Chelsea and Liverpool can appear trapped in a time warp together. With vitriol directed from the terraces, with a closely-contested, low-scoring game, it was as though Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez were embarking upon another Champions League semi-final.
Tactical chess was a constant in their encounters, a theme revived by Carlo Ancelotti and Kenny Dalglish. In a week where huge expenditure has overshadowed switches of systems, both were road-testing newish formations. Dalglish, as much as Raul Meireles, got the winner.
A return to Stamford Bridge suggested his private time machine would be rewound a quarter of a century, to the May afternoon in 1986 when Dalglish volleyed Liverpool to the title in his debut season as their player-manager. Yet nostalgia has bred renewal.
When Dalglish returned, the concern was that he was an anachronism, a 20th-century icon in a 21st-century game. Instead, yesterday's man plucked a tactic from the past and reaped the rewards. The man who appeared a comfort blanket for a troubled club set about smothering Chelsea.
The three-man backline is a rarity these days but Dalglish revived a discredited approach. The inclusion of an extra centre-back gave Liverpool safety in numbers, the return of Jamie Carragher an indefatigable fighter who derives particular pleasure from thwarting Chelsea.
As Fernando Torres discovered, familiarity bred containment; one colossal block from the vice-captain summed up his side's spirit.
With Ancelotti deploying Nicolas Anelka at the tip of an ersatz midfield diamond, Dalglish enforced a policy of overcrowding in the centre of the pitch. A revelation against Sunderland, Anelka only endured frustration yesterday.
His deployment was an indication that Chelsea have too many striking options. Liverpool, right now, may have too few, but they turned that into a virtue.
Ancelotti has an enviable attacking armoury, but their supply line was subject to constant harrying. Dalglish's 3-5-1-1 formation, given a dummy run against Stoke City, afforded Chelsea space only on the flanks and they were ill-equipped to take advantage of that.
Florent Malouda, the champions' premier winger, was positioned near the touchline but, for 72 minutes, on the wrong side of it.
While he languished among the replacements, Dalglish entrusted an entire flank apiece to Glen Johnson and Martin Kelly. The latter won his personal duel with Ashley Cole, forcing the England left-back on to the back foot.
The 20-year-old is an ever-present in Dalglish's brief reign and a beneficiary of a regime change. With Johnson exiled to the left to accommodate Kelly, an oft-heard criticism of Liverpool - that too few local players graduate to the first team - is being rendered outdated.
His promotion is a sign that Dalglish's Liverpool is taking shape. So, too, is the form of his scorer. Dalglish has liberated Meireles from the straitjacket Roy Hodgson fitted; a fourth goal in five games is the consequence of a catalytic intervention.
And so a match that was billed as the clash of the multimillion pound signings became something else altogether: a triumph of teamwork, organisation and discipline. Almost unnoticed, Luis Suarez went unused. Liverpool's purchases with the proceeds of the sale of Torres were not required.
Chelsea were disjointed and disappointing. Rather than lasting forever, their diamond was abandoned after 65 minutes; after 90, their title challenge all but ended.
In contrast, Liverpool have recorded four successive wins with a quartet of clean sheets. They are in sixth, their highest position of the season, and Dalglish's case for permanent employment is bordering on the indisputable.
Because while these two clubs spent £108 million (Dh637m) on strikers on Monday, the most influential individual was one who cost £440,000 in 1977: Dalglish.
sports@thenational.ae
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20Diaa%20Jubaili%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPages%3A%20180%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPublisher%3A%20Deep%20Vellum%20Publishing%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
'The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey'
Rating: 3/5
Directors: Ramin Bahrani, Debbie Allen, Hanelle Culpepper, Guillermo Navarro
Writers: Walter Mosley
Stars: Samuel L Jackson, Dominique Fishback, Walton Goggins
The five pillars of Islam
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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'Munich: The Edge of War'
Director: Christian Schwochow
Starring: George MacKay, Jannis Niewohner, Jeremy Irons
Rating: 3/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
How to report a beggar
Abu Dhabi – Call 999 or 8002626 (Aman Service)
Dubai – Call 800243
Sharjah – Call 065632222
Ras Al Khaimah - Call 072053372
Ajman – Call 067401616
Umm Al Quwain – Call 999
Fujairah - Call 092051100 or 092224411
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final
Kashima Antlers 3 (Nagaki 49’, Serginho 69’, Abe 84’)
Guadalajara 2 (Zaldivar 03’, Pulido 90')
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Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
MATCH INFO
Schalke 0
Werder Bremen 1 (Bittencourt 32')
Man of the match Leonardo Bittencourt (Werder Bremen)
