The first, and most obvious, sport to turn our attention to is cycling, the sport that Britain is probably the most excited about in the buildup to the Games. Although the majority of the attention will be on Sir Chris Hoy – who, at the time of writing, has just won two gold medals at the Track World Cup – but there are other contenders as well. One of these is without doubt Victoria Pendleton and remember that the world’s greatest sprinter, Mark Cavendish, will also be competing in the road race. So, there are plenty of great cyclists to look out for, although the bookmakers will know this too and the odds that they offer will be low…

Sailing is another discipline that we Brits seem to excel at, perhaps because we are an island nation or perhaps simply out of good fortune. Ben Ainslie will be the main medal hope, competing the in Finn class, but there are others as well. In fact, Britain’s squad took away 6 gold medals at the Olympic test event recently held in Weymouth! Staying on the theme of water for a moment, rowing has also been a strong discipline for Team GB and, although there’s no Steve Redgrave or Matthew Pinsent anymore, we go in as one of the favourites to win a haul of medals. To back up this statement, Britain has qualified for 13 of the 14 different rowing classes, so we are certainly looking strong already.

One area that Great Britain really didn’t perform in Beijing was on the track, but this year seems to offer much more hope. Now we have three athletes who can genuinely stake a claim for the gold medal: Mo Farah in the 5,000m and 10,000m, Dai Greene in the 400m hurdles and Christine Ohuruogo – Britain’s only 2008 track gold medallist – in the 400m. Watch out for Jessica Ennis as well in the pentathlon, which is not strictly a track event but will still represent a good chance for another gold medal for the country to rejoice in.

Elsewhere there are a number of other great prospects in a variety of different sports. The country will firmly be supporting the diving superstar that is Tom Daley, who will enter as one of the favourites, and Rebecca Adlington will also be trying to power her way to gold in the pool. Tim Brabants is one of the lesser known names, but he will be gunning for gold in the K-1 1000m kayaking event and another lesser known name, Rachel Cawthorn, will be a genuine contender in the kayaking events as well. One sport that we can’t ignore though is football, as it seems to be the only event that the press talks about at the moment. Will Britain win a medal in this? The answer here is… Maybe!

In my opinion, I will say Yes!.

Be warned, this is more of a personal rant than an impersonal or proper article.

Recently, after a run of lacklustre performances and results, the British papers have been delighted to find another media whipping boy in Andrea Villas Boas. Day in day out, I read articles which gleefully countdown to the time when Roman Abramovich will give the Chelsea coach the boot. Now with the match against Napoli looming, media consensus seems to be “Lose this match, don’t bother flying back to England”.

Based on the way Roman has fired managers in the past, I understand how this might seem the likely result of a loss in Italy. However, for the first time since “The Special One” left, I feel we actually have the right manager in place. Sure, sometimes his selections can be slightly bewildering, like why he continually selects Bosingwa, or Malouda? I remember the match against Manchester United at Old Trafford last year, it was one of the few matches I had watched as a Chelsea fan where even though we lost, I still had a smile on my face. Our play was positive, fluid and attacking, sure we had some defensive frailties, but watching that game left me with a lot of optimism for the future of Chelsea and the system of play AVB was trying to implement.

Fast foward to a few months later, everything seemed to have changed. Our play has become pedestrian and laboured and it seems like the team as a whole are feeling uninspired. I personally believe this is a culmination of a lot of factors and not the manager “not having a clue”, which seems to be a popular belief.

I feel Andre, as he said in his interview, is trying to change the culture in Chelsea. The popular conception seems to be that involves integrating youth into the team and not just going out to buy players; I believe it goes deeper than that.

It is well known and documented that a core of players at Chelsea, have a huge say in what goes on behind the scenes. we have seen circumstances where players are dictating what should be happening at the club (Scolari anyone?). AVB is apparently trying to break that and I believe the decline in performances is due to the friction between him and a few of the players.

The fact that ESPN, during the FA Cup match between Chelsea at Birmingham, hinted that Drogba was giving the team talk in the tunnel, just goes to show that the public believe the players are the ones in charge at Chelsea. The same scenario at Manchester United or Liverpool and the consensus would be that the player was trying to motivate the team and not that he was giving the team talk.

