CREDIT: DAILY TELEGRAPH
Luis Suarez of Liverpool has built a commanding lead at the top of the scoring charts.

Tense season sees half the table at risk
Back in October, I wrote a review of the Premier League season as it stood. I made some statements that were, at the time, bold and maybe even outlandish: this was going to be the most closely contested season in league history, and we were not going to have a clear picture of who is likely to take home the title in May, nor which three teams will be cast down into the Championship.

In every other season there have been one or two clubs (usually Manchester United) who have set a fairly commanding lead at the league summit, yet at the time of writing, only eight points separate leaders Arsenal from sixth-placed Tottenham Hotspur. Running even closer, however, is the relegation battle at the other end of the table, with a mere six points separating the entire bottom half of the table, and the three relegation spots currently occupied by Cardiff City, Sunderland, and Crystal Palace.

Ronaldo's relief at Ballon d'Or win
At a Zurich ceremony on January 17, Lionel Messi's fouryear dominance of the FIFA Ballon d'Or, awarded to the world's best player in a year, was ended by the one man on earth capable of doing so. Cristiano Ronaldo received the award for the second time in his career after scoring an astounding 69 goals in 59 games for Real Madrid, as well as captaining Portugal to this summer's World Cup via a difficult playoff tie against Sweden.

Now 28, Ronaldo has been presenting a more mature dignified character both on and off the pitch, a far cry from the whiny, petulant child that once overshadowed his superstar talent in the eyes of so many fans, myself included. Whether this change in behaviour, coupled with the controversies that have tarnished Messi's public image, contributed to him breaking his second-best streak is a question that will never be accurately answered, but it's now clear that Ronaldo is ready to again stake a claim as the world's best player.

Luis Suarez in Golden Boot
Race with... himself? Of all the individual awards in English football, by far the most entertaining is the Golden Boot, awarded to the top scorer in the Premier League. Usually a closely contested competition, it has gone to some of the deadliest hitmen ever to grace a pitch in England, and has often gone right down to the wire as strikers attempt to outscore each other as the league comes to a close. This history makes it all the more surprising that this year's race to be top scored may already be over, with Liverpool's Uruguayan forward leading the pack with 22 goals, with Sergio Aguero of Manchester City in second place with a (comparatively) paltry 13. While anything could still happen, Suarez has been scoring goals at an unprecedented rate this season, including a record-setting 10 goals in a single month (December) and a four-goal performance against his favourite victims Norwich city (11 goals in five games) and his alarming consistency makes it hard to see anyone else taking home the award at the end of the year.