Monday 22 September 2014 13:12, UK
Another seven days of sport have offered up a gamut of emotions. As the dust settles, Sky Sports sifts through it all to bring you the heroes and villains of the past week.
The Gunners maintained their unbeaten start to the new Premier League campaign, Catalan Dragons upset Leeds Rhinos, George Groves returned to winning ways and Joost Luiten bagged his fourth European Tour title.
Let’s skip past the Gunners’ UEFA Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund during the week and focus on the Premier League weekend. Aston Villa had enjoyed a fine start to the season and fancied the upset against Arsene Wenger’s men.
However, with the back to the walls the north Londoners came good when it mattered with a masterful display against Paul Lambert’s men in the midlands. The damage was all done in the first half with three goals in a blistering four-minute spell.
The much-maligned Mesut Ozil opening the scoring with former Manchester United man Danny Welbeck doubling their tally before an Ally Cissokho own goal effectively killed off the tie as a contest. With all of their title rivals dropping points it was a good result for Arsenal.
Catalan entered Saturday’s playoff clash against Leeds Rhinos at Headingley having lost all nine of their previous trips to the West Yorkshire club. Despite five straight defeats in the league, playoff specialists Leeds were still expected to progress at the Dragons’ expense.
Leeds led late in the game courtesy of Jamie Jones-Buchanan’s try after the visitors clawed their way back from a 14-6 deficit in the second half to lead 16-14 with ten minutes remaining.
However, there would be one final sting in the tail. Catalan pressed Kevin Sinfield’s pass to Tom Briscoe and Sam Williams was on the spot to pounce on the loose ball to level the scores. Thomas Bosc’s conversion secured what Frayssinous labelled an historic victory.
Groves returned to winning ways on Saturday following back-to-back defeat to Carl Froch thanks to a points win over Christopher Rebrasse at Wembley.
The 26-year-old challenger produced a composed display to earn victory with two scores of 118-110 and 117-111 and claim the European super-middleweight title in the process.
Groves would now love a third shot at Froch: “I know I belong at world level and I know I can beat Carl Froch. There’s a demand for a third fight, people are talking about it and asking me about it and we know his thoughts on the situation because he doesn’t really like me still.”
Dutchman Joost Luiten survived a late wobble to clinch a one-shot victory at the ISPS Handa Wales Open – his fourth title on the European Tour.
He overcame an awful drive on the last to eventually tap in for a level-par round of 71 that meant he finished just ahead of Tommy Fleetwood on 14-under for the week.
“I knew it was going to be a tough day. I just tried to hang in there and wait for my chances. I made some nice birdies down the end, and then a par at the last was luckily enough,” said Luiten.
Gary Neville says Man Utd were bullied by Leicester City as the Premier League new boys producing a stirring comeback from 3-1 down to win 5-3 at a rocking King Power Stadium, and the manner of the collapse will be a huge worry to Louis van Gaal and United fans given the money they’ve spent in the summer.
While Angel Di Maria looked impressive again with a superb goal and Radamel Falcao showed glimpses of his ability, United struggled at the back as Leicester hustled and hassled them out of the reckoning in a pulsating performance.
The Red Devils simply had no answer to the pressure and determination shown by the hosts. Even with all their star forwards, van Gaal knows he has work to do.
There are ways to be dropped from your national team, and Aaron Cruden managed to find one of the more unusual ones as the fly-half missed the New Zealand team plane to Argentina which resulted in him being axed by the All Blacks.
Cruden paid the price after failing to team up with the squad in time following a late-night drinking session in Auckland, meaning Beauden Barrett is likely to start at fly-half in the next two Tests of the Rugby Championship.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says the team didn’t have a curfew, and didn't seem to have a problem with Cruden having a night out, but the players were at least expected to turn up for the flight in time!
Lewis Hamilton catapulted himself into the World Championship lead after he won the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday while his team-mate and former leader Nico Rosberg had a technical nightmare after failing to even get away for the formation lap.
Rosberg managed to get underway, but stricken by electrical problems he couldn’t get anywhere near his usual pace, and his race finally ended on lap 15 when he was unable to start the car after a pit stop.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, to add insult to injury Hamilton took full advantage to race away with the win and move ahead in what now promises to be a thrilling climax.
Things have gone from bad to worse off the field in America’s Game. Teams have found it tough to handle some big issues with Adrian Peterson first reinstated despite facing child abuse charges before then being dropped by the Vikings. Greg Hardy has also been dropped by Carolina as he’s already been found guilty of domestic violence.
After a couple of weeks of silence, commissioner Roger Goodell finally faced the media this week, but he failed to convince that he was totally in charge of the situation.
He apologised for his handling of the Ray Rice saga and said things must change, without mentioning specifics, and he knows he needs to deliver a strong stance to restore any kind of credibility to the league.
