Chapter 459 The despair of Arsenal people

"It's really strange. Arsenal actually have such a clear advantage. Is this the same Arsenal I know?"

Seeing that Arsenal was in the lead in the first half, and judging from the scene, it was Arsenal who were beating Manchester City. This surprised many fans who had just turned on the TV to watch the game.

In their impression, Arsenal doesn't seem to be that strong, right?

Why do you feel so strong all of a sudden?

"Oh, I understand, the law of becoming stronger when meeting Manchester City must have come into effect!"

In recent times, every Premier League team, whether it is an ordinary team or a wealthy team, whenever they encounter Manchester City on the field, they are like chicken blood, and they can always show their strength beyond the normal level.

This phenomenon is called Manchester City's Law by fans.

"Arsenal played really well in this game, especially Ozil. This guy played so well in the first half. If he can continue this performance throughout the game, then he will definitely be the MVP after the game. !”

On the sidelines of the court, Wenger, like the fans, was also satisfied with Ozil's performance in this game.

After Ozil joined Arsenal, he received mixed reviews from the outside world.

Some people criticized his playing style as being too soft, fearful of confrontation, and unsuitable for the pace of the Premier League.

Some people praised him for his excellent skills and broad vision, making him a well-deserved midfield master.

Both evaluations are actually correct. Ozil does not like physical confrontation, and is even afraid of it. Therefore, in Premier League games, he is often bullied by players from other teams, and sometimes even becomes a breakthrough point for Arsenal. .

And his own mental attributes and aggressiveness have always been a problem. Watching him play football has always been a slow style, never in a hurry, and the expression on his face always looks like he has not woken up. , no emotional changes can be seen.

This kind of person obviously cannot serve as the leader of the team, nor can he be expected to stand up in times of adversity. He is more suitable as a wingman for his teammates.

If he is paired with a super strong teammate such as Messi and Ronaldo, then Ozil can provide very comfortable passes to his teammates and help these top shooters score more goals.

When Ozil first came to Arsenal, Gunners fans had high hopes for him, thinking that he could become a core player like Francesco and Robin van Persie.

But it only took Ozil one season to prove that he could not live up to the expectations of the popular fans.

As the top player in Arsenal's history, it is normal for the outside world to be disappointed with him when he fails to meet the fans' expectations.

Wenger was obviously aware of this problem. After determining that Ozil could not take charge alone, he reluctantly spent a huge sum of money to buy Barcelona winger Sanchez, which solved the problem.

Sanchez is very strong and is one of the top wingers in football.

But there is one thing wrong with Sanchez. He plays a little alone, and his cooperation with his teammates is not ideal. Arsenal's current passing and cutting cooperation still does not achieve the effect that the professor envisioned.

Thinking of this, Wenger couldn't help but look at the man wearing Manchester City's 10 sky blue jersey again.

What if he had chosen Arsenal instead of Manchester City?

Such thoughts appeared more than once. Every time Arsenal and Manchester City played against each other, Wenger seemed to sigh in his heart.

He has missed too many outstanding players in his life!

Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi and later Lin Quan, some of the strongest top stars in football today, almost all passed by Arsenal.

It’s a skill to miss so many top stars in succession!

But this also shows from the side that Wenger and his team still have a very accurate eye for people.

It's just that for various reasons, they didn't firmly bring the people they liked to their team!

Arsenal went on the offensive in the first half and Manchester City went on the defensive, but Guardiola did not let the opponent's midfielder do whatever he wanted.

Under his arrangement, Kanter targeted Arsenal's brains, Ozil.

After being marked by Kante, Ozil was no longer able to observe the situation on the field as he wanted and send precise passes as before.

Under Kanter's hard work, it became difficult for him to even protect the ball, and it became almost impossible to pass the ball forward.

Therefore, he could only pass it back to his teammates and let Ramsey or Cazorla reorganize.

Ramsey and Cazorla's passing ability and overall view are indeed not as good as Ozil's. After the ball is handed to their feet, it is difficult for them to pass a pass as threatening as Ozil's.

