Chapter 238 Manchester City Crash?Mourinho's Psychological Warfare 【Transition Chapter】
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Xian Xue Niao
Chapter 238 Manchester City Crash?Mourinho's psychological warfare [transitional chapter]
1月23日，曼城主场3:0横扫西汉姆联，两回合以9:0的比分挺进联赛杯的决赛。
Lin Quan made a pass and shot, Aguero scored a goal, and De Bruyne also scored a goal with a free kick.
Manchester City's frontcourt is blooming more, and the state is hot.
Two days later, Manchester City defeated FA Cup rival Watford 4:2 at home and advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.
In this game, Aguero, who came off the bench, showed his power and scored three goals alone.
And in his hat-trick, two goals were assisted by De Bruyne.
De Bruyne has performed well in two consecutive games, making Manchester City fans quickly remember this young man who looks like a cartoon character.
On January 1, in the 29rd round of the Premier League, Manchester City beat Tottenham 23:5 at White Hart Lane, completing a home and away double play against Tottenham, and both times were massacres.
Poor Tottenham conceded 11 goals against Manchester City in a season, directly breaking the team history record, and left a phobia.
There were a lot of goals scored by Manchester City in this game. Lin Quan, Aguero, De Bruyne, Jovetic, Kompany and others all scored goals.
After adding two new aids to the team's midfield, Manchester City's offensive potential has been further developed, which is even more terrifying than the first half of the season.
"Unbeaten in 23 rounds, who can stop this Manchester City? "
"Another Arsenal?Manchester City may break Arsenal's unbeaten record! "
The current longest unbeaten record in the Premier League is Arsenal's 03 unbeaten games in the 05-49 cross-season. This is also the second longest unbeaten record in the history of the five major leagues.
With the fierce competition in the Premier League, Arsenal's record has a very high gold content.
Because of this, few latecomers can threaten the existence of this record.
After defeating Tottenham in the away game, Manchester City has squeezed into the top ten in Premier League history with 23 unbeaten Premier League rounds.
Only 9 teams ahead of them have more unbeaten games than them. With Manchester City's current state, they are likely to catch up with these teams and further improve their historical rankings.
However, just when everyone thought that Manchester City would continue their unbeaten record in the league, they had an upset at home.
In the 24th round of the league, Manchester City lost 0:1 at home to Chelsea, and both the season unbeaten record and the home unbeaten gold medal were broken.
In this game, Mourinho took a very targeted countermeasure against Pellegrini's formation.
He formed an extreme defensive counterattack lineup, and arranged three sweeping midfielders on the field to press De Bruyne and Kroos' passes and receptions.
Matic, the new aid Chelsea bought from Benfica at a high price during the winter break, performed very well in this game.
His unsparing running, exaggerated defensive coverage and interception range, and strong aggression all made technical players like De Bruyne and Kroos suffer.
Kroos and De Bruyne were either violated or made frequent mistakes. Their passes could not pass into Chelsea's penalty area.
Without the passing of the two, the offense of one's own team lost its previous fluency.
The offensive players piled up in the frontcourt became decorations, and there was no way to threaten the opponent's goal.
However, Lin Quan's breakthroughs were always blocked by the opponent's iron wall. Cross wanted to control the rhythm of the game, but he almost made a mistake because of the opponent's counterattack.
Chelsea's counterattacks and counterattacks are not only concise, but also efficient.
Seeing Mourinho's steady command on the sidelines, people once wondered if they had traveled through time and space and saw the blue team in its heyday eight years ago!
At the end of the game, Manchester City has an advantage in almost all statistics.
控球率65%对35%，射门次数25对13，射正次数7次对6次，角球数12次对7次，越位0次对4次，黄牌2张对4张。
However, the victory belongs to Chelsea. Their zero seals also ended Manchester City's record of scoring goals in 1178 Premier League home games in 61 days.
And Manchester City is only 66 games away from breaking the longest record of 5 Premier League games held by Manchester United!
