Tottenham face fine after flare hits linesman in win at Aston Villa

Linesman David Bryan is struck on the neck by a flare thrown by a Tottenham fan at Aston Villa. Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images

A sparkling performance by Andros Townsend in Tottenham Hotspur's 2-0 victory over Aston Villa at Villa Park was overshadowed when an assistant referee was hit by a flare thrown by a member of the visiting support. The Football Association will now launch an investigation into an incident it called "unacceptable" and one that could earn the club a hefty fine.

Two men, aged 25 and 47, were arrested by West Mildands police over the incident. It occurred just after Townsend had given his side the lead in the 31st minute when David Bryan was struck on the back of the neck by the flare and, although he was fine to continue and did not require any treatment, there was a short delay because of the blue smoke on the pitch. Phil Dowd, the referee, said that he was aware of the incident and will be including it in his report. An FA spokesman said: "The FA will investigate this matter, which is unacceptable. We will await the match official's report and will be speaking to the clubs. Such incidents highlight the dangers of pyrotechnics being used in a football stadium."

Tottenham's manager, André Villas-Boas, was equally firm in his condemnation. "It's not great to see and it should be avoided completely," he said. "It touched the linesman and situations like this do not have a place in football. I sincerely hope that it doesn't happen again."

The match itself was notable for the contribution of Townsend, who followed up his England heroics by scoring his first Premier League goal for Tottenham and tormenting Villa's left-back, Antonio Luna. Townsend, who also signed a new four-year deal on Friday, showed no effects fromthe "space monkey" row he was caught up in with Roy Hodgson.

"Alongside the team he grew in the second half and really improved his performance," Villas-Boas said. "He gives us so many attacking options because he is able to take the team forward with his driving ability and then link the play by crossing and assisting. So it was another great performance like we saw for his country.

"He does it naturally. He is very high on motivation, so he wants the ball and has no fear to show for the ball. He is learning different parts of his game and he is getting to know his colleagues better so I think his performances are going to improve in time.

"He has to cope with the amount of public attention he gets. He is a very grounded and down- to-earth person, so he won't have any problems. Before he went to England his confidence was high with Spurs. What he has been doing for Spurs, he did for England and now he's continuing to do well.

"He had to wait for the opportunity when [Aaron] Lennon got injured and the opportunity came against Norwich and Swansea and from then on, he has been excellent. It is early days for Andros. He has shown all his drive to stay at Spurs. He is a fearless player and doesn't fear the competition. Performances like this will guarantee his place in the team."

The victory moved Tottenham up to fifth place and also featured a first league goal in open play from Roberto Soldado after his £26m arrival at White Hart Lane from Valencia last summer. "Soldado, good to see him back in the goals," Villas-Boas said. "The 2-0 is what we deserved and a result that is fair.

World Cup 2014 play-off draw: Portugal face Sweden in battle for Brazil

Iceland, top, will hope to avoid Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo, right, while Sweden and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, bottom left, are unseeded, as are France and Franck Ribéry. Photograph: Getty Images

Portgual will face Sweden in arguably the pick of the European World Cup play-offs, the draw for which took place at Fifa's headquarters in Zurich on Monday afternoon.

The first legs will take place on 15 November, when Sweden will travel to Portugal, France will be in Ukraine, Greece will host Romania and Iceland will entertain Croatia. The second-legs will be played on 19 November.

The four eventual winners will qualify for next summer's finals in Brazil, joining the nine nations that have already progressed as European qualifying-group winners: Belgium, Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, England and the 2010 World Cup winners, Spain.

Portgual finished second to Russia in Group F while Sweden were runners-up to Germany in Group C. The last time the sides met in qualifiers both games finished goalless, yet with Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic likely to feature for the respective sides, there should be plenty of attacking play on show.

Portugal, Ukraine, Greece and Croatia were the seeded nations in the draw. France, who were surpisingly unseeded, face the team who finished runners-up to England in Group H. Iceland, meanwhile, would qualify for their first ever World Cup were they to overcome Croatia.

