-final defeat to Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram. Finland's Henri Kontinen and Australian John Peers went on to beat Klaasen and Ram in the doubles final.

Cricket

England fell to a heavy defeat in the Second Test against India in Visakhapatnam. In a match where the toss appeared to be vitally important, India not surprisingly took the chance to bat first, and scored 455. England could only reply with 255, then as batting got more and more difficult, India made 204 second time around to leave England an unlikely 405 to win. After reaching 75-0, England collapsed to 158, giving India victory by 246 runs. Alastair Cook, Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow all made half centuries at some stage in the match. After his first innings 53, Bairstow remained 34 not out in the second innings as the England line-up fell around him. The third Test starts on December 8 and pace bowler Stuart Broad is extremely doubtful with a foot injury.

England Women completed a 4-0 ODI series whitewash in Sri Lanka, but were very grateful that their lower order batting came good in the final match. Nat Sciver (77) and Danielle Hazell (45) led the recovery from 58-6 to 240-9 in the England innings. Sri Lanka could only manage 78 in reply, with Laura Marsh claiming figures of 4-21. Despite the retirement of Charlotte Edwards and the continued absence of experienced batsman/keeper Sarah Taylor, England managed to win all six of their international series in 2016.

Rugby Union

England enjoyed a relatively comfortable 58-15 win over Fiji, scoring nine tries in total, and racing into a 31-0 lead inside 27 minutes. Jonathan Joseph and Joe Launchbury both scored two tries, although Launchbury could be banned from the remaining autumn internationals after being cited for an alleged kick in the head.

Ireland could not repeat their heroics of two weeks previously and lost 21-9 to New Zealand in Dublin.

Wales and Scotland both sneaked narrow wins. Wales beat Japan 33-30 and Scotland beat Argentina (England’s next opponents) 19-16.

In the English Premiership, Saracens won 28-13 at Sale to remain top of the table. Second placed Bath had to overcome a spirited display from neighbours Bristol, who are still without a league win, before prevailing by a 13-6 margin.

Rugby League

Australia retained the Four Nations title after beating New Zealand 34-8 in the final.

Golf

Henrik Stenson of Sweden clinched the Race to Dubai title, but it was Britain’s Matthew Fitzpatrick who won the DP Tour Championship event in Dubai, one stroke ahead of Tyrrell Hatton.

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MIDWEEK SPORTS ROUNDUP: November 17

Football

England drew 2-2 with Spain in the friendly international at Wembley, after conceding two late goals. It had appeared that an Adam Lallana penalty and a diving header from Jamie Vardy had put them on course for an impressive victory. Officially, this now marks the end of Gareth Southgate’s four-match stint as England caretaker manager, but he is widely predicted to be offered a four-year deal by the time of England’s next match, a friendly against Germany in March.

Northern Ireland suffered a disappointing 3-0 defeat to Croatia in another friendly, but Michael O’Neill had selected something of an experimental line-up.

A number of non-league sides are through to round two of the FA Cup after beating Football League sides in replays. Eastleigh won 3-1 away to Swindon, and James Armson scored a hat-trick for Brackley in their 4-3 extra time win over Gillingham. Solihull beat Yeovil in a penalty shoot-out. The FA Cup dreams of Westfields, from the ninth tier of English football, ended after they lost to Curzon Ashton, themselves from the sixth tier.

Manchester City Women, Britain’s sole remaining representatives in the Women’s Champions League, are through to the quarter finals. They beat Brondby 2-1 on aggregate in the round of 16 encounter, after drawing 1-1 in Denmark in the second leg.

Cricket

England were delighted to welcome back James Anderson to their team for the second Test. Now recovered from his shoulder injury, England’s all-time leading wicket taker bagged two wickets, however India were going well late on day one at 297-3. Virat Kohli was 141 not out and Cheteshwar Pujara earlier made 119.

England Women ensured series victory in their ODI series in Sri Lanka, despite missing captain Heather Knight and key pace bowler Katherine Brunt with injury for the third match. Stand-in captain Danielle Hazell took 2-24 in 10 overs as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 161, then England raced to a five-wicket win inside 30 overs. Beaumont smashed 78 from 79 deliveries with three sixes.

Tennis

Andy Murray had a routine victory over Marin Cilic in his first match at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, but then found it much harder against Kei Nishikori before finally coming through in three sets – after three hours and 20 minutes - to record his 21^st straight victory. World number one Murray stands top of his group and is all but certain to make the semi-finals.

Rugby Union

England play Fiji in their second autumn international this coming Saturday. At time of writing, it was expected they would make at least three changes to the side that beat South Africa – Alex Goode for Mike Brown at full back, Semesa Rokoduguni for Marland Yarde on the wing and Nathan Hughes for Tom Wood at flanker.

