After a wholesome fortnight of Olympic sport, the juggernaut that is Premier League football rolled back into town as if it had never been away with the start of the 2012/13 season.
Yesterday champions Manchester City came through a sticky second-half against Southampton, winning 3-2 after goals from Ricky Lambert and Steven Davis had put Saints ahead in their first top flight game for seven years.
Chelsea turned in a below-par performance but still managed to beat Wigan 2-0 with new boy Eden Hazard picking up both assists on his debut.
Steve Clarke’s West Brom side gave a 3-0 beating to the team who sacked him as assistant manager at the end of last season, in what was a tough opening day for new Liverpool boss Brendan Rogers.
Daniel Agger was sent off for a trip in front of goal and although that penalty was missed, Peter Odemwingie put away a second with Zoltan Gera and Romelu Lukaku finding the net either side of his penalty.
Swansea and Fulham both handed out 5-0 thrashings, to QPR and Norwich respectively.
South Africa are on course to take the world number one test ranking from England in the third test at Lord’s.
After the visitors’ built a solid second innings score of 351, thanks in part to Hashim Amla’s 121, Vernon Philander dismissed Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook both lbw. England finished the day on 16/2 and require 330 more runs to win.
Bradford Bulls reclaimed their place in the Super League playoff places with a comfortbale 34-12 win away at Huddersfield.
The Bulls had dropped out of the playoff positions after they were docked six points for entering into administration but returned to eighth place as Hull KR lost to Wakefield in another dramatic win for the Wildcats.
Paul Sykes kicked a last-minute drop goal to win the match for Wakefield in a repeat of last weekend’s denouement against St Helens, when he also kicked a match-winning drop goal in the dying seconds.
Roger Federer won his fifth Cincinnati Open title, beating Novak Djokovic in surprisingly comfortable circumstances in straight sets, 6-0 7-6 (9-7).
Li Na won the ladies title, coming back form behind to beat Angelique Kerber 1-6 6-3 6-1.
Sergio Garcia responded to dropping out of the places for a spot on Europes’ Ryder Cup team by moving into the lead ahead of the final round of the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina.
The Spaniard missed the cut at last weekend’s USPGA Championship but bounced back to take a one shot lead ahead of Tim Clark and Bud Cauley.