Cooking to music: why chefs listen to heavy metal

Lars Ulrich of Metallica – René Redzepi is a big fan. Photograph: Reuters

When it was announced that Lars from Metallica was writing the foreword for René Redzepi's forthcoming book, one commentator tweeted: "Presumably the publishers struggled to think of another famous Dane." In fact, the reason why the Noma boss asked the drummer to help rather than, say, Michael Laudrup, Sofie Gråbøl or Whigfield, is because he's genuinely a big fan of the band. He recently revealed that he makes his kitchen staff listen to their music while they're shaving cod liver, making "hazelnut soil" or doing all the other repetitive jobs that go into creating one of the world's most celebrated restaurants.

Some sensitive chefs might feel that this is a kind of weird test of character, rather like Ferran Adrià having his "stagiaires" clean the stones in El Bulli's car park. If you can put up with your boss playing air guitar to Ride the Lightning while you work, then perhaps you've got what it takes to make a two-Michelin-starred meal out of a bit of lichen and some drowsy ants.

It turns out, though, that a liking for full-blooded rock, metal and punk is pretty common in high-end restaurants. When the guests arrive it might all be silent concentration in the kitchen and light classical in the dining room but, an hour or two before, many of the best chefs have Killed by Death blasting out.

David Philpot of Paternoster Chop House, for example, also sticksMetallica on the stereo, along with Nine Inch Nails, Green Day and Stray Cats, and he says that he has employed a lot of chefs who are similar, in appearance at least, to rock stars. "On opening one restaurant with an open kitchen, a very well-spoken lady said to me: 'I notice all your staff are either tattooed or pierced or both, is that mandatory?' I laughed, saying: 'Yes, madam, it shows there's something artistic in them.'"

Simon Rogan from L'Enclume says that "American rock" gets his kitchen going, as well as techno, while Cornwall's Nathan Outlaw is evangelical about the connection between music and cooking. "It's a calming influence in a situation that can be extremely fraught and stressful," he says. "It keeps spirits up and can help with the monotony of repetitive tasks. The tempo is important. In the afternoon, in the run-up to service, it needs to be upbeat to keep everyone going. We get told off by the hotel manager when we're playing Rage Against the Machine or System of a Down too loud!"

The more you think about this, the more sense it makes. Another recent tweet from Redzepi, "We cracked some lamb skulls today", along with a picture of succulent brains, could easily have been from some banned Scandinavian black metal outfit. Equally, the super-fast knife skills of professional chefs involve hand movements that are highly reminiscent of a metal guitarist's "shredding". It seems that being a Michelin-starred chef today is a bit like that Morecambe and Wise sketch where they make breakfast to music, but faster and with louder riffs.

There are, however, still chefs who prefer their work to be carried out in silence. Pierre Gagnaire of Sketch, among other restaurants, says he objects to the whole concept of music being mere background noise. Tony Fleming, of the newly Michelin-starred fish joint at the South Place hotel in east London, has been scarred by experiences at previous restaurants.

"When I was at Criterion, they used to have a big stereo and played Kissfull blast with the bass pumped right up," he says. "The speakers were on my section and it used to piss me right off. Everyone would get pumped and run about like a loon. Then when I took over one particular kitchen as head chef, the brigade of chefs I inherited played heavy metal and punk all day, loudly. That stopped when I started. In my experience, loud music does not make for a focused work environment. It does make people move and lighten their mood perhaps, but not in a good way."

Maybe he's got a point. And any junior chefs who lament the absence of music in their kitchen should reflect that things could be worse. Daniel Clifford of Midsummer House bans music "except at Christmas", but the staff who have helped him win two Michelin stars are unlikely to ask him to bring his iPod into the kitchen. He says, with an unrepentant lack of taste that fortunately he doesn't exhibit at work, that his favourite album to listen to when cooking at home is Stereophonics's Just Enough Education to Perform.