And because of their position, it was difficult for them to form coordination with Sanchez, which caused Arsenal's offensive threat to suddenly drop a lot.

On the sidelines, Wenger, who had a smile on his face and was admiring Ozil's wonderful performance, immediately changed his face when he saw that Ozil was unable to hold the ball under the opponent's pressure and was forced to pass back.

Arsenal's style of play in the first half required passing the ball forward and constantly posing a threat to Manchester City's goal.

Once their offensive rhythm is interrupted, Manchester City's counterattack may come soon!

Sure enough, seeing that Arsenal's attack was contained, Manchester City's formation immediately began to improve. The two wingers moved into the full-back position and joined the midfield stranglehold.

Seeing that their midfielder was at a numerical disadvantage, Arsenal was forced to change their formation, and their wingers had to participate in the chaos in the midfield.

Frequent physical contact and confrontation made the two teams' game rhythm begin to move closer to that of traditional Premier League teams!

Although Manchester City is not a team that likes to use physical confrontation, after all, they have better weapons to choose from.

But their opponent Arsenal is a team that is even less good at physical confrontation than they are. In terms of the hardness of the lineups of the two teams, Manchester City is obviously better.

In this case, Guardiola naturally does not mind making full use of this advantage.

When the physical confrontation between the two teams became intense, Ozil's performance began to decline off a cliff, and he even gradually disappeared from the field.

On the contrary, Cazorla, who is short in stature and less than 1.7 meters tall, performs better on the court than Ozil. At least he can protect the ball from the opponent's fierce fighting and not lose it all at once. Quan, allowing the opponent to counterattack.

But just being able to protect the ball is not enough, and they are unable to gain the upper hand in the midfield stranglehold, which means that it is difficult for their offense to maintain it.

This caused Arsenal's previous momentum to begin to decline rapidly. The chicken blood they had played before seemed a bit unsustainable at this time.

Affected by this, the dominance of the game began to gradually fall into the control of Manchester City. Manchester City began to gain the upper hand in the midfield battle and gradually began to launch a counterattack.

"Sure enough, Arsenal is still the familiar Arsenal, nothing has changed!"

Seeing that the opponent was quickly beaten back to its original shape and his own offense began to gain momentum, Manchester City's assistant coach Blatter sighed.

As a spectator, if you ask him to choose a Premier League game to watch, after excluding Manchester City, he will most likely choose to watch Arsenal's game.

The reason is simple. Arsenal's style of play is very gorgeous, and they can play dazzling combinations in offense, which is a pleasure to watch.

However, it is too difficult for Arsenal to play such a smooth cooperation.

Once Arsenal's tactics fail to work, their threat plummets.

As the focus of this round of the Premier League, there must be many people paying attention to this game.

This game will definitely be watched and studied repeatedly by coaches of many teams after the game, and the method Guardiola used to deal with Arsenal in this game will definitely be used by many teams.

There is absolutely no doubt about this. After Guardiola introduced the three-center-back tactic, almost overnight, Premier League teams began to play the three-center-back system.

Of course, most of them are trying to be like tigers instead of being like dogs, and soon give up this style of play after it is self-defeating, but there are still some people who choose to stick to it, such as Liverpool's Klopp.

After trying it out, he found that this tactic worked quite well when attacking.

Guardiola's answer in this game was: give Arsenal intensity and strangle their midfield.

This is the simplest and most practical method, and it can be copied by almost all Premier League teams. After all, most Premier League teams have very tough lineups, and some even rely on physical confrontation and hand-to-hand combat to gain a foothold, such as the Hammers. West Ham United.

Seeing that the team was gradually starting to be at a disadvantage, Wenger on the sidelines was secretly worried, but he couldn't think of any good solution for a while.

Wenger's on-the-spot command and adjustment abilities have never been strong, and his character is not decisive enough. He cannot act like some coaches, as soon as he sees that the situation is not right, no matter how many minutes into the game, even if it has just happened. Within a few minutes of the game, we had to make immediate substitutions and adjustments at the risk of offending the players.

