Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola foresees another nail-biting finish to the Premier League season, just like in the 2021-22 campaign where his club nearly lost the title on the final day before late goals secured title glory.
City are two points ahead of Arsenal heading into Sunday's final round of fixtures and can secure a fourth title in as many seasons if they beat West Ham United at home.
City beat Liverpool to the title by one point in 2022 after Guardiola's side made things difficult for themselves when they went 2-0 down to Aston Villa at home before winning 3-2 to deny the Merseyside club.
"I have a feeling it will be [like the] Aston Villa [game] again. We would like to be 3-0 up after 10 minutes but it's not going to happen. I've seen enough [of West Ham's matches]," Guardiola said on Friday.
"I'm ready for it to be a tough, tough game. I want to put in the minds of my players, 'Look at Tottenham, how they fight for every ball, the aggression they had.' I didn't have any doubts about that.
"The 11 players of West Ham will be ready to beat us. Like Aston Villa, two seasons ago, they didn't play for anything but I know what happened. Ourselves and our people have to be ready from the first minute, to be with us and do it together."
Mikel Arteta, meanwhile, is hopeful "something beautiful is going to happen" as he prepares for the final game of the season against Everton with the title still on the line.
The Gunners are chasing their first English top-flight crown for 20 years and will be hoping for some luck going their way.
If City lose or draw against West Ham at the Etihad, an Arsenal win would make the Gunners champions.
"The only thing that we discussed [with his players] is that we have to give ourselves the opportunity to live a beautiful day on Sunday, where the dream is still alive and is possible," Arteta said.
"It's football and once we are there we just have to live the moment."
Arteta, whose team finished second behind City last season, said there was optimism in the camp.
"We are in the last day of the season playing for the Premier League," said the Spaniard.
"The Premier League trophy hasn't been yet at the Emirates Stadium - the stadium was built almost 20 years ago so that's a long, long time so yes, we have to be very optimistic. We have to do our duties and then wait and see what happens."
The spotlight will also be on Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp who ends his stellar tenure at the Anfield club against Wolves.
While it is not the dream farewell for Klopp, Liverpool's supporters are sure to give a fitting sendoff to a manager who led the club to eight trophies and helped raise their stature on the European stage.
While the four Champions League qualifiers – City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa – have been confirmed, the fight is on for the other European competitions.
Tottenham need a point at last-placed Sheffield United to guarantee fifth place and a berth in the Europa League.
Sixth-placed Chelsea (60), seventh-placed Newcastle (57) and eighth-placed Manchester United (57) are separated by three points ahead of games against Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton, respectively. The sixth-place finisher will likely get into the Europa League and seventh place a Europa Conference League spot.
United will have a second opportunity for European qualification when they play the FA Cup final against City on May 25.
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
More coverage from the Future Forum
MATCH INFO
Jersey 147 (20 overs)
UAE 112 (19.2 overs)
Jersey win by 35 runs
The Land between Two Rivers: Writing in an Age of Refugees
Tom Sleigh, Graywolf Press
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Company name: Play:Date
Launched: March 2017 on UAE Mother’s Day
Founder: Shamim Kassibawi
Based: Dubai with operations in the UAE and US
Sector: Tech
Size: 20 employees
Stage of funding: Seed
Investors: Three founders (two silent co-founders) and one venture capital fund
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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
The specs
Engine: 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 715bhp
Torque: 900Nm
Price: Dh1,289,376
On sale: now
