Mourinho’s mind games
It always used to be Sir Alex Ferguson who was the Premier League’s mind-games master.
Now Jose Mourinho seems to win the same battles even before he has picked them.
For years, the Chelsea manager has been a one-trick pony when it comes to the very biggest games. Park the bus, then try to nick a goal on the counter.
Everyone knows it is going to happen, so why kick up a fuss when it does?
Brendan Rodgers sounded off when Chelsea ended his Liverpool side’s Premier League title hopes last season. “Not difficult to coach,” he moaned of Mourinho’s modus operandi.
And Manuel Pellegrini, the Manchester City manager, did the same on Sunday, saying Chelsea played like a "small team" and compared their playing style to Stoke City.
So what if they did? Find a way to combat it and stop complaining.
Direct not to the points
Talking of old play books, Tottenham Hotspur seemed to borrow one from the 1980s in their listless defeat to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.
Hoof it in the mixer, was about as scientific as their game plan got.
It was totally unbecoming of a side who are managed by someone who has often been eulogised for his progressive approach to the game.
Yet it was clear late on that Mauricio Pochettino was pointing his defenders towards the other end of the field and shouting “Ade” (as in, Emmanuel Adebayor, the furthest point of the attack.) Launch it long, hope for the best.
How very ’80s. Maybe Wham! were playing on the home team mega-blaster before the game, too.
Europa excuses
Maybe there is something in this theory about Europa League participation being a hindrance.
Both Spurs and Everton played in Europe’s ugly sibling competition on Thursday night. Each performed miserably on the ensuing weekend, losing out to sides in the relegation zone.
They did go about it in different ways, though. Where Spurs were content to boot the ball away most of the time they had it against West Brom, Everton had 76 per cent of possession in the first half of their game against Crystal Palace.
Not that it counted for much. Their 3-2 loss means they have still yet to win at home in the Premier League this season.
Great expectations
You cash in on your best player and use the injection of finances to subsidise a trolly dash on several new players. So you have to be challenging for the title, right?
That was the theory Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, proposed last season after Spurs flattered to deceive in the Premier League, having splurged all their Gareth Bale funds.
Liverpool recouped less than Spurs did for selling Bale when they moved Luis Suarez on to Barcelona this summer, yet were hardly shy in recruitment thereafter.
So they are title challengers? “We are nowhere near the standard,” Rodgers said after the 3-1 loss at West Ham United, suggesting they “cannot even entertain talk” of a title challenge at present.
pradley@thenational.ae
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Who is Allegra Stratton?
- Previously worked at The Guardian, BBC’s Newsnight programme and ITV News
- Took up a public relations role for Chancellor Rishi Sunak in April 2020
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- Ms Stratton, 41, is married to James Forsyth, the political editor of The Spectator
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
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Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Results
5pm: Al Falah – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,200m; Winner: Bshara, Richard Mullen (jockey), Salem Al Ketbi (trainer)
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: AF Musannef, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Al Dhafra – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: AF Mualami, Antonio Fresu, Abubakar Daud
6.30pm: Al Khaleej Al Arabi – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Hawafez, Adrie de Vries, Abubakar Daud
7pm: Al Mafraq – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: JAP Almahfuz, Royston Ffrench, Irfan Ellahi
7.30pm: Al Samha – Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Celestial Spheres, Patrick Cosgrave, Ismail Mohammed
Brief scores:
Toss: Australia, chose to bat
Australia: 272-9 (50 ov)
Khawaja 100, Handscomb 52; Bhuvneshwar 3-48
India: 237 (50 ov)
Rohit 56, Bhuvneshwar 46; Zampa 3-46
Player of the Match: Usman Khawaja (Australia)
Player of the Series: Usman Khawaja (Australia)