If Chelsea is going to progress as a club, then we need to get to the point where every player knows and believes the mantra “No player is bigger than the club” and we do not have any player trying to undermine the Manager’s authority, regardless of how they might feel about, his tactics, he not playing them or whatever decision he takes. It did not happen when Mourinho was here and it should not happen now.

No change comes easy, but I do sincerely believe that AVB is the man to lead Chelsea through this period of transition regardless of the bumps in the road at the moment.

With the Premier League looking like it is about to have one of the most exciting finales of the year, most people are looking at the top of the table to find their excitement. What people are missing by doing this though is one of the most intriguing relegation battles seen in recent years, with a number of different teams all staring relegation in the face and battling to avoid the dreaded drop. So this article is going to attempt to take you focus away from the battle for supremacy and instead take a look at the teams who might not be playing in the league when the 2012/2013 season rolls around…

So, who are the teams in danger of losing their Premier League livelihoods by the end of the season? Well, it seems to be that there are five in total, of which only two will survive. These teams are Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn, QPR and Wolves. After them there is a gap of 5 points to the next team, meaning that they should be safe from the drop…

The team that most people have been following in the relegation struggle is Blackburn, as they are a team that nobody thought would go down at the beginning of the season. Whether it is down to the manager or the players, the fans have made their opinions more than known on the subject. Although they started incredibly poorly, their form does seem to have picked up slightly in recent games – with the most recent game being a 3-2 victory against fellow strugglers QPR. Although they looked doomed just a couple of months back, I think that they will stay up – they have players who are simply too good to be part of a relegated team.

The other team of the five who I think will preserve their Premier League life is Wolves, but for an entirely different reason than Blackburn. While Blackburn will rely on their players to get them out of trouble, Wolves will rely on one man – their manager, whoever that turns out to be! The fact is though that Wolves have turned themselves into a genuine Premier League team – a club that many out-of-work managers are going to be eager to work for. This means that they will get a good manager without having to wait for long. At the moment Alan Curbishley seems to be the frontrunner, and he would be a perfect choice.

So that leaves us with QPR, Bolton and Wigan to go down. It’s not that I think that they are bad teams – in fact, all three have the squads to better many other teams in the league. With players like Rodallega, Davies and Barton, they have players who would play in any mid-table Premier League team. The problem that all three have is the fact that they don’t have the team spirit and don’t seem to be gelling with each other. QPR is possibly the best example of this, with a new manager in Mark Hughes (possibly the most over-rated manager in the country?) and new players in many positions. The fact that many are inexperienced in the Premier League means that they are also playing with their heads down, already convinced that their days are numbered.

So, this season will see the disappearance of a couple of teams who have brought a lot of entertainment to the league over the last few years, as well as the one team that everyone thought would light up the league on their debut. Just who will replace them though, and will they be able to emulate Norwich and Swansea and become valuable additions to the greatest league in the world?

2011 was a roller coaster year for English rugby, with the high of winning the Six Nations followed by the terrible low of an abject display in New Zealand at the Rugby World Cup, culminating in an uninspiring loss to France in the quarter-finals. The question on everyone’s lips now though is can they bounce back? Can they put the demons of last year behind them and top the 2012 Six Nations, which would at least take some of the pain away from the 2011 World Cup shambles?

England’s main problem over the last year certainly hasn’t been a lack of talent, as they have players capable of turning a game, such as Ashton and Tuilagi. The problem has in fact been with the mental state of the players and the leadership that they were under – a leadership that ended with the departure of Martin Johnson and the instatement of Stuart Lancaster. This is seemingly a good move, as Lancaster is an experienced coach who has the ability to instill both confidence and discipline into what is now a young England squad.

The other massive change that has come about in the England rugby team is the change of players themselves. Many of the older players have now retired or been removed from the squad, with Jonny Wilkinson being the most noticeable player to no longer feature. In have come a number of less experience d and younger players, and even the new captain – Chris Robshaw – has only ever played once for the national team. While this might seem to leave England open when playing against more experienced teams, it should bring back the pride that the players have in playing for their country, leading to the newer players putting in 110% in order to come out victorious.

