Historically,  the Sunday paper is the big one. In the Western world, anyway.

Here in the UAE, Sunday actually is Monday. The first day of the work week.

But let’s make believe it’s our biggest and best section of the week.

What are our top 10 stories in the paper tomorrow? Let’s count them down.

10. The U.S. team making the finals of the world basketball championships in Istanbul. Kevin Durant scores 38 in a victory over Lithuania. A bit of an odd choice, because we like the NBA some, but this isn’t the NBA … but it’s a world championship, so we have interest. Plus, the Yanks finished in time to make our deadline.

9. Rafael Nadal makes the U.S. Open final with a chance to complete a personal Grand Slam. The U.S. Open is the one he’s never won. This moved just in time for our paper. Federer still had his semi to play. We like tennis.

8. New Zealand completes an unbeaten run through the Tri Nations rugby tournament.  This involved South Africa and Australia as well in a multi-week batch of games, and the Kiwis never lost. We like rugby, too.  A lot. Even when the countries involved are not England.

7. An English cricketer denies having taunted a Pakistani player about the ongoing scandal involving Pakistani national team players consorting with gamblers. England and Pakistan are playing a series of one-day matches, and the scandal is hot stuff.

6. A thoroughbred named Rewilding, owned by the ruler of Dubai and favored to win the big race, finished a badly beaten sixth in the St. Leger race at Doncaster. And the whole stable wonders what happened.

5. Fernando Alonso puts Ferrari on the poll at Monza. We love Formula One. Anyway, Ferrari hadn’t been on the pole in an F1 race for two years. Then gets a breakthrough at the Italian Grand Prix,  Ferrari’s”home” track.

4. Chelsea continues to roll. The defending Premier League champions pummel West Ham 3-1 in a London derby. Chelsea is 4-0-0 and has outscored the opposition, what, 14-1?

3. Manchester City, the team owned by a sheikh from Abu Dhabi, contrives to suffer a tie with visiting Blackpool. This is a bad result for City, which is trying to buy its way into the upper echelon of the league. A massive gaffe by the keeper allows Blackpool to score in a 1-1 tie.

2. Manchester United blows a 3-1 lead and suffers a 3-3 draw at Everton. Two things: ManU already is four points behind Chelsea and Wayne Rooney, who was linked to high-class call girls last week, not only didn’t start at Everton (where he is loathed), the coach didn’t even put him on the bench. We will be talking more about this in the days to come.

1. Barcelona loses to a promoted side in La Liga. Yes. True story. Barca lost to a team named Hercules. Dude named Valdez scored twice for Hercules, and Barca fans were so shocked they booed their team off the pitch. Of late, Barcelona and Real Madrid tend to lose to nobody except each other. The Spanish league is really getting unbalanced. Then this. A stunner. Like UC Davis beating USC.