Chapter 425 Fighting Blue Bridge Again

After an upset draw with Bournemouth, Manchester United's lead in the Premier League standings instantly shrunk to 5 points.

Yes, Chelsea defeated West Ham United 2:1 away from home in the subsequent game. With one more game, the points rose to 66 points.

When the point difference reaches double digits, many people say that this season's Premier League championship has lost suspense. After all, a ten-point difference is really too big.

However, when the point difference suddenly narrowed to 5 points, it gave people a completely different feeling, even though Manchester United still had one game less.

After all, the points that have not been obtained are full of uncertainty, especially in Manchester United's less than a game, the opponent is still the genius rival Manchester City!

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Although Mourinho said at the post-match press conference that he was happy that the team was able to equalize the score at the last moment, when the new week began and Manchester United resumed training, he did not have this expression.

The first thing that started Monday's training camp was for all the players to stand on the training ground and accept Mourinho's criticism.

Mourinho will do this when the team performs poorly, and no matter how well you perform in the game, there is no special treatment at this time. You have to accompany the whole team to accompany the teammates who made mistakes and get scolded.

This is Mourinho's way of cultivating team spirit: if the team performs poorly, it is the responsibility of the entire team, and no one can stay out of it, even if you are elected the best player of that game. When the team wins, the honor belongs to the whole team. No one can stand up and say that winning is all my fault and has nothing to do with other people. So today the entire team, including Bruno, was scolded by Mourinho.

Mourinho cursed for thirty minutes before announcing the start of training.

Mourinho's training methods are different from most coaches. Ordinary coaches arrange two training sessions a day for their players when there are no games, on-field training in the morning and afternoon, and indoor strength training in the evening. However, after Magic Bird joined a team, he divided the training into three sessions - morning, afternoon and evening, but the training time of each session was greatly shortened. Overall, his training volume and intensity were not greater than other coaches.

Although this kind of training method can ensure that players can more easily enter the state during the game, it also increases the potential for injuries to players.

Because the life schedule of professional players is difficult to regulate, especially Premier League stars have two or three important games in a week. After evening games, players will definitely fall asleep two to three hours later than usual. This results in players often not getting enough rest the day after a game.

When people are tired, it is not only difficult to stay in shape, which leads to a reduction in training quality, but also makes them more susceptible to injuries.

In the opinion of many people, scattered training is not conducive to players' fatigue recovery.

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After three days of training, the entire Manchester United team took a special flight to Rostov on Wednesday to prepare for the upcoming first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals.

As the FA Cup quarter-finals with Chelsea were about to begin at the weekend, Mourinho continued to rotate Manchester United's lineup to a certain extent. As a result, Manchester United failed to win the away game and only played 1:1. flat.

This is Manchester United's failure to win two consecutive games. This is the second time Manchester United has failed to win two consecutive games this season. However, the last time it failed to win two consecutive games was due to the strategic abandonment of the second leg of the League Cup semi-finals. Similar to the recent The only difference between the two games is a small number of personnel rotations.

Before the game against Chelsea, the media had been repeating this argument: Manchester United's state was about to enter a downturn, as evidenced by the fact that they almost lost two consecutive games.

What's even more terrible is that in such a psychological state, the team ushered in a devilish schedule of playing three games in five days. The first opponent was Chelsea, who had defeated Manchester United 5:3 at Stamford Bridge. .

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In the TV show, invited experts are expressing their opinions on this game.

"When Manchester United hears the name Chelsea, their hearts skip a beat!"

"Yes, they have a shadow on this opponent. The loss to Chelsea was their first defeat in the Premier League this season. The first defeat was such a disastrous defeat, coupled with the historical record against Chelsea Also at a disadvantage, Chelsea has left a deep imprint on Manchester United's heart. Chelsea had the psychological advantage in this game..."

"But Manchester United has performed very well this season, losing a total of 2 games in all games. Although they almost lost in the two games after winning the League Cup, I think Manchester United has a better chance of winning this game because they are desperate. I hope to beat Chelsea in the game, not only to avenge the first half of the season, but also to stop the team's decline."

"In terms of game motivation, Manchester United has no problem at all." Some guests raised objections.

"I am also optimistic about Manchester United winning. You must know that this season they have scored a total of 45 goals in 124 games in all competitions, averaging close to 3 goals per game. They are the most offensive team in Europe. These favorable factors can make Manchester United beat Chelsea."

