Chapter 257: Tit for tat

Since entering 2004, Chelsea's training programs have been adjusted, and the lineup is constantly rotating.

Ye Qiu was very sure at the beginning of the season that in his first season in charge of Chelsea, he must achieve results worthy of his investment. At the very least, he must ensure that he wins a significant championship, the Premier League or the Champions League. Otherwise, Chelsea will not be able to win this season. fail.

Judging from the current Chelsea lineup, young rookies such as Cesc Fabregas, Messi, and Robert Huth are still difficult to rely on in the Premier League and Champions League. Ye Qiu's idea is to arrange for them to play in the League Cup and FA Cup to rotate. The main force, and secondly, to train them, while in the Premier League and Champions League, they are used as substitutes.

All rotation systems have an axis. The stronger the team is and the larger the lineup, the larger the axis can be. If Chelsea has two sets of superior lineups, Ye Qiu will definitely include the league and all cup matches. Put it all into the plan.

But at the beginning of the season, in order to ensure the team's integration and build combat effectiveness as soon as possible, Ye Qiu did not form a huge lineup. Instead, he used the main lineup as the core and added players such as Sun Jihai, Joe Cole, Parker and Van Persie to strengthen it. The thickness of the team's bench.

Therefore, what Ye Qiu can guarantee now is that the team will do its best in the league and the Champions League. Both the League Cup and the FA Cup will arrange substitutes and rookie lineups to play, so that the main lineup can get a better rest.

And after entering 2004, Ye Qiu began to adjust the players' physical fitness, because whether it was from the information left by his predecessor Ranieri, or from Ye Qiu's understanding of the schedule, plus his training system from his godfather In the store, he bought the insights and experiences of famous Premier League coaches such as Ferguson and Wenger on the Premier League schedule. These all told him that the team's physical reserves must be adjusted in January, otherwise it will be difficult for the team to persist in the intensive schedule that follows. Go down.

Therefore, after entering January, the performances of Manchester United and Arsenal obviously fluctuated greatly, and the same was true for Chelsea.

Just after a huge victory over Leicester City, they were forced to draw 0:0 at home by Birmingham City. Manchester United also lost 0:1 away to Wolves, losing Ferdinand, coupled with the result of an imbalance in the midfield. , is constantly affecting the results of the Red Devils, but it is Arsenal. Wenger's team defeated Aston Villa 2:0 away from home, and the points behind were once again shortened to 4 points.

This is also a very interesting gap, because throughout the season, so far, Chelsea's lead has always hovered between 4 points and 6 points. Often, just after leading by 6 points, Chelsea will draw a game and then shorten it. Arrived at 4 minutes.

The same is true for Arsenal. As the only two unbeaten teams in Europe so far, Arsenal and Chelsea have had ups and downs in their form, but they have ensured that they score points in every game, and interestingly, both Each team made mistakes in turn, but the gap never shortened or widened.

After Wenger introduced left winger Reyes from Sevilla, the outside world linked Chelsea with superstars such as Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo, but everyone knows that it is not feasible to introduce these stars from Real Madrid. It's possible, how could Florentino let him go?

So, this is more of a hype and pressure, because Roberto Carlos is currently facing contract renewal issues.

After the 22nd round of the league, because they played the League Cup in the middle of the week and the FA Cup top 32 knockout rounds on the weekend, Ye Qiu trained the team a lot after being tied with Birmingham City at home to stretch out their physical reserves. At the same time, he also decided to continue arranging youth training players to play in the FA Cup to ensure that the first-team players have up to two weeks of physical reserve period.

On January 22, Chelsea faced Bolton in the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals at home. Ye Qiu arranged for substitutes and youth team players to play. With Gudjohnsen's goal, Chelsea defeated Bolton 1:0 at home.

On January 24, the team challenged Scarborough away. Chelsea played with all youth team players. In the end, with Robin van Persie's goal, they defeated this amateur team 1:0 away. Although the game process was not exciting. Satisfied, but ultimately made the cut.

The team's opponent in the round of 16 is Fulham from the Premier League. This is a tough battle for Chelsea.

But in the second leg of the League Cup semi-finals in midweek, although Ye Qiu arranged for many substitute players including Joe Cole, Ribery, and Gallas to play, he still lost 1:3 away from home. To the tenacious Bolton Wanderers, Bolton were eliminated from the League Cup 3:2 in the final two rounds and stopped in the semi-finals.

Although Chelsea failed to reach the final, the performance of this group of substitutes and youth team players in the League Cup has won everyone's recognition. They believe that the thickness of the Blues' bench is worthy of recognition. After all, they faced everything. Bolton going all out.

This is also the approach of many teams in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League, because facing competition from strong teams, they simply cannot qualify for European competitions, so they compete for European qualifications through cup competitions that strong teams do not pay attention to. Therefore, many times , they play cup games more vigorously than they play league games.

However, being eliminated from the League Cup obviously did not affect Chelsea's overall strength, because on January 31, in the Premier League match away from Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea slaughtered Blackburn Rovers in an almost surprising 5:0 away game.

