Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has said that not having another international break until March will help his team recapture their best form after a woeful start to the season.
Mourinho was relentlessly optimistic in his Friday news conference and said he would not be asking for any new signings in the January transfer window.
The struggling Premier League champions go into Saturday’s home game against Norwich City in 16th place, having won only three of their 12 games.
The Portuguese, however, is backing his existing squad to come through the worst spell of his managerial career.
“Lots of matches are coming now, four months without the national teams, and we really believe good things are waiting for us,” he said.
“I think we are going to play very well (against Norwich) and will get a good result.
“The owner deserves it, the board deserve it, the supporters and we deserve it.”
[Preview: Jose Mourinho and Chelsea welcome Norwich in desperate need of victory to revive season]
Mourinho will be back in the technical area after serving a stadium ban for the last game, when Chelsea were beaten 1-0 away to Stoke City.
That was a third successive league defeat, but the Portuguese will not be seeking reinforcements to his squad.
“I’m happy with my players, I trust my players,” he said.
“I don’t need to ask the club to spend money in January. We were champions four months ago, not ten years ago.”
Chelsea have asked supporters to be in their seats at least five minutes before kickoff on Saturday for the singing of the French national anthem as an act of remembrance to those who died in the attacks in Paris last weekend.
“We will feature the tricolore on the cover of our match day programme, which also includes a tribute from France international Kurt Zouma,” the club’s website said.
“Players will wear black armbands incorporating the French flag and fans in the Matthew Harding Stand will display a new crowd-surfing flag as the teams emerge from the tunnel for the game.”
[Predictions: Manchester City too good for Liverpool, Chelsea earn a much-needed win]
Earlier, Norwich manager Alex Neil told a news conference that he was just hoping Mourinho’s team did not finally find their true form on Saturday.
“Everybody’s looking at Chelsea week after week expecting them to turn it round and get back to last year’s form,” he said.
“Jose will know better than me why that’s not the case but what we’re hoping is that they don’t turn it round this weekend.”
Chelsea play away to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Uefa Champions League on Tuesday. They are second in Group G, three points behind Mourinho’s old club Porto.
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
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
Company%20profile
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At a glance
- 20,000 new jobs for Emiratis over three years
- Dh300 million set aside to train 18,000 jobseekers in new skills
- Managerial jobs in government restricted to Emiratis
- Emiratis to get priority for 160 types of job in private sector
- Portion of VAT revenues will fund more graduate programmes
- 8,000 Emirati graduates to do 6-12 month replacements in public or private sector on a Dh10,000 monthly wage - 40 per cent of which will be paid by government
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
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.
MO
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Getting there
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Tbilisi from Dh1,025 return including taxes