After the loss, the mood of the team was very low.
Especially De Bruyne himself, he tried his best in this game and wanted to perform well in front of his old club, proving to Mourinho that giving up on me was your biggest mistake.
However, Mourinho's targeted defense against him caused De Bruyne's performance to fall drastically, not only failing to help the team win, but even becoming a drag on the team.
This made De Bruyne feel uncomfortable, and even couldn't help doubting himself:
Could it be that Mourinho is right in his evaluation of himself, can he really not adapt to the Premier League?
"Don't be discouraged, it's just a loss, it doesn't prove anything!"
After Lin Quan found out that De Bruyne was depressed, he came over and patted him on the shoulder, comforting him.
"Let's go, let's thank the fans who came to support us!"
Seeing Lin Quan's calm expression, De Bruyne nodded heavily:
"Ok!"
After appeasing De Bruyne, Lin Quan went to appease other teammates one by one. Captain Kompany was doing the same thing as him.
Under the appeasement of the two, although the players were still not in high spirits, they still completed the work of going around the field to thank the fans.
In the commentary booth of CCTV, He Wei saw that Lin Quan was not hit after the team failed, but instead took the initiative to stand up to comfort his teammates, and couldn't help sighing:
"This season, Lin Quan has really grown a lot in Manchester City, and he has become more and more charismatic on the court!"
"Yes, it can be seen from his playing on the court that Lin Quan did not pursue the ultimate personal data, but gave up many opportunities to his teammates!"
"Yeah, he is really too team!"
……
After defeating Manchester City, Mourinho was complacent and said in front of the media:
"I think, after passing this game, there should be no doubt about who is the best team?"
Since the away draw with Arsenal, Chelsea has won 7 consecutive league victories in the last month.
Taking advantage of the opportunity of driving fast during the winter break, they overtook Tottenham, Everton and Liverpool, rushed to No.53 in the standings with 3 points, and returned to the championship group.
At present, they are only 2 points behind No.2 Arsenal and 10 points behind the top Manchester City.
There are still 14 rounds in the league, and it is not impossible to catch up with Manchester City.
Especially under such terrifying pressure from Chelsea to chase points, the two teams in front are likely to be unable to withstand the pressure and collapse.
Mourinho is well aware of this, so he stepped up his psychological offensive against Arsenal and Manchester City:
"Wenger is a good coach, but Arsenal's boss is not a good boss. He didn't give him enough support. His team has been unable to solve the problem of insufficient bench depth. It is always easy to collapse when the league is driving fast. , this year will be no exception!"
Compared with Manchester City, which is not short of money, the weakness of Wenger's Arsenal is more obvious, that is one word-poor!
Or two words - stingy!
During the winter break, Wenger once offered Liverpool a price of 4000 million and 1 pounds, wanting to take Suarez away, but this offer was regarded by Liverpool as Arsenal's humiliation to them.
The Red Army not only rejected Arsenal's offer, but also stated that they would never sell Suarez to Arsenal, completely blocking the possibility of this transfer.
Originally, Arsenal paid more money, and this transfer was actually a joke, but because they were too stingy, the transfer was completely messed up.
However, he failed to leave Liverpool during the winter break, and there is still no Champions League to play in the second half of the season. The obvious decline, and the points were overtaken by Chelsea.
Similarly, failing to introduce Suarez to strengthen the team's striker during the winter break, Arsenal's problem of insufficient offensive firepower has still not been resolved.
This result can be said to be a lose-lose for the two teams!
March is coming soon, and March and April are the traditional seasons for Arsenal to lose the chain. Mourinho now can't wait to move a small bench and sit and watch the show.
He can guarantee that Wenger's Arsenal will lose the chain this year.
As for Manchester City, which is not short of money, Mourinho adopted another method:
"Manchester City made too many signings during the winter break, which caused their lineup to be too crowded. I think Manuel Pellegrini must also have a headache now. He doesn't know how to appease the old players in the dressing room. emotion?"
