Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew thanked club owner Mike Ashley for standing by him after the Magpies recorded their fifth straight win.

Ayoze Perez's delightful back-heel and Fabricio Coloccini's header saw Newcastle enjoy a 2-0 victory away to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday that sent the north-east side soaring into the top eight of the Premier League.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger all but conceded the Premier League title to leaders Chelsea after seeing his side let slip a one-goal lead in a 2-1 loss away to Swansea on Sunday.

Defeat left the Gunners 12 points behind Jose Mourinho's table-toppers after only 11 league games played.

Paris Saint-Germain defeated arch rivals Marseille 2-0 at the Parc des Princes on Sunday as the Ligue 1 title race was thrown wide open.

The two-time defending champions dominated their visitors from the south in an intense encounter and wrapped up three crucial points thanks to an opportunist strike from Brazilian Lucas Moura and a close-range header from Edinson Cavani.

The international volleyball federation FIVB on Sunday said it will not allow Iran to host international events as long as women are banned from attending the game.

The announcement comes a week after a British-Iranian women, Goncheh Ghavami, was jailed by a Tehran court, five months following her arrest in the city after trying to attend a volleyball match.

Gareth Bale scored on his return to the Real Madrid starting line-up for the first time in a month as the European champions beat Rayo Vallecano 5-1 on Saturday.

Barcelona remain just two points behind the league leaders thanks to two assists from Luis Suarez as they came from behind to snap a two-game losing streak in La Liga with a 2-1 win at Almeria.

England manager Roy Hodgson has tipped Wayne Rooney to surpass Peter Shilton as his country's most capped footballer ahead of the striker's 100th international appearance against Slovenia next weekend.

The Manchester United forward will become the ninth player to reach the milestone after Shilton, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Bobby Moore, Ashley Cole, Bobby Charlton, Frank Lampard and Billy Wright.

Bayern Munich boss and ex-East Germany international Matthias Sammer says the fall of the Berlin Wall, 25 years ago on Sunday, meant he could realize his dream of Bundesliga football.

The opening of borders in Germany's capital on November 9 1989 heralded the collapse of the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Manager Louis van Gaal believes Manchester United's chances of finishing in the Premier League top four remain in their own hands after they returned to winning ways against Crystal Palace.

United recorded a victory for the first time in four attempts, but they made hard work of their 1-0 triumph against a spirited but limited Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on Saturday.

The Golden State Warriors held off the Houston Rockets 98-87 to emerge from Saturday's action as the only unbeaten team remaining in the NBA.

Stephen Curry scored 14 of his game-high 34 points in the fourth quarter to lift the Warriors in a battle of “unbeatens”.

Sergey Kovalev punished 49-year-old ring legend Bernard Hopkins over 12 rounds on Saturday, unifying three light heavyweight world titles with a lopsided unanimous decision.

Hopkins, the ageless "alien," was brought to earth with a thud when Kovalev knocked him down in the first round.