Liverpool on fire as Chelsea slump



LONDON // Liverpool's spurned supporters having taken flame to the old shirt of Fernando Torres; their players applied some scorch marks to his new dreams.

Oh, the Schadenfreude at Anfield should the £50 million (Dh295m) man miss out on Champions League football at his new club.

With this rare and painful victory at Stamford Bridge, Liverpool moved that possibility in the direction of probability.

Forget the Premier League title, Chelsea remain a full 10 points behind Manchester United. Far more pressing is the challenge of Tottenham Hotspur and, should their dynamic form under Kenny Dalglish continue, Liverpool for the fourth and final Champions League slot.

Torres was all but absent on his Chelsea debut - substituted after 65 minutes as Carlo Ancelotti reverted to an old tactical shape to try and take the points. Minutes later Raul Meireles became the first Liverpool player to score a league goal here in seven years and three more points slipped out of Roman Abramovich's nervous hands.

"As the club always say, the most important people are the people who are at Liverpool Football Club, and that's the way we approached the game today," Dalglish said, pointedly. "We were determined not to lose the game. That's four clean sheets and 12 points in the last four games. Everyone with a favour to Liverpool is very happy."

Those with a hankering for Chelsea were not.

"The problem wasn't that Torres played," Ancelotti said. "He did a good job on the pitch. We had difficulty finding enough space in front, because Liverpool defended very well and they put three defenders in the middle, and we didn't find the right way to attack them. "

How they had revelled in El Nino's acquisition on the streets of west London. Amid the sea of newly minted No 9 shirts one ran a taunting strapline: "He never won anything with the Kop, now he's got a proper job".

The visiting support were unforgiving. "He who betrays will always walk alone," read one banner. The new man went straight into the team, his position on the right-hand side of a striking partnership with Didier Drogba; behind them Nicolas Anelka asked to roam free.

Liverpool's response was brutally conservative. Dirk Kuyt was the sole striker as Luis Suarez - newly moved into Torres's former Merseyside residence - remained in reserve.

Chelsea's first-half chances all derived from Liverpool errors. After just 90 seconds Maxi Rodriguez played in Torres from the half-way line - his former teammate shot high and wide. Later in the half, Drogba pick-pocketed Lucas to play in the new No 9 only for Jamie Carragher to dive into an uncompromising block. Playing mostly in their own half of the field, Liverpool still managed to create the better chances. The best of which came when Steven Gerrard angled a ball across goal was met by Maxi Rodriguez two yards out, yet preposterously he lifted it onto the crossbar.

As half time approached, Branislav Ivanovic half stole Kelly's centre from Petr Cech's grasp then compounded his error by attempting to clear the spillage from his own keeper's hands. Cech turned to the defender in screaming fury, receiving a mouthful of abuse in return.

The interval brought no change of pattern. Torres drifted wider in search of any kind of possession. Finding none, he was withdrawn by Ancelotti with a 25 minutes to play as Ancelotti reverted to his standard system, Salomon Kalou the right winger in a three-man attack.

It did not have the desired impact. At Liverpool's next attack, Gerrard made ground down the right before arcing a ball across the six-yard box.

Ivanovic and Cech ran at each other, stopped, and let it run onto Meireles, whose unerring finish extending his personal return to four in five League outings.

As the home side pushed, Glen Johnson applied a questionable shove to Ivanovic in the area. "It was a penalty," Ancelotti said.

Without bothering to deploy their own new forward, Liverpool worked their way to a notable clean sheet. Points deficit to Chelsea? Six. Point proven? A very large one.

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Results

5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 2,200m; Winner: Gurm, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer)

5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Al Nafece, Al Muatasm Al Balushi, Mohammed Ramadan

6pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Ashton Tourettes, Adrie de Vries, Ibrahim Aseel

6.30pm: Arabian Triple Crown – Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Ottoman, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi

7pm: Liwa Oasis – Group 2 (PA) 300,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Hakeemat Muscat, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami

7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Ganbaru, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi

EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS

Estijaba – 8001717 –  number to call to request coronavirus testing

Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111

Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre

Emirates airline – 600555555

Etihad Airways – 600555666

Ambulance – 998

Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
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Number of employees: 4
Tree of Hell

Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla

Director: Raed Zeno

Rating: 4/5

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
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Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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Best Foreign Language Film nominees

Capernaum (Lebanon)

Cold War (Poland)

Never Look Away (Germany)

Roma (Mexico)

Shoplifters (Japan)

Veil (Object Lessons)
Rafia Zakaria
​​​​​​​Bloomsbury Academic

Thank You for Banking with Us

Director: Laila Abbas

Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum

Rating: 4/5

How it works

Each player begins with one of the great empires of history, from Julius Caesar's Rome to Ramses of Egypt, spread over Europe and the Middle East.

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Stage results

1. Julian Alaphilippe (FRA) Deceuninck-QuickStep  4:39:05

2. Michael Matthews (AUS) Team BikeExchange 0:00:08

3. Primoz Roglic (SLV) Jumbo-Visma same time 

4. Jack Haig (AUS) Bahrain Victorious s.t  

5. Wilco Kelderman (NED) Bora-Hansgrohe s.t  

6. Tadej Pogacar (SLV) UAE Team Emirates s.t 

7. David Gaudu (FRA) Groupama-FDJ s.t

8. Sergio Higuita Garcia (COL) EF Education-Nippo s.t     

9. Bauke Mollema (NED) Trek-Segafredo  s.t

10. Geraint Thomas (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers s.t

SPECS

Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
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Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
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Max touring range: 620km / 590km
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How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?

If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.

Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.

Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.

Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).

Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal. 

Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.

By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.

As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.

Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.

He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.” 

This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”

Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher:  Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions


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