Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool team continued their unbeaten start to the season with an utterly dominant 3-1 win over Manchester United at Anfield yesterday evening. The win returned the hosts to the top of the Premier League table, yet despite 36 attempts on goal and an early breakthrough via Sadio Mane, a mistake from Alisson meant the points were not sealed until substitute Xherdan Shaqiri's brace in the final 20 minutes. Ken Early writes this morning that José Mourinho is the manager Manchester United deserve: "His results-only approach is mirrored in the boardroom, where the leading director, Ed Woodward, is also judged on outcomes and not processes." Earlier on Sunday Chelsea backed up their win over Manchester City last weekend with an Eden Hazard-inspired 2-1 victory away to Brighton, while Southampton ended Arsenal's 22 game unbeaten run.
A shade of 4,000 people came through the gates in Navan yesterday to watch Dublin and Meath play out a competitive challenge game in support of Dunboyne man Sean Cox who is recovering from catastrophic injuries sustained when he was attacked while attending Liverpool match last April. The St Peter's, Dunboyne club reckon the match will have raised around €80,000 for the Sean Cox fund. On the field, a strong Meath selection scored four in a row late on to edge a youthful Dublin selection. Meanwhile the Dublin hurlers made it two from two under new boss Mattie Kenny with a nine point Walsh Cup win over Offaly.
After three rounds of festive interpro derbies, each of the Irish provinces will return to Euro fare in January knowing that two more wins will ensure their qualification for the knockout stages. As Gerry Thornley explains, their destiny remains in their own hands. There were bonus point wins over the weekend for Leinster, Ulster and Connacht in the Challenge Cup. However Munster were surprise 13-12 losers to Castres in France on Saturday evening.
In his Tipping Point column this morning, Brian O'Connor is not happy that Irish sport has been infected by an attention-seeking culture: "That once unattractive trait of attention-seeking has become the culture, usually in terms of flogging something, often yourself, in an effort to develop that most ubiquitous of digital buzzwords – profile."