After beating New Zealand in Chicago two weeks earlier, Ireland now try and repeat the feat on home turf. Meanwhile, Wales face Japan and Scotland play Argentina.

Boxing

Stephen Smith lost a unanimous points decision as he unsuccessfully challenged American Jason Sosa for the WBA world super featherweight championship.

However, another British boxer retained his world title. Jamie McDonnell was victorious in his WBA bantamweight bout with Liborio Solis of Venezuela.

WEEKEND SPORTS ROUNDUP: November 11-13

Football

Goals from Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Gary Cahill took England to a 3-0 win over Scotland in the Group F World Cup qualifying match. After four matches of the campaign, England are still to concede a goal. Scotland had much of the play, at least until England scored their second, but are now facing an uphill battle to qualify.

A James McClean goal gave the Republic of Ireland an excellent 1-0 win away to Austria, and they now top Group D. Wales slipped to third in the same group after only drawing 1-1 at home to Serbia.

Northern Ireland enjoyed a comfortable 4-0 win over Azerbaijan to move ahead of them, on goal difference, into second place in Group C.

Cricket

After their batting problems in Bangladesh, England can take a great deal of heart from their performance in drawing the First Test against India in Rajkot. Centuries from Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Joe Root led the way to a massive first innings score of 537. India replied with 488, then England pressed home their advantage in the second innings with an opening stand of 180. The stand was broken when Haseeb Hameed, who enjoyed an impressive debut, fell for 82, but captain Alastair Cook batted on to 130 before declaring his side’s innings at 260-3. Faced with surviving 49 overs, India had some nervy moments before batting out time at 172-6. Adil Rashid was England’s best bowler with seven wickets in the match. The Second Test starts on Thursday.

England Women took a 2-0 lead in their four-match ODI series with Sri Lanka, and in doing so secured qualification for next year’s World Cup, which will be staged in England. England complied a formidable total of 295 batting first, with half centuries for Lauren Winfield, Heather Knight and Natalie Sciver, and Sri Lanka could only reply with 173.

Motor Racing

The Formula One World Drivers’ Championship is still alive going into the final race in Abu Dhabi on November 27. Lewis Hamilton recorded his third victory in a row to win a Brazilian Grand Prix that was stopped and re-started several times due to rain. However, Hamilton’s Red Bull team-mate Nico Rosberg finished second and remains 12 points ahead in the Championship, and must still be regarded as the favourite. Hamilton would need to win in Abu Dhabi and Rosberg finish fourth or lower for the Briton to snatch the title.

Rugby Union

England recorded their first win over South Africa since 2006 with a 37-21 win at Twickenham. England have won all ten matches since Eddie Jones took over as head coach, and this latest victory saw them score 23 unanswered points in a period either side of half-time between the 34^th and 49^th minutes. Courtney Lawes, winning his 50^th cap, was one of four England try scorers. Both Lawes and his second row partner Joe Launchbury produced excellent performances, and given that neither would have been certain to play had it not been for a raft of injuries, their displays may have given Jones some selection headaches.

Maro Itoje, one of England’s injured forwards, was named breakthrough player of the year at the World Rugby awards.

As in last year’s World Cup, Scotland went down to Australia by a single point – 23-22 on this occasion.

Wales stuttered to a 24-20 win over Argentina, but after last week’s mauling by Australia, they may have been satisfied with any sort of win.

Given that the match was sandwiched between two encounters with New Zealand, it was perhaps not surprising that Ireland changed their entire starting line-up for their match with Canada. The scores were tied at 14-14 late in the first half, before Ireland pulled clear, eventually winning 52-21.

Rugby League

England lost 36-18 to Australia, thus ending their involvement in the Four Nations. England were competitive in the first half but were blown away by three unanswered Australian tries in a 12-minute period early in the second half that gave them a commanding 28-6 lead.

Scotland enjoyed one of their best days to date in international rugby league as they snatched an 18-18 draw against New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand will now contest the Four Nations final this weekend.

Tennis

Britain’s Jamie Murray and his Brazilian doubles partner Bruno Soares won their opening match at the ATP World Tour Finals in London. The pair are seeded second in the doubles tournament. Jamie’s brother Andy starts his singles campaign at the tournament later today (Monday).