And let's not forget that the chef most closely associated with music is probably Jamie Oliver. In 2002, he put his name to the compilation album Cookin': Music to Cook By, which kicked off with Toploader. More recently, he's tried to make a case for Westlife being perfect for "preparing your salmon". Suddenly a soundtrack of silent concentration and gentle chopping doesn't seem so bad after all.

Cider's cool new image to lead the way in British export push

Magners on ice became a trendy summer drink. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian

It was, in the words of one industry executive, the drink of "students, tramps and the Wurzels". But the perception and popularity of cider has been transformed and now the government wants to get in on the act.

Defra and its agency UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) have published a plan to improve British exports – and cider seems to be its trump card. "As one of the world's leading cider producers, the UK is well placed to leverage this growing opportunity," the plan says. "Worldwide, cider sales are rising rapidly and grew by over 50% in both the USA and Australia in 2011-12."

The drink's place in what David Cameron calls the "global race" for growth is a remarkable turnaround for a product whose appeal was once limited to under-age drinkers and those seeking cheap strong booze.

Paul Bartlett of the National Association of Cider Makers said he was delighted the government was waking up to "a gem", and hoped that with promotion and trade missions, cider could enjoy some of the success of Scotch whisky. He added: "There's growth in Canada, the US, Australia and Scandinavia. And there are pockets in Asia, where hopefully the government are going to help. We are looking at Vietnam, Korea, China. It's the holy grail to crack those markets.

"The American beer market has changed dramatically with the rise of craft beers. Consumers are experimenting with different flavours, and looking at the provenance of their drinks. Cider is jumping on the back of that, offering a natural background, the direct link with apples. And men and women both like it, which is important because more drinking is in mixed groups."

Henry Chevalier of Suffolk's Aspall Cyder pointed out that cider is being sold at the top end of the market in America. Restaurants, he said, include Aspall cider on their wine lists, at $26 a bottle, considerably more than its £2.59 UK price tag. Waiters show the label to drinkers before offering a taste, and they store it in ice buckets.

Billboards advertising English cider varieties have appeared in Sydney, exploiting a growing awareness of the drink. And British farmers are waking up to the potential and turning over land to apple orchards.

Chevalier said the change in cider's fortunes came when Bulmers' Irish rival, Magners, launched in Britain in 2005. The following year brought a hot summer and a multi-million pound Magners marketing campaign to encourage serving cider over ice made it the trendy new drink.

But there were other factors in play. "If you go back 15 years, the image was tramps, students and the Wurzels. It was very cheap, it wasn't the best quality and there was a vicious price war going on between Bulmers and Taunton. But when Bulmers owner Scottish & Newcastle was bought by Heineken [in 2008], it was the first time an internationally minded company got hold of a big cider brand. The parochial view was that there was nowhere to sell cider except England. Heineken disagreed, and others have followed.

Saving the planet from short-termism will take man-on-the-moon commitment

President John F Kennedy's moon speech was made in an age when both sides on Capitol Hill were prepared to invest in the future. Photograph: John Rous/AP

We choose to go to the moon. So said John F Kennedy in September 1962 as he pledged a manned lunar landing by the end of the decade.

The US president knew that his country's space programme would be expensive. He knew it would have its critics, but he took the long-term view. Warming to his theme in Houston that day, JFK went on: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others too."

That was the world's richest country at the apogee of its power in an age where both Democrats and Republicans were prepared to invest in the future. Kennedy's predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower, took a plan for a system of interstate highways and made sure it happened.

Contrast that with today's America, which looks less like the leader of the free world than a banana republic with a reserve currency. Planning for the long term now involves last-ditch deals on Capitol Hill to ensure the federal government can remain open until January and debts can be paid at least until February.

The US is not the only country with advanced short-termism. It merely provides the most egregious example of the disease. This is a world of fast food and short attention spans, of politicians so dominated by a 24/7 news agenda that they have lost the habit of planning for the long term.

