Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest – English Premier League champions Liverpool maintained their 100% start to the season with a 3-1 win against Arsenal at Anfield on Monday leaving them level on nine points with pacesetters Everton and Leicester City.

Arsenal took the lead, totally against the run of play, in the 25th minute with Alexandre Lacazette scoring.

However Liverpool responded three minutes later through Sadio Mane and Andy Robertson just before the break.

New Liverpool signing Diogo Jota, the Portuguese forward signed from Wolverhampton Wanderers, marked his debut from the bench with the goal in the 88th minute that made sure of the win.

The Gunners, who won their first two games, have now gone 28 games without a win away from home against ‘Big Six’ opposition.

Aston Villa moved into the top four after they strolled to a 3-0 win at Fulham thanks to goals from Jack Grealish, Conor Hourihane and Tyrone Mings in a lopsided contest.

The result left Villa, who narrowly avoided relegation from the top flight last season, fourth on a maximum six points from two games while promoted Fulham are bottom with no points after a third successive defeat.

-Reuters

Boks remain in doubt for Rugby Championship

The Springboks are “desperate” to play in the Rugby Championship this year, but there remain a number of hurdles before they will commit to the competition, according to director of rugby Rassie Erasmus.

The Southern Hemisphere competition will be staged in Australia from Nov. 7 to Dec. 12, but the defending champion Springboks face being woefully under-prepared, which Erasmus believes could make participation dangerous for the players.

“We desperately want to play, it will be terrible to go a year without the Springboks playing,” Erasmus said.

“But we have had one of the toughest lockdowns in the world and our players were indoors for months. In other countries players could train or at least go to the park to exercise, we did not have that.

“So if you look at the science, we have to get five or six matches into the players for their own welfare and to make it safe for them, and we are working out how to do that. Players probably need 500 minutes (of game-time) to be safe.”

South Africa’s domestic competition will only start on Oct. 10 with players having been largely inactive since March. Erasmus reveals the Boks are also facing resistance from English clubs over the release of players in time for the start of the Rugby Championship.

-Reuters

Serie A continues to lose money

Italy’s top flight football league has lost almost $900 million in revenues due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the head of Italy’s Serie A said, warning the industry was in dire straits.

To contain COVID-19 contagion, Italy’s government has rejected a proposal to allow more spectators at sporting events, including lifting the current limit of 1,000 spectators at Serie A football matches to fill a quarter of stadium capacity.

Matchday revenues account for around 11% of Serie A clubs’ $4.5 billion aggregated yearly revenues, whose bulk is made up by broadcasting right sales.

But this source of income is also shrinking because broadcasters around the world respond to lower advertising revenues by cutting spending on media right deals.

In an effort to cushion the impact of the pandemic on debt-laden clubs, Serie A is considering selling a minority stake in a newly created company handling the League’s broadcasting rights for 10 seasons.

-Reuters

Montana overcomes potential kidnapping

Four-time Super Bowl champion Joe Montana and his wife thwarted a kidnapping attempt over the weekend when a woman entered their house in Malibu, California and grabbed their grandchild.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Montana flagged down a patrol to report that the stranger fled the house without his grandchild when she was confronted.

The police said that the 64-year-old and his wife, Jennifer, 62, confronted the woman and pried their grandchild from the woman’s arms, at which point she fled, adding that the woman was in custody.

No one was injured in the incident.

“Thank you to everyone who has reached out,” Montana, an NFL Hall of Fame inductee, posted on Twitter. “Scary situation, but thankful that everybody is doing well. We appreciate respect for our privacy at this time.”

-Reuters

Kyrgios takes a crack at Wilander

Seven-time grand slam champion Mats Wilander has come under fire from Nick Kyrgios after the Swede suggested Andy Murray should consider whether he has the right to accept wild cards into majors at the expense of emerging young players.

Wilander’s comments came after three-time grand slam champion Murray’s first- round defeat by Stan Wawrinka at the French Open in which he won only six games.

It was former world No.1 Murray’s joint-worst loss at a grand slam and came on his return to the French Open after a three-year absence, during which he has had two hip surgeries.

“I think Murray needs to stop thinking of himself and start thinking about who he was. Does he have a right to be out there taking wild cards from the young players?” Wilander said.

Australian Kyrgios, who has skipped the French Open because of the coronavirus pandemic, quickly jumped to the defence of the 33-year-old British player on Twitter.

“Just read what Wilander said about andy–murray… shut up Mats, no one cares. Muzz, just know that however long you stay, we all appreciate and enjoy your tennis and banter.

-Reuters

Saudi Arabia to host womens golf for the first time.

Saudi Arabia will host professional golf tournaments for women for the first time ever in November at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Jeddah.

The Saudi Ladies International will be the first Ladies European Tour event to take place in the country, with a purse of $1.5.

It will be followed by the Saudi Ladies Team International, in which professionals will team up with amateurs and compete for a purse of $750,000.

The events will be Saudi Arabia’s third and fourth professional tournaments in the past two years, having staged the Saudi International men’s event in 2019 and 2020.

-Reuters