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MIDWEEK SPORTS ROUNDUP

Football

England face Scotland in a World Cup qualifier at Wembley on Friday evening, with Jack Wilshere recalled to the squad now he has more game time under his belt after featuring regularly for Bournemouth during his loan spell. West Ham defender Aaron Cresswell and Sunderland ‘keeper Jordan Pickford are in the England squad for the first time, after injuries to Danny Drinkwater and Fraser Forster. Scotland are definitely without defenders Andrew Robertson and Kieran Tierney, while forward Steven Fletcher remains a doubt. Speculation is growing that defeat for Scotland could mark the end of Gordon Strachan’s time in charge of the team.

Defenders Ben Davies and James Collins will both miss Wales’ match with Serbia on Saturday due to injury.

James McCarthy has been ruled out of Ireland’s match in Austria on Monday, with James McClean and John O’Shea also doubtful.

Northern Ireland will be without Stuart Dallas and Jamie Ward for their match with Azerbaijan on Friday.

Jose Mourinho is reported to have asked Manchester United to conduct a review of their medical arrangements, to try and discover why so many of his squad are falling victim to injury. Chris Smalling and Luke Shaw were amongst those sidelined for United’s last match, with the manager appearing to question their desire to play in his post-match comments.

England and Scotland’s women’s teams have been drawn together in Group D for next summer’s Euro 2017 tournament in the Netherlands. Spain and Portugal complete the group.

Manchester City Women, Britain’s sole remaining representatives in the Women’s Champions League, beat Brondby of Denmark 1-0 at home in the first leg of the round of 16 encounter.

Cricket

England had a superb first day of the First Test against India in Rajkot, closing on 311-4. It was three and a half years since Australia’s Michael Clarke became the last opposing batsman to score a Test century in India, but Joe Root reached 124 before being dismissed here. He added 179 for the fourth wicket with Moeen Ali, who was 99 not out overnight. Lancashire’s Haseeb Hameed made 31 on his Test debut as he opened the innings with captain Alastair Cook.

England Women romped to an eight wicket win with all of 21 overs to spare in the first encounter of their four-match ODI series in Sri Lanka. Essex and Loughborough Lightning seamer Beth Langston took 1-23 in 10 overs on her ODI debut as Sri Lanka managed just 168-7. 33 from Lauren Winfield, 41 from Tammy Beaumont, 45 not out from Heather Knight and an unbeaten 47 from Natalie Sciver completed the victory. Fran Wilson returned to the fold after not being selected for the West Indies series, but was not required to bat. Lancashire Thunder’s 18 year old batsman Emma Lamb has been called into the senior squad for the first time, but was not required to bat here.

Rugby Union

Northampton flanker Tom Wood will start his first international since the World Cup last year when England play South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday. Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes get the nod in the second row, with England missing so many players through injury in the second and back rows of the scrum. Gloucester winger Jonny May is also recalled.

18-year-old Ospreys wing Keelan Giles has been called into the Wales squad for the first time. Wales play Argentina in Cardiff on Saturday, still smarting from their heavy defeat to Australia.

After their remarkable win over New Zealand last week, Ireland face a simpler task when they face Canada; while Scotland must try and overcome a confident Australia side.

Rugby League

England play their last Four Nations group match against Australia at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday. Depending on New Zealand’s result against Scotland two days earlier, England may go into the match knowing that simply winning may not be enough to make the final – they may also need to win by a certain margin to get into the top two on points difference.

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WEEKEND SPORTS ROUNDUP:

Football

The three sides who went into the weekend level on points at the top of the Premier League all won and all scored four goals in the process.

 

Manchester City returned to winning ways as two goals from Sergio Aguero and two more from Ilkay Gundogan saw them beat West Brom 4-0.

Arsenal produced three late goals to see off bottom-placed Sunderland 4-1, with Alexis Sanchez netting twice and Olivier Giroud scoring with each of his first two touches after being introduced as a substitute.

Crystal Palace twice equalised the first half, before Liverpool ran out 4-2 winners at Selhurst Park.

Two goals, and a 2-0 win, was enough for Chelsea to remain one point behind the top three.

Tottenham however slipped three points off the pace and remain fifth after a 1-1 draw with Leicester, despite being the only unbeaten team. They had 22 attempts on goal but had only a Vincent Janssen penalty to show for their efforts.

Manchester United meanwhile drew 0-0 with Burnley despite having 37 goal attempts. Burnley ‘keeper Tom Heaton, once of United, was in superb form, and as the Red Devils’ frustration grew, there were sendings off for Ander Herrera and for manager Jose Mourinho. United have now won just one of their last seven league matches.

Sunderland remain rooted to the bottom of the table, but West Ham and Hull remain in trouble after defeats by Everton and Watford respectively.

Championship leaders Newcastle won 2-1 at Preston, and Brighton are now second after thrashing Norwich 5-0.

