Roberto Martinez insists Everton can snatch a shock place in the Uefa Champions League after a fortunate 2-1 victory over Cardiff kept alive his side's top-four ambitions.
The win marked a seventh consecutive success for the Merseyside club on their own turf although it required a 93th minute winner from Seamus Coleman that flew into the Cardiff net via a mis-hit shot.
Earlier on Saturday, Gerard Deulofeu had put Everton in front at Goodison Park thanks to a lucky deflection off defender Steven Caulker, a lead which his side held for only nine minutes before Juan Cala equalised for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team.
Sixth placed Everton are eight points behind fourth placed Arsenal and realistically they appear to be competing with Tottenham and Manchester United for fifth place and Europa League football.
But Toffees boss Martinez has not ruled out an even more memorable finish and a place in Europe’s elite club competition.
“We all believe we are capable of beating anyone and we have three big games at Goodison - against Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City,” he said.
“We have five good away games as well. When you talk about the league, you have to answer questions about where you’re going to finish. But now is the moment when, with 51 points, mathematically we can reach good spots in the league.
“There are 30 points left to play for. Are we going to get all 30? I don’t think so but that has to be our target.
“It will take incredible resilience, patience and character and I think you saw that from the players today.”
Solskjaer has concerns at the other end of the table as his side failed to move out of the bottom three and the Bluebirds manager was unhappy at referee Roger East’s decision not to award a penalty after Wilfried Zaha fell under a challenge from Sylvain Distin.
“It was a stonewall penalty for Wilf,” said Solskjaer. “I don’t know how many times we have to look at us claiming a penalty and not getting it.
“It’s about time we did. We’ve had that quite a few times since I’ve come here and I don’t think it was because we were the away team.
“We have had stonewallers at home with Kenwyne (Jones) as well and our crowd is quite loud too. Today, it’s a cert.
“He weaved his way through two, three, four defenders when Distin trips him up. But you can talk about it all day long, look at the video, that doesn’t help, does it?”
One consolation for Solskjaer was the performance of David Marshall, one which Martinez claimed was as good as one will ever see from a goalkeeper.
“He’s been brilliant all season, David Marshall,” said Solskjaer.
“He was outstanding again today. The two goals he couldn’t do anything about - the first one is a deflection, the second one a mis-hit. He was outstanding.”
And Solskjaer remains defiant about his team’s chances of survival, adding: “I’m definitely encouraged.
“The performance was outstanding, phenomenal effort, team spirit, they created chances and they had what you call ‘cojones’.
“They’ve come to a difficult place and they’ve given Everton a good game, that’s encouraging. But we sit here with no points and we need points.”
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A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
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
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The biog
Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology
Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India
Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur
How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993
Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters
Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo
MATCH INFO
Tottenham Hotspur 0 Everton 1 (Calvert-Lewin 55')
Man of the Match Allan (Everton)
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Etihad (etihad.com) flies from Abu Dhabi to Mykonos, with a flight change to its partner airline Olympic Air in Athens. Return flights cost from Dh4,105 per person, including taxes.
Where to stay
The modern-art-filled Ambassador hotel (myconianambassador.gr) is 15 minutes outside Mykonos Town on a hillside 500 metres from the Platis Gialos Beach, with a bus into town every 30 minutes (a taxi costs €15 [Dh66]). The Nammos and Scorpios beach clubs are a 10- to 20-minute walk (or water-taxi ride) away. All 70 rooms have a large balcony, many with a Jacuzzi, and of the 15 suites, five have a plunge pool. There’s also a private eight-bedroom villa. Double rooms cost from €240 (Dh1,063) including breakfast, out of season, and from €595 (Dh2,636) in July/August.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
