Today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - Manchester United returned to winning ways in ruthlessly emphatic fashion with a 9-0 home win over Southampton, who ended the game with nine men, to move level on points with Premier League leaders Manchester City.

Both teams are on 44 points although United have played two more games with City travelling to Burnley tomorrow.

Southampton, already weakened by injuries, were reduced to 10 men after 79 seconds and lost another four minutes from time and drop to 12th on the table.

Newcastle United came back to earth with a bump as Crystal Palace recovered from conceding an early goal to claim a 2-1 victory at St James' Park.

Buoyed by their weekend win at high-flying Everton to snap a run of five successive league defeats, Newcastle loss left them in 16th spot, eight ahead of third-from-bottom Fulham who have played two games fewer.

Palace are 13th.

Arsenal finished with nine men as they slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers, who ended an eight-game run without a win in the Premier League.

Arsenal dominated the first half, but lost David Luiz just before the break, with Wolves converting the subsequent penalty.

Goalkeeper Bernd Leno was red-carded in the 72nd minute for handling the ball outside his area.

The Gunners stay 10th with Wolves 13th.

Bottom side Sheffield United gave their survival hopes a shot in the arm with a third victory in five games after coming from behind to beat fellow relegation candidates West Bromwich Albion 2-1.

Victory moved Sheffield to 11 points from 22 games, 10 points away the safety zone and one behind 19th-placed West Brom.

-Reuters

Racial slur earns nine week ban for Wellington cricketer

Cricket Wellington has suspended a club player for the remainder of the season after abusing an opponent with a racist slur.

The match between Victoria University and Naenae was abandoned after the University players refused to resume play after one of their batsmen was abused by Naenae player when he wasd dismissed

The Naenae player will now miss nine weeks of play but Cricket Wellington has decided not to name the player.

"Racism and any other discriminatory behaviour does not align with Cricket Wellington's values or the values of cricket in New Zealand, and we hope that this incident sends a message to all participants that it will not be tolerated at any level of our game," said Cricket Wellington chief executive Cam Mitchell

This comes as the Hawke's Bay Cricket Association investigates a similar incident that occured in a secondary school's match in Hastings last week.

-RNZ

Experienced crew named for Sail GP

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have named a squad with Olympic, World Championship, Round the World and America's Cup experience.

The pair have added Team New Zealand America's Cup team-mates Andy Maloney, Josh Junior, Louis Sinclair along with Marcus Hansen.

The team also includes the successful candidates from the New Zealand SailGP Team female development programme - Liv Mackay and Erica Dawson.

SailGP, which uses high performance F50 foiling catamarans, has been rescheduled to start in Bermuda in April, followed by regattas in Italy, Britain, Denmark, France and Spain.

This is New Zealand's first entry into the series.

Back problem for Rafa

Rafael Nadal pulled out of Spain's opening ATP Cup tie with a lower back problem less than a week before he bids for a record 21st men's Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

The world number two was scheduled to face Australia's Alex de Minaur at Melbourne Park.

Nadal said he hoped to play for 2020 runners-up Spain against Greece on Thursday.

Novak Djokovic earlier gave defending champions Serbia a winning start.

World number one Djokovic beat Denis Shapovalov 7-5 7-5 as Serbia claimed a 2-1 win over Canada in their opening Group A match.

Defending Australian Open champion Djokovic has won all 10 singles and doubles matches he has played at the ATP Cup, which was introduced to the tennis calendar in 2020.

-Reuters

Munro won't play PSL

New Zealand cricketer Colin Munro has decided against playing the Pakistan T20 League later this month after having difficulties finding a quarantine spot back in New Zealand once the tournament finished.

Munro was scheduled to head straight to Pakistan after the conclusion of the BBL, where he is part of the Perth Scorchers line-up, but because of the need to book a space in advanc, the earliest he would have been able to find a slot after the PSL was in mid-May.

Munro was due to play for Islamabad United in the month long Pakistan Super League.

Munro scored 248 runs at 35.42 and a strike rate of 147.61 in the previous edition of the PSL.

He has so far scored 441 runs for the Scorchers who are in the Big Bash play-offs.