Celtic won 1-0 at Aberdeen to stay nine points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

Cricket

Bangladesh won an extraordinary second Test in Dhaka to record their first ever win over England in the five-day format, and square the two-match series at 1-1. Chasing 273 to win, Alastair Cook (59) and Ben Duckett (56) put on 100 for the first wicket, before the side crumbled to 164 all out. All the wickets therefore fell for just 64 runs in a single session of play after tea on the third day. Teenage off-spinner Mehedi Hasan followed up his five-wicket haul on debut with six wickets in each innings here.

Earlier in the match, Bangladesh made 220 in the first innings, having reached 171-1 via 104 from Tamim Iqbal and 66 from Mominul Haque. Moeen Ali took five wickets for England. England replied with 244 to claim a first innings lead, but only after Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid had added 99 for the ninth wicket. Imrul Kayes top scored with 78 in the Bangladesh second innings to lead his side to 296 and set up a thrilling fourth innings.

England now start a five-match Test series in India on November 9, and former captain Michael Vaughan has suggested England could lose that series 5-0 if they display the same poor batting as has been on show in Bangladesh.

Motor Racing

Lewis Hamilton won the Mexican Grand Prix, ahead of Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, and in doing so trimmed Rosberg’s lead in the Formula One world championship to 19 points. There are two Grands Prix remaining for Hamilton to try and pull off an unlikely title win – in Brazil on November 13 and in Abu Dhabi two weeks later.

Rugby Union

The top three in the Premiership all won, with leaders Saracens winning 24-10 at home to fourth-placed Leicester. Second placed Wasps had little difficulty with Newcastle, recording a 31-6 victory, but third placed Bath required a try with the last play of the match to beat Exeter 13-10. Sale moved within one point of the top four after a 31-13 win at bottom of the table Bristol.

Northampton beat Gloucester 23-20 and Harlequins were 36-14 winners against Worcester.

Rugby League

England were edged out 17-16 by New Zealand in the opening match of their Four Nations campaign. England have reached the final on both previous occasions that this tournament has been staged in England, but they now face an uphill battle to repeat that this time around.

Tennis

Andy Murray won his seventh title of the year, and his third in succession, when he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna. If he wins next week’s Paris Masters and Novak Djokovic fails to make the final, Murray will take over as world number 1 even before the ATP Tour Finals in London later in November.

Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia beat world number 1 Angelique Kerber in the final of the WTA Finals tournament in Singapore.

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MIDWEEK SPORTS ROUNDUP

Football

Barcelona beat Manchester City 4-0 in the Champions League, with Lionel Messi scoring a hat-trick. Despite the scoreline, this wasn’t a vintage Barca performance, and City made numerous costly mistakes. The Spanish club only really took charge once City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo had been sent off. City are second in their group, but only one point ahead of Borussia Monchengladbach, who beat Celtic 2-0.

Arsenal eased past Bulgarian side Ludogorets Razgrad, with Mesut Ozil netting three times in a 6-0 win.

Tottenham had to withstand a second half onslaught before escaping with a 0-0 draw from their match away to Bayer Leverkusen. Spurs are another English side currently in the top two, but with only a one-point cushion over third place.

Leicester brushed aside their inconsistent domestic form to beat Copenhagen 1-0 and go five points clear at the top of their group.

Newcastle are now top of the Championship after a 2-0 win at Barnsley. Norwich, who are one point behind, drew 2-2 at Fulham. Long-time leaders Huddersfield slipped to fourth after losing for the third time in five matches.

Aston Villa won 2-1 at Reading to claim their first away win for over a year.

Hull are reported to have conditionally agreed a £130 million takeover by a South East Asian consortium.

Midfielder Sofiane Boufal could finally be ready to make his Southampton debut in Thursday’s Europa League match away to Inter. The Saints’ £16 million record signing has been sidelined with a knee injury so far.

Cricket

Ben Duckett became the eighth different Test opening batsman to get the chance to open for England since the retirement of Andrew Strauss. He was dismissed for just 14 in the First Test against Bangladesh that got under way on Thursday morning in Chittagong. At tea on the first day, England were 173-5, with Moeen Ali unbeaten on 61.

England Women won the deciding encounter of their five match ODI series in the West Indies. Alex Hartley took 4-24 as the West Indies were all out for 155, then Natalie Sciver’s 58 not out led the way as England got home with five wickets and 11 overs in hand.

Durham have taken another step to stabilise their financial position after the north-east county reached agreement with Durham County Council for £3.74 million of debt to be converted into shares. It is now expected that their Chester-le-Street headquarters will remain an England ODI venue, but will still lose its status as a Test ground. Sir Ian Botham is expected to become the club’s chairman.

