Ahead of the start to the 2015/16 Premier League season, English football columnist Richard Jolly predicts the league table, from 20th to the title. Click through the arrows below for the picks.
20 – Leicester City
Richard's crucial factor: Team spirit. Leicester maintained their unity and belief during their 140-day stay at the foot of the Premier League, enabling them to mount their rescue bid. Claudio Ranieri has to ensure the spirit Nigel Pearson fostered is not lost. Read the full analysis.
19 – Bournemouth
Richard's crucial factor: Finding the right balance. Eddie Howe has an attractive, attacking style of football. He invariably plays with two strikers and Bournemouth scored 98 goals last season. Yet they might have to be more conservative against better teams. Read the full analysis.
18 – Norwich City
Richard's crucial factor: Away form. Cliché has it that relegation strugglers must prosper at home but Norwich's record on their travels in 2004/05 and 2013/14, the last two times they were demoted from the Premier League, consists of a mere two wins in 38 games. They can't afford a repeat. Read the full analysis.
17 – Aston Villa
Richard's crucial factor: Goals. Villa averaged under one a game in Paul Lambert's reign and mustered a mere 12 in 25 league matches before his sacking last season. Tim Sherwood made them more prolific but, with Christian Benteke gone, the risk is that Villa stop scoring again. Read the full analysis.
16 – Watford
Richard's crucial factor: Christmas. Between December 19 and January 2, Watford face Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City in the space of four games. Lesser sides in the Premier League can often go on extended losing runs; Watford have to ensure they do not go into freefall then. Read the full analysis.
15 – Sunderland
Richard's crucial factor: Start as they finish. Sunderland won four of their last five games in 2013/14. They took 12 points from their final eight matches last season. In both cases, they passed a test of character. Yet for much of those seasons, they have hovered around, or less than, a point a game. That form has got them into relegation trouble. Read the full analysis.
14 – West Ham United
Richard's crucial factor: Slaven Bilic. The Croatian's predecessor amounted to a guarantee West Ham would not be relegated. His successor could make them better but runs the risk of making them worse. He is untried in England and has to keep the club up. Read the full analysis.
13 – West Bromwich Albion
Richard's crucial factor: Reducing the load on Saido Berahino. The young Englishman scored 14 league goals last season. Brown Ideye was the next best with four. That explains why Tony Pulis has shown interest in attackers this summer. Read the full analysis.
12 – Newcastle United
Richard's crucial factor: The mood. Will Steve McClaren be tainted by association with Mike Ashley? Alan Pardew, who has since excelled at Crystal Palace, was in his final year. The ill-feeling at the club gave the players a reason to underachieve under John Carver, too. Read the full analysis.
11 – Southampton
Richard's crucial factor: The Europa League. Everton struggled in the Premier League until they were out of Europe and Southampton are strangers to the difficult Thursday-Sunday routine. Ronald Koeman will have to navigate his way through the season cleverly. Read the full analysis.
10 – Stoke City
Richard's crucial factor: Preventing shock results. Stoke had an excellent season last year but, had they not lost at home to Aston Villa, Leicester, Burnley and Crystal Palace, it would have been still better. Had they won those games, they would have finished fifth. Read the full analysis.
9 – Swansea City
Richard's crucial factor: The big games. Garry Monk felt Michael Laudrup's team were too timid against the top teams. His side changed that by beating both Arsenal and Manchester United home and away. Such landmark wins are a huge boost to morale. Read the full analysis.
8 – Crystal Palace
Richard's crucial factor: Home form. Palace were terrific on their travels last season, winning more away games than Manchester United, but a counter-attacking team suffered a league-high 10 home defeats. This year they have to get the majority of their points at home. Read the full analysis.
7 – Tottenham Hotspur
Richard's crucial factor: The defence. Despite goalkeeper Hugo Lloris's excellence, Spurs conceded more goals than relegated Hull last season. Bringing in Toby Alderweireld, fellow centre-back Kevin Wimmer and right-back Kieran Trippier is a sign Mauricio Pochettino realised they must tighten up. Read the full analysis.
6 – Everton
Richard's crucial factor: Home form. Everton went three months without a league win at Goodison Park last season, when some of the crowd started to show dissent against Roberto Martinez. They only won seven home league games in 2014/15, compared to 13 the previous campaign. Read the full analysis.
5 – Liverpool
Richard's crucial factor: The start. Liverpool begin by visiting Stoke, where they lost 6-1 in May. By the end of October, they will have faced five of last season's top seven, plus had a Merseyside derby. There is the potential for things to go very wrong. Read the full analysis.
4 – Manchester United
Richard's crucial factor: How quickly they gel. Louis van Gaal has a raft of new signings but his first season at Old Trafford showed United only found their best form and formation for a few weeks in spring. They will need to be more convincing earlier this year. Read the full analysis.
3 – Manchester City
Richard's crucial factor: Manuel Pellegrini. The spectre of Pep Guardiola looms over the Chilean, who is in the final year of his contract. Pellegrini's obdurate faith in 4-4-2 backfired in big games last season. He needs to be more flexible this term – and ignore stories about his future. Read the full analysis.