Mourinho's remarks were not aimless. After missing two consecutive starts, Fernandinho expressed his dissatisfaction with Pellegrini in an interview with reporters.
"I can help the team. I am no worse than these players on the field. As for why I am not allowed to play, I think it is the coach's prejudice!"
Fernandinho is a midfielder that Manchester City spent 4000 million euros to introduce from Shakhtar Donetsk last summer. Players of this value are basically used by other teams as the core midfielder.
However, he was continuously placed on the bench in Manchester City, and he could not even guarantee a stable playing time.
The World Cup is about to be played, and if he continues to sit on the bench, Brazil's coach Scolari may give up recruiting him.
This made Fernandinho feel the crisis, and it seems that he wants to use this method to put pressure on the club and Pellegrini, so that the latter can put him back in the starting list.
However, the Brazilian's calculation is obviously miscalculated.
Pellegrini couldn't tolerate players using this attitude to challenge his authority as a head coach, so he punished Fernandinho very severely-Fernandinho was suspended from the team 10 games.
He doesn't need to think about playing games for the next two months!
Seeing that his fanning the flames worked, Mourinho began to increase his efforts again:
"Manchester City will collapse like Arsenal. Without Fernandinho, their midfield defense will have problems. Neither De Bruyne nor Kroos can replace him. It's a pity that Peleg Rini doesn't seem to know how to use him!"
Mourinho's response won the favor of Fernandinho. Fernandinho praised Mourinho as a wise coach.
This move led to news that the Brazilian wanted to defect to Mourinho.
Facing Mourinho's various remarks before, Pellegrini basically would not respond directly.
He knows that Mourinho is good at talking and playing psychological tactics, but he is not a master in this area, so he doesn't want to fall into the opponent's trap.
But now, he really couldn't take it anymore.
Honest people also have a temper!
"Mourinho should keep his mouth shut, his team is 10 points behind us!"
Facing Pellegrini's counterattack, Mourinho was not angry but happy.
As long as he fights back, it means he has been fooled!
"Ten points is not much, maybe before the end of March, my team will be able to catch up with Manchester City!"
I don't know if Pellegrini fell into Mourinho's trap, or he wanted to prove himself.
In the away game against Norwich in the 25th round of the league, Pellegrini continued to use the lineup of the previous game against Chelsea.
However, Manchester City's midfielder was once again targeted by the opponent in this game.
After losing the midfield support, Manchester City, which has the most offensive firepower in the Premier League, misfired directly and was tied 0:0 by their opponents in the away game.
This is Manchester City's two consecutive games with zero seals. In another game, Mourinho's Chelsea beat Newcastle 3-0, winning eight consecutive victories and reducing the score of the two teams to 8 points.
After this game, people who did not believe Mourinho's predictions about Manchester City also began to have doubts about Manchester City.
Two consecutive games with zero seals and being chased by Chelsea for 5 points in such a short period of time, are they really going to collapse as Mourinho said?
After the game, Mourinho triumphantly told reporters:
"No one should doubt my words now, right? The last game was 10 points, and after this game it became 8 points. Maybe it's not surprising that the next game will be 6 points or even 5 points!"
"Manchester City should not have replaced Fernandinho. If Pellegrini does not correct this mistake, then his team will lose points in the future!"
The reporters are also very happy to see this kind of big lead and then being reversed. The last time this happened was Newcastle in the 1995-1996 season.
At that time, Newcastle led by 12 points and was defeated by Ferguson's Manchester United with psychological tactics, and finally reversed tragically.
And the situation now is exactly the same as before.
Manchester City's lead over Chelsea is even greater than the Magpies' lead over the Red Devils.
If Mourinho can lead Chelsea to reverse Manchester City to win the championship this time, even the reporters who criticized him and even attacked him before will not be able to help applauding him!
If Manchester City is suspected of collapsing, then No.2 Arsenal is really collapsing.
At Anfield, Wenger's team was kicked 5:1 by the Red Army!
