By reining in Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table, Manchester United made it clear that they are determined to have a say in this season’s title race.
Amid the cut and thrust of the season’s formative weeks, the reigning champions had been conspicuous by their absence from the table’s upper reaches.
Defeats by Liverpool, West Bromwich Albion and Manchester City – the latter a crushing 4-1 loss – left David Moyes’ side unable to join in with the jostling for position at the summit.
Arsenal have been the season’s stand-out team, with Liverpool and Southampton close behind, but United’s sluggish start obliged them to toil in relative obscurity while plaudits were sprinkled on the sides above them.
They have found renewed resolve in recent weeks, avoiding defeat since that stunning reverse at home to West Brom on September 28, but they needed to beat a fellow title contender to prove that reports of their demise had been exaggerated.
Sunday’s victory over Arsenal provided exactly that and although Arsene Wenger’s side never truly threatened David de Gea’s goal at Old Trafford, United were on a tightrope throughout.
Defeat would have left them 11 points off the pace. Instead, victory cut Arsenal’s lead over them to just five points, and catapulted Moyes’ side back into the top five for the first time since a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace in mid-September.
“We knew we could not afford to lose,” said Wayne Rooney. “We couldn’t let Arsenal get 11 points away from us.”
Moyes claimed that United did not need to make a statement, but after Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with West Brom and defeats for both City and Tottenham Hotspur, failure to make ground would have been a huge missed opportunity.
Aside from a trip to Spurs on December 1, United will not face one of their title rivals before the end of the year.
The challenge they now face is to assemble the kind of long winning sequences that are the hallmark of title-winning teams.
They will draw great encouragement from the performances of Rooney and Robin van Persie against Arsenal, which suggested that United have no reason to envy any other strike partnership in the league.
Van Persie’s sureness of touch gave United an attacking launchpad throughout the match and Rooney capped a display of breathless endeavour by teeing up the Dutchman for the game’s only goal.
The pair now have 17 goals between them in all competitions, while Shinji Kagawa is beginning to demonstrate that he can summon the necessary levels of industry to make an impact in the Premier League.
The emergence of 18 year old winger Adnan Januzaj has been another plus in attack, even if United have scored 10 fewer league goals than Manuel Pellegrini’s entertainers at City.
There is room for improvement at the other end of the pitch, however, despite a disciplined counter-attacking display against Arsenal.
United have only kept three clean sheets in the league, with Moyes’ attempts to build the sort of settled defensive unit from which he benefited at Everton hampered by successive injuries to stalwarts Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.
Phil Jones’s commanding display against Arsenal suggested that he may represent a long-term solution at centre-back, but the inauguration of a new back four will involve a degree of trial and error.
Moyes was keen to underline that his side still have “a few big steps to take” and the season’s tumultuous early weeks suggest he is right to exercise caution.
It will be a while before United’s fans fully recover from the shock of the hiding at City or the abject loss to West Brom, but victory over a buoyant Arsenal – coupled with the ongoing state of flux at the top of the table – gives them hope that a title challenge is taking shape.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
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Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Jiu-Jitsu World Tour Calendar 2018/19
July 29: OTA Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan
Sep 22-23: LA Convention Centre in Los Angeles, US
Nov 16-18: Carioca Arena Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Feb 7-9: Mubadala Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Mar 9-10: Copper Box Arena in London, UK
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
AUSTRALIA SQUADS
ODI squad: Aaron Finch (captain), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa
Twenty20 squad: Aaron Finch (captain), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
US Industrial Market figures, Q1 2017
Vacancy Rate 5.4%
Markets With Positive Absorption 85.7 per cent
New Supply 55 million sq ft
New Supply to Inventory 0.4 per cent
Under Construction 198.2 million sq ft
(Source: Colliers)
Draw:
Group A: Egypt, DR Congo, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Group B: Nigeria, Guinea, Madagascar, Burundi
Group C: Senegal, Algeria, Kenya, Tanzania
Group D: Morocco, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Namibia
Group E: Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania, Angola
Group F: Cameroon, Ghana, Benin, Guinea-Bissau
RESULTS
2pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (Dirt) 1,200m
Winner: Najem Al Rwasi, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Ahmed Al Shemaili (trainer)
2.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Fandim, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri
3pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: Harbh, Pat Cosgrave, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
3.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: Wakeel W’Rsan, Richard Mullen, Jaci Wickham
4pm: Crown Prince of Sharjah Cup Prestige (PA) Dh200,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Jawaal, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri
4.30pm: Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup (TB) Dh200,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Tailor’s Row, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
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