The three-horse race for the Premier League title picked up pace last night with Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool all picking up three points and pulling further away from the rest at the top of the table. It was another miserable evening for Rafael Benitez and Everton - now with just two points from their last eight fixtures - as they were thrashed 4-1 in the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park. Jordan Henderson and Mohamed Salah gave the visitors a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes but the Toffees fought back before half-time through Demarai Gray. However a mistake by Ireland captain Seamus Coleman let Salah in for his second just after the hour mark, with Diogo Jota completing the scoring. Elsewhere goals from Mason Mount and Hakim Ziyech gave Chelsea a 2-1 win away to Watford, with the game postponed for a lengthy period in the first half after a fan was taken ill in the stands at Vicarage Road. Meanwhile Manchester City condemned Steven Gerrard to his first defeat as Aston Villa boss with a 2-1 win at Villa Park. The night's three other games were draws - West Ham 1 Brighton 1, Southampton 2 Leicester 2 and Wolves 0 Burnley 0. Tonight all eyes will be on Old Trafford as Michael Carrick takes charge of Manchester United again for the visit of Arsenal (kick-off 8.15pm), while in the other fixture Spurs host Brentford (7.30pm).
With the majority of Munster's travelling party to South Africa having finally been given the green light to fly home following a Covid-19 outbreak within the squad, attention will now turn to whether or not the province can fulfil their next fixture - a European tie away to Wasps on December 12th. With 34 players among their party of 48 in Cape Town, and with those returning to Ireland having to spend 10 days in home quarantine, the Munster cupboard looks fairly bare. Gerry Thornley explains the situation: "Munster have 58 players registered with EPCR, and of the 34 who did not travel to South Africa, nine are currently injured or unavailable, so 15 registered players have been training at their HPC under Ian Costello, who returned to Munster as academy manager this season after three years as Wasps' defence coach. The 15 players are: hookers (2) Declan Moore, Scott Buckley*; props (2) David Kilcoyne, Mark Donnelly*; locks (2): Tadhg Beirne, Eoin O'Connor*; backrow (2) Peter O'Mahony, Daniel Okeke*. Scrumhalves (2) Conor Murray, Ethan Coghlan*; outhalves (1) Joey Carbery; centres (2) Damian de Allende, Keith Earls; back three (1) Andrew Conway (*denotes academy player)."
In his column this morning Ciarán Murphy has reflected on the rarity and brilliance of Loughmore-Castleiney's Tipperary dual-double, after the club added the hurling title to the football championship won a week before, with the same squad of players. He writes: "And let's be clear: what we have seen, over the last four weeks for those of us outside Tipperary, and for the last 17 weeks if you've been following this from the start, really is an exceptional achievement. It's the sheer audacity of their success, the sheer unlikeliness of it all, which makes it extraordinary. And it's amplified by the fact that they came back to win two county finals by a point this year, having lost both county finals last year by a point. Let's not presume that there are other Loughmore-Castleineys out there capable of that ridiculous level of consistency and excellence."
Elsewhere the BHA disciplinary panel hearing for jockey Robbie Dunne continued yesterday, with Bryony Frost giving her testimony. And Frost has claimed Dunne had exposed himself to her in the weighing room: "I remember Robbie, through my amateur career, being inappropriate to many of us. I remember him opening his towel up and shaking himself in front of us at one point. When you have to go in there to get your weights and your silks, a lot of the males in there would put their towels around them or get changed. They wouldn't openly walk around their weighing room naked."
And Denise O'Sullivan's hat-trick against Georgia in Ireland's 11-0 rout on Tuesday night moved her up to second in the Republic's all-time top-scorers list. Afterwards, she paid tribute to Katie McCabe, who helped herself to a brace in Tallaght: "I've been playing with Katie now for 10 years. She has come on heaps and bounds, I'm very proud of her. Playing on that left side with her, I think we know each other really well on the ball and what we're good at so I think we link up really well. A few of us were [MENTORS]to Katie. But the way she has matured into being a fantastic captain is amazing."
