Chapter 844 Quiet Winter Window

In the 26th minute, Bruno was fouled by Arsenal in a quick counterattack and won a free kick in the frontcourt. Then he received a long pass from the backcourt on the right, and after unloading the ball, he forced a breakthrough on the sideline, dribbled back to the penalty area from the bottom line, and passed the ball to Gundogan who was in the back row, but unfortunately Gundogan failed to control the momentum of the ball and his shot was too high.

The most noteworthy thing is that in the 34th minute, Manchester United launched a counterattack from the left. Rashford passed the ball to the penalty area. Bruno got the first point and was about to kick when he was pushed to the ground by the Arsenal defender.

This was a clear foul, but the referee Oliver turned a blind eye to it.

Bruno stood up from the ground and walked towards the nearby referee, constantly protesting that he had already grabbed the position but was pushed to the ground by the opponent. However, the referee repeatedly stated that his judgment was correct.

Faced with such a referee, Bruno was speechless, but he couldn't get too excited and could only walk away indignantly.

Afterwards, Manchester United soon got another chance. After getting rid of the defender in the middle, Gundogan shot directly, but was saved by Arsenal goalkeeper Leno.

After scoring the lead, although Manchester United did not have possession of the ball, they basically controlled the situation on the field. Arsenal's offense could hardly penetrate Manchester United's defense, but Manchester United's counterattacks threatened Arsenal's goal time and time again.

Whether it is the players on the field or the audience in front of the TV, they can all clearly feel Manchester United's advantage, and the team is becoming more and more confident as the game goes on.

Everyone believed that if the situation continued like this, it was only a matter of time before Arsenal's goal was broken again.

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During the half-time break, Manchester United head coach Mourinho repeatedly praised the players' performance, and at the same time called on the players to keep up the good work, continue the performance in the first half, and continue to play according to this rhythm and strategy.

After the change of sides in the second half, the two sides continued the situation in the first half. The only change was that Mourinho reminded the players during the half-time break not to retreat too far back, but to push the defense line forward as much as possible, preferably to the outside of the 30-meter area, which would be more conducive to counterattacks.

1:0, this is never a safe score.

Both the players and the coach were still thinking about scoring goals and directly securing the victory.

But in the 55th minute of the second half...

"Arsenal launched a quick counter-attack."

"Martinelli dribbled the ball on the left. He has a very strong personal ability and he dribbled the ball directly to the left and passed it into the penalty area."

"Following up the middle, Lacazette heads the ball from close range!"

"De Gea did a great job! He reacted very quickly and lifted the ball over the crossbar, giving Arsenal a corner kick."

"It's Martinelli's turn to take the corner kick. From the corner kick, to the back post... William, the ball goes in!"

"But the Manchester United players were protesting. We saw goalkeeper De Gea and several Manchester United players signalling that it was a handball foul. It was a very clear handball."

"From the slow-motion replay, William did deliberately hit the ball into the goal with his hand. This was an indisputable handball, very obvious, and the referee clearly made a wrong decision."

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Bruno also rushed forward quickly, put his hands behind his back, and shouted loudly to the referee Mike Oliver: "This is an indisputable handball. You should reconsider it. They deliberately used their hands to hit the ball into our goal. Can this be counted as a goal? As a referee, can you allow this to happen?"

"Also, they just pulled me down in the restricted area. It was right under your nose. Didn't you see it?"

Bruno remained calm in his heart but appeared very excited on the surface. He was like an angry lion, constantly pressing towards the referee, but his hands were always behind his back, which is also the usual practice in European leagues.

The referee Mike Oliver kept backing away and making excuses, saying that he did not see the opponent's handball.

"Then you should go to the sidelines and check the VAR, sir. Such an obvious handball, you said you didn't see it?"

At this time, the video referee team on the sidelines also reminded the referee Mike Oliver through headphones. He immediately ran to the sidelines to watch the video replay and quickly gave the result.

The goal is invalid!

Arsenal were furious and they all started to protest, but the referee's attitude was very firm this time.

Arsenal's handball goal was ruled out, giving Manchester United a goal kick.

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Arsenal were obviously furious after a goal that should not have been scored was disallowed.

After the restart, Manchester United took a goal kick, but the ball was quickly intercepted by Arsenal in the frontcourt, and they quickly launched a counterattack. Manchester United quickly retreated to their own court and waited for the opponent to attack.

It can be said that after the handball incident, both sides completely reversed the situation in terms of momentum and psychological quality. Manchester United can be said to have an all-round advantage, and the players have become unprecedentedly united, unswervingly implementing the previously effective tactics, making Arsenal's attacks fail time and time again.

