Roberto Martinez believes Everton’s mentality can give them an advantage in the battle to qualify for the Uefa Champions League.
Everton overtook Arsenal in fourth place with victory over Sunderland at the weekend to move into pole position with five games remaining. But Arsenal re-gained the fourth spot on Tuesday night with a 3-1 win over West Ham United.
Everton are enjoying their best winning league run since the 1980s and will look to make it eight victories in a row when Crystal Palace visit Goodison Park on Wednesday night.
The club have qualified for the Champions League just once in the Premier League era, while Arsenal are looking to do so for the 18th consecutive season.
Asked whether the mental side could prove the difference, Everton boss Martinez said: “It always is, and not just for us but for every team that goes into meaningful games.
“You only decide games on technical, tactical and physical aspects when they don’t mean much.
“When there is a real meaning in every point that you play for, psychologically you need to be very strong, and probably that’s a big advantage that we have, and we’ve shown that in the last seven or eight weeks.
“The team is focused, the football club is focused and we are very much all together fighting for the same aim. Psychologically we’ve got that winning mentality that you need.
“When you get into a position like we are, it’s a little bit unknown ground breaking through the points tally that we have.
“Psychologically we’re taking a very simple approach, trying to give everything that we’ve got and everything we’ve learned over the last 10 months to be as competitive as we can in every game.”
The victory over Sunderland took Everton to 66 points, setting a new record for their highest total in the Premier League.
While Martinez is focusing intently on the clash with in-form Palace, who have won their last three games, he also believes looking at the bigger picture is essential.
He said: “I always take the same approach that in the final third of the season you need to have a little bit of an overall view, and I think we’ve been doing that.
“What I’ve been pleased about is we’ve been using the whole squad available, the players are looking ready, fresh and sharp.
“We do look at the maximum points that we can fight for, and with the amount of points we have now and the 15 we can fight for, it’s a really exciting end to the season for us.”
Arsenal manager Wenger: We will focus on ourselves
Manager Arsene Wenger challenged his Arsenal side to focus on doing their own job after beating West Ham 3-1 with a wonder goal from Olivier Giroud rather than worry about Everton’s form in the race for Uefa Champions League qualification.
The FA Cup finalists moved back up into the top four after coming from behind when Matt Jarvis put the Irons ahead at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night with a brace from Lukas Podolski either side of Giroud’s brilliant finish.
However, Everton could leapfrog them again by beating Crystal Palace on Wednesday, with the race for the top four set to go to the wire.
Wenger, though, maintains Arsenal have to take care of their own results first.
He said: “We know we have to win our games and hope that Everton will slip up somewhere. Let’s focus on our job and not look too much at Everton.
“If we need that we’ll see when we need it, but at the moment we can only do it if we win our games, so let’s focus on that.”
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Which products are to be taxed?
To be taxed:
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
Products excluded from the ‘sweetened drink’ category would contain at least 75 per cent milk in a ready-to-drink form or as a milk substitute, baby formula, follow-up formula or baby food, beverages consumed for medicinal use and special dietary needs determined as per GCC Standardisation Organisation rules
BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE
Director: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano
Rating: 3.5/5
Du Football Champions
The fourth season of du Football Champions was launched at Gitex on Wednesday alongside the Middle East’s first sports-tech scouting platform.“du Talents”, which enables aspiring footballers to upload their profiles and highlights reels and communicate directly with coaches, is designed to extend the reach of the programme, which has already attracted more than 21,500 players in its first three years.
