Chapter 452 The decisive battle is coming

On the evening of May 2017, 5, local time in the UK, Southampton faced the Red Devils Manchester United at home at St. Mary's Stadium.

This is the 28th round of make-up matches in the Premier League this season.

Two days ago, Chelsea narrowly defeated Watford 4:3 at home in the make-up match, narrowing the point difference with Manchester United to 1 point, making this season's Premier League title race again suspenseful.

However, if Manchester United can defeat Southampton at St. Mary's Stadium, they can still win this season's Premier League championship trophy one round early.

However, Manchester United once again let the fans down.

Facing the Saints who set up an iron barrel formation at home, Manchester United failed to score a goal for 90 minutes.

Even Manchester United almost failed to escape at St. Mary's Stadium. Maguire's penalty kick in the 5th minute of the game almost caused Manchester United to suffer its fourth defeat of the season. Fortunately, Argentina goalkeeper Romero showed bravery and saved Gabbiadini's penalty kick.

This result not only disappointed the entire Manchester United team, but also made Premier League officials speechless.

You know, starting from the 36th round of the Premier League when Manchester United visited the Emirates Stadium, the CEO of the Premier League went to the Emirates Stadium with the Premier League Championship Trophy in order to award the trophy to Manchester United as soon as possible after Manchester United won the championship.

According to the regulations of the Premier League, as long as a team is theoretically likely to win the championship on the spot, Premier League officials will carry the championship trophy and 40 championship medals to the competition venue, so that the team can win the championship as soon as possible after winning the championship. Organize an awards ceremony to award awards to the winning team.

However, starting from the Emirates Stadium, followed by White Hart Lane and St. Mary's Stadium, Manchester United failed to hold the championship celebration as they wished.

This also caused Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore to make three consecutive trips in vain.

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At the end of the season, Manchester United faced a wave of three winless games, which also gave rise to the possibility of being snatched away from the originally guaranteed championship.

This also has a lot to do with the super devilish schedule that Manchester United has encountered recently.

从5月1日晚到5月17日晚，短短16天时间，曼联却踢了6场比赛，并且其中5场都是客场！

No matter how strong the team is, they will become exhausted under such a super devilish schedule. What's more, Manchester United also suffered a wave of injuries during this period, and it also seemed a bit stretched in terms of formation.

Under such circumstances, Manchester United was able to ensure that it did not completely collapse and achieved a record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, which is considered an outstanding performance.

Especially the two victories in the Europa League semi-finals allowed Manchester United to reach the Europa League final for the first time in history, and saw the hope of becoming the fifth team in European history to win the Grand Slam.

However, this also caused Manchester United's slump in the Premier League, encountering three league games without a win for the first time this season, which caused another wave of trouble in the league championship battle that had lost suspense.

Fortunately, the initiative in the league championship is still in the hands of Manchester United, otherwise the people of Manchester United will really cry without tears.

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On the eve of the final game of this season's Premier League, the situation in the Premier League standings is this.

曼联29胜5平3负，打进94球失27球，积92分排名第一；

切尔西29胜3平5负，打进81球失35球，积90分排名第二；

热刺25胜8平4负，打进79球失27球，积83分排名第三；

阿森纳22胜5平10负，打进74球失44球，积71分排名第四；

曼城21胜8平8负，打进75球失46球，积71分排名第五；

利物浦21胜8平8负，打进75球失48球，积71分排名第六；

With the top three rankings in the standings basically determined, the competition for fourth place in the standings is extremely fierce. Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool all scored 71 points, only differing in goal difference.

The cruelty of competition in the Premier League can also be seen from the scores on the standings.

In other leagues, including Serie A, where Bruno previously played, it is rare for three teams to score 70+ points at the same time in a season. In recent seasons, with the rise of Atletico Madrid, three teams have often scored points in La Liga. More than 70, but in the Premier League, there are six teams that have scored 70+ points before the season is over.

This is simply terrifying!

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In the final round, the opponents of the three teams competing for the fourth place were not too strong, at least not the big6 teams.

Among them, Liverpool is at home against Middlesbrough, which has been relegated in advance; while Manchester City is away from home to challenge Watford, who has been relegated in advance; only Arsenal's opponents are slightly stronger, and they will face the table at the Emirates Stadium. Seventh-placed Toffees Everton.

Obviously, in the final round, these three teams will all compete for the last Champions League spot. And their opponents are bound to face nightmares in this final round of competition.

Although Everton is ranked seventh in the league and has scored 60 points, which is a very good performance, no one dares to underestimate the power of Arsenal, the fourth-place madman, in the battle for fourth place in the league.