Despite Suarez's sluggish form, the game was still goalless.
But in the Red Army, Skrtel and Sterling stood up, staged a hat-trick and scored twice to help the team beat Arsenal.
After a big loss, Wenger's team gave up the second position, and was overtaken by Chelsea by one point, temporarily ranking No.3 in the standings.
Behind them, Liverpool and Tottenham are watching.
It seems that Arsenal can consider giving up their dream of winning the championship and preparing for the fourth round in advance.
Manchester City has no time to sympathize with Arsenal, because the 26th round of the league is about to start.
In order to solve the problem of the team's offense, Pellegrini adjusted the midfielder's starting lineup.
He asked Yaya Toure to play a defensive midfielder and acted as a protective barrier in front of Kroos to reduce Kroos' defensive pressure.
Manchester City's previous losses were mainly in the midfield.
Mourinho may be right. Without Fernandinho's defensive hardness, Manchester City's midfield is a bit soft.
Neither Kroos nor De Bruyne are physical players with outstanding defensive abilities.
Letting them do this kind of work is a bit unprofessional.
Therefore, they should be equipped with a defensive midfielder with a large defensive coverage area, active running, and tough body in the midfield to protect them.
The most suitable candidate for the Manchester City team is Fernandinho, but the latter has been suspended by Pellegrini.
If the Chilean doesn't want to go back on his word and slap himself in the face, then he will definitely not lift the ban on the Brazilian before the 10-game ban is reached.
Therefore, he can only transform Yaya Toure, a B2B midfielder, into a defensive midfielder, and let him give up attacking and defend with all his strength. In this case, he should be able to barely achieve the effect he wants.
In addition, in the frontcourt offense, Pellegrini also specially formulated some tactics based on Lin Quan's characteristics to solve the team's offensive problems.
Amidst the doubts from the outside world, the 26th round of the Premier League officially began.
Manchester City sits at home against the challenge of the black cat Sunderland!
In the first half, Yaya Toure's sweeping interception in the midfield blocked the opponent's multiple attacks, and after Manchester City took control of the midfield, several passers in the team took turns to deliver shells to the striker.
In the second minute of the game, Lin Quan received an assist from De Bruyne to help the team open the scoring.
In the 32nd minute, Aguero received a pass from Lin Quan and scored another goal. Manchester City temporarily led Sunderland 2:0.
Judging from the results of the first half, Pellegrini's transformation seems to have succeeded.
The Manchester City fans who came to watch the game at home breathed a sigh of relief. The team's two-round win made them a little worried.
Now it seems that there is no need to worry, Manchester City is still the same Manchester City, their strength is still strong!
At the 75th minute of the second half, Manchester City still firmly held the initiative on the field.
Although due to the opponent's shrinking defense, they failed to continue to expand their lead.
But the 2-goal lead, coupled with the fact that the opponent is not a strong offensive team, made Manchester City fans generally feel at ease.
Pellegrini waited steadily until the 80th minute before starting to make substitutions. He replaced Lin Quan, Kroos, David Silva and others to prepare for the Champions League knockout match a few days later.
However, Pellegrini had just completed the substitution, and the situation on the field changed suddenly.
Sunderland's No. 10 Wickham showed his prowess and scored two goals in the 85th and 89th minutes, almost tying Manchester City on his own.
When the referee blew the final whistle, there were disbelief on the faces of Manchester City fans.
They couldn't believe that their team was tied by the opponent like this!
Counting this game, this is Manchester City's third consecutive game without a win in the Premier League.
But the good news is that Mourinho's team has also lost the chain.
In another match that ended around the same time, Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw away by West Bromwich Albion.
Like Manchester City, they also led the whole game, but were tied by West Bromwich Albion in the 89th minute.
Calculating the time, the time of Chelsea's tragic lore is almost exactly the same as that of Manchester City.
After this round, the point difference between Manchester City and Chelsea has not changed, it is still 8 points.
However, Manchester City's three-round winless state has made the outside world generally full of concerns about them.
