Chelsea-Manchester City Betting Preview: Mourinho’s men to take advantage of the gung-ho guests

Chelsea will be looking to extend their 100 per cent Premier League home record when they welcome Manchester City to Stamford Bridge in Sunday’s high profile clash.

Four wins from four this season means Jose Mourinho has now gone 64 league games since suffering defeat in front of his own fans and his side are 11/8 (2.38) favourites with Paddy Power to earn another victory against their fellow title contenders, while new customers can back the hosts at a special enhanced price of 4/1 (5.00).

After two defeats and a draw, the visitors finally secured their first league away win of the season with a 3-1 victory over West Ham last weekend, and are available at 21/10 (3.10) to come out on top in London once again.

The two sides played out an uninspiring 0-0 draw when they met in last season’s corresponding fixture, and you can get odds of 9/4 (3.25) on them cancelling each other out once again here.

Manuel Pellegrini arrived at the Etihad Stadium in the summer promising to play an attractive brand of attacking football and has so far been as good as his word.

While this approach has seen the former Malaga boss oversee an impressive 4-1 home win in the Manchester derby, it has also resulted in 3-2 defeats at the hands of both Cardiff City and Aston Villa on the road, and could leave them cruelly exposed when they travel to Stamford Bridge, especially if they are without the services of influential captain Vincent Kompany.

With 15 goals to their name in the last five fixtures, the Blues will be confident of pouncing upon any Manchester City mistakes, and even money (2.00) is not to be missed on them scoring at least twice for the 14th time in 16 home fixtures, particularly as the visitors have conceded two or more in five of their last nine league games on the road.

Paddy Power are promising to refund all first goalscorer, last goalscorer, correct score and scorecast single bets should Sergio Aguero score the final goal, a tempting offer considering the Argentine has struck five times in his last three matches.

With this in mind, odds of 9/1 (10.00) are well worth a look for the in-form Eden Hazard scoring last, as he has done so in both of his last two appearances.

New Paddy Power customers can back Chelsea at 4/1 (5.0) thanks to a special enhanced price for this game

Sign up with Paddy Power for up to £250 in free bets

Al Hain-Cole is an experienced tipster and avid follower of European football. He specialises in accumulators and if you would like to

Balotelli needs to learn from Kaka – Abate

AC Milan defender Ignazio Abate thinks Mario Balotelli can learn how to become a model professional from Kaka.

The former Manchester City striker has been battling a thigh injury, but the right-back believes he is not taking the necessary steps to return as quickly as possible.

Kaka has also spent the last month nursing an injury, only returning to action over the past week, and Abate feels Balotelli can learn a thing or two from the former Real Madrid midfielder’s strict training regimen.

'[Kaka] is a shining example for all, especially for the younger ones,' he told Gazzetta dello Sport. 'When he was injured, he came in the morning and left in the evening.

'For someone who has earned as much as he has and already won all he can in his career, he could afford to give the bare minimum, and instead he behaves like a top player.

'He gives everything to return to what he once was. [Balotelli] must understand that he is no longer a kid and that certain behaviours are not going to go over well. He needs to grow up as quickly as possible.'

However, Abate, 26, is confident the future is still bright for Balotelli and says the striker has all the skills and resources at his disposal to be one of the best players in the world if he can fix his attitude.

He added: 'The fact is that he has incredible potential, of which even he realises. To me, after [Lionel] Messi, [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, he’s next. We are fortunate enough to work for a club like Milan and in a place like Milanello.

'It is wrong to think of coming here just to punch the clock, and then go home. We should devote ourselves to our work.'

We’ll show no mercy, Wilshere warns Palace

Wilshere warned Arsenal have no intention of showing any sympathy for Palace’s plight. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

LONDON: Jack Wilshere is convinced Arsenal will bounce back from their European disappointment when the Premier League leaders bid to cement their position at the top against managerless Crystal Palace today.

Arsene Wenger’s team suffered their first defeat in 13 matches in all competitions on Tuesday as Robert Lewandowski’s late goal gave Borussia Dortmund a 2-1 Champions League group stage win at the Emirates Stadium.

But the Gunners, currently two points clear of second placed Chelsea, have a golden opportunity to erase the bitter memory of their first loss since the opening day of the season when they travel to face crisis club Palace at Selhurst Park.

Wilshere warned Arsenal have no intention of showing any sympathy for Palace’s plight.

“We can’t let this result affect us now, especially in the Premier League where we are on a great run,” he said. “It will be tough away at Palace, it always is, they will fight for every ball and it will be a different game from Dortmund, but we still have to bounce back straight away.”

