The Stagcom 23rd January Round Up
If someone was to ask us why we love sport, our answer would probably be the unpredictability of it. Nothing is ever certain, with anyone capable of winning on any given day. That point was more poignant than ever this weekend in the world of sport, with shocks aplenty!
It was also a landmark weekend for one of this country's finest ever footballers. So, allow us to take you through all of the last few days' action in our weekend round up.
Chelsea Go Clear
With sixteen games still remaining for all of the teams in the Premier League, it would be foolish to suggest that the title race is anywhere near being over. However, following yet another win for Chelsea and other teams dropping points, they now have an eight-point cushion.
Antonio Conte's side weren't at their fluent best, but were still comfortable as they beat Hull 2-0. The returning Diego Costa scored in first-half stoppage time and Gary Cahill added a second late on. The game was somewhat overshadowed after Hull's Ryan Mason suffered a fractured skull following a nasty collision of heads with Cahill early on.
Arsenal are now Chelsea's closest challengers in second place after a last gasp 2-1 win over Burnley. The game was dull for long periods, but sparked into life in the second period. Shkodran Mustafi gave the Gunners the lead with a header, but shortly after they were down to ten men as Granit Xhaka was shown a straight red card. The visitors looked to have rescued a point when Andre Gray scored a penalty in injury time, but Arsenal were awarded a penalty of their own minutes later, which Alexis Sanchez calmly chipped down the middle of the goal.
Liverpool dropped three points as they were stunned by Swansea at Anfield. Fernando Llorente put the Swans two goals ahead, before Roberto Firmino scored twice to draw the game level. Liverpool were expected to go on and win from there, but Gylfi Sigurdsson struck late on to give Neil Clement's side a valuable three points.
Spurs battled back from 2-0 down to rescue a point against Man City. Leroy Sane and Kevin de Bruyne put City ahead, but Dele Alli and Son Heung-min goals levelled the match; with a draw no good for either side.
Record Breaking Rooney
On Saturday, Wayne Rooney became the all-time leading goal scorer for Manchester United. It looked as if United were heading to defeat away to Stoke, but Rooney fired in an injury time free-kick to earn his side a point and break Sir Bobby Charlton's 44-year old record.
Rooney now holds the goal scoring record for both club and country, which is a phenomenal achievement. Perhaps it'll only be when Rooney retires that he is truly appreciated!
Murray Misses Out
Andy Murray suffered a shock defeat at the hands of world number 50 Mischa Zverev at the Australian Open on Sunday. The defeat came as a huge surprise, as it was expected the world number one would win his first Australian Open this year; especially after Novak Djokovic's early exit.
Murray struggled to deal with the serve-and-volley skills of his German counterpart and struggled to gain any rhythm in the match. It is Murray's worst performance at a grand slam since 2006.
Fellow Briton Dan Evans also exited over the weekend, after a 3-1 defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. It looked as though his remarkable run at the tournament might continue when he took the set, but Tsonga's powerful hitting was too much for Evans as he ran away with the match.
England Finally Win
England ended their one-day international series with India with an impressive win. India already had an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, but it was still a morale boosting win for England ahead of the Twenty20 series.
It was ben Stokes who was the hero with both bat and ball, for England. The all-rounder struck 57 runs off just 37 runs as he helped England to a score of 321-8. He then removed Indian danger man Virat Kohli and ended a 104-run partnership between Kedar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya, as India fell six-runs short of their target.
Rocket Ronnie
Ronnie O'Sullivan defeated Joe Perry 10-7 in the Masters final to win his record seventh title. The Rocket overtakes Stephen Hendry's record of six Masters titles after an impressive victory at Alexandra Palace.
Perry, who was playing in his first major final, led 4-1, but then missed an easy chance to go 5-1 up and O'Sullivan pounced. Ronnie went on to win the next 7 frames to go 8-4 ahead, which ultimately was too big of a gap for Perry to claw back!
Image credits: Chelsea FC, Wayne Rooney, BBC Sport, England Cricket, Sky Sports