MANCHESTER // Manuel Pellegrini has said Manchester City could take the Premier League title race down to the wire because Liverpool and Chelsea will drop more points before the end of the season.
City are title outsiders after a 3-2 defeat at leaders Liverpool and then a 2-2 draw with Sunderland in midweek left them six points off top spot.
That gap will become nine points if Liverpool win at Norwich on Sunday.
But Pellegrini, whose team host West Bromwich Albion in a must-win fixture on Monday, is sure City still have a chance to overhaul the leaders because the unpredictable nature of the season suggests Liverpool and Chelsea could both slip up before the race is run.
Pellegrini's assessment was made before Chelsea slumped to a 2-1 defeat at home to Sunderland on Saturday, a shock result which confirmed his theory.
It also opened the door for City to move closer to the second-placed Blues, who are currently four points ahead of the Eastlands outfit having played two games more.
“I am absolutely sure the other teams will drop points in the same way we did in the last game. We have 15 more points to play for and we will try and win the most amount of points,” Pellegrini said.
“Then, at the end of the season, we will see who has the title. All of us want to win as much as we can. We must try to finish this season in the best way.
“The game against Sunderland was a disappointment because we always want to win but as I said before that game, playing against relegation-threatened teams during the last games of the season is not easy.
“The performance in every game is very important and I hope we are going to improve our performance against West Brom.”
Pellegrini wants City to guard against complacency and midfielder James Milner is certain West Brom will offer a similar test to Sunderland as they battle to pull away from the relegation zone.
“West Brom will be a tough game and we have to bounce back after a tough couple of moments in the season,” Milner said.
“We need to make sure we keep fighting, which we will do. It’s probably a similar game to Sunderland and they’re going to come and look to hit us on the break like a lot of teams do.”
City’s David Silva is doubtful with the ankle injury that kept him out of the Sunderland match, while team-mate Jesus Navas could also miss out once again with a similar injury.
Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure will be absent with a groin injury he suffered against Liverpool and Serbia centre-back Matija Nastasic is out with a knee injury.
Meanwhile, the Baggies are aiming to respond to the blow of conceding an injury-time equaliser to draw 3-3 with Tottenham last weekend after leading 3-0.
It came just a fortnight after they had surrendered the lead in the dying seconds to draw by the same scoreline with Cardiff.
Albion boss Pepe Mel said: “Our feelings are very positive. To score three goals against Tottenham is a positive. We take that from the game.”
And the Spaniard, who will come up against an old rival in Pellegrini from their La Liga days, admits watching fellow strugglers Sunderland draw at Eastlands left him with mixed emotions.
“This has two possible readings,” he added. “One is that Sunderland gained a point but the other interpretation is that we can go there and get a point.”
The Baggies have claimed eight points from their previous five matches and Mel, who will hold talks over his future once the club’s fate has been settled, remains upbeat over their prospects of beating the drop.
He added: “It is impossible that West Brom will go down. It isn’t something I’ve talked about. I will speak about my future after that.”
sports@thenational.ae
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The%20specs%20
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THE BIO
Favourite author - Paulo Coelho
Favourite holiday destination - Cuba
New York Times or Jordan Times? NYT is a school and JT was my practice field
Role model - My Grandfather
Dream interviewee - Che Guevara
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South Africa World Cup squad
South Africa: Faf du Plessis (c), Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock (w), JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dale Steyn, Rassie van der Dussen.
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
US households add $601bn of debt in 2019
American households borrowed another $601 billion (Dh2.2bn) in 2019, the largest yearly gain since 2007, just before the global financial crisis, according to February data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Fuelled by rising mortgage debt as homebuyers continued to take advantage of low interest rates, the increase last year brought total household debt to a record high, surpassing the previous peak reached in 2008 just before the market crash, according to the report.
Following the 22nd straight quarter of growth, American household debt swelled to $14.15 trillion by the end of 2019, the New York Fed said in its quarterly report.
In the final three months of the year, new home loans jumped to their highest volume since the fourth quarter of 2005, while credit cards and auto loans also added to the increase.
The bad debt load is taking its toll on some households, and the New York Fed warned that more and more credit card borrowers — particularly young people — were falling behind on their payments.
"Younger borrowers, who are disproportionately likely to have credit cards and student loans as their primary form of debt, struggle more than others with on-time repayment," New York Fed researchers said.
The specs: 2019 Chevrolet Bolt EV
Price, base: Dh138,000 (estimate)
Engine: 60kWh battery
Transmission: Single-speed Electronic Precision Shift
Power: 204hp
Torque: 360Nm
Range: 520km (claimed)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
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TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 194hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Price: from Dh155,000
On sale: now
Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Company%20profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
More from UAE Human Development Report:
In numbers
Number of Chinese tourists coming to UAE in 2017 was... 1.3m
Alibaba’s new ‘Tech Town’ in Dubai is worth... $600m
China’s investment in the MIddle East in 2016 was... $29.5bn
The world’s most valuable start-up in 2018, TikTok, is valued at... $75bn
Boost to the UAE economy of 5G connectivity will be... $269bn
The%20Roundup
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Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE
There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.
It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.
What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.
When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.
It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.
This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.
It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
Company%20Profile
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