Previously, the referee took into account Arsenal's home advantage, and some of the Arsenal players' fouls were very secretive, which made the referee somewhat biased towards Arsenal in the scale of penalties.

But after the handball incident, the referee re-evaluated his enforcement standards and became more fair.

In the 59th minute, Manchester United launched another counterattack. Bruno, who had retreated to the front of the penalty area to defend, suddenly rushed forward with the ball, ran 80 meters, rushed to the right side of the opponent's penalty area, and under the close defense of Arsenal's left back, he rushed into the penalty area from the bottom line and then made a triangle pass back to the right side of the penalty area.

Harry Kane quickly followed up and shot with his right foot, breaking through Arsenal's goal, 2:0!

This was definitely a goal that determined the outcome of the game and it was an undisputed goal.

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Arsenal soon had a good chance to score. In the 64th minute, Lacazette was brought down by Maguire just outside the penalty area. Arsenal got a free kick in an excellent position. Lacazette took the penalty and shot directly at the goal. The ball suddenly fell in front of the goal and hit the crossbar and bounced down.

Trailing by two goals at home and with a sure goal blocked by the goal frame, Arsenal's mentality exploded immediately. The players played more impatiently on the field. Head coach Arteta was furious on the sidelines, yelling at the referee at every turn, and only stopped after the referee showed him a yellow card.

Especially after the 75th minute, Arsenal attacked more urgently, but Manchester United became more and more confident in defending.

In the 3th minute, Manchester United launched another counterattack. Rashford failed to break through on the left and passed the ball to the middle. Bruno caught up with the ball in front of the penalty area. While the opponent's central defender Holding was hesitating whether to foul, Bruno made another volley with his right foot and the ball went into the goal, 0:!

After scoring the goal, Bruno was so excited that he rushed out of the stadium.

Bruno's goal basically secured the victory of the game.

In the subsequent game, neither side scored any more goals and the score of 3:0 was maintained until the end of the game.

One goal, two assists, Bruno completely directed this game.

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Manchester United's advantage in the standings is unshakable and its performance is as stable as ever, which has caused other competitors to collectively break down their defenses. It seems as if they have returned to the Ferguson era when they were intimidated by Manchester United.

Liverpool manager Klopp said in a pre-match interview against West Ham United that Manchester United might be far ahead of the rest and that they need to be lucky enough to deal with injuries and everything else in this special year.

"Will this be the most exciting ending amidst a sea of ​​different teams? Maybe, but Manchester United may also be far ahead now. They are in a good position in the standings and are playing well," Klopp said.

"What we've seen is that it's been a difficult season for all the teams, with the possible exception of Manchester United. Leicester City are looking good, West Ham are looking good, a lot of teams are looking good, but we all have our ups and downs for different reasons.

"In this year you need to be lucky enough with injuries and everything that's important, more so than in other years, more so because of the intensity and the number of games in that particular period. But I can imagine that from a neutral point of view it is certainly exciting."

"I don't know who will be the champion. If we are not ready, then the best news is that it is really exciting and no one knows what will happen. Except for Manchester United, almost every team competing for the championship has been hit by injuries, including De Bruyne, Joe Gomez, Vardy..."

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January is coming to an end, and the winter transfer window is also coming to an end. If you don't search for relevant information carefully, but just glance at the sports news from time to time, you may not be aware of this.

Although the winter transfer window is usually not as lively as the summer transfer window, it has been quite lively in previous years, with one or two bombshells often happening on the closing day. However, this year, it was like "sneaking into the village without firing a single shot."

The winter transfer window here is quiet... How could it not be quiet? The coronavirus pandemic is naturally the biggest factor.

The impact of the epidemic on the economic structure of world football has lasted for a whole year. Most mid- and lower-level teams can only barely maintain their capital chain, not to mention making any ambitious investments in team building. As for those wealthy clubs that are theoretically well-off, they also have their own problems.

For example, Chelsea. Even during the economic crisis, Abramovich is not short of money, but they have already spent a lot of money last summer. Lampard was "sent off in tears" by Abramovich because he failed to make good use of the sky-high price signings. The team's current focus is to further explore and realize the value of the existing lineup, rather than spending a lot of money on the new coach Tuchel.

In addition, we must also consider the uncertainty brought about by the formal withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union in terms of labor mobility. Therefore, not only did Chelsea remain silent, but also big clubs such as Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool were quite low-key. In the impression of the Premier League, which is known for its extravagant spending, the total expenditure (not net expenditure) of 20 teams in the entire winter transfer window was about 8500 million euros. In 2011, it was the money Chelsea spent to sign Torres and David Luiz.