Souness vowed before the game that he would avenge the blood feud at the beginning of the season at home, but in this game, he had to collapse and find that Chelsea's strength was far beyond his imagination, and his team could not stop Chelsea's bombardment at all.

Because Cote d'Ivoire failed to participate in the African Cup finals, Drogba, who did not need to return to his country to serve the king, performed very well in this game. Davis, who returned to the main lineup after recovering from injury, also made Chelsea's midfield more powerful. In addition, after two weeks of rest, Chelsea's stars who adjusted their condition very well finally directed a perfect victory.

The performance that made Ye Qiu the happiest in this game was not Lampard who scored twice, nor Ronaldinho who scored one goal and assisted two times, but the Dutch wild boar Davis.

Chelsea's start was actually very passive. Souness's Blackburn has always been known for its aggressiveness. It was playing at home and encountered a referee who was soft in whistle, so Blackburn was ready to give Chelsea a blow right from the start and took the initiative.

When the team was passive, Davis kept appearing at the front of the defense line, protecting the defense line with Makelele, and gradually stabilized the situation. In the 25th minute, when the opponent's central midfielder got the ball, he directly intercepted the ball and dribbled through the chaotic midfield.

What counterattack would be faster and more threatening than dribbling forward as soon as you steal the ball?

Davis's dribbling forward completely disrupted Blackburn's defense, but the Dutchman did not linger on holding the ball. He showed his experienced and agile side. After attracting the opponent's defensive players, after Drogba left a gap, he passed the ball behind the Blackburn defense line with an excellent through ball, and Lampard inserted and shot directly.

This goal not only broke the deadlock on the field, but also reversed Chelsea's situation and sounded the horn of Chelsea's counterattack, laying the foundation for the next continuous goals. Davis' outstanding performance was also highly praised by Ye Qiu. At the post-match press conference, he praised Davis for his performance after his injury and believed that the Dutchman's performance after his return from injury was impressive. He was a crucial player in the team's midfield.

Of course, Ye Qiu did not forget to praise other players in the team. He firmly believed that as long as the team continued to play in the current situation, it would be rewarded after the end of the season.

A week later, back at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea relied on Ronaldinho's personal skills to create a foul in Charlton's penalty area and scored a penalty kick, which was scored by the Brazilian himself, and defeated Charlton 1:0.

This also made many people feel strange, because Chelsea beat Blackburn a week ago, but a week later, they performed very badly when facing Charlton, especially the team's offense seemed to have lost its scoring ability all of a sudden, which was very puzzling.

But Ye Qiu said that he was not worried at all, because this was the result of ups and downs and adjustments.

In the middle of the week, Chelsea challenged Portsmouth away. The main defensive midfielder Makelele was injured in the pre-match training and missed this game. Ye Qiu arranged Parker to replace Makelele in the starting lineup, and this defensive midfielder did not disappoint Ye Qiu's expectations. In the 17th minute, he took advantage of an opportunity to attack from behind and scored the first goal for Chelsea.

Parker and Makelele are two different types of defensive midfielders. Although the Englishman has good defensive ability, a large running range, and is very active in scrambling, he has a strong vertical advancement ability and is also very distinctive in attacking from behind. It can be said that he is Davis with weaker skills.

Because of this, Ye Qiu kept reminding his defensive midfielder to pay attention to leaving one person behind in this game. But strangely, as defensive players, Davis and Parker often lost their positions, but Deco frequently returned to the defensive midfielder to protect.

This also made Ye Qiu feel funny and helpless. Deco is a very low-key player, but he is a crucial member of the Chelsea team. If he hadn't been in the midfield, I really don't know how this game would have turned out.

In the second half, Drogba scored another goal and the team beat Portsmouth 2:0 away.

It was also in this round that Manchester United, which had been closely behind Chelsea and Arsenal, finally began to fall behind.

Although Manchester United introduced Saha, which alleviated the problem of midfield ball advancement to a certain extent, Ferdinand's absence still had an impact on the Red Devils, causing them to obviously fall behind now. This round, they lost 2:3 to Middlesbrough at home, and interestingly, all three goals were high balls.

After the 25th round of the Premier League, the national team game was ushered in, but Chelsea still had to play a FA Cup round of 16 knockout match with Fulham, but because the internationals could not participate in the game, Chelsea arranged for rookies to play again, and finally lost 0:2 to Fulham and stopped in the round of 16.

After the two-week national team match day, Chelsea ushered in the number one rival for the championship, Arsenal!

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Standing in the office on the second floor of the Harrington training base, looking at the cloudy London sky, Ye Qiu's mood was just like the weather in London, gloomy.

Meeting Arsenal at this time was definitely not what Ye Qiu wanted to see, because the timing was very unfavorable for him.

First of all, it was just after the national team match day. Chelsea players were running back and forth, and their status must have been affected. Yes, Arsenal was also affected, but the problem was that Ye Qiu did not want a draw, but to get rid of Arsenal.

As long as Arsenal was eliminated in this game, the lead could be expanded to 7 points.

You know, Chelsea's lead this season has always been between 4 and 6 points, and more importantly, Chelsea and Arsenal are currently the only two unbeaten teams in Europe. If they can beat Arsenal in such a game, it will undoubtedly be a painful blow to the Gunners' morale.