However, the last-round relegation battle that was often seen in the past will not happen again this season, because the three relegation places have already been taken at the end of the 37th round of the league. Sander only scored 24 points. Lanzhou, as well as Middlesbrough with 28 points, and Hull City with 33 points, have all been relegated early.

Of course, the biggest highlight of this season's final game is the championship battle between Manchester United and Chelsea.

However, in general, there is not much suspense about who will win the league championship. After all, Manchester United faced the weak Crystal Palace at home in the last round, and it was basically not difficult to win three points.

Of course, Chelsea's opponent in the last round, Sunderland, who has already secured the position of deputy squad leader in advance, will also find it difficult to stop the Blues from winning.

With both sides likely to win easily, Manchester United is still the league champion.

What's more, Manchester United only needs a draw in the final round to lock in the league championship.

You know, their current goal difference is as high as 67, while Chelsea only has 46, which is 21 fewer than Manchester United.

If Chelsea wants to reverse Manchester United and win the championship in the last round, there are only two situations. The first situation is that Chelsea wins at home and Manchester United loses at home; the second situation is that Manchester United is tied by Crystal Palace at home and Chelsea beats its opponent by more than 21 goals.

But the probability of these two possible occurrences is too low.

Therefore, both major European media and several major gambling companies believe that Manchester United is about to win the 14th Premier League championship trophy in team history.

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This is the advantage and benefit of the leader. As long as they do their best and win the last two rounds, they will be the champions!

The media in England are already warming up to the possibility of Manchester United winning the championship.

"Guardian" columnist Duncan Stewart published a signed article "Why Manchester United?!"

In Stewart's point of view, he emphasized the role of Bruno as the core of the midfield.

"Although Manchester United still has big-name stars like Rooney and Ibrahimovic, as well as new stars like Rashford and Lingard, the most important thing is the role Bruno Fernandez plays in the team."

"This is a very reasonable and balanced team."

Duncan Stewart used goal statistics to prove Manchester United's comprehensiveness and formidability, because this Manchester United has scored 37 goals in 94 league games.

The top scorer in the Premier League this season is Bruno. This midfield superstar has scored a total of 35 goals in the 36 Premier League games he has played. He not only leads the Premier League scorer list, but also leads the European Golden Boot Award rankings. With 35 goals, Messi leads the European Golden Boot this season.

"The reason why Manchester United is so scary is not only because of Bruno, but also because of their huge attacking group."

Behind Bruno are teammates who are in full bloom:

Ibrahimovic, who was retired from the season ahead of schedule, scored 17 goals;

Mata scored 10 goals;

Rooney, who did not play much, scored 8 goals;

Rashford scored 7 goals;

Gundogan scored 7 goals;

"The feeling given by Manchester United is that, except for Lingard, all the midfielders and frontfield players can score goals and are completely unpreventable."

Not only the goal data, but the assist data is also terrible:

"Bruno had 21 assists."

"Ibrahimovic has 10 assists."

"Mata has eight assists."

"Herrera had six assists."

"Rashford and Rooney also contributed 6 assists and 5 assists respectively."

"terrible."

In this article by Duncan Stewart, Bruno is highly praised.

"This is a magical player. He not only set a Premier League single-season scoring record, but also set a Premier League single-season assist record. Facing such Bruno and the Manchester United led by him, no one can stop them."

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Although Chelsea's chances of winning the championship may be almost zero, after all, it is not even possible to theoretically win the championship. Therefore, in the final game of the Premier League this season, there will still be Premier League officials carrying championship trophies and medals to Stamford Bridge Stadium. , to avoid that slim possibility.

According to the "Times" news, Premier League CEO Scudamore will carry the Premier League championship trophy to Manchester United's home stadium at Old Trafford on Sunday, and another awards team will bring a replica of the trophy to Chelsea's home stadium at Stamford. Bridge Stadium.

According to reports, Premier League CEO Richard Scudamore will go to Old Trafford on Sunday with the actual championship trophy, while Acting Premier League Chairman Peter McCormick will lead the exact same presentation team Head to Stamford Bridge with a replica of the trophy.

They will also go to the Blues home court with another set of 40 blank championship medals, and just like in 2012, the unused medals will be recycled for the next season.

Because when the championship battle enters the final round, the medal engraving work will be carried out after the awards are presented.

Premier League match staff will set up the podiums on site at both stadiums, oversee the awards ceremony and manage photographers and broadcasters around the event.

The winning club will receive 40 medals to distribute to players and officials.

The only restriction under Premier League rules is that any non-goalkeeper player to win a medal must have played in at least five games. The goalkeeper only needs to have participated in one game.