249: Arsenal is really not good at defending.

April 23, 2017, Emirates Stadium, London, England.

What is being held here today is the semi-finals of this season's English FA Cup. The two sides are Arsenal and Crystal Palace. It is truly a London derby.

Today’s starting lineups for both sides are as follows:

Home team Arsenal, head coach Wenger, formation 3421

Cech

Back three from left to right Holding, Koscielny and Gabriel

The four midfielders from left to right are Monreal, Ramsey, Xhaka and Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Double attacking midfielder Sanchez and goldfish eyes

Olivier Giroud

Visiting team Crystal Palace, head coach Tong Yi, formation 4213

Alisson

The back four from left to right is Theo, Upamecano, Van Dijk and Achraf.

Double defensive midfielder Witsel and Kante

Single attacking midfielder Sabitzer

The front three from left to right Asensio, Jimenez and Mbappe

In today's game, the Crystal Palace side did indeed carry out a large-scale rotation, which was as expected by many media before the game. And it is precisely because of this that they are not optimistic about the Crystal Palace team. They feel that Crystal Palace will be beaten by Arsenal in this game.

Of course, Arsenal also rotated, but not many people were rotated, and the main framework was still dominated by the main players. It can be seen from this that Arsenal really wants to win this game.

This FA Cup title is indeed Wenger's talisman.

Both Wenger and Arsenal desperately need this FA Cup title.

Seeing the lineups of both sides, Arsenal fans are full of confidence and firmly believe that they can win.

The Crystal Palace people are really too arrogant, and some look down on their Arsenal team too much.

In this game, Arsenal will make Crystal Palace pay the price for their arrogance.

beep!

Referee Darren England blew the whistle to officially start the game, and the home team Arsenal kicked off first.

Wenger is not exempt from this, and now he is also playing a three-centre-back system, adding two wing-backs in the midfield. But isn't it a bit overkill to let Chamberlain play as a wing-back? Can his defense hold up against Crystal Palace's attack?

It’s unknown now, but as the game progresses everyone will be able to figure out the outcome of this issue.

The football quickly rolled towards the feet of Goldfish Eyes in the frontcourt.

I have to say that the current Goldfish Eyes is still a good player in Arsenal's team. At present, he has not completely become lazy. He can still put some passion into the game in the frontcourt, otherwise he wouldn't have performed so well last season. But this season, his enthusiasm has declined, and his results so far are much worse than last season.

However, he is still a point that Arsenal has to rely on.

That's why this guy goes his own way in the game.

This time, the guy was obviously a bit procrastinated and lazy after holding the ball. He saw Sanchez advancing upfield and it was a good opportunity. Giroud helped Sanchez create a wall to block the Crystal Palace defenders, creating a very good opportunity for Sanchez to advance forward.

and

This line is also invincible.

As long as Goldfish Eye passes the football, the ball will be scored directly. With Sanchez's ability, the probability of scoring is very high.

And with the ability of goldfish eyes, he can pass the ball very easily.

Wenger on the sidelines became excited. This is an excellent opportunity. Are Arsenal really about to get off to a dream start? Wenger's side would have their hands raised in the air, ready to cheer.

There was a bang, and at the moment when Jinyuyan started to push his foot forward, a leg stretched out from his side like lightning and pushed the football out.

Beautiful, beautiful, grab it!

The Crystal Palace fans at the scene gave Kante thunderous applause. Kante's timing was really great and perfect. With Kanter here, Crystal Palace fans are very relieved.

Oops, Arsenal fans are lamenting!

Wenger on the sidelines was even more speechless. The goal was not because Kante was great at all, but because Goldfish Eyes was too lazy.

According to Goldfish Eye's ability and style in the past, if he hadn't been lazy and procrastinated, he would have passed the ball accurately long ago. How could he have waited for Kanter to pounce to steal it?

Not to mention, Goldfish Eye was able to do it easily last season.

However, this season, this guy has indeed been lazy a lot, which is also one of the important reasons for Arsenal's decline in performance this season. And recently, this goldfish eye has frequently caused a lot of troubles off the court, which has affected him and the team. This is something Wenger is very dissatisfied with.

This guy with Goldfish Eyes seemed to have let himself go. He began to frequently turn his attention to the sidelines and go out to cause trouble. On the contrary, he became more and more lazy and mediocre in the game.

Wenger is really very angry!

But there is no good way. None of the people he has found can completely replace Goldfish Eyes.

Although he is said to be lazy, he still has some ability, and he can be regarded as the only one in the current Arsenal midfielder.

Therefore, Wenger is still patient.

Of course, it was impossible for Wenger to remain indifferent. He immediately roared at the goldfish eyes in the stadium, stimulating this guy to be more active, and even his words were a bit excessive.

However, the goldfish eyes on the court still go their own way.

Seeing this, Tong Yi smiled slightly. This is where his confidence lies in this game!

If the current goldfish eyes were the goldfish eyes from last season, Tong Yi would still be worried. But this season's Goldfish Eyes are not completely ruined yet. But now it is also on the road to deterioration, and it is plummeting.

He knows there is a conflict between Wenger and Goldfish Eyes, but Wenger still has to rely on Goldfish Eyes now.

This is Crystal Palace's opportunity.

The knocked-out football rolled directly towards Van Dijk, who immediately made a diagonal pass and quickly passed the football to the wing.

Ashraf on the wing caught the football and drove the ball forward. Monreal on the wing came up to him immediately.

Crazy pressing and interception.