With 12 rounds left in the league and an eight-point lead, can it really be maintained until the end?
(End of this chapter)
1月23日，曼城主场3:0横扫西汉姆联，两回合以9:0的比分挺进联赛杯的决赛。
Lin Quan made a pass and shot, Aguero scored a goal, and De Bruyne also scored a goal with a free kick.
Manchester City's frontcourt is blooming more, and the state is hot.
Two days later, Manchester City defeated FA Cup rival Watford 4:2 at home and advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.
In this game, Aguero, who came off the bench, showed his power and scored three goals alone.
And in his hat-trick, two goals were assisted by De Bruyne.
De Bruyne has performed well in two consecutive games, making Manchester City fans quickly remember this young man who looks like a cartoon character.
On January 1, in the 29rd round of the Premier League, Manchester City beat Tottenham 23:5 at White Hart Lane, completing a home and away double play against Tottenham, and both times were massacres.
Poor Tottenham conceded 11 goals against Manchester City in a season, directly breaking the team history record, and left a phobia.
There were a lot of goals scored by Manchester City in this game. Lin Quan, Aguero, De Bruyne, Jovetic, Kompany and others all scored goals.
After adding two new aids to the team's midfield, Manchester City's offensive potential has been further developed, which is even more terrifying than the first half of the season.
"Unbeaten in 23 rounds, who can stop this Manchester City? "
"Another Arsenal?Manchester City may break Arsenal's unbeaten record! "
The current longest unbeaten record in the Premier League is Arsenal's 03 unbeaten games in the 05-49 cross-season. This is also the second longest unbeaten record in the history of the five major leagues.
With the fierce competition in the Premier League, Arsenal's record has a very high gold content.
Because of this, few latecomers can threaten the existence of this record.
After defeating Tottenham in the away game, Manchester City has squeezed into the top ten in Premier League history with 23 unbeaten Premier League rounds.
Only 9 teams ahead of them have more unbeaten games than them. With Manchester City's current state, they are likely to catch up with these teams and further improve their historical rankings.
However, just when everyone thought that Manchester City would continue their unbeaten record in the league, they had an upset at home.
In the 24th round of the league, Manchester City lost 0:1 at home to Chelsea, and both the season unbeaten record and the home unbeaten gold medal were broken.
In this game, Mourinho took a very targeted countermeasure against Pellegrini's formation.
He formed an extreme defensive counterattack lineup, and arranged three sweeping midfielders on the field to press De Bruyne and Kroos' passes and receptions.
Matic, the new aid Chelsea bought from Benfica at a high price during the winter break, performed very well in this game.
His unsparing running, exaggerated defensive coverage and interception range, and strong aggression all made technical players like De Bruyne and Kroos suffer.
Kroos and De Bruyne were either violated or made frequent mistakes. Their passes could not pass into Chelsea's penalty area.
Without the passing of the two, the offense of one's own team lost its previous fluency.
The offensive players piled up in the frontcourt became decorations, and there was no way to threaten the opponent's goal.
However, Lin Quan's breakthroughs were always blocked by the opponent's iron wall. Cross wanted to control the rhythm of the game, but he almost made a mistake because of the opponent's counterattack.
Chelsea's counterattacks and counterattacks are not only concise, but also efficient.
Seeing Mourinho's steady command on the sidelines, people once wondered if they had traveled through time and space and saw the blue team in its heyday eight years ago!
At the end of the game, Manchester City has an advantage in almost all statistics.
控球率65%对35%，射门次数25对13，射正次数7次对6次，角球数12次对7次，越位0次对4次，黄牌2张对4张。
However, the victory belongs to Chelsea. Their zero seals also ended Manchester City's record of scoring goals in 1178 Premier League home games in 61 days.
And Manchester City is only 66 games away from breaking the longest record of 5 Premier League games held by Manchester United!
After the loss, the mood of the team was very low.
Especially De Bruyne himself, he tried his best in this game and wanted to perform well in front of his old club, proving to Mourinho that giving up on me was your biggest mistake.
