MANCHESTER UNITED 4 MANCHESTER CITY 2
Manchester United — Young 14', Fellaini 27', Mata 67', Smalling 73'
Manchester City — Aguero 8', 89'
English football correspondent
MANCHESTER, England // Manchester derbies offer symbolic snapshots. There are moments that are microcosms, incidents that are illustrative of the wider picture.
So it was when Chris Smalling leapt to head in Manchester United’s fourth goal.
The soaring Smalling was sinner turned scorer, the man branded stupid by Louis van Gaal when he was sent off in November’s defeat at the Etihad Stadium was able to celebrate.
It was a redemptive, rehabilitative afternoon for United, one where revenge was allied with renaissances.
The fortunes of neighbours have been transposed, swiftly and starkly.
It was highlighted on the half-hour.
A drenched Manuel Pellegrini stood alone on the touchline, a man in a Mancunian storm, as Old Trafford echoed to the sound of Marouane Fellaini’s name.
Unfashionable figures are interlinked.
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Each experienced this fixture for the first time together: it was a transformative game for both.
Pellegrini was set on a path that led to popularity and trophies by a 4-1 win in September 2013, Fellaini on a road to ridicule.
His first league start for United was his most miserable when he was overrun by Fernandinho and Yaya Toure.
It is no exaggeration to say his season never recovered, but then he was stymied by David Moyes as a deep-lying midfielder.
Van Gaal has reinvented him as a roving destroyer, an unconventional, ungainly master of mischief.
Fellaini’s idiosyncrasies now make him a cult hero.
His chest control is his signature move; indirectly, it led to Ashley Young’s equaliser.
The giant hairstyle that renders him immediately recognisable serves as a warning: he will win the ball in the air.
Van Gaal has admitted it is impossible to drop the Belgian and opponents can testify it is difficult to track him.
He pops up between the lines and his awkward style conceals a middle-distance runner’s stamina.
Fellaini’s rather gormless appearance camouflages the ruthlessness to identify weaknesses.
He tends to head for the far post at crosses, looking to jump against a full-back when his height advantage will be greater.
So it was when he climbed above Gael Clichy to put United ahead.
When David de Gea took goal kicks, City deployed Yaya Toure to try to halt Fellaini, man-mountain trusted with stopping man-mountain.
This was a role reversal, United’s usual nemesis trying to hang on to Fellaini’s coattails.
In an emphatic, entertaining triumph, the Belgian was the most influential player on the pitch.
Their inferiority complex seems to have disappeared, demolished by Fellaini.
United’s third goal came after he dispossessed Martin Demichelis.
Eight months after he was jeered by a section of the United support in a pre-season friendly against Valencia, Fellaini was substituted to a standing ovation.
“The fans see that he is very important for the team,” Van Gaal said. “He scores goals, he beats pressure when we need it and he plays always the ball to the same colour (shirt).”
A fan favourite has become one of the manager’s preferred players.
“From Day 1 he is the player who is always doing what I asked,” Van Gaal said.
But Fellaini’s revival remains remarkable.
He has assumed the role Angel Di Maria was supposed to: he has become the big-game player, the talisman that Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and City could not contain.
He is in the team ahead of the most expensive player in the history of British football, ahead of one of the most potent goalscorers of his generation, in Radamel Falcao, ahead, potentially, of Robin van Persie when the Dutchman is fully fit again.
An overreliance on Fellaini brought Van Gaal criticism. Yet now United have a more rounded game plan, going short and long, using technicians and physical force, but based around the misfit who has become a mainstay.
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Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The Equaliser 2
Director Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Denzel Washington, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Ashton Sanders
Three stars
India Test squad
Virat Kohli (c), Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill
Pox that threatens the Middle East's native species
Camelpox
Caused by a virus related to the one that causes human smallpox, camelpox typically causes fever, swelling of lymph nodes and skin lesions in camels aged over three, but the animal usually recovers after a month or so. Younger animals may develop a more acute form that causes internal lesions and diarrhoea, and is often fatal, especially when secondary infections result. It is found across the Middle East as well as in parts of Asia, Africa, Russia and India.
Falconpox
Falconpox can cause a variety of types of lesions, which can affect, for example, the eyelids, feet and the areas above and below the beak. It is a problem among captive falcons and is one of many types of avian pox or avipox diseases that together affect dozens of bird species across the world. Among the other forms are pigeonpox, turkeypox, starlingpox and canarypox. Avipox viruses are spread by mosquitoes and direct bird-to-bird contact.
Houbarapox
Houbarapox is, like falconpox, one of the many forms of avipox diseases. It exists in various forms, with a type that causes skin lesions being least likely to result in death. Other forms cause more severe lesions, including internal lesions, and are more likely to kill the bird, often because secondary infections develop. This summer the CVRL reported an outbreak of pox in houbaras after rains in spring led to an increase in mosquito numbers.
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TOURNAMENT INFO
Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri
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How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
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