2 – Arsenal
Richard's crucial factor: Keep their new-found nous. Long deemed naive and criticised for their poor record against their peers, Arsenal have won away at both Manchester clubs in 2015 and been more streetwise. They need to make such results regular occurrences. Read the full analysis.
1 – Chelsea
Richard's crucial factor: The big games. Jose Mourinho is at his best as a tactician on the major occasions and has an outstanding record against Arsene Wenger, Manuel Pellegrini, Louis van Gaal and Brendan Rodgers. They will have to outwit him if they want to dethrone Chelsea. Read the full analysis.
Retirement funds heavily invested in equities at a risky time
Pension funds in growing economies in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have a sharply higher percentage of assets parked in stocks, just at a time when trade tensions threaten to derail markets.
Retirement money managers in 14 geographies now allocate 40 per cent of their assets to equities, an 8 percentage-point climb over the past five years, according to a Mercer survey released last week that canvassed government, corporate and mandatory pension funds with almost $5 trillion in assets under management. That compares with about 25 per cent for pension funds in Europe.
The escalating trade spat between the US and China has heightened fears that stocks are ripe for a downturn. With tensions mounting and outcomes driven more by politics than economics, the S&P 500 Index will be on course for a “full-scale bear market” without Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, Citigroup’s global macro strategy team said earlier this week.
The increased allocation to equities by growth-market pension funds has come at the expense of fixed-income investments, which declined 11 percentage points over the five years, according to the survey.
Hong Kong funds have the highest exposure to equities at 66 per cent, although that’s been relatively stable over the period. Japan’s equity allocation jumped 13 percentage points while South Korea’s increased 8 percentage points.
The money managers are also directing a higher portion of their funds to assets outside of their home countries. On average, foreign stocks now account for 49 per cent of respondents’ equity investments, 4 percentage points higher than five years ago, while foreign fixed-income exposure climbed 7 percentage points to 23 per cent. Funds in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are among those seeking greater diversification in stocks and fixed income.
• Bloomberg
Company%20profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Fasset%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2019%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Mohammad%20Raafi%20Hossain%2C%20Daniel%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%242.45%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2086%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Pre-series%20B%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Investcorp%2C%20Liberty%20City%20Ventures%2C%20Fatima%20Gobi%20Ventures%2C%20Primal%20Capital%2C%20Wealthwell%20Ventures%2C%20FHS%20Capital%2C%20VN2%20Capital%2C%20local%20family%20offices%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Indian origin executives leading top technology firms
Sundar Pichai
Chief executive, Google and Alphabet
Satya Nadella
Chief executive, Microsoft
Ajaypal Singh Banga
President and chief executive, Mastercard
Shantanu Narayen
Chief executive, chairman, and president, Adobe
Indra Nooyi
Board of directors, Amazon and former chief executive, PepsiCo
Men's football draw
Group A: UAE, Spain, South Africa, Jamaica
Group B: Bangladesh, Serbia, Korea
Group C: Bharat, Denmark, Kenya, USA
Group D: Oman, Austria, Rwanda
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Fixtures:
Thursday:
Hatta v Al Jazira, 4.55pm
Al Wasl v Dibba, 7.45pm
Friday:
Al Dhafra v Al Nasr, 5.05pm
Shabab Al Ahli Dubai v Al Wahda, 7.45pm
Saturday:
Ajman v Emirates, 4.55pm
Al Ain v Sharjah, 7.45pm
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
Friday's schedule in Madrid
Men's quarter-finals
Novak Djokivic (1) v Marin Cilic (9) from 2pm UAE time
Roger Federer (4) v Dominic Thiem (5) from 7pm
Stefanos Tsitsipas (8) v Alexander Zverev (3) from 9.30pm
Stan Wawrinka v Rafael Nadal (2) from 11.30pm
Women's semi-finals
Belinda Bencic v Simona Halep (3) from 4.30pm
Sloane Stephens (8) v Kiki Bertens (7) from 10pm
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The squad traveling to Brazil:
Faisal Al Ketbi, Ibrahim Al Hosani, Khalfan Humaid Balhol, Khalifa Saeed Al Suwaidi, Mubarak Basharhil, Obaid Salem Al Nuaimi, Saeed Juma Al Mazrouei, Saoud Abdulla Al Hammadi, Taleb Al Kirbi, Yahia Mansour Al Hammadi, Zayed Al Kaabi, Zayed Saif Al Mansoori, Saaid Haj Hamdou, Hamad Saeed Al Nuaimi. Coaches Roberto Lima and Alex Paz.
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
Sanchez's club career
2005-2006: Cobreloa
2006-2011 Udinese
2006-2007 Colo-Colo (on loan)
2007-2008 River Plate (on loan)
2011-2014 Barcelona
2014–Present Arsenal
A list of the animal rescue organisations in the UAE
