with liverpool movbing nine points clear at the top of the pl yesterday, all eyes on manchester city to see if they could put their recent dip in form behind them. they made the long trip to the south coast to face southampton. after back to back defeats in the league they came away with a valuable win to trim liverpool's lead at the top before the two teams face each other on thursday. as andy swiss reports. after three defeats in the four matches, the furtive brownell said it all. he knew his manchester city side could hardly afford another slip—up, not that one seemed likely when debit silver probably put them away ahead. recently, their lead proved precarious, a spot of defensive dallying, and southhampton will level. pierre with a stunner, was another shocking store. southhampton thought so, he felt he should of had a penalty, but this is not to be his or his team stay. moments later, city retook the lead

in fortuitous fashion, deflecting raheem sterling is shot in his own net, sergio had all but ended the contest. southhampton‘s only impact after the break, courtesy of studs, brought him a red card. for city who next play leaders liverpool a timely return to winning ways. in the swiss, bbc news. before we when we played scores three or four, that's all we can do. we have to ring our people in front to finish the situation. we have four or five extras to finish the game. after", four or five extras to finish the game. after 11, the four or five extras to finish the game. after", the game four or five extras to finish the game. after 11, the game was more equal, you know the situation is bad. that's football. in the previous games, we did absolutely everything, the first time they arrived they got to the ball. we have to live with that. and except and improve, they have the feeling

that the players did absolutely everything. a player reborn in paul pogba and seemingly a team reborn afterjose mourinho's sacking by manchester united. interim manager ole gunnar solskjaer extended his winning run to three straight matches since his appointment as united despatched bournemouth at old trafford, their world cup winner with two goals in a four one win. adam wild reports. it is amazing, the difference a smile can make. the new manager, and with its new optimism. even those who have seen it all before, are enjoying what they are seeing from manchester united, once more. the glue for the time being they are now free to express themselves here. showing sublime skill, barely four minutes played against boorman, already they were on their feet and smiling. few seem to be feeling the change in the attitude more than hammett criticised and vilified underjoe‘s in reno, not rising to

the challenge. that was his second united start soon followed rash for this time in the right place. co mforta ble this time in the right place. comfortable enough, those imperfections persist. exploiting them before half—time, there remains work to do. when your side keeps scoring, it can make up for most things, just moments after coming on asa things, just moments after coming on as a substitute he scored the fourth. going all the way the team and read still it was a red, good day for eric who dismissed this. not enough to spoil the mood now. the smile stay at united. adam wilde, bbc news. chelsea beat crystal palace i—o at selhurst park to increase the gap between themselves and fifth—placed arsenal to five points. in a game of few clear cut chances, it was n'golo kante who scored the winner in teh second half. willian and ross barkley also came close, palace meanwhile took 85 minutes to register their first effort on goal and remain 14th in the table. difficult match, but i'm happy with

the team because i think that's we we re the team because i think that's we were in full control of the match for 85 minutes. then, we didn't keep the match, and so we have to try again in the last five minutes. but i think that we played very good match especially the second half. in another game today a vital three points for burnley in the days other game. they beat west ham two nil at turf moore. it's a classic fixture, bath up against leicester in rugby union's premiership. it was the former that came out on top at the rec winning by 23 points to 16 a result which means bath will finish the year fifth in the table as leicester's troubles continue. jim lumsden was watching. not much room in the premiership, but kick offjust five points separated forth from ninth place.

that's where one above leicester at eight. the visitors struck early, as george ford sentjohnnie mae through in seven minutes. the first half hour was spent almost entirely in the leicester 22. with freddie burns penalty, bath‘s only reward. until jamie roberts was bundled over. that was swiftly followed by another bath keep crossing the line. this time with nathan katz for the winning side. 15 turn to the host at the break, they pick up where they left off. rory danced on a touchline, extend the lead. lester fought back with a george ford penalty to earn a losing bonus point. but bath held on 423-16 losing bonus point. but bath held on 423—16 victory that moved them up to fifth place. bbc news. and in the day's other match, bristol who are just a point below leicester, came out on top against bottom of the table newcastle who appear in a straight battle with worcester to avoid relegation. in the pro 1a, dragons narrowly beat ospreys 23—22 to record their first welsh derby league win in four years and their first success over the ospreys in six years.

well worth waiting for. for tennis, britain's cameroon norrie prepared for the first grand slam of the year the australian open with defeat to roger federer who produced a nearfaultless performance in the hopman cup. the mixed team competition saw great britain lose against switzerland in the first rubber. norrie beaten in straight sets 6—1, 6—1, as federer warmed up for the defence of his australian open singles title with an impressive performance. in the women's singles, katie boulter suffered the same fate as her male counterpart also losing her singles rubber in straight sets to belinda bencic. britain won theirfirst match against greece, but face the united states next who boast serena williams in their ranks. there remains an outside chance of reaching the final. australia are 2—1 down in their test series with india after slipping to defeat in melbourne, leaving the visitors on the brink of a first series win down under.

australia still needed 1111 more runs to win at the start of the final day but only had two wickets remaining, and they lost both of those for just three runs. it's the first time india have won a test match in melbourne since 1981 and with one match of the series remaining stand on the brink of an historic series win. we always knew that we can do this. so we're very happy, but we are not shocked. we are not surprised by what's happening, we always believed that this is very possible because of the talent that we have on the side, and the mind that we've been caring for the last 12 months regardless of, you know, what's said, regardless of the the mistakes we've made. our minds never shifted once. finally, it the final day of the nfl's regular season. reigning champions philadelphia will need a helping hand in order to reach the playoffs.