However, Mourinho's targeted defense against him caused De Bruyne's performance to fall drastically, not only failing to help the team win, but even becoming a drag on the team.
This made De Bruyne feel uncomfortable, and even couldn't help doubting himself:
Could it be that Mourinho is right in his evaluation of himself, can he really not adapt to the Premier League?
"Don't be discouraged, it's just a loss, it doesn't prove anything!"
After Lin Quan found out that De Bruyne was depressed, he came over and patted him on the shoulder, comforting him.
"Let's go, let's thank the fans who came to support us!"
Seeing Lin Quan's calm expression, De Bruyne nodded heavily:
"Ok!"
After appeasing De Bruyne, Lin Quan went to appease other teammates one by one. Captain Kompany was doing the same thing as him.
Under the appeasement of the two, although the players were still not in high spirits, they still completed the work of going around the field to thank the fans.
In the commentary booth of CCTV, He Wei saw that Lin Quan was not hit after the team failed, but instead took the initiative to stand up to comfort his teammates, and couldn't help sighing:
"This season, Lin Quan has really grown a lot in Manchester City, and he has become more and more charismatic on the court!"
"Yes, it can be seen from his playing on the court that Lin Quan did not pursue the ultimate personal data, but gave up many opportunities to his teammates!"
"Yeah, he is really too team!"
……
After defeating Manchester City, Mourinho was complacent and said in front of the media:
"I think, after passing this game, there should be no doubt about who is the best team?"
Since the away draw with Arsenal, Chelsea has won 7 consecutive league victories in the last month.
Taking advantage of the opportunity of driving fast during the winter break, they overtook Tottenham, Everton and Liverpool, rushed to No.53 in the standings with 3 points, and returned to the championship group.
At present, they are only 2 points behind No.2 Arsenal and 10 points behind the top Manchester City.
There are still 14 rounds in the league, and it is not impossible to catch up with Manchester City.
Especially under such terrifying pressure from Chelsea to chase points, the two teams in front are likely to be unable to withstand the pressure and collapse.
Mourinho is well aware of this, so he stepped up his psychological offensive against Arsenal and Manchester City:
"Wenger is a good coach, but Arsenal's boss is not a good boss. He didn't give him enough support. His team has been unable to solve the problem of insufficient bench depth. It is always easy to collapse when the league is driving fast. , this year will be no exception!"
Compared with Manchester City, which is not short of money, the weakness of Wenger's Arsenal is more obvious, that is one word-poor!
Or two words - stingy!
During the winter break, Wenger once offered Liverpool a price of 4000 million and 1 pounds, wanting to take Suarez away, but this offer was regarded by Liverpool as Arsenal's humiliation to them.
The Red Army not only rejected Arsenal's offer, but also stated that they would never sell Suarez to Arsenal, completely blocking the possibility of this transfer.
Originally, Arsenal paid more money, and this transfer was actually a joke, but because they were too stingy, the transfer was completely messed up.
However, he failed to leave Liverpool during the winter break, and there is still no Champions League to play in the second half of the season. The obvious decline, and the points were overtaken by Chelsea.
Similarly, failing to introduce Suarez to strengthen the team's striker during the winter break, Arsenal's problem of insufficient offensive firepower has still not been resolved.
This result can be said to be a lose-lose for the two teams!
March is coming soon, and March and April are the traditional seasons for Arsenal to lose the chain. Mourinho now can't wait to move a small bench and sit and watch the show.
He can guarantee that Wenger's Arsenal will lose the chain this year.
As for Manchester City, which is not short of money, Mourinho adopted another method:
"Manchester City made too many signings during the winter break, which caused their lineup to be too crowded. I think Manuel Pellegrini must also have a headache now. He doesn't know how to appease the old players in the dressing room. emotion?"
Mourinho's remarks were not aimless. After missing two consecutive starts, Fernandinho expressed his dissatisfaction with Pellegrini in an interview with reporters.
