Manchester City stretched their lead at the top of the Premier League to 12 points as Riyad Mahrez and Kevin De Bruyne netted in a routine 2-0 win over Brentford on Wednesday.
The English champions were dominant throughout without ever hitting top form as Brentford succumbed to a sixth straight defeat which could see the Bees dragged into a relegation battle.
Brentford had held out bravely for 40 minutes until a mistimed tackle from Mads Roerslev brought down Raheem Sterling and Mahrez coolly slotted away the penalty.
Until that point City had been guilty of not taking their chances as Sterling fired over on the volley from Phil Foden's perfect cross and Aymeric Laporte side-footed inches wide from Ruben Dias' knockdown.
The hosts never looked in danger of conceding as they registered a 14th clean sheet in 23 league games this season.
However, Pep Guardiola's celebrations when the second goal finally arrived 20 minutes from time told the story of nerves beginning to build around the Etihad that their dominance was not showing on the scoreboard.
Brentford's determination to play out from the back caught them out as David Raya passed straight to Sterling.
The Spanish goalkeeper redeemed himself by saving a one-on-one with the England international, but the ball fell kindly for De Bruyne to roll in his eighth goal of the season.
Christian Eriksen was not among the Brentford squad as he edges slowly towards a return to football after suffering a cardiac arrest just eight months ago at Euro 2020.
But they may need some inspiration from the Dane to survive their first season in the English top flight for 74 years.
A bright start means Thomas Frank's men still have a six-point cushion over the bottom three, but they are the fading force and all the sides below them in the table have games in hand.
City have no such worries as they close in on a fourth title in the past five years.
BRAZIL SQUAD
Alisson (Liverpool), Daniel Fuzato (Roma), Ederson (Man City); Alex Sandro (Juventus), Danilo (Juventus), Eder Militao (Real Madrid), Emerson (Real Betis), Felipe (Atletico Madrid), Marquinhos (PSG), Renan Lodi (Atletico Madrid), Thiago Silva (PSG); Arthur (Barcelona), Casemiro (Real Madrid), Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa), Fabinho (Liverpool), Lucas Paqueta (AC Milan), Philippe Coutinho (Bayern Munich); David Neres (Ajax), Gabriel Jesus (Man City), Richarlison (Everton), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool), Rodrygo (Real Madrid), Willian (Chelsea).
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
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