Back in the game: New Sunderland manager Martin O'Neill (centre)

There is talk of O'Neill having £20m to revitalise Steve Bruce's squad, but it took considerably more than that to get Villa going. As for potential, the roll of honour shows Villa as 1982 European Cup winners, with a postwar title and four domestic finals in the last 17 years. Sunderland last won the league in 1936, have played in Europe once and boast a single postwar trophy: the FA Cup in 1973.

O'Neill left Villa because the investment and will to drive the mission forward was no longer there. Yet if he makes a limited success of Sunderland will he not, inevitably, strike his head on the same glass ceiling?

Sunderland are an impressive club and O'Neill the right man, but is this challenge greater than the one he left at Villa, or even the one he rejected with West Ham United? It is debatable.

Unless the intention is to use Wearside as a springboard, O'Neill is pretty much back where he started.
AVB should make Torres a wide boy

Daniel Sturridge now has 15 goals in 22 Premier League appearances, and his performance against Newcastle United on Saturday vindicated the decision to start him wide. Yet is Andre Villas-Boas not also missing an opportunity for a final roll of the dice with Fernando Torres?

He looks shot as a striker, so why not introduce him in a wider role where there is less pressure to score? If he chips in with five or six goals over the rest of the season, that is no bad return for a winger. He can get his confidence back and then return to his primary position.

If plan B does not work, at least with Sturridge or Didier Drogba as the focal point of the attack, Chelsea's edge would not suffer.

Grow up, Emmanuel

Arsenal's Carling Cup defeat by Manchester City was not overly distressing for Emmanuel Frimpong. After the final whistle, with the cameras rolling, he still remembered to strip off his shirt to reveal a vest promoting the clothing company he part-owns with rapper Lethal Bizzle. He then had a row in the tunnel with former team-mate Samir Nasri. An outing against
Liverpool ended in a red card that turned the game. Frimpong is a fine player, but needs to grow up, and fast.
Reality bites for Wales

Shane Williams's final try left the Millennium Stadium with a warm glow, but the fact remains this bold young Wales team lost again to one of the major forces of rugby; this time at home.

There is always an injustice, a distraction or explanation, but defeats by South Africa, France and Australia twice in recent months suggest an overplayed hand, unbeatable only by comparison to the shambles that is England.

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