Antonio Conte conceded Chelsea are out of the Premier League title race after their 1-0 defeat at West Ham United yesterday.
Marko Arnautovic’s early goal condemned the defending champions to a fourth defeat of the season and left them 11 points adrift of leaders Manchester City.
And Conte, the Chelsea manager, admitted: “This is the fourth defeat in 16 games. When you have these stats it’s impossible to think you are in the title race.
“If you want to stay in the race for the title in the first part of the season you can only lose once or twice.”
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Chelsea are 11 points adrift of leaders Manchester City, and that gap could stretch to 14 today if Pep Guardiola’s men win the Manchester derby at Old Trafford.
Chelsea were carved open far too easily with West Ham’s first attack in the sixth minute, when Arnautovic played a quick one-two with Manuel Lanzini.
The Austrian nipped in behind Andreas Christensen and, as Cesar Azpilicueta stood off, curled his shot around the defender and keeper Thibaut Courtois.
Chelsea had plenty of time to respond, yet it was a strangely subdued display from a side with six wins from their previous seven outings.
When their clearest chance arrived, six minutes from time, Alvaro Morata snatched at his shot and clipped the sidenetting.
“Today it was very difficult, our start was bad and it was difficult to come back,” added Conte.
“We created chances but didn’t take them and now we are talking about a defeat.
“Many of the players were tired. It’s normal. We started our pre-season with the same players, a lot of players are playing almost always.
“Today our ideas were not so clear. We made a lot of mistakes from the final pass. We can do better.”
West Ham looked a rejuvenated side to the strugglers they appeared towards the end of Slaven Bilic’s spell in charge as they secured a first win since David Moyes took over at the end of October.
For Moyes, it was also a first home win as a manager in almost a year, having presided over Sunderland’s miserable relegation campaign last season.
“All managers need wins. That’s the way it is,” he added.
“I think coming to the club everyone could see I have had a pretty difficult run of fixtures, but today we did a job, the game plan worked.
“I’m always happy when I win. The best feeling is the Saturday night feeling after a win.
“But then I put my jacket on as I left the dressing room and thought ‘oh no, we’ve got Arsenal in midweek’.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
The biog
Favourite colour: Brown
Favourite Movie: Resident Evil
Hobbies: Painting, Cooking, Imitating Voices
Favourite food: Pizza
Trivia: Was the voice of three characters in the Emirati animation, Shaabiyat Al Cartoon
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
ASHES FIXTURES
1st Test: Brisbane, Nov 23-27
2nd Test: Adelaide, Dec 2-6
3rd Test: Perth, Dec 14-18
4th Test: Melbourne, Dec 26-30
5th Test: Sydney, Jan 4-8
Also on December 7 to 9, the third edition of the Gulf Car Festival (www.gulfcarfestival.com) will take over Dubai Festival City Mall, a new venue for the event. Last year's festival brought together about 900 cars worth more than Dh300 million from across the Emirates and wider Gulf region – and that first figure is set to swell by several hundred this time around, with between 1,000 and 1,200 cars expected. The first day is themed around American muscle; the second centres on supercars, exotics, European cars and classics; and the final day will major in JDM (Japanese domestic market) cars, tuned vehicles and trucks. Individuals and car clubs can register their vehicles, although the festival isn’t all static displays, with stunt drifting, a rev battle, car pulls and a burnout competition.
