Chelsea’s struggles show no sign of ending despite the loan signing of Joao Felix, the Portuguese forward was sent off on his debut in a 2-1 defeat at Fulham last night. Kalidou Koulibaly cancelled out Chelsea old boy Willian’s opener, only for Carlos Vinicius’ header to leave under-fire Graham Potter’s side in 10th with one win in their last nine Premier League matches and 10 points off the top four. Tonight, Aston Villa host Leeds with kick-off at 8pm.

Ahead of La Rochelle’s Champions Cup clash with Ulster tomorrow, John O’Sullivan speaks with Ultan Dillane who is thriving in France after making the switch from Connacht. He’s played 606 minutes in 15 appearances with six starts, five at flanker and one in the secondrow: “I had a very, very good opportunity: to come here, work on myself and produce my best game. I’m sure I made the right choice.” Ireland fullback Hugo Keenan is in line to pick up his 50th cap as a Leinster player against Gloucester in their Champions Cup clash at Kingsholm on Saturday: “Delighted to get the chance to hopefully reach 50. I don’t think Sevens to be honest really slowed me down. I was just a bit of a slow burner. I can’t blame that. I still remember when Peter Smyth told my Dad he thought I was going to get 50 caps for Leinster and I never believed him, to be honest”.

Following the cancellation of a third of the O’Byrne Cup fixtures scheduled for midweek, Leinster GAA will have to look at changing the format of the competition next year, according to provincial chief executive Michael Reynolds. “Now if we decided to scrap these competitions in the morning, there’d be uproar,” he tells Sean Moran. “It’s disappointing and we’ll obviously have to look at the possibility of knockout next year. We’re limited in that the current structure takes five dates and we must be finished by the time the league starts. There’s no rule saying that but it’s the reality.”

Meanwhile, in his column this morning Johnny Watterson writes about the many lives of a once troubled Ronnie O’Sullivan: “Where most players have careers, O’Sullivan has had a shared journey. For every time he stepped out on the precipice threatening to leap, he has managed to find a way back.”