Ahead of the start of the 2016/17 Premier League season, The National’s team of sports editors, writers, and contributors predict which club they expect to underachieve during the upcoming campaign.
• STEVE LUCKINGS, SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR
West Ham. Slaven Bilic's side will struggle to replicate the stardust of last season and the Croatian has a history in club management of not kicking on in his second seasons.
• ANDY MITTEN, EUROPEAN FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT
Arsenal. Fans think their side should be competing for titles. They've been slow in the transfer market and have tougher competition this season. Could finish outside the top four for the first time since 1996.
• RICHARD JOLLY, ENGLISH FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT
Leicester City. Losing N'Golo Kante is a huge blow, and it remains to be seen how they will cope with Champions League football. With standards likely to be raised by many of the superpowers they embarrassed, they could play well and finish several places lower.
• The National's full predictions: Champions, top four, relegated, surprise team, player of the year, top scorer, player to watch
• THOMAS WOODS, SPORTS EDITOR
Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs missed their chance last season. They have a quality team, but all their rivals will improve and the weight of a Champions League campaign will see them miss out on Europe next season, especially with Liverpool in the mix too.
• GRAHAM CAYGILL, DEPUTY SPORTS EDITOR
Southampton. Sixth, and only three points off fourth, last season, and seventh and eighth the previous years show the club's consistency. Losing Ronald Koeman is a blow, as is the departure of striker Graziano Pelle, and it is hard to see them maintaining that form.
• STEPHEN NELMES, WEB EDITOR
Leicester City. The only way is down for the champions, it is a question of how far. Will still have designs on the top 10, but will likely be scrapping to a 12-14th place finish.
• JONATHAN RAYMOND, SPORTS WEB EDITOR
Arsenal. It's not a question of talent. There is plenty of that, enough to let their supporters dream of a title. But it felt for the first time last year like Wenger lost his grip on things, and it's not evident he knows how to turn it around at this point.
• JON TURNER, SPORTS WEB EDITOR
Manchester United. Have appointed one of the world's best managers, recruited some top talent, and are expected to break the transfer record for Paul Pogba. Anything less than a firm title challenge will be underachieving. However, the squad remains unbalanced and a top four spot is the best United can hope for.
• GREG LEA, PREMIER LEAGUE CORRESPONDENT
Everton. Ronald Koeman did an excellent job at Southampton but it could take him at least a year to lift Everton further up the table.
• JOHN MCAULEY, REPORTER
Arsenal. Second place last season was an improvement; fourth this time the very least their fans expect. They'll fall outside Champions League places for the first time in 19 years, possibly to 6th, and Wenger will fall on his sword.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
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.
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
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.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
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
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EGrowdash%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJuly%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESean%20Trevaskis%20and%20Enver%20Sorkun%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%2C%20UAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERestaurant%20technology%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24750%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Plus%20VC%2C%20Judah%20VC%2C%20TPN%20Investments%20and%20angel%20investors%2C%20including%20former%20Talabat%20chief%20executive%20Abdulhamid%20Alomar%2C%20and%20entrepreneur%20Zeid%20Husban%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