"I can help the team. I am no worse than these players on the field. As for why I am not allowed to play, I think it is the coach's prejudice!"
Fernandinho is a midfielder that Manchester City spent 4000 million euros to introduce from Shakhtar Donetsk last summer. Players of this value are basically used by other teams as the core midfielder.
However, he was continuously placed on the bench in Manchester City, and he could not even guarantee a stable playing time.
The World Cup is about to be played, and if he continues to sit on the bench, Brazil's coach Scolari may give up recruiting him.
This made Fernandinho feel the crisis, and it seems that he wants to use this method to put pressure on the club and Pellegrini, so that the latter can put him back in the starting list.
However, the Brazilian's calculation is obviously miscalculated.
Pellegrini couldn't tolerate players using this attitude to challenge his authority as a head coach, so he punished Fernandinho very severely-Fernandinho was suspended from the team 10 games.
He doesn't need to think about playing games for the next two months!
Seeing that his fanning the flames worked, Mourinho began to increase his efforts again:
"Manchester City will collapse like Arsenal. Without Fernandinho, their midfield defense will have problems. Neither De Bruyne nor Kroos can replace him. It's a pity that Peleg Rini doesn't seem to know how to use him!"
Mourinho's response won the favor of Fernandinho. Fernandinho praised Mourinho as a wise coach.
This move led to news that the Brazilian wanted to defect to Mourinho.
Facing Mourinho's various remarks before, Pellegrini basically would not respond directly.
He knows that Mourinho is good at talking and playing psychological tactics, but he is not a master in this area, so he doesn't want to fall into the opponent's trap.
But now, he really couldn't take it anymore.
Honest people also have a temper!
"Mourinho should keep his mouth shut, his team is 10 points behind us!"
Facing Pellegrini's counterattack, Mourinho was not angry but happy.
As long as he fights back, it means he has been fooled!
"Ten points is not much, maybe before the end of March, my team will be able to catch up with Manchester City!"
I don't know if Pellegrini fell into Mourinho's trap, or he wanted to prove himself.
In the away game against Norwich in the 25th round of the league, Pellegrini continued to use the lineup of the previous game against Chelsea.
However, Manchester City's midfielder was once again targeted by the opponent in this game.
After losing the midfield support, Manchester City, which has the most offensive firepower in the Premier League, misfired directly and was tied 0:0 by their opponents in the away game.
This is Manchester City's two consecutive games with zero seals. In another game, Mourinho's Chelsea beat Newcastle 3-0, winning eight consecutive victories and reducing the score of the two teams to 8 points.
After this game, people who did not believe Mourinho's predictions about Manchester City also began to have doubts about Manchester City.
Two consecutive games with zero seals and being chased by Chelsea for 5 points in such a short period of time, are they really going to collapse as Mourinho said?
After the game, Mourinho triumphantly told reporters:
"No one should doubt my words now, right? The last game was 10 points, and after this game it became 8 points. Maybe it's not surprising that the next game will be 6 points or even 5 points!"
"Manchester City should not have replaced Fernandinho. If Pellegrini does not correct this mistake, then his team will lose points in the future!"
The reporters are also very happy to see this kind of big lead and then being reversed. The last time this happened was Newcastle in the 1995-1996 season.
At that time, Newcastle led by 12 points and was defeated by Ferguson's Manchester United with psychological tactics, and finally reversed tragically.
And the situation now is exactly the same as before.
Manchester City's lead over Chelsea is even greater than the Magpies' lead over the Red Devils.
If Mourinho can lead Chelsea to reverse Manchester City to win the championship this time, even the reporters who criticized him and even attacked him before will not be able to help applauding him!
If Manchester City is suspected of collapsing, then No.2 Arsenal is really collapsing.
At Anfield, Wenger's team was kicked 5:1 by the Red Army!
Despite Suarez's sluggish form, the game was still goalless.
But in the Red Army, Skrtel and Sterling stood up, staged a hat-trick and scored twice to help the team beat Arsenal.
