Premier League: Mourinho to Terry defence after red card August 23, 2015 WEST BROMWICH ALBION 2 CHELSEA 3 CHELSEA manager Jose Mourinho exonerated John Terry after the captain’s red card left his side clinging on for a first Premier League win of the season yesterday at West Brom. Goals from £21m debutant Pedro, striker Diego Costa and left-back Cesar Azpilicueta proved enough for the champions, despite James [...]
Jessica Ennis-Hill reasserts her class on mixed day for British pair August 23, 2015 Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill admitted she did not expect to win gold after completing a remarkable comeback to the heptathlon with success at the World Athletics Championship yesterday. Ennis-Hill, who gave birth to a son just 13 months ago, only decided to take part in Beijing following an encouraging display at the Anniversary Games in [...]
Bolt digs deep to beat Gatlin in 100m tussle August 23, 2015 WORLD’S fastest man Usain Bolt reflected on the toughest race of his glittering career after pipping drug cheat Justin Gatlin to 100m gold at the World Athletics Championship yesterday. Six-time Olympic champion Bolt put recent injury problems behind him to beat Gatlin by a hundredth of a second in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium – the [...]
Premier League: Now keep it up, Pellegrini tells irresistible Man City August 23, 2015 Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini hopes his side can marry their attacking flair with the consistency that eluded them last season after they continued their irresistible start to the new campaign. Left-back Aleksandar Kolarov and substitute Samir Nasri scored yesterday as Premier League pace-setters City overcame in-form Everton’s stubborn defence and maintained their 100 [...]
Root wants Test ranking top spot after Ashes glee August 23, 2015 AT THE KIA OVAL ENGLAND vice-captain Joe Root believes Ashes success can prove the springboard for assuming the status of the world’s best team despite defeat in the final Investec Ashes Test yesterday tainting his side’s series win. Australia salvaged some pride from the wreckage of a disappointing Test campaign by dismissing England for 286 [...]
Hamilton douses talk of title formality despite Belgian rout August 23, 2015 BRITAIN’S Lewis Hamilton distanced himself from suggestions that his third crowning as world champion is a foregone conclusion after storming to victory at the Belgian Grand Prix yesterday. Hamilton extended his lead at the summit of the drivers’ championship from team-mate Nico Rosberg to a season-high 28 points after recording his sixth triumph of 2015. [...]
France defeat is huge World Cup wake-up call, says Haskell August 23, 2015 ENGLAND flanker James Haskell admits that his side were dealt a stark Rugby World Cup warning during their 25-20 defeat to France in Saturday’s warm-up clash. Late tries from replacement Danny Cipriani and centre Jonathan Joseph masked the remainder of the game in which France dominated as wing Yoann Huget dotted down and Frederic Michalak [...]
21 August on this day… August 21, 2015 1996: Roberto di Matteo (third from right) scores on his home debut as Chelsea beat Middlesborough 1-0. Di Matteo, who retired after six years at Chelsea, returned as caretaker manager in March 2012. Within two months he’d won the FA Cup and Champions League. In June he was appointed manager only to be sacked in [...]
Ashes 2015: Blitz Australia again, Ben Stokes tells England August 21, 2015 England all-rounder Ben Stokes has urged his side to summon the brutal form which has repeatedly decimated Australia in a single session this series after a sedate start to the fifth Investec Ashes Test at the Kia Oval yesterday. Opener David Warner and captain-elect Steve Smith drove a resilient Australia’s response to two harrowing Test [...]
Rugby World Cup 2015: Paris audition doesn’t faze cool Luther Burrell August 21, 2015 England centre Luther Burrell has denied he is feeling the heat ahead of his latest audition for a place in head coach Stuart Lancaster’s Rugby World Cup squad. Lancaster has claimed the “spotlight” will be on Burrell after naming the Northampton centre in his starting XV for England’s World Cup warm-up clash against France in [...]