Britain provides another example of the trend. Governments of both left and right have for years put energy policy in the "too hard to think about box". They have not been able to make up their minds whether to commit to renewables as Germany has done, or to nuclear as France has done. So, the nation of Rutherford is now prepared to have a totalitarian country take a majority stake in a new generation of nuclear power stations.

Politics, technology and human nature all militate in favour of kicking the can down the road. The most severe financial and economic crisis in more than half a century has further discouraged policymakers from raising their eyes from the present to the distant horizon.

Clearly, though, the world faces long-term challenges that will only become more acute through prevarication. These include coping with a bigger and ageing global population, ensuring growth is sustainable and equitable, providing resources to pay for modern transport and energy infrastructure, and reshaping international institutions so they represent the world as it is in the early 21st century rather than as it was in 1945.

Pascal Lamy had a stab at tackling some of these difficult issues last week when he presented the findings of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations, which the former World Trade Organisation chief has been chairing for the past year.

The commission's report, Now for the Long Term, looks at some "mega trends" that will shape the world in the decades to come, and lists the challenges under five headings: society, resources, health, geopolitics, governance.

Change will be difficult, the study suggests, because problems are complex, institutions are inadequate, faith in politicians is low and short-termism is well-entrenched.

It cites examples of collective success, such as the Montreal convention to prevent ozone depletion, the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals, and the G20 action to prevent the great recession of 2008-09 turning into a full-blown global slump. It also cites examples of collective failure – fish stocks depletion, the deadlocked Copenhagenclimate change summit of 2009.

The report suggests a range of long-term ideas worthy of serious consideration. It urges a coalition between the G20, 30 companies and 40 cities to lead the fight against climate change. It would like "sunset clauses" for all publicly funded international institutions to ensure they are fit for purpose; removal of perverse subsidies on hydrocarbons and agriculture with the money redirected to the poor; introduction of CyberEx, an early warning platform aimed at preventing cyber attacks; a Worldstat statistical agency to collect and ensure quality of data; and investment in the younger generation through conditional cash transfers and job guarantees.

Lamy expressed concern that the ability to address challenges was being undermined by the absence of a collective vision for society. The purpose of the report, he said, was to build "a chain from knowledge to awareness to mobilising political energy to action".

Full marks for trying, but this is easier said than done. Take trade, where Lamy has spent the past decade, first as Europe's trade commissioner then as head of the WTO, trying to piece together a new multilateral deal. This is an area in which all 150-plus WTO members agree in principle about the need for greater liberalisation but in which it has proved impossible to reach agreement in talks that started in 2001.

Nor will a shakeup of the international institutions be plain sailing. It is a given that developing countries, especially the bigger ones such as China, India and Brazil, should have a bigger say in the way the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are run. Yet it's proved hard to persuade developed world countries to cede some of their voting rights, and the deal is still being held up by US foot dragging. These, remember, are the low-hanging fruit.

Another conclave of the global great and good is looking at what should be done in the much trickier area of climate change. The premise of theGlobal Commission on the Economy and Climate is that nothing will be done unless finance ministers are convinced of the need for action, especially given the damage caused by a deep recession and sluggish recovery.

Instead of preaching to the choir the plan is to show how to achieve key economic objectives – growth, investment, secure public finances, fairer distribution of income – while at the same time protecting the planet. The pitch to finance ministers will be that tackling climate change will require plenty of upfront investment that will boost growth rather than harm it.

Will this approach work? Well, maybe. But it will require business to see the long-term benefits of greening the economy as well as the short-term costs, because that would lead to the burst of technological innovation needed to accelerate progress. And it will require the same sort of commitment it took to win a world war or put a man on the moon.

Food waste: Tesco reveals most bagged salad and half its bread is thrown out

Tesco says most of its salad is wasted. Photograph: Sarah Lee

Tesco is dropping some food promotions after finding that two-thirds of produce grown for bagged salad is wasted.