Third placed Liverpool, two points behind the leaders, host West Bromwich Albion knowing a victory would keep them firmly in contention at the top before a crunch clash at Arsenal on November 2.

Manchester United have endured a troubled start to life under new manager David Moyes and they face Stoke at Old Trafford already eight points off top spot.

United have little margin for error if they want to mount a successful title defence and Stoke boss Mark Hughes added to the pressure on Moyes by claiming his former team look vulnerable.

“You have to be careful. There are only a certain amount of games you can lose,” said Hughes.

“They have lost three and maybe they are a little bit vulnerable at the moment.”

Football: Dortmund look for revenge in Ruhr derby

A victory at the Veltins Arena would therefore allow Jurgen Klopp’s side to get one over on the Royal Blues as well as keep the pressure on Bayern Munich PHOTO: FILE

BERLIN: 

Fresh from beating Arsenal away in the Champions League in midweek, Borussia Dortmund will be looking for a measure of revenge when they make the shorter trip to face Schalke in the Ruhr derby today.

Dortmund earned widespread praise last season as they made it to the Champions League final, but their fans will not forget the fact that they lost both meetings with their neighbours from 30 kilometres along the road.

A victory at the Veltins Arena would therefore allow Jurgen Klopp’s side to get one over on the Royal Blues as well as keep the pressure on Bayern Munich, the leaders who come into the weekend a point clear of Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen.

SA vs Pakistan: Du Plessis fined 50% match fee over tampering

A screengrab showing the South African bowler tampering the ball.

DUBAI: South African player Faf du Plessis was fined 50% of match fee after he was summoned for a hearing into alleged ball tampering during the second Test against Pakistan in Dubai, an official confirmed on Saturday.

“Du Plessis is fined 50 percent of his match fee after breaching ICC code of conduct on Friday, ” the ICC said.

The South African team were penalised five runs and umpires ordered the ball to be changed on the third day of the Test.

South Africa media officer Lerato Malekutu confirmed to AFP that Du Plessis was the player summoned by match referee David Boon of Australia.

“The hearing took place Friday night and we will have an outcome on Saturday,” said the official.

Du Plessis, South Africa’s Twenty20 captain, faces a range of possible penalties including forfeiting his match fees and suspension from future games – he could miss one Test, two one-day internationals or two Twenty20s.

South Africa vice-captain AB de Villiers Friday denied the ball-tampering allegations.

“Honestly, we’re not the team that scratches the ball,” de Villiers said. “We don’t cheat, it’s as simple as that. I know Faffy very well, he’s the last man to try anything like that.”

De Villiers said du Plessis was given the task to look after the shine on the ball.

“It’s not an easy job, I thought he did it very well,” de Villiers said.

Pakistan is the only team previously to have been penalised five penalty runs for ball tampering, against England in the Oval Test of 2006.

Pakistan’s then captain Inzamamul Haq walked off in anger, prompting Australian umpire Darrell Hair to declare the Test forfeited – the only such instance in Test cricket’s history.

Box Office history: Racing to Rs150m milestone in 9 days

Waar was the biggest scorer in terms of box office this Eid, followed by Boss and some smaller local films.

KARACHI / LAHORE / PESHAWAR: 

The box office battle between Waar and Boss has turned out to be a lucrative one. The two major releases coupled with smaller Urdu, Pashto and Punjabi films released this Eidul Azha have together raked in approximately Rs150 million at the domestic box office — the highest ‘first week’ collection in the history of Pakistani cinema.

After a ground breaking start on Eidul Azha, business faced an overall slump. Bagging a whopping Rs70 million in the first five days, Waar could only make a little more than Rs27 million in the weekdays that followed. Although it is not considered to be a low turnout for weekdays it is also not as significant as was expected. Surprisingly, Akshay Kumar’s Boss has had steady business, and from an initial weekend collection of Rs20.6 million, the film did slow and steady progress by reaching the Rs40 million mark in its first week.

Traditionally, box office collections are gathered post-Zuhr prayers on a Friday. But since Eid fell on Wednesday, the collections were recorded the next Friday, making the ‘first week’ a nine-day run. On Eidul Fitr, the box office collection amounted to Rs100 million as Chennai Express sped ahead with a gross return of Rs54.3 million in the Eid week. Eidul Fitr fell on a Friday with an added public holiday on Thursday, so the box office ‘week’ comprised eight days instead of seven. Since then, five screens at Neuplex Cinema Karachi and three at Centaurus Cinema Islamabad have been launched, giving an advantage to films released on Eidul Azha in terms of screen space.

Waar was given a substantially larger number of screens as compared to Boss, primarily because the owners of Atrium and Centaurus cinemas are also distributors of the film. For instance, in Atrium and Centaurus, the ratio of screens allocated to Waar versus Boss was approximately 20 to six per day.  In Shabistan/Prince Lahore, the allocation was five to Bossand four to Waar per day.

