Europe

With European league seasons winding down, summer transfer speculation has begun in earnest with what you'd expect: 

You could say it’s been an abnormal season for Cristiano Ronaldo. We’ve all gotten used to the Portuguese star playing almost every single competitive match and reaching outrageous totals of 50 or 60 goals a campaign. 

This season, however, Ronaldo has scored 37 goals across all competitions, and he’s appeared in 43 of Real Madrid’s 57 official games — a total of only 75%. This is a significant change from last season when he scored a total of 51 goals and played 48 of Real’s 52 matches — a total of 92%. 

If any other goalkeeper was in between the Sunderland posts, Arsenal would have walked away from this match with a 6-0 victory. Super-human Jordan Pickford carried the guts of three men, hurling himself at any shot and chance the Gunners created. The 23-year-old had 11 outstanding saves to keep Sunderland's fighting spirit alive.

Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford can only do so much for this team. After making save after save, Arsenal were bound to score their second goal. Olivier Giroud's high-flying karate kick was stopped by Pickford, only to be gobbled up by goal hungry Alexis Sanchez. 

Alexis Sanchez scores his and Arsenal's second goal of the night. #afc pic.twitter.com/ql1Wk6Exj5

The two players who could depart from Arsene Wenger's side this summer linked up to score a perfectly orchestrated goal against Sunderland today, keeping their top four hopes alive.

Alexis Sanchez 22nd PL goal of the season, 27th all competitions.
Honurable mentions to Xhaka & Ozil assistingpic.twitter.com/cDw24YydEs

— Poor First Touch (@InvertdWhinger) May 16, 2017

Each narrative in the English Premier League has a nauseatingly long lifespan until it utterly annihilates itself — it’s annually cyclical, like the depiction of a serpent eating its own tail. We belabor the same statistics, the same trends and the same memes until we’ve had our fill, proceeding to damn them out of existence like a child pop star whose career of cultural martyrdom has run its course.

La Liga took another step towards the finish line with Barcelona swatting aside Las Palmas, 4-1, and Real Madrid dispatching fourth-placed Sevilla 4-1 at the Bernabeu on Sunday.

The result saw Barcelona stay atop the La Liga table on head-to-head record, but Real Madrid maintain their vital game in hand. Barcelona’s final match is on Sunday against Eibar, while all eyes will be on Real Madrid in Galicia on Wednesday when they travel to play Celta Vigo before finishing away to Malaga.

Mikey Johnston is only 18 years of age, but he has undoubtedly just had the best weekend of his life.

Whirlwind debut day for Mikey Johnston! #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/S5tOsL1EbO

— Celtic Football Club (@celticfc) May 8, 2017