the eagles have to beat the washington redskins and hope minnesota suffer a defeat to the chicago bears. the balimore ravens need to beat bitter rivals the cleveland browns in orderfor their season to continue. the nfl show‘s osi umenyiora and jason bell have been giving their predictions for the key games to mark chapman. it's going to be a big problem for the ravens, if this game was being played in cleveland, i would pick the clique around to win this game because they are dangerous team, they are looking to spoil somebody‘s season. they are looking to spoil somebody‘s season. because it's being played in baltimore i'm going to go with the baltimore i'm going to go with the baltimore ravens and their defence. i'm going with the ravens, but like you said before man, you cannot sleep on this game, the ravens know they have to go out and really play, because the browns want to be spoilers, and they've got that attitude. of our plane for the browns, i would attitude. of our plane for the browns, iwould be attitude. of our plane for the browns, i would be ecstatic right i'iow browns, i would be ecstatic right now would be practising as hard as i ever practise to go in there and defeat the baltimore ravens. holds of the titans, whoever wins this they are in the playoffs. this is tough, i'm going with a hard

call, i'm going with the colts. i'm going with interlock, i'm going with a hot hand. it's going to be tough to call. he's never lost to the titans. is that as i am at math as you eluded to. your mac i'm going with both. the gazette to give me a break here, because we don't know if marcus marietta is going to play or not. if he does play, i'm going with the tennessee titans, if he doesn't play and they have to play with blaine at quarterback, i'm going to go with the colts. are you setting this, you are the rule maker now, is that ok? i'm fine with that. yeah mac that's a big difference. the last time he tried to do this was whether it would rain or not, which is, you know, so it's mario to play it, if marietta is out it's the colts. all rights, i will allow that, he's trailing, you know, the final one, the bears at the vikings. you might as well go first,

because i know who you are going to say. i'm going with the vikings, i'm sorry mark, i know you're bears fan. their defence is playing well, they've got back to the running game when they fired the offence of court nader, they're going to have to run the ball and slow the game down. that's what they're going to have to do. beck is on success. it's going to bea do. beck is on success. it's going to be a battle. i suppose also, before you give your answer, it depends on how the rams are getting on, because they will going for second seat. if they beat the 49ers, do they start to pull their main guys out knowing they can't concede, and is nothing online. that's a great point, that's going to play a huge. do want that caveat as well? no, no, no not forthis huge. do want that caveat as well? no, no, no not for this particular game. ithink no, no, no not for this particular game. i think that even though that is going to play a huge part, i think the minnesota vikings are the more desperate football team, they are playing at home many to when to get in the playoffs. the bears are already in the playoffs, they don't have much to play for, i'm going to go have much to play for, i'm going to go the minnesota vikings. iraqis going to the vikings to be the bears. yes. ? ?new line going to the vikings to be the bears. yes. ??new line they are

giving their predictions, there will be plenty more from them heading into the playoffs. to continue the american theme lane in washington is up american theme lane in washington is up on bbc news. chance to look at the former england's captain time in american. goodbye. the success of the club has been long established. they had some great years between ‘96 and 200a. they lacked in recent years the star quality. there was really no player that stood out, that really appealed to the masses. wayne's name came up, and instantly you get excited. you know, everyone knows who wayne is, and the resume, and what he is about. when the name wayne rooney was linked to dc united, people knew that was a big deal. we had a sense early on that he had a connection with the city. we took him to audi field.

showed him the some of the areas where he could find a home for his family. obviously that's a big part of the equation. what are we going to do with the kids, schools, homes? he got really comfortable early on, and really i think after two days' time he said "i'm all in, i want to do this". i can see the team are talented, and they're in a good position, really. i just want to come in and help the team. we've — we being the mls — maybe in the early days were guilty of players in europe or south america coming over here in their 30s for vacation. and as the league has gone, that doesn't fly anymore. the league is very good. he put that to rest very early, when he came over for his first game with us, and even with his players

in the first training session. guys like that, you don't know how they will come into the locker room and work with the team. wayne was one of the guys that was humbled, and talk to everyone on the first day on and joked with us. he's been very cohesive with the group. it's been great working on and off the field with them. since day one he's been there for us. his first day the ground, he arrived july at almost 100 degrees temperatures. crazy hot summer day in dc. we had some academy members out there, and he is talking to players and you can see his connection there with his team—mates. and at the end of the session he carries equipment, grabs it, walks it into the equipment room. we don't have a lot of first—team pros that do that. just shows that he is prepared to roll up his sleeves and get prepared to work. i think he has been a perfect fit. you don't know what you would get in a forward defensively. he is here to win and perform and do whatever it takes to win a game.

that resonated within our team. he does what he does. he trains hard, he makes the right play, he is super talented as a player. a player with a large amount of experience. it was pretty seamless. he just fit in. instantly he became one of the guys, he didn't ask for special treatment. and i think the guys took to him very quickly. i think it's important you're part of the team and you do what your team—mates are doing and you don't start demanding things. it's not a big issue, to be honest. again, it'sjust wayne. he just wants to play his football. he doesn't care about all those things. he cares about the team—mates and being in a good situation but not about all this other stuff. he just wants to play the game, he loves the game.

you always said you wouldn't play abroad, didn't you? what changed ? when i was younger, you never think of playing anywhere other than the premier league, you just look at different opportunities and you have to make a decision on what the best avenue to take is really.