The Last Word - Sports Blog (Sean Simara)

After a long and gruelling season we're down to the final 8 in the NFL. This weekend it's the Divisional Games, so after the bumps and bruises, touchdowns and interception through the year I look at who will be the winners and losers this weekend. Seattle Seahawks @ Atlanta Falcons First up will be Matt Ryan's Atlanta Falcons against the Seattle Seahawks. Ryan has had an MVP like season at the Falcons, they ended on 11-5. He rattled in 38 TDs, 7 interceptions and threw for just under 5000 yards. This saw Atlanta win the NFC South. Seattle Seahawks saw off the Detroit Lions with ease in their wildcard game. However The Seahawks have not been quite like the Seahawks this year for me. My pick in this is the Falcons at home. There rested up and will have two many tools for Seattle to deal with. Devonta Freeman, Julio Jones and Matt Ryan should have a field day, Falcons win. Houston Texans @ New England Patriots 
 Tom Brady's ban at the start of the season didn't aff...

Welcome back it's been a while. This will be a quick look at my Premier League picks from the summer and see how they're doing. For starters I had both Manchester clubs one and two. Not looking so pretty now. I did have Chelsea third and said Conte will bring the winning mentality back to the Blues. I just didn't think they would be this good. A 5 point gap is not massive but Chelsea are looking impressive. Liverpool sit in second at the minute I had them finishing 8th, behind the champions Leicester City! Not so great, also I had West Ham as high as 7th that's only looking like a dream now. But that's what predictions are made for. At the bottom of the league I'm fairing a little better Hull, Sunderland are struggling. So here I will give my picks a little refresh now we're half way through the season. 1. Chelsea 2. Manchester United 3. Manchester City 4. Arsenal 5. Liverpool 6. Tottenham To go down I will go with Hull City, Watford and Swansea City. T...

1 Manchester United Money has been thrown and thrown, Paul Pogba has returned in a world record fee and Zlatan is in the Premier League. Oh and now Jose Mourinho is at Old Trafford talk about star names all in one place. It will be interesting viewing from the entire league. Does Jose care about the kids? Can he get United back in top 4? Can they win it? I think yes to the last 2 anyway and Jose will buy and bully his way to the top of the Premier League, just. I'm pretty sure no United fan will care.   Key Man – Anthony Martial his second year in English football he had a good start, I expect all eyes will be on Ibrahimovic , Pogba maybe even Rashford see how he does. Personally I think Martial could outshine them all.  2 . Manchester City Pep Guardiola in the Premier League, City have been after him for years. So after success in Spain & Germany how can he do in England? Well I think he will do very well but that defence at the minute w ill cost them ! Jo...

So down at Loftus Road it's strange it's been pretty quiet compared to recent years. Now the QPR fans have watched a lot, promotion relegation twice, lord knows how many mangers a lot of good but really more bad and that's just in the past 5 years. So what do we expect now? I think Rangers fans are defiantly in two camps. The ones who are happy again for a settled season, finish mid table no drama. 'Were not ready to go up again'. I understand this. Then there's the rest who think QPR should be challenging for top 6. We are a good team and maybe they have been spoilt in the past (League winners & the manner of promotion at Wembley) and their expectations have been raised. Rangers have had a lot of players that have under-achieved. I think that's the problem the fans have seen so many players come in and just not perform. The list is endless. Ok so this season I think its massive for Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink. For me he had a free hit last season did w...

The Championship this season looks harder than ever. Some heavy hitters and big names now clog up second tier of English football. With so many teams that have tasted top flight football, whose looking like they will make a return to the top flight. Here's my preview of what should be a very competitive season. From the teams relegated from the Premier League last season Newcastle look the most likely to make an instant return. I would be shocked if Newcastle doesn’t win the league by at least 8 points. Rafa has the skills to do one job and focus on one thing, get them back up. They have enough about them to bounce right back to the top flight. Some smart Championship buys in Grant Hanley, Matt Ritchie & Dwight Gayle they should win the league quite comfortably. Then it’s just the massive scrap for the rest. Aston Villa also went down last season they were pretty horrendous from start to finish. Players were not focused and enjoyed more of their holidays, smoking, drin...

So now the Football League season is done with apart from the play offs here's a little look back at how my picks went. I n the Championship from the ante post picks I had Wolves to win it, they were nowhere near. I also had Derby and Middlesbrough to go up. For the drop in my ante post picks none of them hit. In January I had Derby, Hull and Ipswich to be promoted, of course only Derby or Hull can do it. I actually think Sheffield Wednesday will end up winning the play offs. For the drop I had Bolton, MK Dons and Rotherham so I hit on a couple of them. In League One from the ante post I faired pretty badly having Shrewsbury to go up they nearly went down, and Doncaster to go up who did go down. Wigan to go down, they ended up as Champions. Who cares about League One anyways!? :) In January I got Blackpool correct to go down. Some  smarter picks came with Burton I had as second and Millwall to win the play offs. I also hit on Crewe and Colchester to go down. In Le...

Her e' s my 23 man England squad for the summer, taking into account who is fit and who is likely to be fit. Who has played enough games in the season etc. It's quite a forward thinking team but I think that's England's strength now. Of course there's loads of debate and 'what if's' but I would go with. At the bottom is how we could line up. Keepers Hart Forster Butland Defenders Bertrand Stones Cahill Clyne Rose Smalling Jagielka Walker Midfielders Barkley Dier Henderson Lallana Sterling Drinkwater  Alli Forwards Welbeck Rooney Sturridge Kane Vardy Departure Lounge Cresswell Noble Wilshere Milner Deeney Hart Clyne     Cahill     Smalling     Bertrand Dier        Alii Sterling     Rooney     Barkley  Kane  --------------------------------------------------------------------- ...