That's what the wingback is like here. He immediately steps forward to intercept. Firstly, he puts pressure on the opponent, and secondly, he gives his teammates time to defend. Or it can create time and space for teammates to attack and prevent the opponent's counterattack as soon as possible.

Monreal came up very quickly, but Ashraf didn't care about you. He accelerated and passed the ball directly, and passed Monreal directly.

Monreal didn't expect it, so he was easily passed by Achraf.

After Achraf passed Monreal, he immediately increased his speed and sprinted down the wing, like a speeding sports car. Ramsey couldn't catch up at all. He looked at Ashraf and sighed.

Ramsey immediately stretched out his hand to signal Holding to go up and intercept Ashraf, and he quickly rushed back to fill the gap behind Holding.

Young Holding immediately rushed forward and intercepted Ashraf.

Facing the young Holding, Ashraf is very confident.

Holding is a young talent introduced by Arsenal last summer. He can be regarded as a super star local central defender that has recently emerged in England. He only became the main center back of Bolton Wanderers in the English Championship in the middle of last season. He performed very well. Although the team was relegated, he became the team's best player of the season selected by the fans, so he became famous.

Then Wenger, who liked Shota, directly brought Holding to Arsenal.

This season he has almost double-digit appearances at Arsenal. It can be seen that Wenger is still very optimistic about him. At this stage, he is sparing no effort to cultivate Holding and wants Holding to become England's best player. Van Dijk.

But it is obvious that Ashraf does not like Holding. He feels that Holding is surrounded by empty spaces.

At this moment, Ashraf suddenly changed direction to the left, seemingly about to break through, and instantly mobilized Holding's defensive focus. At this moment, Ashraf actually passed the football directly across the ball and quickly passed it to Sabitzer who was following up frantically in the middle.

Ramsey has returned to Holding's central defender position, and the midfield is a bit empty.

No, Sabitzer rushed into this gap.

Arsenal midfielder Xhaka was shocked and immediately rushed over, quickly pounced on Sabitzer, preventing Sabitzer from easily receiving the ball and completing the next move.

Unexpectedly, Sabitzer seemed to have expected it and did not catch the ball at all. Instead, he missed the football.

Xhaka, who rushed up, didn't even think about it. He was unprepared and could only watch the football roll past him. Then he saw Witsel rushing towards the football, danger!

Wenger on the sidelines also felt the danger and his heart tightened.

Arsenal's center back Gabriel immediately rushed out to defend Witsel, denying Witsel a chance to take a long shot.

However, Witsel had no intention of taking a long shot. Seeing Gabriel rushing out, he understood the diagonal pass and quickly hit the football into the space behind Gabriel.

Asensio rushed forward quickly and inserted directly into Arsenal's penalty area.

Wing-back Chamberlain also accelerated frantically towards the

Asensio pushed forward, but it was too late.

When the Arsenal fans at the scene saw this, their hearts tightened, it was dangerous.

Center defender Koscielny in the middle had to immediately move sideways to intercept Asensio who rushed into the penalty area to receive the ball.

Holding can only put down Witsel and quickly retreat to fill Koscielny's central defender position. This position cannot be left vacant. Otherwise, Jimenez, who is free, will most likely go to the meeting alone.

Gabriel immediately rushed out, and Xhaka quickly turned around and pounced on Witsel.

At the same time, Chamberlain also gave up chasing Asensio, and instead rushed towards Witsel who was closest to him, not giving Asensio a chance to pass the ball. In this way, Asensio can only control the football at his feet and handle it by himself. This creates an opportunity for Koscielny to defend Asensio.

Arsenal players believe that Koscielny will definitely crush Asensio.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Asensio suddenly swept the ball with an inverted triangle and quickly passed the football.

The football quickly rolled to the front of the penalty area.

However, the ball did not roll towards Witsel, whom the Arsenal players focused on defending, but towards Sabitzer at the far end of the penalty area.

Danger, danger!

At this time, Ramsey was sticking to Jimenez in the middle of the penalty area and did not stop Sabitzer at all.

Ramsey felt that it was impossible for Crystal Palace to pass the ball to Sabitzer who was in such a remote position, and even if it was passed, his defensive teammates would not let Asensio pass the ball. After all, there are still two defensive players on this line who can intercept this line, so he went to defend the most dangerous Jimenez.

Holding did not push forward, but retreated to the position vacated by Ramsey.

So Sabitzer is really free at this time.

Of course, Arsenal's wing-back Monreal is chasing back quickly, and he should be able to interfere with Sabitzer.

But Sabitzer didn't give Monreal this chance!

Asensio passed the corner kick very beautifully, passing the football to Sabitzer at the far end in the only gap. The Arsenal defenders Gabriel and Xhaka on this line were both They didn't touch the football, and they didn't expect the ball to be passed like this. At most, he thought Asensio would pass the football to Witsel. Their defensive focus was on Witsel and Jimen in the penalty area. In Nice's case, Sabitzer at the far end was somewhat ignored.

Therefore, Sabitzer is now in an empty space.

He didn't give any chance to Monreal, who was rushing up from behind. He didn't stop the ball and immediately volleyed with his leg. His round right leg hit the football firmly, making a thunderous sound, and then the football led With the sound of breaking through the air, he shot quickly towards the top corner of the near post.

The speed of the ball is very fast, like a meteor streaking across the night sky.

Cech reacted quickly in front of the goal, but he still didn't touch the ball.

The football flew straight into the top corner of the Arsenal goal's near post.