After a big loss, Wenger's team gave up the second position, and was overtaken by Chelsea by one point, temporarily ranking No.3 in the standings.
Behind them, Liverpool and Tottenham are watching.
It seems that Arsenal can consider giving up their dream of winning the championship and preparing for the fourth round in advance.
Manchester City has no time to sympathize with Arsenal, because the 26th round of the league is about to start.
In order to solve the problem of the team's offense, Pellegrini adjusted the midfielder's starting lineup.
He asked Yaya Toure to play a defensive midfielder and acted as a protective barrier in front of Kroos to reduce Kroos' defensive pressure.
Manchester City's previous losses were mainly in the midfield.
Mourinho may be right. Without Fernandinho's defensive hardness, Manchester City's midfield is a bit soft.
Neither Kroos nor De Bruyne are physical players with outstanding defensive abilities.
Letting them do this kind of work is a bit unprofessional.
Therefore, they should be equipped with a defensive midfielder with a large defensive coverage area, active running, and tough body in the midfield to protect them.
The most suitable candidate for the Manchester City team is Fernandinho, but the latter has been suspended by Pellegrini.
If the Chilean doesn't want to go back on his word and slap himself in the face, then he will definitely not lift the ban on the Brazilian before the 10-game ban is reached.
Therefore, he can only transform Yaya Toure, a B2B midfielder, into a defensive midfielder, and let him give up attacking and defend with all his strength. In this case, he should be able to barely achieve the effect he wants.
In addition, in the frontcourt offense, Pellegrini also specially formulated some tactics based on Lin Quan's characteristics to solve the team's offensive problems.
Amidst the doubts from the outside world, the 26th round of the Premier League officially began.
Manchester City sits at home against the challenge of the black cat Sunderland!
In the first half, Yaya Toure's sweeping interception in the midfield blocked the opponent's multiple attacks, and after Manchester City took control of the midfield, several passers in the team took turns to deliver shells to the striker.
In the second minute of the game, Lin Quan received an assist from De Bruyne to help the team open the scoring.
In the 32nd minute, Aguero received a pass from Lin Quan and scored another goal. Manchester City temporarily led Sunderland 2:0.
Judging from the results of the first half, Pellegrini's transformation seems to have succeeded.
The Manchester City fans who came to watch the game at home breathed a sigh of relief. The team's two-round win made them a little worried.
Now it seems that there is no need to worry, Manchester City is still the same Manchester City, their strength is still strong!
At the 75th minute of the second half, Manchester City still firmly held the initiative on the field.
Although due to the opponent's shrinking defense, they failed to continue to expand their lead.
But the 2-goal lead, coupled with the fact that the opponent is not a strong offensive team, made Manchester City fans generally feel at ease.
Pellegrini waited steadily until the 80th minute before starting to make substitutions. He replaced Lin Quan, Kroos, David Silva and others to prepare for the Champions League knockout match a few days later.
However, Pellegrini had just completed the substitution, and the situation on the field changed suddenly.
Sunderland's No. 10 Wickham showed his prowess and scored two goals in the 85th and 89th minutes, almost tying Manchester City on his own.
When the referee blew the final whistle, there were disbelief on the faces of Manchester City fans.
They couldn't believe that their team was tied by the opponent like this!
Counting this game, this is Manchester City's third consecutive game without a win in the Premier League.
But the good news is that Mourinho's team has also lost the chain.
In another match that ended around the same time, Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw away by West Bromwich Albion.
Like Manchester City, they also led the whole game, but were tied by West Bromwich Albion in the 89th minute.
Calculating the time, the time of Chelsea's tragic lore is almost exactly the same as that of Manchester City.
After this round, the point difference between Manchester City and Chelsea has not changed, it is still 8 points.
However, Manchester City's three-round winless state has made the outside world generally full of concerns about them.
With 12 rounds left in the league and an eight-point lead, can it really be maintained until the end?
(End of this chapter)