The lead has expanded to 7 points, and the morale has been severely weakened. It will be difficult for Arsenal to regain this momentum.

Manchester United has now clearly fallen out of the championship race, and the rest is the competition between Chelsea and Arsenal. If they can use this game to kill the Gunners with one stone, Chelsea will be much easier in the next schedule, at least Ye Qiu will not be under so much pressure.

But the problem is that this is just Ye Qiu's own idea, and Arsenal obviously has the same idea.

Chelsea is 4 points behind Chelsea. If they win away, the gap will be shortened to 1 point. Chelsea will also lose their unbeaten record. This will be a huge test for Chelsea, which has just been reorganized this season and has remained unbeaten. It may even cause them to fall into a slump.

Wenger's calculations are also very shrewd. He also wants to kill two birds with one stone. Therefore, from the strategic purpose of competing for the championship, neither side wants to lose and neither can afford to lose.

Judging from the current cards of both sides, the strength of Chelsea and Arsenal can be said to be comparable.

Although Chelsea has European stars such as Ronaldinho, Deco and Cannavaro, Arsenal also has powerful stars such as Pires, Vieira and Campbell. In addition, the tacit understanding they have accumulated over the past years can completely keep pace with Chelsea's strength.

Chelsea can crush Manchester United because Ye Qiu has predicted Manchester United's Achilles' heel and weaknesses, but the current Arsenal team has almost no obvious flaws. With Ashley Cole, Pires and Henry on the left, Lauren and Ljungberg on the right, plus Campbell, Toure, Gilberto Silva, Vieira and Bergkamp, ​​Arsenal's strength is very balanced.

The only weakness is goalkeeper Lehmann. The German goalkeeper has not performed stably this season and is a minefield in Arsenal's defense. But the problem is that the goalkeeper's flaws are purely luck. Who knows when he will be exposed?

Besides, Makelele missed the national team game and concentrated on healing. Now he has recovered from his injury, but it is still unknown whether he can adjust his condition. If Makelele is not in charge, who will limit Bergkamp's retreat?

You know, the Dutch Ice Prince plays a very obvious role in the current Arsenal offense. His running is very smart and his awareness is even better. If there is no reliable midfielder to limit Bergkamp, ​​how can Arsenal's offense be limited?

There is no need to worry about the right side. Lampard, Deco and Maicon can suppress Arsenal's left-wing offense on this side. Evra is not in a good state on the left side, but Gallas can play. Although the Frenchman told Ye Qiu that he was unwilling to play as a left back, he did not resist. After all, the team's main central defenders are Cannavaro and Terry.

Davis fights Vieira, Drogba suppresses the opponent's two central defenders. If Ye Qiu is not wrong, Wenger will definitely let Vieira and Gilberto Silva limit Ronaldinho and Lampard. The reason is very simple. Ye Qiu is worried about Arsenal's offense. Isn't Wenger worried about Chelsea's offense?

You know, Chelsea's offensive ability this season is not worse than Arsenal. On the contrary, Chelsea has scored 3 more goals than Arsenal and conceded fewer goals. So Ye Qiu is making defensive arrangements against Arsenal, and Wenger is also making defensive arrangements against Chelsea's offense.

"It's really a tragedy of tit-for-tat!" Ye Qiu shook his head and smiled helplessly.

If this game is postponed for a week, Ye Qiu will have more choices, because he can better adjust the players' physical fitness and state, but now there is obviously no choice, only to play safe.

Not seeking to win the opponent at home, this is indeed not Ye Qiu's style, and it also makes Ye Qiu feel a little depressed, but sometimes, you have to make such a choice for the sake of results. Ye Qiu is not stubborn at all, because he doesn't want to be fired.

Just when Ye Qiu was thinking, Peter Kenyon called.

"The special plane that has been arranged to pick up Ronaldinho and Maicon in Brazil has already gone. In addition, we have also arranged for someone to pick up Drogba. I believe it will arrive in London tomorrow!" Peter Kenyon is still very efficient, not like a British person at all.

This is also arranged by Ye Qiu, because if the players are waiting for their slow return to London, they will not be able to train before the game. However, the club will provide special pick-up and drop-off, and there will be a total of two days of adjustment, including the day of the game.

"Thank you, Peter!" Ye Qiu said politely.

Peter Kenyon smiled on the phone, "Nothing, it's just my duty. But you, be careful of Arsenal. Wenger, the old fox, is a headache for even Ferguson. You have to be careful of him!"

Ferguson and Wenger have been fighting in the Premier League for many years. Although Ferguson has the upper hand, everyone knows that he has few ways to deal with Wenger. The latter can be said to be Ferguson's old enemy.

"He is an old fox, and I am not stupid. No matter what, we will definitely be the final winner!" Ye Qiu said confidently.

"Then you prepare well. We are waiting to see your performance. I wish you a successful start!" Peter Kenyon hung up the phone with a smile, and Ye Qiu here was somewhat relieved.

No matter what, the game has not started yet, and no one knows the result. Besides, playing safe does not mean that Arsenal cannot be defeated, right?