Rugby League

Leeds forward Stevie Ward could make his international debut this weekend as England warm up for the Four Nations campaign with a match against France. Ward has replaced injured Leeds team-mate Brett Ferres in the squad.

Cycling

Katie Archibald, a team pursuit gold medalist for Team GB in Rio, won a silver medal in the women's elimination race at the European Track Championships in Paris, behind Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands.

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MIDWEEK SPORTS ROUNDUP: October 6th

Football

Gareth Southgate - England Caretaker Manager

Gareth Southgate takes charge of England for the first time on Saturday when his side play Malta at home. Three days later England travel to Slovenia for another World Cup qualifier. Andros Townsend has been recalled to the England squad, and Burnley defender Michael Keane and Manchester United’s Jesse Lingaard are called up for the first time.

Wales play Austria away and then Moldova at home, and will again be without the injured Aaron Ramsey.

Scotland comprehensively beat Malta in their opening group match, and with matches against Lithuania (home) and Slovakia (away) will be confident of getting more points on the board. Alan Hutton is injured, but otherwise Gordon Strachan has the same players available as he did for the Malta match.

Northern Ireland face two very different matches – a home encounter with minnows San Marino and then a trip to face world champions Germany. It is in this second match that Northern Ireland may miss the injured Craig Cathcart and Liam Boyce, as well as Will Grigg, who is absent for personal reasons.

Ireland must tackle Georgia at home and then Moldova away without a number of injured players. Daryl Murphy, Stephen Quinn, Keiren Westwood, Kevin Doyle, Aiden McGeady, Anthony Pilkington, Marc Wilson and possibly Harry Arter will all miss the games.

Francesco Guidolin has become the first Premier League managerial casualty of the season. With Swansea City struggling in 17^th place, the club’s new American owners have opted to replace the Italian with their compatriot Bob Bradley, who now becomes the first American coach in top-flight English football. Bradley has enjoyed some success with the USA national team but has little experience of top-level club management, and was in charge at French second division side Le Havre when he got the call from Swansea.

Two German clubs comprehensively outclassed the British representatives in the Women’s Champions League. Chelsea lost 3-0 at home to Wolfsburg in the first leg of their round of 32 encounter, while Hibernian were thumped 6-0 by Bayern Munich.

Rugby Union

Wales are facing the prospect of being without their captain, Sam Warburton, for at least part of November’s international series, after he fractured his cheekbone while playing for Cardiff Blues last weekend.

Sam Jones, newly called up to the England squad, will definitely not be able to take his place in the international series. The Wasps flanker broke his leg during a squad judo training session.

Boxing

Tyson Fury has admitted to taking cocaine to try and deal with his problems with depression. The British boxer, currently the WBA and WBO world heavyweight champion, is almost certain to be stripped of his titles after twice pulling out of a re-match with Wladimir Klitschko. Fury recently claimed to have retired from boxing on social media, before appearing to retract his statement just three hours later.

Scottish boxer Mike Towell has died after suffering brain injuries in a British title eliminator fight at the weekend. His girlfriend later mentioned that he had been suffering from unexplained headaches for several weeks previously.

Tennis

Britain’s top two men’s tennis players, Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund, will meet in the quarter finals of the China Open.

Britain’s number one female player, Johanna Konta, is through to the third round of the women’s singles at the same tournament.

Cricket

The England & Wales Cricket Board have imposed a series of draconian penalties on Durham, after the North East county were forced to accept a £4.8 million assistance package from the Board. Not only have Durham been relegated to division two of the County Championship, but they will also start the next Championship season on minus 48 points, the T20 Blast competition on minus four and the One Day Cup on minus two. Their Chester-le-Street headquarters has also been removed indefinitely from the list of England’s Test Match grounds. Hampshire, who finished second bottom in Division One of the Championship, will not now be relegated as a result.

80 not out from Jos Butler and 70 from Moeen Ali took England to a four-wicket win over a Bangladesh Cricket Board Select XI. The one-day international series between England and Bangladesh commences in Dhaka on Friday, and Ben Duckett is the only newcomer in the England squad. England do of course have a powerful and exciting young ODI team, but captain Eoin Morgan and big-hitting opener Alex Hales have opted not to tour. Can the team fire on all cylinders after having played just one warm-up match since arriving in Bangladesh?

England Women’s five-match one-day international series against the West Indies will go ahead as planned, starting on Saturday, after Hurricane Matthew missed Jamaica. There are no new players in the squad although Beth Langston and Sophie Ecclestone – capped in T20 internationals previously – could make their ODI debuts.

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