After Leicester had beaten Chelsea on Tuesday and Manchester City saw off Aston Villa in the early match last night the pressure was on Manchester United when they met Fulham at Craven Cottage but, thanks to Paul Pogba, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side reclaimed their place at the top of the Premier League. After going behind early to a strike from Ademola Lookman, United responded through Edinson Cavani and then Pogba struck a pearler from 25 yards to seal the three points with the manager full of praise for his French midfielder afterwards. Up in Scotland the woes of Celtic continue after they limped to a draw against Livingston with Scott Brown seeing red shortly after coming on from the bench. However, manager Neil Lennnon says he will not walk away from the job. Meanwhile, in Spain, there was a shock for the ages as semi-professional side Alcoyano knocked the mighty Real Madrid out of the Copa del Rey in extra-time despite being down to 10 men.
Moving to rugby and John O'Sullivan writes in his stats column this morning that Gavin Coombes and Rhys Ruddock are ticking all of the boxes for inclusion in the Ireland squad. "In a quirk of fate they also share several similarities statistically in examining the season to date, possessing overlapping qualities," he writes. With the Six Nations approaching, competition for spots is heating up and, with Tadhg Furlong out since last year's competition, Ireland have leaned heavily on Andrew Porter who has responded to the call. This weekend he will be part of the Munster side to take on Leinster in a rivalry he feels is as strong as ever. Meanwhile, Garry Ringrose and Béibhinn Parsons were named Rugby Writers Players of the Year yesterday.
In his column this week Dave Hannigan remembers leaving Ireland to move to London and his first taste of emigrant life during Italia 90 when he lived with his uncle who passed away last week. "At his kitchen table, he showed me how to stick silver foil onto 10p coins so the phone box thought they were 50s when I went to call my girlfriend in Ireland. In his backyard, he taught me to carry the hod then guided me to McGovern's on the Kilburn High Road to cash my first cheque in the sketchy hatch out back," he writes.
As talk turns to the Olympics, Paul O'Donovan tells Ian O'Riordan that he knows just how tough it will be to earn a seat on the plane five years on from when he and his brother Gary burst onto the stage. Meanwhile, in our women in sport pages this morning, Aisling McCarthy tells Mary Hannigan how she is looking to develop on and off the pitch in Perth after switching to the West Coast Eagles.