SPEC SHEET
Processor: Apple M2, 8-core CPU, up to 10-core CPU, 16-core Neural Engine
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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
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: ASI (formerly DigestAI)
Started: 2017
Founders: Quddus Pativada
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Artificial intelligence, education technology
Funding: $3 million-plus
Investors: GSV Ventures, Character, Mark Cuban
Mubadala World Tennis Championship 2018 schedule
Thursday December 27
Men's quarter-finals
Kevin Anderson v Hyeon Chung 4pm
Dominic Thiem v Karen Khachanov 6pm
Women's exhibition
Serena Williams v Venus Williams 8pm
Friday December 28
5th place play-off 3pm
Men's semi-finals
Rafael Nadal v Anderson/Chung 5pm
Novak Djokovic v Thiem/Khachanov 7pm
Saturday December 29
3rd place play-off 5pm
Men's final 7pm
The Comeback: Elvis And The Story Of The 68 Special
Simon Goddard
Omnibus Press
Heavily-sugared soft drinks slip through the tax net
Some popular drinks with high levels of sugar and caffeine have slipped through the fizz drink tax loophole, as they are not carbonated or classed as an energy drink.
Arizona Iced Tea with lemon is one of those beverages, with one 240 millilitre serving offering up 23 grams of sugar - about six teaspoons.
A 680ml can of Arizona Iced Tea costs just Dh6.
Most sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, five teaspoons of sugar in a 500ml bottle.
RESULTS
6.30pm: Maiden Dh 165,000 1,600m
Winner: Superior, Connor Beasley (jockey), Ahmad bin Harmash (trainer)
7.05pm: Handicap Dh 185,000 2,000m
Winner: Tried And True, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
7.40pm: Maiden Dh 165,000 1,600m
Winner: Roy Orbison, Fernando Jara, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
8.15pm
Handicap Dh 190,000 1,400m
Winner: Taamol, Dane O’Neill, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
8.50pm
Handicap Dh 175,000 1,600m
Winner: Welford, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
9.25pm: Handicap Dh 175,000 1,200m
Winner: Lavaspin, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
10pm: Handicap Dh 165,000 1,600m
Winner: Untold Secret, Xavier Ziani, Sandeep Jadhav
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
Dark Souls: Remastered
Developer: From Software (remaster by QLOC)
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Price: Dh199
Engine: 80 kWh four-wheel-drive
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 402bhp
Torque: 760Nm
Price: From Dh280,000
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
Company Profile
Founder: Omar Onsi
Launched: 2018
Employees: 35
Financing stage: Seed round ($12 million)
Investors: B&Y, Phoenician Funds, M1 Group, Shorooq Partners
Dubai World Cup factbox
Most wins by a trainer: Godolphin’s Saeed bin Suroor(9)
Most wins by a jockey: Jerry Bailey(4)
Most wins by an owner: Godolphin(9)
Most wins by a horse: Godolphin’s Thunder Snow(2)
SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder
Power: 101hp
Torque: 135Nm
Transmission: Six-speed auto
Price: From Dh79,900
On sale: Now
UAE athletes heading to Paris 2024
Equestrian
Abdullah Humaid Al Muhairi, Abdullah Al Marri, Omar Al Marzooqi, Salem Al Suwaidi, and Ali Al Karbi (four to be selected).
Judo
Men: Narmandakh Bayanmunkh (66kg), Nugzari Tatalashvili (81kg), Aram Grigorian (90kg), Dzhafar Kostoev (100kg), Magomedomar Magomedomarov (+100kg); women's Khorloodoi Bishrelt (52kg).
Cycling
Safia Al Sayegh (women's road race).
Swimming
Men: Yousef Rashid Al Matroushi (100m freestyle); women: Maha Abdullah Al Shehi (200m freestyle).
Athletics
Maryam Mohammed Al Farsi (women's 100 metres).
Stage 2
1. Mathieu van der Poel (NED) Alpecin-Fenix 4:18:30
2. Tadej Pogacar (SLV) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:06
3. Primoz Roglic (SLV) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:06
4. Wilco Kelderman (NED) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:06
5. Julian Alaphilippe (FRA) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:08
AIDA RETURNS
Director: Carol Mansour
Starring: Aida Abboud, Carol Mansour
Rating: 3.5./5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Mobile phone packages comparison
Company Profile
Name: Direct Debit System
Started: Sept 2017
Based: UAE with a subsidiary in the UK
Industry: FinTech
Funding: Undisclosed
Investors: Elaine Jones
Number of employees: 8