Despite the obvious difference in the content of Waar and Boss, the overall success and competition for both at the box office is a positive sign for Pakistani cinemas. It is a great achievement that out of the 63 screens available in Pakistan, 17 have been established this year and more are to follow in the coming year.

The expected business of Waar in its total running in Pakistan is Rs170 million, with Bossbringing in an estimated total Rs70 million.

The lesser giants in Lahore and Peshawar

Besides the clash of the titans, the local box office saw business from small budget local films. Urdu film Super Girl starring Nida Chaudhry, appealed to younger audience members who enjoyed watching Chaudhry’s provocative dance numbers, and did reasonably well considering it was made with a small budget. Screened in Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad, Dera Nawab, Sialkot, Sarghoda, Sheikhapura and Lahore, it made an estimated Rs2.5 million.

The sole Punjabi film Sharaabi starring Shaan, Saima and Nida Chaudhry made less thanSuper Girl, but had an even smaller budget. This was screened in Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad, and Sheikhapura. Another film Gunda Geet, made by film-maker Shehzad Gujjar and screened at the Odeon cinema, had a very poor turnout.

According to Qaiser Sanaullah of Lahore’s Metropole Cinema, who is also the general secretary of the Cinema Owners Association, the general turnout in the walled city was lower than expected this Eid. He explained that the fall in numbers can be accounted for by the higher costs tied to Eidul Azha. “Less people turned up this Eid because there were household expenses compared to the small Eid which has less spending,” he said.

“The poor individual ends up spending thousands on sacrificial animals while the rich spend lakhs. There are also more family functions connected with this Eid,” he added.

Despite this decline in viewers, he maintained that films had a good run at the box office and that Waar and Boss generated ‘significant business’. “Overall Waar did even better. The makers managed to retain a lot of viewers by using subtitles,” he continued. He felt, however, that the film lost viewing in more remote areas. “If it had been in Urdu, I think it would have done more business,” he said.

Four new Pashto films Orbal (starring Meera), Gandagir (the first HD Pashto action film), Zadi Pakhtun and Gherat were also released in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Eidul Azha, but no Urdu movie was shown in Peshawar. According to film producers, all the films were displayed on single screens due to which business remained low in the initial week their release.  The four movies will be shown in Karachi and Kabul in the coming days.

The distributors, however, were unwilling to disclose box office figures due to taxation concerns.

Big Money

Eid box office collection

Waar: Rs97 million

Boss: Rs40 million

Super Girl, Sharaabi, Gunda Geet, Orbal, Gandagir, Zadi Pakhtun and Gherat: Rs8 million

Total: Rs145 million

Fashion Police: Sequins in shambles!

Rubya Chaudhry went a tad overboard with her disco ball sequined dress at the Red Mango launch in Karachi.

We are fans of all that glistens but sometimes, one can go horribly wrong with glamming up. While we adore model Rubya Chaudhry’s perky and bold fashion statements, she went a tad overboard with her multi-coloured disco ball sequined dress at the Red Mango launch in Karachi.

The charge sheet

Hair and make-up

Rubya’s front-twirl hairdo doesn’t do much to redeem the outfit. While her skin looks fresh, her flicked eyeliner and coral pink lip colour are unexciting with this outfit.

Outfit

The model’s outfit is inarguably a miss! Her purple, silver and black sequined dress is neither the right length nor the right fit. It looks flimsy and the black sheer leggings do nothing to tone down the dress.

Accessories and shoes

The silver-lined mauve suede block heels are certainly not the silver lining of her look. She accessorises with a thin silver bracelet. Boring!

Bail out!

Berenice Marlohe

The Bond girl epitomised glitz and glamour at the Skyfall premiere in Paris. She dressed in a sequined figure-hugging silver gown, which was the right fit and size. Her black platform heels looked great with the outfit. She flaunted a loose updo and enhanced her look with dramatic make-up and red lips. Parfait, we say!

Kate Middleton

At her first post-baby gala dinner, Kate Middleton looked stunning in a Jenny Packham pale gold sequined gown with a crystal motif. With her signature loose waves and lined eyes and pale lips, the Duchess looked ravishing. We really like her matching glittery heels too!

Naomi Watts

Does she look gorgeous or does she look gorgeous? She was surely a head-turner at the Oscars 2013! We love her elegant taste and the poise with which she carries herself. She wore a beautiful custom Armani sequined gunmetal grey gown. Her subtle eye make-up and nude lips kept the spotlight on her fab dress. We love the updo and minimal accessories that she sported.