Wenger plans to wait until halftime to make adjustments, then see whether to substitute players or change the tactics.

I have to say that the Arsenal players playing at home worked very hard and desperately.

Although they were at a disadvantage in physical confrontation, they were very tenacious in dealing with Manchester City in the midfield.

There was not much time left in the first half, and the 1:0 score remained until the end of the first half.

Wenger on the sidelines finally breathed a sigh of relief and finally persisted.

It seems that adjustments must be made during the halftime break. Otherwise, if they continue to play at the same pace as at the end of the first half, Manchester City may be able to equalize the score soon.

Wenger planned to adjust the team's tactics and lineup. Coincidentally, Guardiola also planned to do so.

"Forget that goal, your performance in the first half was excellent, but you can do better!"

Guardiola is a person who pursues excellence. He always wants to do something to the extreme, so it is very difficult for him to praise players, except for Lin Quan.

The players thought they would be criticized when they returned to the locker room, but unexpectedly, Guardiola not only did not criticize them, but also praised them.

This made many players feel very excited. They couldn't help but raise their heads, look at the head coach, and listen carefully to his tactical arrangements.

The fifteen minutes ended quickly and the second half began.

Both teams have made personnel adjustments. Arsenal replaced defender Gibbs and replaced midfielder Campbell in preparation to strengthen defense.

It's just the opposite for Manchester City. They replaced a defender and replaced him with a midfielder.

Just from the substitution choices of the two teams, we can see who attacked and who defended in the second half.

"Isn't it true? Arsenal just dominated half the game?"

"Didn't Arsenal play very well in the first half? Why did they make such an adjustment?"

"Haha, the professor is scared!"

Fans were very surprised by the substitution choices of both teams. Arsenal played so proactively in the first half. In the second half, they replaced offensive players with defensive players, giving people the impression that they were going 180 degrees. The feeling of adjustment.

This change is too sudden and too complete, right?

"Arsenal is now in the lead, and there is nothing wrong with being conservative. As long as we can hold on to this score and win the final victory!"

"Yes, the reason why the tactics in the first half were able to achieve such good results was all based on the players running without hesitation, but the players are not iron-clad and cannot run like that throughout the game. .”

Not everyone is criticizing Wenger's move. Some relatively calm and rational fans believe that Wenger's choice is very pragmatic.

Arsenal are not Liverpool, they cannot run like Liverpool for a whole game.

This tactic can produce unexpected results if used occasionally, but it is obviously unrealistic if used all the time.

If they don't take the initiative to change their tactics, then after seventy minutes, their players will have no physical fitness and can't run anymore, and Manchester City will be able to defeat them effortlessly.

"Can it really be defended?"

"Yeah, we only led by one goal, and the advantage was too small!"

Many Gunners fans thought of the previous game against Bayern at home, when they led by two goals but were reversed by Bayern.

Now we are facing Manchester City, which is not inferior to Bayern, and is even stronger than Bayern. Many Gunners fans are worried that what happened before will happen again.

No matter what they are afraid of, in the 56th minute of the second half, Manchester City hit an offensive climax and formed a siege on Arsenal's goal.

Lin Quan, Son Heung-min, De Bruyne, Kroos and others shot one after another, making Arsenal's goal jittery and making countless Gunners fans' hearts twitch.

Although relying on Cech's heroic performance, Arsenal survived this round of Manchester City's attack.

But if you defend for a long time, you will lose. After they lost control of the midfield, they could not stop Manchester City's attack at all.

In the 67th minute of the second half, De Bruyne and Lin Quan formed a collision with each other. Lin Quan faked a shot and passed the ball, sending an exquisite through ball to Aguero in the penalty area.

Aguero did not waste the opportunity created by his teammates and scored the ball calmly.

The score became 1:1.

The Emirates Stadium fell into silence at this moment.

The most desperate thing in the world is to see hope dashed before your eyes.

At this time, Gunners fans are experiencing this.