So without further ado, let's start with this week's winners.
Winners
Martin O'Neill - It's been a great week for Sunderland and their newly installed manager O'Neill, who came from behind to beat Blackburn at the Stadium of Light to give Sunderland only their third win of the season. Can O'Neill take this on and lead Sunderland up the Premiership table?
Martin O'Neill - 59 years young
The RFU - Much to my dismay, it's been a good week at English Rugby HQ. After a torrid few weeks following the World Cup, some positive news came with the announcement of the interim coaching team of Stuart Lancaster, Graham Rowntree and Saracens first-team coach Andy Farrell for the 6 Nations. On the face of it, it appears to be a savvy appointment from the RFU and one that is a win-win for Lancaster. Let's just hope the Scots knock them off their perch come the 4th February!
Tim Tebow - 'The Big Tebowski' did it again, leading the Denver Broncos to an overtime victory over the resilient Chicago Bears, giving replacement QB Tebow a 7-1 record as a starter this season, and giving Denver an 8-5 record and a chance of getting to the playoffs with 3 games to go of the regular season.
Losers
Manchester Utd and Manchester City - Both clubs failed to make it out of the Champions League group stages - a first for City in their first appearance in the competition and the first time for United since 2005. Going into this week's games, Man City had to rely on Napoli's result at the pointless Villareal, hoping the Italians would draw or lose but the odds were always stacked against them. United, on the other hand, needed to avoid defeat at Basel, only becasue their own home form had meant that they had to rely on securing away points to progress. Both teams must be looked at as firm favourites for the Europa League now.
Nemanja Vidic - To rub salt into the very raw European wound for Man Utd, it was confirmed that Nemanja Vidic will be out for the remainder of the season after suffering knee ligiament damage against FC Basel.
Jim Mallinder - The Northampton rugby boss saw his showboating winger Chris Ashton handed a 4 match ban for dragging Leicester man Alesana Tuilagi off the pitch by his hair, or in the words of the disciplinary committee "an act contrary to good sportsmanship". Compounded with European Cup knockout misery and talk of Ashton's departure at the end of the season, maybe Mallinder is seeing the full time English coach role a bit more appealing?
Mark Allen - it could have so easily been an excellent week for the Northern Irishman as he reached his first ranking final at the UK Snooker Championships in York. Instead, not only did he lose the final to the fantastically named Judd Trump (despite a fine 141 break in the 3rd frame), but he has been called in by the snooker authorities for his use of some select language when criticising the head of snooker Barry Hearn.
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