I'm sticking with Arsenal

It's midway through the Premier League season, fixtures are on hold to accommodate the FA Cup and, as such, it's a pretty good time to sit back and see where we are with the title race.

I think it is fairly safe to say we are now down to a three-way battle for glory. Manchester City may still have lofty aspirations in that direction but the odds are the championship will go to one of Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal.

The question is which of these three clubs will come out on top when the second half of the season has been played out? Who has the staying power to go all the way and who will be left panting and bent double by the roadside?

Chelsea have the advantage at the moment but I think they will suffer more than expected the loss of some of their stars to the African Cup of Nations for the next month.

If it was just leading scorer Drogba that was on his way then maybe they could paper over the cracks. But they are also losing Kalou, Essien and Mikel and I think this combination of absentees could end up being crucial to their title aspirations. Unless the rumours are true and they are buying David Villa for £40 million.

Manchester United, on the other hand, are starting to look more threatening than they did during the early weeks of the season and it seems they are finally coming to terms with the loss of supersmirker Ronaldo.

Rooney is having his most prolific season so far with the champions and, provided he stays fit and doesn't suffer any serious dips in form, he could be crucial to their possibility of success.

Sir Alex, and he knows a thing or two about football, has suggested the race is now between his boys and the experienced Chelsea team. He effectively dismissed Arsenal from the equation.

But I disagree. Back in August I tipped Arsenal for the crown and, despite their Jekyll and Hide consistency I don't think I will be changing my opinion just yet.

There have been occasions this season when their performances have been nothing short of outstanding, a devastating style of attacking football played at a pace many teams simply can't cope with.

At other times their inexperience and lack of a quality spine has left them exposed by teams who are better at winning ugly. But I think over the course of the season they still have enough flair and ambition to win the race.

Let's not forget that no one team has been consistently brilliant so far. United have lost five games, Chelsea three and Arsenal four. Normally at this point in the season these teams may have lost one or two at the most.

So the inconsistency that does, admittedly, seem to be Arsenal's biggest weakness is also strikingly evident among the other two contenders. Each one of the three is capable of pulling off the occasional unexpected defeat.

And that is just making the whole thing considerably more entertaining from a neutral perspective. In recent years everything has been a bit too predictable which makes this season a refreshing change.

Although I agree with people who suggest there are still a few more twists left in this particular tale, I stand by my prediction that Arsenal will be crowned champions come May.

No doubting Thomas

A couple of weeks ago Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas announced to the world that he was gay. I am fairly sure that 'coming out' is one of the hardest things any person can ever have to do.

But when you are a rugby player, plying your trade in one of the most macho sports of them all, it must have been doubly difficult for him to go public with his sexuality.

Thomas has had a glittering career in the game, winning over 100 caps for his country as well captaining both Wales and the British Lions team.

But more crucially to his decision to go public is the fact that he is still playing the game at the highest level. He has retired internationally, yes, but he is still a regular for his club Cardiff Blues. I am sure he could have waited a couple of years before making his announcement but he chose to do it now to show others that sexuality in sport is irrelevant.

"I feel I have achieved everything I could ever possibly have hoped to achieve out of rugby and I did it being gay. I want to send a positive message to other gay people that they can do it, too," he said.

You just have to admire the man's courage.

I wonder if Thomas's announcement will have a knock on effect. In English football, for example, there are more than 3,000 professionals playing in the top four divisions. I would suggest it is impossible that none of those players are gay yet publically none has admitted it.

Will they now have the courage to follow Thomas's lead and come out themselves?

Sadly, knowing the way some football fans would react to it, I very much doubt it.

Match made in hell

Gary Megson's sacking by Bolton this week proved one thing: never underestimate the power of the fan.

With the team second from bottom of the Premiership you could argue that his dismissal was inevitable and that it was down to the club's owners believing change was needed to reverse their current slide.

However, it wasn't.

In fact, Bolton's last few results have shown a marked improvement. Unbeaten in four games, those results included a 3-1 win over West Ham and a creditable 3-3 draw with megabucks Manchester City.

No, Megson didn't get the boot on the basis of results. He got the boot because the fans demanded it.

In truth, they had never liked him. Despite the fact that he took over the club when they were bottom and impressively saved them from relegation in his first season, the Bolton fans never took to him.

Often during his two years at the Reebok he was booed for making substitutions. Even logical ones. And it was another one of those that proved to be the final straw - his decision to take off goalscorer Ivan Klasnic during this week's draw with Hull. At the time Bolton were leading 2-1 and Megson, rightly so in my opinion, decided to take off the striker and bring on a more defensive player to try and see out the game.

It didn't work and Hull equalised. But I can pretty much assure you that any other manager in the bottom half of the table would have taken a similar decision in similar circumstances.

The crowd, however, vented their fury on Megson and made their feelings known by booing him for the remainder of the match.

And, when that happens, a club's directors are left with little choice but to take action.

Megson himself admitted immediately after the game that he would probably never win over the fans. If he had won the Champions League with Bolton there would still have been those at the Reebok prepared to blame him for not doing it with more style.

I suppose some relationships are just destined not to work from the word go and this was evidently one of them.

The sad thing for Megson is that he is now going to be forever tainted with a reputation of being unpopular. He may not be the most brilliant manager in the history of the game, but equally he isn't a bad one.

Yet you can rest assured that wherever he is employed in the future, his appointment will be met with a wave of apathy at best if not downright revolution from that club's supporters. He is almost unemployable.

Will the move save Bolton from relegation? Maybe, maybe not. But if the club gets relegated with a new, more popular man at the helm at least the fans will go down smiling.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com