The supermarket giant has revealed food waste figures for its operations for the first time, revealing that 68% of salad to be sold in bags is thrown out – 35% of it in the home.

As a result of the findings, it is to end multi-buys on large bags of salad and is developing mix-and-match promotions for smaller bags in a bid to help customers reduce the amount they are wasting.

It is also removing "display until" dates from fresh fruit and vegetables, using smaller cases in stores and rearranging 600 in-store bakeries to reduce the amount of bread on display, with the aim of better stock control and less waste.

The retailer found that 40% of apples were wasted, and just under half of bakery items.

A quarter of grapes are wasted between the vine and the fruit bowl and a fifth of all bananas are unused – with customers throwing one in 10 in the bin.

Tesco said it was involved in trials with apple growers to reduce pests and disease and will provide simple tips to customers about storing the fruit after finding that more than a quarter of wastage happens at home.

It will also share tips with customers about how to use leftover bread, and is working with grape and banana suppliers to improve delivery times and conditions.

The supermarket tracked 25 best-selling products and combined information with data from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) to give an overall food waste "footprint" for each item.

The data shows that in the first six months of this year, 28,500 tonnes of food waste were generated in Tesco's stores and distribution centres.

The last figures published by Wrap in 2011 estimated that 15 million tonnes of food waste was generated each year in the UK.

Tesco commercial director of group food Matt Simister said: "We've all got a responsibility to tackle food waste and there is no quick-fix single solution. Little changes can make a big difference, like storing fruit and vegetables in the right way.

"Families are wasting an estimated £700 a year and we want to help them keep that money in their pockets, rather than throwing it in the bin.

"We're playing our part too and making changes to our processes and in store. Ending multi-buy promotions on large packs of bagged salads is one way we can help, but this is just the start and we'll be reviewing what else we can do. We're working with our suppliers to try to cut waste at all stages of the journey from farm to fork."

Wrap director Richard Swannell said: "We welcome Tesco's approach to tackling food waste across their whole supply chain, and by identifying the hot spots they can tackle these areas effectively.

"Food waste is a global issue and collaborative action is essential if we are to successfully reduce food waste and reap the financial and environmental benefits of doing so."

Merlin Entertainments to float on London Stock Exchange

A worker at Legoland – owned by Merlin Entertainments – readies life-sized Star Wars figures for display. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Merlin Entertainments is planning to float on the London Stock Exchange in a move which could value it at around £3bn.

The private-equity backed owner of Alton Towers and Madame Tussauds said it would offer at least 20% of the company to institutional and private investors, using £200m

from the sale of shares to reduce debt.

Merlin is the world's second largest operator of visitor attractions behind Walt Disney, with 54 million visitors and £1.1bn of revenues in 2012. It has a total of 99 attractions in 22 countries including Legoland, the London Eye, Sea Life and Thorpe Park in the UK. Merlin abandoned earlier flotation plans in 2010 because of market volatility.

Private equity shareholders Blackstone and CVC as well as Kirkbi, a Danish family-owned investment company, are expected to sell a proportion of their stake.

Nick Varney, Merlin's chief executive, said: "Merlin Entertainments comes to the market with a consistent record of strong growth in both revenues and profits and bright prospects for the future.

"We have successfully followed a clear and proven strategy to build a high-growth international family entertainment business, built on strong brands and a portfolio of attractions balanced by geographies, products and demographics.

"The initial public offering will provide Merlin with the platform for our next stage of development and allow us to plan for the longer term."

Private investors will have the opportunity to buy a minimum of £1,000 shares, and will be entitled to a 30% discount on two adult Merlin annual passes or one family pass.

Merlin said it was confident that future growth would be driven by an increase in leisure time, international tourism, and the short break market.

It is already developing a Legoland Park in Dubai and is also targeting potential expansion in Japan, South Korea and China.

Group revenue increased by 11.1% to £888.7m in the 35 weeks to 31 August, with like-for-like growth of 7.1%.