The surreal start to the new Premier League season continued yesterday, with Manchester United and Liverpool conceding 13 goals between them as they were hammered by Tottenham and Aston Villa respectively. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side were beaten 6-1 by Spurs at Old Trafford, with Jose Mourinho's side capitalising on some shambolic defending and Anthony Martial's controversial early red card. In the evening kick-off, Ollie Watkins scored a hat-trick as Dean Smith's side ran riot over Jurgen Klopp's visitors, winning 7-2 at Villa Park. Elsewhere yesterday West Ham were surprise 3-0 winners away to Leicester, Southampton beat West Brom 2-0, Arsenal were 2-1 winners at home to Sheffield United and Wolves beat pointless Fulham 1-0. The transfer window shuts at 11pm tonight, with Man United expected to scramble around for some final day incomings - an all too familiar occurrence, as Ken Early writes in his column this morning: "The coronavirus pandemic and the uncertainty it has created will hardly have increased the Glazer family's appetite for taking risks in the transfer market."
It is a big week for the Republic of Ireland and Stephen Kenny as they face into Thursday night's crunch Euro2020 qualifier away to Slovakia, which precedes back-to-back Nations League encounters against Wales and Finland. One player who won't be available for the trip to Bratislava is Séamus Coleman, who went off injured during Everton's 4-2 win over Brighton on Saturday. After speaking to his captain, Kenny said: "He was disappointed. He's knows that it's an important game and he doesn't want to miss out on it but there's nothing we can do except to prepare for Slovakia and make sure we are right for that."
Elsewhere yesterday a number of county championships reached their conclusion, with St Thomas' seeing off Turloughmore 1-14 to 0-15 to secure the Galway SHC for a third year on the bounce. Keith Duggan was at Kenny Park to see a collision of old Galway hurling royalty. Ratoath retained their Meath SFC title after a smash and grab 1-14 to 1-13 win over Gaeil Colmcille, while Blackrock are Cork senior hurling champions after they beat Glen Rovers in an epic, running out 4-26 to 4-18 winners after extra-time.
There was to be no historic third victory for Enable in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe yesterday, as John Gosden's star filly failed to fire up the straight and finished sixth in bottomless ground at Longchamp. Sottsass handled the mud the best to land the race for the home team, with just 1,000 spectators in attendance and no Aidan O'Brien runners present after they were withdrawn on Saturday night due to an issue over contaminated feed.
Connacht ended their six-match losing streak against Glasgow on Saturday to ensure all four provinces got their Pro14 campaigns off to a winning start over the weekend. Bundee Aki starred for Andy Friend's side as they edged a tight encounter 28-24 at The Sportsground, which came after Munster's last-gasp 30-27 win away to the Scarlets earlier in the day. Leinster and Ulster were comfortable winners over the Dragons and Benetton respectively on Friday night.
Sergio Garcia is a PGA Tour winner for the first time since his 2017 US Masters victory, after he nailed his approach on the 18th to take the Sanderson Farms Championship by one stroke from America's Peter Malnati.
And the Miami Heat are alive again in the NBA Finals, Jimmy Butler inspiring them to a 115-104 Game 3 victory over the LA Lakers, reducing the series deficit to 2-1.
