Liverpool's hope of ending the season with a record number of points was ended by Arsenal last night, following a 2-1 defeat at the Emirates. The Premier League, European and World champions took an early lead via Sadio Mane, but Alexandre Lacazette and Reiss Nelson pounced on costly defensive mistakes to turn the game around before the interval. Despite numerous chances, Jurgen Klopp's team failed to find the net again. Bournemouth need a dramatic turnaround to preserve their top-flight status after an unfortunate 2-1 defeat at Manchester City pushed them closer to relegation, Harry Kane went past 200 club goals to hand José Mourinho a first Premier League win at St James' Park at the eighth attempt as Tottenham beat Newcastle 3-1, while Chris Wood's stoppage-time penalty denied Wolves victory in a 1-1 draw which intensifies the battle for European places. Tonight, both Manchester United and Leicester are in action as the battle for the top four nears its climax - the latter face Sheffield United at 6pm before United visit Crystal Palace at 8.15pm.
The British and Irish Lions confirmed on Monday that next year's tour of South Africa will go ahead as scheduled in July and August, thus ending any possibility of a global calendar coming into being in 2021. There will be a reduced total of eight matches in the tour and with 30,000 supporters expected to take in some or all of the tour the four home unions felt compelled to confirm the schedule now. A new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Sport Ireland and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) could potentially result in the reopening of the James Cronin anti-doping case. The Munster prop received a one-month suspension back in April after a mix-up at a Cork pharmacy led him to collect medication, on Wada's prohibited list, meant for another James Cronin.
World number one Rory McIlroy is ready to make a big splash at the Memorial tournament this week after what he describes as using his first three starts of the PGA Tour's rebooting as a way to ease back into competition. In the two weeks since he last played, at the Travelers, he used a waiver to get his coach Michael Bannon to fly stateside to tweak parts of his swing. Nine of the world's top-10 are playing in the tournament which gets underway this evening, including Ireland's Shane Lowry and Graeme McDowell, as well as Tiger Woods making his first appearance since February. Read Philip Reid's lowdown of the Memorial Tournament here - McIlroy tees off for his first round at 6.17pm (Irish time).
Meanwhile our Game Changers series continues this morning with Sean Moran looking back on the life of Kerry GAA legend Dr Eamonn O'Sullivan - the psychiatrist who gave Kerry footballers a positive mental attitude for over 40 years. And Ian O'Riordan reports that intercounty players will have gone six months without a single anti-doping test by the time collective training resumes in September.
