Crystal Palace 0-1 Chelsea
Chelsea: Costa 43’
Man of the match: Cesar Azpilicueta (Chelsea)
On the equivalent weekend this time last year, Chelsea were 16th in the table and without a permanent manager. Jose Mourinho had been dismissed a few days previously following his side's disastrous start to their Premier League title defence, with supporters protesting the sacking by accusing players such as Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard of treachery.
Crystal Palace, meanwhile, were on the crest of a wave. A 2-1 victory over Stoke City, secured by Lee Chung-yong's stunning strike late on, kept Alan Pardew's charges sixth in the standings and level on points with Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in the two spots immediately above them.
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“We’re on the fringes of contesting for a Champions League place,” Pardew had said prior to his team’s triumph at the Britannia Stadium. “Our dream isn’t 10th again as we’re good enough to finish top six.”
What a difference 12 months makes. Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat of Palace on Saturday extended their winning run to 11 consecutive matches, with nine points now separating them from their closest championship challengers.
Palace’s recent form makes for rather grimmer reading. This loss to the league leaders was their 10th of the campaign, while they have now emerged victorious from only one of their last 11 encounters. As the halfway stage of the season approaches, they are beginning to look over their shoulders at the relegation zone.
Palace actually started well at Selhurst Park in the opening fixture of the weekend, denying Chelsea space in the final third and giving them something to think about at the other end of the pitch. It was a tight first half featuring little penalty-box action, but a moment of individual quality shortly before the break swung the balance of the game in the visitors’ favour.
Scott Dann does not get beaten in the air very often, but even Palace’s 6ft 5in centre-half could not match Diego Costa’s tremendous leap in the 43rd minute. The Chelsea striker, who has now scored more goals this season than he managed in the whole of 2015/16, peeled towards the back post and nodded Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross into the back of the net to give his side a lead they would not relinquish.
Chelsea are such a dangerous outfit to play against when they are ahead: their biggest strength lies in the quality of Hazard, Willian, Costa and Pedro in transition, while a remarkable record of two goals conceded in their last 1040 minutes of Premier League action shows they are adept at soaking up pressure and keeping things tight at the back.
They again demonstrated that ability here, allowing Palace plenty of the ball in the second period but always succeeding in keeping them at arm’s length. The introduction of Cesc Fabregas and Branislav Ivanovic suggested that Conte wanted greater control, but Chelsea’s third 1-0 win in the space of six days never really looked in doubt.
“We’re working a lot to reach this level and it’s fantastic to stay top after 11 wins,” the Italian said in his post-match press conference. “To win 11 games in a row in this division isn’t simple.”
It is testament to Conte’s coaching that they have made it look so straightforward, though. Chelsea are the team to beat in the Premier League once more, with last season’s struggles now consigned to distant memory.
For Palace, it has been a miserable 12 months, featuring only six victories and 28 points in their last 38 top-tier matches. Just as they were unable to stop Costa’s climb in the penalty area, they could not halt Chelsea’s ascent or arrest their own slide.
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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
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Angela Bassett, Tina Fey
Directed by: Pete Doctor
Rating: 4 stars
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
