The big news: Gunners on a roll

Arsenal demolished Southampton 5-0 at St Mary’s Park on Saturday to enter the fifth round of the FA Cup. Theo Walcott scored an amazing hat-trick for the Gunners and Danny Welbeck scored twice against a hapless Southampton side. Arsenal outclassed Southampton as Claude Puel’s team were stunned in an embarrassing manner after reaching the League Cup final with victory at Liverpool on Wednesday.

Alexis Sanchez showed his class as well setting up two goals for Walcott. Next up for Arsenal is a Premier League trip to Watford as they look to keep up the pressure on Premier League leaders Chelsea. The Blues are eight points clear of the Gunners.

Football:

  • Chelsea smashed Brentford 4-0 to progress to round five of the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
  • Championship side Wolverhampton beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield to knock Jurgen Klopp’s team out of the FA Cup.
  • Tottenham recovered from two goals to win 4-3 against Wycombe in their fourth round FA Cup clash. An injury-time winner by Son Heung-min saw the Spurs advance to the next round.
  • Atletico Madrid were held to a goalless draw by Alaves in their La Liga encounter on Saturday. However, the talking point of the match was Atletico Madrid defender Diego Godin and Alaves striker Deyverson spitting at each other during a confrontation.

Cricket:

  • India face England in the second Twenty20 International in Nagpur on Sunday. England have the edge going into the match owing to a comfortable win in the first game. For India, victory is crucial as another loss would result in the Men in Blue losing the three-match T20 series.
  • South Africa beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the first one-day International at Port Elizabeth. Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis made fifties. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 181 as Wayne Parnell and Imran Tahir picked up three wickets each.
  • Perth Scorchers clinched their third Big Bash League title after beating Sydney Sixers in the final.
  • Former Australian batsman Stuart Law was appointed coach of West Indies.

Tennis:

  • Serena Williams beat her elder sister Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4 in the Australian Open women’s singles final. With the win, the 35-year-old bagged her 23rd Grand Slam title and her seventh Australian Open title.
  • Australian John Peers and Finland’s Henri Kontinen beat 16-time Grand Slam champions Bob and Mike Bryan to lift the Australian Open men’s doubles title with a 7-5, 7-5 win in Melbourne on Saturday. 
  • Seventeen-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer and 14-time winner Rafael Nadal will face each other in men’s singles final of the Australian Open final on Sunday.

Badminton:

  • PV Sindhu beat Indonesia’s Fitirani to enter the final of the Syed Modi International in Lucknow on Saturday. However, in the men’s draw, defending champion Srikanth Kidambi was knocked out by B Sai Praneeth 21-15, 10-21, 17-21.