"The number of goals is just a statistic in the past. Looking at the two recent games against Bournemouth and Rostov, their attacking lineup was too strong to score, and Manchester United seemed to have problems breaking through the dense defense. Bruno is a very good player. A talented player, no one can replace his role in Manchester United's lineup. But as the saying goes, when he is in trouble, the team's performance will inevitably see a huge gap. Starting from the League Cup, Bruno has already They suffered a three-game scoring drought, the first of the season, and it was during this period that Manchester United's performance declined."

"I must point out that although this team is still ranked first in the league, their psychological quality is actually very average. It is easy to panic if they fall behind in the game. In the 19th round, they played Middlesbrough at home. Maybe it was because the winter championship was so close that they lost their sense of normalcy. The first half of the first half of that game was very ugly..."

Bruno watched these experts and celebrities making various remarks in front of the TV and found it funny. But he still liked to watch it, and he watched this entertainment program.

If you don't score in three games, is it considered a goal drought? So what should we do with those players who fail to score in a few, a dozen or even more games?

We do want revenge, but this is not a burden, but a motivation.

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On the evening of March 13th, local time in the UK, the final game of this season’s FA Cup quarter-finals will be played at Stamford Bridge, where Manchester United will challenge Chelsea, who humiliated them in the first half of the season.

In the three FA Cup quarter-finals that have been played, Manchester City eliminated Middlesbrough 2:0, Arsenal bloodbathed Lincoln City 5:0, and Tottenham slaughtered Millwall 6:0. This leads to the fact that there is no dark horse team in the FA Cup semi-finals this season.

The FA Cup, once known as a hotbed of upsets, refuses any upsets this season.

As for the duel between Manchester United and Chelsea, whoever wins is normal and cannot be called an upset at all, unless there is a big score like 5:2 when the two sides met in the first round of the league.

"This is our time for revenge!" A Manchester United fan walked past the Sky Sports camera with the latest issue of the Manchester Evening News in his hand, and the TV broadcast gave a close-up of the newspaper's title.

The reporter didn't say anything. This shot already expressed the aspirations of Manchester United fans.

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There was a drizzle in the sky, and the ground was already wet.

The light rain I started writing this morning has continued until now. It’s past eight o’clock in the evening and it hasn’t stopped yet.

But don’t worry, the Stamford Bridge stadium has an advanced geothermal system and drainage facilities. In such light rain, there will never be any water accumulation on the turf, which will affect the excitement of the game.

On a cold spring night, the temperature has dropped to around 0C, but the fans who came here to watch the game still packed the stadium to capacity.

Although there was still drizzle in the sky, it could not stop the enthusiasm of the fans at all.

Because it is a rainy game, the team must be extra careful and pay attention when warming up. Any player who is not focused during the warm-up or does not take the warm-up seriously will be punished quickly.

Manchester United's players didn't need assistant coach Faria to remind them, they worked hard during the warm-up. Because they have long been eager for this game.

As the media said before the game, Manchester United regarded this game as a battle of revenge.

The team's first defeat this season came to Chelsea, and they lost 2:5, which was a disastrous defeat.

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After that game, everyone thought that Manchester United had finally been brought back to its original shape. Fortunately, Manchester United did not sink. Otherwise, everyone would never see the current Manchester United with four fronts moving forward in parallel.

Despite this, Manchester United players are still bitter about the defeat in that game.

Even if they win the half-season championship, even if they double-kill their arch-enemy Liverpool and defeat the rest of Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham and other giants, they still can't let go of this disastrous defeat.

Manchester United also lost in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final against Hull City. But that was when Manchester United won 4:0 in the first round and had already secured qualification for the finals. They strategically gave up the game.

Only in the game against Chelsea, they lost so hard that they were unable to fight back and had no way to do anything.

This kind of failure is the most unacceptable failure for the Manchester United team.

Now that Manchester United is doing well and leading the Premier League standings, they naturally want to take revenge. Even if this game is only an FA Cup match and not the second leg of a league matchup.

Chelsea fans are using this defeat to mock Manchester United and put psychological pressure on them.

"5:2 last time, 5:0 this time!!"

"Three kills, Manchester United people should go back crying!"

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Slogans like this can be seen everywhere in the stands of visiting fans.