Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez marked their home debuts for Barcelona in La Liga with goals as the champions crushed Villarreal 5-0 in their opening match of the campaign on Monday.
West Ham United's hopes of avoiding relegation suffered a cruel blow as an own goal by midfielder Tomas Soucek and Harry Kane's first goal since December condemned them to a 2-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday.
Chelsea midfielder N'Golo Kante was named Player of the Year by the Premier League on Sunday, adding a third individual accolade to a list of achievements this season that includes winning a second consecutive Premier League title.
List of Australian Open women's singles champions since the event began in 1922 (Australian unless stated):
Hajime Moriyasu's side, one of the favourites for the title, laboured throughout the opening 45 minutes and fell behind to a vicious long-range strike from Arslanmyrat Amanov that flew past goalkeeper Shuichi Gonda.
Resurgent Spanish great Rafael Nadal will have the rare privilege of playing on a court named after him when he meets Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva in the last 32 of the Barcelona Open on Wednesday.
The long-running feud between Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho shows no sign of healing after another high-profile falling out on Sunday, this time the result of a dispute over territory.
Sevilla stayed firmly on course for a second consecutive Europa League crown when an Aleix Vidal double and a Kevin Gameiro strike secured a thumping 3-0 win at home to Fiorentina in their semi-final first leg on Thursday.
Manchester United tightened their grip on second place in the Premier League
Images from football matches played in La Liga and Serie A in Spain and Italy on Wednesday.
Although United made a bright start to their quarter-final second leg at the Nou Camp with Marcus Rashford hitting the crossbar early on, they were soon outclassed by Barca, who eased to a 3-0 win on Tuesday for a dominant 4-0 aggregate victory.
Sania Mirza, on Sunday, reached her first ever French Open women's doubles quarter-finals with partner Elena Vesnina but Mahesh Bhuapthi's campaign ended after suffering a second round defeat in the mixed doubles along with Jie Zheng.
Real Madrid have won a small victory in their dispute with FIFA over the illegal signing of under-age foreigners after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) temporarily lifted its ban on appeal.
Summary of the South American World Cup qualifiers played on Thursday
Sevilla's failure to qualify for the Champions League group stages has put coach Antonio Alvarez's future in doubt before La Liga has even started.
After an even first 45 minutes, strikes from Pablo Sarabia and Wissam Ben Yedder stunned the Catalans and left them needing a second-leg comeback at the Nou Camp for the second consecutive round in the competition.
Barcelona's advantage over Real Madrid at the top of La Liga was cut to five points when they surrendered the lead and were held to a 1-1 draw in a thrilling clash at battling Sevilla on Sunday.
Arsenal conceded five goals for the first time at their Emirates Stadium as they suffered their worst home defeat for 19 years.
Real Madrid produced a gutsy performance to earn a 1-0 win at Sevilla, on Sunday, which took them level on points at the top of La Liga
Uruguay made light of the absence of striker Luis Suarez to recover from a goal down and beat 2015 Copa America hosts Chile 2-1 in a friendly in Santiago.
Holders Sevilla led the charge into the last four of the King's Cup when Renato's early strike set them on their way to a 3-0 home win over Villarreal on Tuesday.
Alexis Sanchez had equalised for the visitors, scoring on the rebound after Manuel Neuer saved his 30th-minute penalty but the Gunners suffered when captain Laurent Koscielny limped off injured to leave the defence exposed.
Atletico Madrid's Jackson Martinez scored his first goal for the club when he came off the bench and curled in a superb effort to seal a hard-fought 3-0 victory at Sevilla in La Liga on Sunday.
Cech's solid 'keeping and Liverpool's staunch defence ensured the match ended in a goalless stalemate
Luis Fabiano netted the equaliser and Frederic Kanoute struck twice to earn Sevilla a 3-1 comeback victory at home to a second-string Barcelona in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup on Saturday.
Defending champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain was knocked out of the French Open when she lost 6-1 3-6 6-3 in the fourth round against France's Kristina Mladenovic on Sunday.
IMAGES from the English Premier League matches played on Sunday
Out-battled for an hour by their modest south coast opponents, Arsenal belatedly sparked into life and Olivier Giroud's glancing header two minutes into stoppage time completed their remarkable recovery from 3-0 down.
Manchester City tightened their stranglehold at the top of the Premier League on Wednesday by trouncing bottom club West Bromwich Albion 3-0 as nearest rivals Manchester United suffered a chastening 2-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur.
Arsenal's Olivier Giroud produced a piece of New Year's Day magic to keep Arsenal in sight of Premier League leaders Chelsea while Harry Kane's double bolstered Tottenham Hotspur's ambitions as London's triple assault on the title continues.
After defeating Mali 3-2 and New Zealand 4-2, the South American team, one of the favourites to lift the title, will be looking to dominate Turkey.
Arsenal missed the chance to heighten the congestion at the top of the Premier League and suffered fresh injury blows when a frustrating 1-1 draw at Norwich City failed to take them alongside leaders Manchester City and Leicester City on Sunday.
Jose Mourinho admitted that Sunday's 2-0 defeat to Arsenal means it will now be "impossible" for Manchester United to finish in the top four.
'There is room for cautious optimism following the Harris anointment that America will return this year to more normal politics after the aberration of the Trump presidency,' points out Shreekant Sambrani.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Manchester United's troubled season hit a new low on Saturday as Jose Mourinho saw his gamble on introducing a new tactical system backfire with an insipid 3-1 defeat to West Ham United in the Premier League.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday
Argentina and Brazil both lost their opening World Cup qualifiers on Thursday as the South American campaign for Russia 2018 started in unexpected fashion.
Five talking points from the Premier League weekend:
Bayer Leverkusen went one point clear at the top of the Bundesliga despite conceding two late goals to draw 2-2 at Schalke 04 on Saturday.
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