-Cricinfo

Mitchell extends deal with England

England rugby defence coach John Mitchell has signed a two-and-a-half-year contract extension that will see him work with the squad until the 2023 World Cup.

The New Zealander joined Eddie Jones' coaching staff in 2018. The 2023 World Cup will be held in France.

"I'm really happy to sign this contract extension. I'm thoroughly enjoying my time here with England and working with such a talented group of players, coaches and staff," Mitchell said.

"It takes a long time to really build these relationships and I wanted to continue to carry on the work that we're all doing to achieve just what we're capable of here with England.

"I also think it's the right place for me to evolve and challenge myself as a coach, I'm learning all the time and that's only going to help me to improve the players and contribute more to this team."

England begin their defence of the Six Nations title this weekend when they host Scotland at Twickenham Stadium.

-Reuters

Dragons confirm interest in Folau

Australian NRL side St George Illawarra Dragons are seeking permission from the league to sign controversial former Wallabies fullback Israel Folau.

Folau, who has triggered outrage with inflammatory social media posts in the past, is contracted to French side Catalans Dragons in the Super League, but St George Illawarra CEO Ryan Webb is hopeful of signing him on a two-year deal.

"We're definitely interested and we're talking to Israel," St George Illawarra CEO Ryan Webb told the NRL website.

"Now we're working with the NRL to allay any concerns on registering a contract for him."

A fundamentalist Christian, Folau had his Wallabies and Super Rugby deals terminated in 2019 after the 31-year-old posted a meme that said hell awaited "drunks, homosexuals, adulterers" and other groups.

"We understand there will be a range of opinions in regards to this decision, but we believe he would be a good addition to our club," Webb added.

Folau is back in Australia after his wife, Maria, a former Silver Fern, gave birth to their first child.

-Reuters

Fed confirms return to court

Roger Federer will make his return to the tennis circuit from a double knee surgery at an ATP 250 tournament in Qatar in March, having not played since last year's Australian Open.

The 39-year-old, who is tied with Rafa Nadal on 20 Grand Slam titles, has not played a competitive match since losing to Novak Djokovic in the Melbourne Park semi-finals last January.

Federer's agent Tony Godsick said in December that he was looking to build a playing calendar for the Swiss from late February onwards.

Federer had not missed a trip to Melbourne Park since a loss in qualifying in 1999 but the prospect of playing five-setters in the Australian summer heat after a lengthy injury and 14 days of mandatory quarantine forced him to skip the 2021 edition.

Federer has won the event in Doha three times in the past with the upcoming edition scheduled from March 8-13.

"I want to celebrate great victories again. And for that I'm ready to go the long, hard road," Federer told Swiss broadcaster SRF.

-Reuters

LeBron argues with fans, but wants them back

LeBron James says an argument between himself and fans during the Los Angeles Lakers' 107-99 win over the Atlanta Hawks was "blown out of proportion" and they did not deserve to be ejected.

Two women heckled James after he had exchanged heated words with a man they were sat with and they were thrown out.

There were about 1,300 fans at at the Hawks' State Farm Arena.

James said: "I'm happy fans are back. I need that interaction. I don't feel like they deserved to be kicked out."

Explaining what had gone on in the incident that caused the game to be paused in the fourth quarter, James added: "There was a back and forth between two grown men, he said his piece, I said my piece.

"And then someone else jumped in and said their piece. But I don't think they should have been kicked out."

-BBC

Olympic organising boss says games will go ahead

Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori said Japan would hold the Summer Olympics regardless of the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic and was working closely with the International Olympic Committee to make them happen.

"We will hold the Olympics, regardless of how the coronavirus (situation) looks," Mori said, adding that the discussion should focus on how, not whether, the Olympics will happen.

"We must consider new ways of hosting the Olympics" as a part of that, he said.

Mori added that while working together had its difficulties, Tokyo 2020 organisers and the IOC had a strong relationship.

The 2020 Games were postponed last year due to the global spread of the novel coronavirus.

A recent spike in infections in Japan that triggered a state of emergency in some areas has fuelled speculation about whether the rescheduled Games can be held this year.

-Reuters