Did Pep Guardiola unwittingly strengthen Arsenal into them becoming Manchester City’s biggest Premier League rival? The Spaniard denies that but Ken Early writes the Gunners have been a team transformed since the arrivals of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko at the club. Highlighting the Ukrainian Zinchenko “Throughout the game he showed uncanny anticipation in reading where the ball was going to end up, then intelligence and composure to find his team-mates on either side, penning United in, making sure there was no let-up to the siege.”
Nketiah scored twice as Arsenal edged Manchester United in a pulsating contest. Mikel Arteta hailed the “extraordinary” Arsenal but claims Manchester City are a level above. Also in soccer news, the FAI remain on course to achieve gender balance on their board, while the association wants everyone to know that Castore will appear on Irish gear for the foreseeable future, following a “transformational” kit deal.
Derry champions Glen have asked the GAA to review an incident at the end of Sunday’s All-Ireland club football final. In the last play of the match, Kilmacud Crokes had 16 players on the pitch. The extra man was Dara Mullin, who had been replaced by Conor Casey just before a 45 was taken. It brought controversy to a day where Kilmacud Crokes held off a late Glen surge to claim the All-Ireland football title. In hurling, Kingpins Ballyhale Shamrocks finished strongly to reclaim the club summit. The state of the pitch was a talking point, however, with Ballyhale’s Pat Hoban saying “For an All-Ireland final, if that was the pitch you wouldn’t train on it.” Malachy Clerkin writes it was a day of redemption as for the first time, last year’s runners-up have come back to win the club All-Ireland titles.
The Champions Cup has wrapped until the very end of March. The pool stages have concluded, as Munster have been pitted with an unwelcome Champions Cup last 16 tie away to the Sharks in Durban a fortnight after the Six Nations. Leinster will face Ulster at the Aviva Stadium in the last 16 after their maximum 20-point haul at the expense of Racing 92 while Dan McFarland’s side finished eighth in Pool B after beating Sale on Saturday. Munster came up short in Toulouse but after surviving an ominous first quarter they dug deep in time-honoured fashion and went toe to toe with the five times champions on a bitterly cold day at a packed Stade Ernest Wallon. For more rugby news, sign up to The Irish Times’ new “Counter Ruck” email digest for the view from the press box with Gerry Thornley.
Sports Books of the Year: Conor Niland’s The Racket the best in a year dominated by autobiographies
Manchester City approach the surreal as they head for Liverpool
Mark Ella was ‘the fulcrum ... the genius’ of Australia’s trailblazing tour of 1984
Patrick Reed returns to winning ways despite worst warm-up
Finally, Denis Walsh writes, it is an abomination the Aviva’s atmosphere for Test rugby has been strangled by the traffic to the bar. “At some point, the game was no longer enough. Sport made the shape-shifting step from being a form of entertainment, to being part of the entertainment industry. What it meant, among other things, was that fans became customers too. Consumers. A market. Including you.”
