■ Chelsea v Manchester United, 11pm, Monday, BeIN Sports
LONDON // Antonio Conte is on the verge of winning the Premier League in his first season at Chelsea and the uncompromising Italian has challenged his players to now go in for the kill.
Buoyed by second-placed Tottenham Hotspur's 1-0 defeat West Ham United on Friday, Conte's side host Middlesbrough on Monday knowing they need six points from their last four games to be crowned champions.
A title race that looked set to go down to the wire now seems certain to be a lengthy coronation party for Chelsea, who can clinch the trophy with a victory at West Bromwich Albion next Friday, providing they defeat Middlesbrough first.
That would cap an incredible revival of Chelsea’s fortunes under Conte’s astute leadership.
When the former Italy and Juventus manager arrived at Stamford Bridge last July he faced the tricky task of uniting a squad split into feuding cliques following Jose Mourinho’s sacking the previous season.
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Read more
■ Greg Lea: Tottenham's defeat at West Ham may gift Chelsea the title
■ Arsenal v Man United: Once the Premier League's defining rivalry, now top-four outsiders
■ Listen: Spurs hot on Chelsea's heels but is it too late for the Premier League title?
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Against that acrimonious backdrop it was something of a gamble by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to hire a manager with no experience of the Premier League.
At first Conte seemed unsure how he would tame a team of prickly and fragile egos and the alarm bells were ringing when Abramovich felt compelled to make a visit to Chelsea’s training ground following successive defeats against Liverpool and Arsenal in September.
Those chastening results have been heralded as the turning point in Chelsea’s season as Conte switched to his preferred three-man defensive system and Chelsea immediately reeled off 13 consecutive league wins.
But, just as significantly, Conte persuaded his players to buy into his belief that the foundations for success are laid on the training pitch, where focus on tactical discipline, patterns of play and supreme physical fitness have all been rewarded.
Ensuring that powerful dressing room voices such as John Terry, Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas were not granted special treatment also won over players who felt undervalued during Mourinho’s turbulent reign.
Conte this week gave a glimpse of the steely streak he has imposed on his players so impressively.
“I like to underline a concept, I don’t have to keep the players happy. We must win,” Conte said.
“You speak about ‘happy’. I speak about ‘to win’ and to work very hard.
“Players are not always happy to work very hard. But I think my target is to put in the mind of my players a winning mentality.
“It’s very difficult to keep 20 players happy. I want players ready to fight and to try to put themselves in the team, to try to win together.
“Then, if you are happy or unhappy, I don’t care.”
Having won Serie A three times as manager with Juventus, Conte knows how to insulate his players from the pressures of the title battle and it would be a major surprise if they surrender their four-point lead over Tottenham.
The 47-year-old Italian is not taking anything for granted however and urged his players to focus on beating Middlesbrough rather than looking ahead to a potential title celebration later in the week.
“For me it’s not the first time to win the title. I have a good experience to face this type of situation,” he said.
“But it won’t be easy until the end. My expectation for this game is we must play a great game against Middlesbrough.
“They are struggling to avoid relegation. We must be ready to fight, ready to find the right way to take three points.”
With only one win in their last 18 matches, second-bottom Middlesbrough must win on Monday and hope other results go their way to have any chance of a dramatic escape from relegation.
“We’ve not had much luck this season. If that comes our way over the next few days, then we’ll take it,” Middlesbrough caretaker manager Steve Agnew said.
* Agence France-Presse
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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
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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
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
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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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.
