Arms crossed and head down, David Moyes stood grimly on the edge of his technical area in his Manchester United suit. There was no hiding place as home fans in the Etihad Stadium bounced around him. The scoreboard read Manchester City 4, Manchester United 0 and still over a third of the game remained.
“We want 10,” City fans hollered. Before long, they would be singing Moyes’s name in jest and advising Wayne Rooney – United’s best player by a distance – that he should have gone to Chelsea.
Moyes’s men started so badly against an unrelenting City side that pre-match talk of a battle between the two midfield giants, Yaya Toure and Marouane Fellaini, appeared misplaced.
Fellaini did appear, on paper, to have a small edge over the slightly shorter Toure – but only in height.
“I’m glad we’ve got Fellaini today,” offered Paddy Crerand, the Red-eyed former United midfielder before the match. “We’ve needed someone against Toure in recent seasons.”
Michael Carrick talked of his midfield partner settling in well since his £27.5 million (Dh161.6m) move from Everton earlier this month, of his “presence” in matches.
Such talk was irrelevant.
It meant nothing to the 3,000 United fans suffering in the away end. They were not unreasonable in expecting better than seeing their team – the current English champions – completely annihilated by Manuel Pellegrini’s side. United only began to threaten after City had scored four.
City’s attackers were superb for an hour, yet when he was not joining in with those attacks, Toure was a midfield colossus behind them.
City fans will not be surprised. Along with Vincent Kompany, the Ivorian has been their most consistent performer for the past three seasons. Peerless this term, he is deployed in a deeper role similar to the one he occupied at former club Barcelona, yet has still weighed in with four goals so far this term, two from free-kicks.
Toure was already the game’s best player before he scored City’s second in the 45th minute. As Samir Nasri took the corner, Toure lost his marker Fellaini by such a measure that the Belgian was floundering with Sergio Aguero as Alvaro Negredo directed a header towards the back post. The unmarked Toure poked the ball in with his knee. Moyes admitted it was a killer blow.
Time and again, Toure drove City forward as Fellaini and Carrick struggled to protect their defence. He had more touches than any player on the pitch and covered more ground, too. Fernandinho’s effective presence as a holding midfielder allowed Toure to foray forward into the positions behind the strikers, which he occupied when he first arrived in England.
Fellaini was a bystander by comparison. That Toure scored from a corner as Fellaini tussled with the significantly shorter Aguero said plenty.
Like his team, Fellaini improved when his team were already 4-0 down. His 67th-minute shot was struck well, but it was too little, too late.
“If the team did a good performance, it was because of the individual high level from players like Yaya and Sergio Aguero,” Pellegrini said.
After the match, Toure was handed his man-of-the-match award by Kompany, who spoke like a diplomat but smiled like a Cheshire cat.
sports@thenational.ae
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Could We Be More
Artist: Kokoroko
Label: Brownswood Recordings
Rating: 3.5/5
SPEC SHEET
Processor: Apple M2, 8-core CPU, up to 10-core CPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Display: 13.6-inch Liquid Retina, 2560 x 1664, 224ppi, 500 nits, True Tone, wide colour
Memory: 8/16/24GB
Storage: 256/512GB / 1/2TB
I/O: Thunderbolt 3 (2), 3.5mm audio, Touch ID
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0
Battery: 52.6Wh lithium-polymer, up to 18 hours, MagSafe charging
Camera: 1080p FaceTime HD
Video: Support for Apple ProRes, HDR with Dolby Vision, HDR10
Audio: 4-speaker system, wide stereo, support for Dolby Atmos, Spatial Audio and dynamic head tracking (with AirPods)
Colours: Silver, space grey, starlight, midnight
In the box: MacBook Air, 30W or 35W dual-port power adapter, USB-C-to-MagSafe cable
Price: From Dh4,999
'Dark Waters'
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, William Jackson Harper
Rating: ****
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
More from Janine di Giovanni
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Eco Way
Started: December 2023
Founder: Ivan Kroshnyi
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Electric vehicles
Investors: Bootstrapped with undisclosed funding. Looking to raise funds from outside
Kill
Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Starring: Lakshya, Tanya Maniktala, Ashish Vidyarthi, Harsh Chhaya, Raghav Juyal
Rating: 4.5/5
Roll of Honour, men’s domestic rugby season
West Asia Premiership
Champions: Dubai Tigers
Runners up: Bahrain
UAE Premiership
Champions: Jebel Ali Dragons
Runners up: Dubai Hurricanes
UAE Division 1
Champions: Dubai Sharks
Runners up: Abu Dhabi Harlequins II
UAE Division 2
Champions: Dubai Tigers III
Runners up: Dubai Sharks II
Dubai Sevens
Champions: Dubai Tigers
Runners up: Dubai Hurricanes
Sweet Tooth
Creator: Jim Mickle
Starring: Christian Convery, Nonso Anozie, Adeel Akhtar, Stefania LaVie Owen
Rating: 2.5/5
Sunday:
GP3 race: 12:10pm
Formula 2 race: 1:35pm
Formula 1 race: 5:10pm
Performance: Guns N' Roses
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
Isle of Dogs
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Liev Schreiber, Ed Norton, Greta Gerwig, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson
Three stars
SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.