“Strange,” said Gabriel Jesus. It was 12 days ago and the scorer of Manchester City’s equaliser against Liverpool was reflecting on a league table that showed his side in the bottom half.
A couple of hours later, Arsenal’s goal difference had been dented sufficiently that City were back in the upper section, but a strange look persists.
It feels incongruous that Tottenham Hotspur have almost twice as many goals as City and are eight places higher, an inversion of expectations, given one manager has a reputation for pragmatism and the other for purism.
Jose Mourinho against Pep Guardiola represents one of the great rivalries of opposites, but it has felt a one-sided duel. Spurs beat City in February – albeit against the run of play to such an extent that the winners had an expected goals of 0.42 and the losers one of 3.25 – and Mourinho's Manchester United delayed their coronation as champions with a derby win in 2018, but he has only triumphed in the battles, not the wars.
In the time they managed the two Manchester clubs, Guardiola took 46 points more. After Mourinho’s appointment by Tottenham last season, the Catalan claimed 11 more. The last time Mourinho finished ahead of Guardiola was when his Real Madrid displaced Barcelona as champions of Spain in 2012.
Until this season? Perhaps. Tottenham’s start has raised the possibility that Mourinho is in the kind of late career revival that may have appeared beyond him. Perhaps a strange season will end with the serial winner back on top.
Rewind three months and relatively few were tipping Tottenham for a top-four finish. Now, amid a mass of entertainingly flawed candidates, there is a school of thought they are potential champions.
Perhaps Saturday represents a first real test of those credentials. Spurs walloped United 6-1, but they were in self-destructive mode. A scintillating second half earned them a 5-2 win over Southampton, but Ralph Hasenhuttl's team were similarly culpable in their demise.
Perhaps that is affording Tottenham too little credit for brilliant incision, but the most accomplished performance against them brought Everton a 1-0 win. Spurs were mediocre.
Thereafter, subsequent scorelines were explosive but the fixture list allowed them to ease their way into the season. This feels the start of a defining period. Three successive weekends pit them against City, Chelsea and Arsenal. They face Liverpool and Leicester within four days in December. After Boxing Day, when Spurs visit Wolves, it will be easier to say if they are title contenders.
If so, rendering Tottenham champions for the first time since Bill Nicholson’s team won the double in 1961 would be Mourinho’s greatest feat since Inter Milan’s 2010 treble, which was accomplished in part because of a famous Champions League semi-final defeat of Guardiola’s Barcelona.
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Top 10 Premier League goalscorers of the season and of all-time
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That is some way off but Saturday could be a twist on a familiar theme. Guardiola against Mourinho has often been attack against defence. The Portuguese would sometimes line Real up with three defensive midfielders. His Inter had just 24 per cent of possession at the Camp Nou. When his United were runners-up to Guardiola’s City, it was with 38 fewer goals.
Now the differential can be explained by City's striking injuries – though Sergio Aguero may be fit to return – along with a tougher fixture list and the fact they have a game in hand. Spurs have been more restrained of late, with only four goals in their last three games, but Son Heung-min is still the division's joint top scorer and Harry Kane the runaway leader for assists.
Meanwhile, one of the season’s peculiarities is that City have conceded the joint fewest goals despite leaking a quintet to Leicester in the first and only time a Guardiola side has been breached five times.
Neither Ruben Dias nor Aymeric Laporte played then. City have only conceded twice in their four games as a duo and only four in nine matches since the nightmare against Leicester. Guardiola might field two deep-lying midfielders on Saturday, even if defensive feels a misnomer for Ilkay Gundogan, whose deficiencies off the ball have been exposed by Son before.
But the bigger questions revolve around Mourinho. Does he abandon his usual safety-first blueprint against Guardiola? Since Real Madrid lost 5-0 to Barcelona, an inferiority complex has been apparent in his tactics, no matter how expensive his players.
These managers have always been on different sides of an ideological divide, with Mourinho forever thinking about how to nullify and neuter, but this is an examination of his belief in his players. Is he confident enough to adopt a more attacking approach?
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Normal People
Sally Rooney, Faber & Faber
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
info-box
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Happy Tenant
Started: January 2019
Co-founders: Joe Moufarrej and Umar Rana
Based: Dubai
Sector: Technology, real-estate
Initial investment: Dh2.5 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 4,000
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
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Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
Scoreline
Swansea 2
Grimes 20' (pen), Celina, 29'
Man City 3
Silva 69', Nordfeldt 78' (og), Aguero 88'
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,200m
Winner: Shafaf, Sam Hitchcott (jockey), Ahmed Al Mehairbi (trainer)
5,30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,200m
Winner: Noof KB, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: The President’s Cup Listed (TB) Dh380,000 1,400m
Winner: Taamol, Jim Crowley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
6.30pm: The President’s Cup Group One (PA) Dh2,500,000 2,200m
Winner: Rmmas, Tadhg O’Shea, Jean de Roualle
7pm: Arabian Triple Crown Listed (PA) Dh230,000 1,600m
Winner: Ihtesham, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner: AF Mekhbat, Antonio Fresu, Ernst Oertel
EMILY%20IN%20PARIS%3A%20SEASON%203
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day - 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227 for four at the close.
SPECS
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Building boom turning to bust as Turkey's economy slows
Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage - hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.
Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.
The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry - a key sector - as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.
After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year.
The country has been hit by high inflation and a currency crisis in August. The lira lost 28 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2018 and markets are still unconvinced by the readiness of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle underlying economic issues.
The villas close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu region are intended to resemble European architecture and are part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project.
But the development of 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - is now in limbo as Sarot Group has sought bankruptcy protection.
It is one of hundreds of Turkish companies that have done so as they seek cover from creditors and to restructure their debts.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More coverage from the Future Forum
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
