Match info
Liverpool 4
Salah (19'), Mane (45 2', 53'), Sturridge (87')
West Ham United 0
Liverpool have rarely begun a season bathed in such optimism. They have started few while offering so many reasons to be optimistic. “We know there is a really positive atmosphere around us,” said Jurgen Klopp after they fostered more hope. “We have expectations as well.” It will take more than a demolition of an abject West Ham United side to justify predictions they will be Manchester City’s closest challengers, let alone win a first league title in 29 years, but this was an auspicious beginning.
“A very good start, for sure,” Klopp added. In other respects, it was more of a continuation. Liverpool were the transfer window’s biggest spenders and Alisson Becker and Naby Keita made debuts that were irrelevant and hugely encouraging respectively, but in many ways it was as though the summer break never happened. A new-look West Ham, with four players making their bows and a different manager, in Manuel Pellegrini, nonetheless performed as haplessly as their predecessors. They had conceded four goals in each of their previous three games against the Merseysiders. They did again.
Klopp’s dynamic front three, who mustered 91 goals last season, have three already now. Mohamed Salah had opened the scoring in Anfield’s previous competitive game, against Brighton & Hove Albion in May, and he did so again. The electric Egyptian’s personal tally now stands at 29 goals in as many league games. The only difference in attack was that Daniel Sturridge, back from an unsuccessful loan spell at West Bromwich Albion, added a fourth 24 seconds after his introduction.
While others have struggled in searches for sharpness and cohesion this weekend, Liverpool found both. It helped that only Trent Alexander-Arnold of their outfield starters figured in the knockout stages of the World Cup. They looked fresh and fast, potent and powerful. Personnel have been upgraded, but the gameplan is the same.
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There was a familiarity when the deadlock was broken, Salah arriving at pace to apply a touch to Andrew Robertson’s cross. The left-back helped provide two goals, maintaining his magnificent form from Liverpool’s Uefa Champions League run. The element of novelty came from his supplier for the opener.
Keita’s has been a delayed debut, a year after his arrival from RB Leipzig was agreed. The £52 million (Dh244m) man impressed immediately on the left of Liverpool’s midfield trio. Besides the expected pace and power, he showed awareness to feed the overlapping, unmarked Robertson. He later demonstrated the subtlety to complement his physicality, a display of jinking dribbling prompting comparisons with Ricky Villa. “He has settled really quick,” added Klopp, highlighting the similarity with Leipzig’s style of play, but also crediting Keita’s new teammates such as Mane.
The Senegalese struck the second from the excellent James Milner’s cutback and, after an example of Roberto Firmino’s selflessness, span, shot and scored the third, albeit while offside. Sturridge added another, underlining West Ham’s wretchedness.
“We knew it was going to be difficult,” Manuel Pellegrini said. West Ham rendered it more difficult. They were opened up too often and too easily, giving up a passable impression of a team who had never seen Liverpool play before, let alone thought about how to stop them. It was an exercise in naivety, with Arthur Masuaku the biggest culprit. The left-back was caught out of possession for the first two goals; indeed, in a failed attempt to play offside, he was going in the wrong direction when Milner set up the second.
After a £99 million spending spree, they spent the second half with a central-midfield pairing of Jack Wilshere and Mark Noble which, predictably, lacked mobility. Liverpool, with the forceful Keita, will not suffer such problems as they aim to scratch an itch.
“We didn’t win anything since I was in so we have to fight more and invest more,” added Klopp. He was not talking about financial investment, though West Ham had illustrated that spending is not the cure to all ills.
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Khalid%20Fahad%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Shaima%20Al%20Tayeb%2C%20Wafa%20Muhamad%2C%20Hamss%20Bandar%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs: 2017 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn
Price, base / as tested: Dhxxx
Engine: 5.7L V8
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 395hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 556Nm @ 3,950rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Scoreline
Australia 2-1 Thailand
Australia: Juric 69', Leckie 86'
Thailand: Pokklaw 82'
More coverage from the Future Forum
CONFIRMED%20LINE-UP
%3Cp%3EElena%20Rybakina%20(Kazakhstan)%0D%3Cbr%3EOns%20Jabeur%20(Tunisia)%0D%3Cbr%3EMaria%20Sakkari%20(Greece)%0D%3Cbr%3EBarbora%20Krej%C4%8D%C3%ADkov%C3%A1%20(Czech%20Republic)%0D%3Cbr%3EBeatriz%20Haddad%20Maia%20(Brazil)%0D%3Cbr%3EJe%C4%BCena%20Ostapenko%20(Latvia)%0D%3Cbr%3ELiudmila%20Samsonova%0D%3Cbr%3EDaria%20Kasatkina%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EVeronika%20Kudermetova%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3ECaroline%20Garcia%20(France)%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EMagda%20Linette%20(Poland)%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3ESorana%20C%C3%AErstea%20(Romania)%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EAnastasia%20Potapova%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EAnhelina%20Kalinina%20(Ukraine)%E2%80%AF%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EJasmine%20Paolini%20(Italy)%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3EEmma%20Navarro%20(USA)%E2%80%AF%0D%3Cbr%3ELesia%20Tsurenko%20(Ukraine)%0D%3Cbr%3ENaomi%20Osaka%20(Japan)%20-%20wildcard%0D%3Cbr%3EEmma%20Raducanu%20(Great%20Britain)%20-%20wildcard%3Cbr%3EAlexandra%20Eala%20(Philippines)%20-%20wildcard%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Non-oil%20trade
%3Cp%3ENon-oil%20trade%20between%20the%20UAE%20and%20Japan%20grew%20by%2034%20per%20cent%20over%20the%20past%20two%20years%2C%20according%20to%20data%20from%20the%20Federal%20Competitiveness%20and%20Statistics%20Centre.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EIn%2010%20years%2C%20it%20has%20reached%20a%20total%20of%20Dh524.4%20billion.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ECars%20topped%20the%20list%20of%20the%20top%20five%20commodities%20re-exported%20to%20Japan%20in%202022%2C%20with%20a%20value%20of%20Dh1.3%20billion.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EJewellery%20and%20ornaments%20amounted%20to%20Dh150%20million%20while%20precious%20metal%20scraps%20amounted%20to%20Dh105%20million.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERaw%20aluminium%20was%20ranked%20first%20among%20the%20top%20five%20commodities%20exported%20to%20Japan.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ETop%20of%20the%20list%20of%20commodities%20imported%20from%20Japan%20in%202022%20was%20cars%2C%20with%20a%20value%20of%20Dh20.08%20billion.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
THE SPECS
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 275hp at 6,600rpm
Torque: 353Nm from 1,450-4,700rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Top speed: 250kph
Fuel consumption: 6.8L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: Dh146,999
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Match info
Liverpool 4
Salah (19'), Mane (45 2', 53'), Sturridge (87')
West Ham United 0