So, the squad has had an overall and the management has changed, but we all know that as much depends on how good the other teams are in the competition when it comes to whether England can win the Six Nations outright. At the risk of upsetting out Scottish and Italian friends, I’m going to gloss over them, as they will probably be fighting for the wooden spoon and will therefor present no threat to the winner’s podium. This leaves us with Ireland, Wales and France, all of whom have a great chance of winning.

Wales performed superbly during the World Cup and perhaps deserved to have made it to the final – where, when you consider the way that they were playing, they would have had a much better chance than France of beating New Zealand. They will look to keep this momentum going but it’s likely that they will slip up at least once against the other teams, meaning that I don’t think they will come out on top. They’ll miss Shane Williams massively too, and they haven’t yet found anyone to replace their talisman.

Ireland next, and they also had a strong World Cup. In fact, they beat Australia in their group games and therefore obviously have the ability to beat any other team on the planet. They will suffer though as they too have lost an important player in Brian O’Driscoll and they need Sexton or O’Gara to really step up. They could well run out as winners though – not because they are the greatest team to ever play the game, but simply due to the weakness of the other teams in the tournament.

Finally, we come to France – the World Cup finalists and the team that only lost by 1 point to New Zealand in this match. This result hides a massive deficiency in the French team though and their performances in the World Cup certainly didn’t merit a final place. They were scrappy, disorganized and seemed to have no heart, but they will be up there in the Six Nations, without a doubt.

So, can England win? Well, they have a fighting chance but there are three other teams with a much better record coming into the tournament. It all depends whether the new look team can gel in time for the opening game – what should be a relatively easy one against Scotland – or whether they simply get taken apart by the more experienced and better organized teams in the tournament. One thing is for sure – this is one of the most wide open tournaments in recent memory!

So what chance do they realistically have of making it into fourth place? Well, looking at current form you would have to rate them at 50/50. Both Chelsea – Arsenal’s main rivals for the spot – have been decidedly average this season and they both have a good chance of sneaking in to the last qualifying place. Liverpool won’t present much of a challenge – not this year, anyway – and Newcastle’s rise up the league will be a flash in the pan, as they haven’t got the players to maintain a run for a whole season.

This means that to decide whether Arsenal will get into the Champions League, we must simply do one thing – compare them with Chelsea. We can’t only look at the squads that they have though, as we must also look at the fixtures they have left. Both will play a massive role in their future position…

Let’s look at the teams first though, and in this regard there can only be one winner. Whereas Arsenal have Koscielny and Song, Chelsea have Terry and Cole. While Arsenal have Ramsey and Walcott in their midfield, Chelsea boast Mata and Meireles. Upfront, Arsenal have Robin van Persie -undoubtedly a great player – but Chelsea have Drogba, Sturridge and Torres, who can still cause problems for teams despite not being able to score from anywhere on the pitch. Chelsea have a better team – there is no arguing that, and Arsenal must bolster their squad during this January transfer window with top class players, not 12 year olds, if they are going to compete.

When it comes to upcoming fixtures, there is more parity in their future. Both have to play the majority of the larger teams again in the league and both will be expected to lose those games – except for Arsenal when they play Spurs at home, where both sides will be happy with a draw. In conclusion, fixtures against the top teams will not separate them – it is how they perform against teams they should beat that will define the fourth placed finisher.

This fact doesn’t bode well for fans of the Gooners, as they have had some terrible results against the lower teams this season – who can forget that 4-3 loss to Blackburn? Chelsea are more consistent in this regard, which is why they yet again have an edge over the team in white and red.

So, there is only one conclusion that we can draw from this review – Arsenal are certainly not in the driving seat to claim fourth spot. In fact, if they don’t seriously bolster their squad, next season we could be asking whether Arsenal will qualify for the Europe League instead…

About his appointment, Martin O’Niell had this to say

It’s a very nice feeling to be back in football and to be the manager of Sunderland. It’s a big moment for me… I hope I can help Sunderland to a very successful period. That’s what I’ve come for and that’s my driving ambition.

Martin O’Niell has been out of work since resigning from his post as Aston Villa manager in August 2010.

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