Middlesbrough 0 Chelsea
Chelsea: Costa (41')
Man of the Match: Victor Moses (Chelsea)
For the first time since they were champions 18 months ago, Chelsea finished a weekend looking down on everyone else. Their return to what once felt their natural position at the summit was greeted with relish. “We are top of the league,” came the chorus from the visiting fans when Diego Costa broke the deadlock at the Riverside Stadium.
It was premature but proved prescient. Come the final whistle, Chelsea led the way again. It is improbable not just because they were 15th this time last year but because they were eighth and in seeming chaos eight weeks ago.
Antonio Conte’s response to the 3-0 defeat to Arsenal was to implement a 3-4-2-1 formation — indeed, he switched to it during the game — and since then Chelsea have reeled off six straight wins, scoring 17 goals and, still more impressively, conceding none. “Good news for us,” said the defensive strategist Conte.
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A plan may have been formed hastily and out of necessity, but it is being executed brilliantly. Chelsea played with great coherence and understanding. N’Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic offered energy and solidity in the heart of the midfield.
The reconfigured defence protected Thibaut Courtois so efficiently he only had one save to make. Victor Moses troubled Middlesbrough with his direct running, again proving a revelation since being reinvented as a right wing-back. Pedro, another who has been rejuvenated, was terrific.
It helps, of course, that the two premier match-winners, Costa and Eden Hazard, are at the top of their respective games.
The Belgian offered some delightful touches, but Costa provided the crucial contribution with a piece of penalty-box opportunism. “Diego is playing good football, with and without the ball,” said Conte, while Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka added: “You can’t lose him for one second.”
Costa has now scored seven goals in as many away league games. With such statistics, he cannot be accused of being a flat-track bully.
And while Chelsea only beat a promoted team, as Conte said: “Don’t forget Middlesbrough drew with Arsenal and [Manchester] City away.”
They threatened to make it a hat-trick of draws against the contenders, but Chelsea applied pressure with professional expertise. It eventually told, though not without some admirable resistance.
A flying Victor Valdes made a brilliant save to deny his former Barcelona teammate Pedro when Moses found the latter with a cutback. He denied a second Spaniard, parrying Marcos Alonso’s crisp drive to safety.
He was eventually beaten by a third compatriot, Costa capitalising when Hazard’s corner struck Antonio Barragan on the back and fell favourably for the Premier League’s top scorer. “One mistake cost us,” Karanka said.
Valdes was defeated for a second time, and motionless, when David Luiz played a cross-field pass, Costa headed the ball into Pedro’s path and he struck the underside of the bar. It was inches away from proving a perfect team goal.
Middlesbrough, meanwhile, would settle for any kind of strike after failing to score for the third time in five games. They were well-drilled but cautious, Karanka opting for a gameplan based on negativity, plus occasional attempts to find space behind Chelsea’s wing-backs.
Alvaro Negredo headed one chance wide, created another for Gaston Ramirez with a dummy and finally swivelled to volley, drawing a save from Courtois. They were hints of quality but he has not scored since his debut and often cuts an isolated figure. In one respect, however, he is not alone. No one has breached Chelsea’s iron defence in the league since Mesut Ozil on September 24.
That resilience is underpinning a title challenge that has come from ruins. What a difference a year makes. What a difference two months makes.
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The local advisory board will consider all applications and will interview a short list of candidates in Abu Dhabi in June 2020. Successful candidates will be informed before July 30, 2020.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Honeymoonish
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Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 380hp at 5,800rpm
Torque: 530Nm at 1,300-4,500rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Price: From Dh299,000 ($81,415)
On sale: Now
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
MIDWAY
Produced: Lionsgate Films, Shanghai Ryui Entertainment, Street Light Entertainment
Directed: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Ed Skrein, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Luke Evans, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Darren Criss
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The%20specs
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