Agence France-Presse
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes that his side’s five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table means that it is impossible to ignore their credentials as title contenders.
British media pundits have predicted that Wenger’s men will fail to go the distance this season and the Frenchman himself is usually circumspect about his team’s targets.
Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Everton at the Emirates Stadium left the north London club five points clear of nearest rivals Liverpool and Chelsea, but they face a challenging run of fixtures.
After visiting Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday, they go to fourth-place Manchester City in the league next weekend and then host Chelsea on December 23.
It is a sequence of matches that threatens to expose any limitations that Arsenal may have, but Wenger says that his players should draw encouragement from their performances to date.
Asked if his side should now be considered serious title contenders, he replied: “It depends what you call serious.
“As long as we are five points ahead, you cannot rule us out, even with the best desire.
“It shows you that it will be a tough Premier League and the consistency in the end will be rewarded. The consistency is of course down to us, to keep this attitude until the end of the season.”
Arsenal were on course to move seven points clear when Mesut Ozil put them ahead in the 80th minute, only for Everton substitute Gerard Deulofeu to give his side a share of the spoils four minutes later.
Wenger conceded that Everton deserved “credit” for their reaction, but he felt that Roberto Martinez’s side were fortunate to escape censure for some robust challenges.
“I believe the problem is that they put a very good pressure on us when we got the ball back to stop our flow,” he said.
“I just felt that when we got out of the pressure and got into the passing, they stopped us every time with a foul.
“The disadvantage of putting the pressure so high is that if you’re not winning the ball back, you can be outnumbered after that, and to be just making a foul without being punished by the referee is a huge advantage, because after that you play 10 against 10 in one half again.”
After impressing in Everton’s recent 4-0 win over Stoke City, Deulofeu gave another illustration of his talent with the equaliser, slipping away from Kieran Gibbs and rifling home from a narrow angle.
The 19 year old forward is on a season-long loan from Barcelona and Martinez revealed that the deal could be extended for a further season.
“There is an opportunity. We’ve got an agreement that it could be extended an extra year, as long as the parent club don’t need the player,” said the Everton manager.
Having seen his side win 1-0 at Manchester United in mid-week, Martinez feels that Everton have now lost their “mental block” about playing against the country’s biggest sides.
He also reserved praise for 20 year old midfielder Ross Barkley, who produced an assured performance in the number 10 role, but sought to ease the pressure on a player who is considered a potential World Cup star for England.
“I’ve never seen an England player with that sort of mentality and I’ve had the privilege to work with many youngsters,” he said.
“I’ve seen Ross Barkley, at times I see bits of (Michael) Ballack, at times I see bits of Gazza (Paul Gascoigne).
“Technically he’s someone that you could compare against any other nation in terms of the young Brazilians or Dutch or even Spanish players.
“As a country, we need to be a little bit more protective of our youngsters, because we’re talking about someone that, if we look after him properly, he could give us something unique into the English game.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
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The biog:
Languages: Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, basic Russian
Favourite food: Pizza
Best food on the road: rice
Favourite colour: silver
Favourite bike: Gold Wing, Honda
Favourite biking destination: Canada
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
More from Neighbourhood Watch
At a glance - Zayed Sustainability Prize 2020
Launched: 2008
Categories: Health, energy, water, food, global high schools
Prize: Dh2.2 million (Dh360,000 for global high schools category)
Winners’ announcement: Monday, January 13
Impact in numbers
335 million people positively impacted by projects
430,000 jobs created
10 million people given access to clean and affordable drinking water
50 million homes powered by renewable energy
6.5 billion litres of water saved
26 million school children given solar lighting
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
Vikram%20Vedha
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Five ways to get fit like Craig David (we tried for seven but ran out of time)
Start the week as you mean to go on. So get your training on strong on a Monday.
Train hard, but don’t take it all so seriously that it gets to the point where you’re not having fun and enjoying your friends and your family and going out for nice meals and doing that stuff.
Think about what you’re training or eating a certain way for — don’t, for example, get a six-pack to impress somebody else or lose weight to conform to society’s norms. It’s all nonsense.
Get your priorities right.
And last but not least, you should always, always chill on Sundays.
THE BIG MATCH
Arsenal v Manchester City,
Sunday, Emirates Stadium, 6.30pm
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
8 traditional Jamaican dishes to try at Kingston 21
- Trench Town Rock: Jamaican-style curry goat served in a pastry basket with a carrot and potato garnish
- Rock Steady Jerk Chicken: chicken marinated for 24 hours and slow-cooked on the grill
- Mento Oxtail: flavoured oxtail stewed for five hours with herbs
- Ackee and salt fish: the national dish of Jamaica makes for a hearty breakfast
- Jamaican porridge: another breakfast favourite, can be made with peanut, cornmeal, banana and plantain
- Jamaican beef patty: a pastry with ground beef filling
- Hellshire Pon di Beach: Fresh fish with pickles
- Out of Many: traditional sweet potato pudding
Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 2
Rashford 28', Martial 72'
Watford 1
Doucoure 90'
A Dog's Journey
Directed by: Gail Mancuso
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Josh Gad, Marg Helgenberger, Betty Gilpin, Kathryn Prescott
3 out of 5 stars
Why your domicile status is important
Your UK residence status is assessed using the statutory residence test. While your residence status – ie where you live - is assessed every year, your domicile status is assessed over your lifetime.
Your domicile of origin generally comes from your parents and if your parents were not married, then it is decided by your father. Your domicile is generally the country your father considered his permanent home when you were born.
UK residents who have their permanent home ("domicile") outside the UK may not have to pay UK tax on foreign income. For example, they do not pay tax on foreign income or gains if they are less than £2,000 in the tax year and do not transfer that gain to a UK bank account.
A UK-domiciled person, however, is liable for UK tax on their worldwide income and gains when they are resident in the UK.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Packages which the US Secret Service said contained possible explosive devices were sent to:
- Former first lady Hillary Clinton
- Former US president Barack Obama
- Philanthropist and businessman George Soros
- Former CIA director John Brennan at CNN's New York bureau
- Former Attorney General Eric Holder (delivered to former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz)
- California Congresswoman Maxine Waters (two devices)
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
