Wednesday night belonged to Chelsea. It was they, not Manchester City, who emerged victorious at Stamford Bridge, maintaining their seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League table ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth.
City, meanwhile, are left looking over their shoulders in the race for the top four, only four points clear of Arsenal, who have a game in hand.
Yet there was no better player on the pitch than City’ David Silva in Chelsea’s 2-1 success. Eden Hazard had some excellent moments, scoring the goals that wrapped up an important win after Saturday’s shock setback against Crystal Palace, and Gary Cahill and Pedro also impressed.
But despite the eventual outcome, Silva was the game’s standout performer. More important, though, was Antonio Conte’s response to that fact, which ultimately determined the destination of the three points.
__________________________________
More football
■ Theatre of Draws: Old Trafford an increasingly less magical place for Man United
■ Barcelona rain goals on Sevilla to keep up Primera Liga pursuit of Real Madrid
■ Chelsea v Man City: Guardiola defends Aguero ahead of player's rematch with Luiz
__________________________________
Silva was bright from the first whistle, continually finding pockets of space and distributing the ball effectively.
Deployed as a No 10 with Kevin De Bruyne shifted out to the right, he continually peeled off N’Golo Kante and Cesc Fabregas in the centre of the hosts’ midfield, forcing David Luiz to take risks by vacating his position in the heart of Chelsea’s backline to close him down.
Every touch of the ball had a purpose — including a wonderful return pass with his chest from Sergio Aguero’s clipped ball forward — but Silva, as is almost always the case, was decisive as well as decorative. Although at times he dropped deeper to help build City’s moves, his best work was carried out in the attacking third, where he laid on several opportunities for his teammates throughout the first half.
Silva had a hand in the equaliser, scored by Aguero in the 26th minute after Hazard had given Chelsea the lead a quarter of an hour previously.
Thibaut Courtois’ miskicked clearance fell at the feet of the Spaniard, who drove forward and saw his initial shot saved, only for Aguero to gobble up the rebound.
City had their strongest spell from that point until the break, and Silva was at the heart of everything they did well. A through-ball for Leroy Sane forced Courtois into action soon after the leveller, before Silva picked out Aguero on the edge of the box, with the striker’s deflected shot squirming just wide of the post.
Even Kante, the Premier League’s foremost ball-winner, could not get near him.
Amid his usual frantic arm-waving on the touchline, Conte clearly recognised Silva’s influence and duly opted to stiffen up his midfield for the second half.
Kurt Zouma made way for Nemanja Matic, who was presumably given strict instructions to get a grip on the scheming Silva.
The plan worked. City enjoyed 59 per cent of possession in the second period but found it difficult to prise open Chelsea’s defence.
Silva continued to commit opponents and win free-kicks, while set-piece delivery set up three chances for John Stones, but he was no longer afforded the same room in the centre of the pitch.
The key to Chelsea’s triumph was the way they shut the game down after the interval and allowed Silva to show only a few flashes of his quality.
Conte identified a problem and found a solution, which ensured his team did not let their slender lead slip.
“In the first half we were suffering a lot in midfield,” the Italian explained in his press conference afterwards. “They were finding a lot of spaces between the lines. For this reason, in the second half I reinforced our midfield with Matic.”
It proved to be a match-winning — and perhaps title-sealing — decision with their seven-point lead over Tottenham Hotspur at the top reinforced.
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
Closing the loophole on sugary drinks
As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.
The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed:
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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.”
MATCH INFO
Euro 2020 qualifier
Ukraine 2 (Yaremchuk 06', Yarmolenko 27')
Portugal 1 (Ronaldo 72' pen)
if you go
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
