Chapter 331 Winning the Championship in Advance

As the final battle between Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal approaches, all kinds of verbal battles have begun to surface. Even Wenger, who is usually reluctant to participate in it, took the initiative to fire this time.

Before Chelsea played Manchester United away in the 33rd round of the Premier League, Chelsea captain Terry made a high-profile statement that Chelsea's goal is to continue to remain unbeaten and continue to dominate the Premier League and European football next season.

"I know that Arsenal was only one step away from creating the unbeaten myth of history. We still have such an opportunity now. We have only lost one game so far this season. Next season we will strive to win the championship unbeaten, aiming to break Arsenal's record of 57 unbeaten games!"

In response to the Chelsea captain's declaration, Wenger immediately responded.

"It is undeniable that Chelsea is very good now, but there is still a long way to go before it can become great. At least they have not yet created their own tactical style. Any great team will often lead a trend of their own style, which I do not see in Chelsea."

"If they want to catch up with our 57 unbeaten games, they have to wait until they surpass Manchester United!" Wenger's last sentence was quite cunning.

Interestingly, Ferguson was willing to be Wenger's gun this time. In an interview, he said that Chelsea was not the strongest team in the Premier League. At least from Manchester United's perspective, Wenger's Arsenal's attack was more threatening.

"I never give way to my opponents on the court. Although we are only ranked third and far behind the two teams in front, this does not mean that the gap in strength between us is so big. On the contrary, the competition in the league is very fierce. Any team has the possibility to beat Chelsea, even the relegation team."

"The Premier League is a very difficult league. Ye Qiu has done a very good job in the Premier League in the past two years, but it is not easy for him, because in the Premier League, to successfully defend the title, you always have to pay a very, very high price, not just a huge mental pressure."

"Chelsea has strong financial strength, and the huge financial investment requires all of them to bear the corresponding pressure, I can understand why they must defend their title successfully, because only in this way can they prove that their investment is valuable and that they are successful! "

"But this is definitely not the psychological quality that a top team should have, because such a team is too fragile and can easily be crushed by some sudden pressure, such as a defeat or even a goal!"

Ferguson and Wenger put pressure on Chelsea in the media before the game. Ye Qiu knew very well that this was their psychological warfare. If the current Premier League is regarded as a battle between three heroes, then Ye Qiu and his Chelsea are Cao Wei, Ferguson and Wenger are Sun Quan and Liu Bei, and they must join forces.

Ye Qiu was not afraid of the Sun Wu alliance at all. When he was interviewed by the media, he did not mention Arsenal and Manchester United at all, but praised Everton, believing that Moyes' coaching performance this season was very good, and that Everton was one of the most powerful teams in the Premier League, and that it should be qualified for the Champions League and even enter the top three.

"They are one of the three best teams in the Premier League this season. I think the current ranking underestimates them a bit. Moyes is a very good coach, and I believe he has seen this!"

Everton played Arsenal in this round, and Manchester United will play in the next round.

As for his opponent Ferguson, the Scotsman did not show weakness, and Ye Qiu was even more arrogant.

"Against Manchester United, I can beat him even with my second team!"

Because of this sentence, Ye Qiu became the public enemy of all the Red Devils fans at Old Trafford who cursed and humiliated him.

Before the game started, they pulled out a long banner in the stands, with a slogan mocking Ye Qiu, "Chinese people who don't know their own limits, are you ready to take your second team home to feed your baby?"

Some fans pulled out a huge portrait in the stands, in which Ye Qiu was photoshopped into a woman with a red face, and behind her was a majestic Ferguson chasing with a kitchen knife, with the line, "Don't fart here!"

Even when Ye Qiu saw this, he couldn't stop laughing. He really found that the creativity of the people was endless. At least this group of fans' ability to spoof was really good, and even Ye Qiu had to admire it.

But Chelsea did use the second team in this game.

Perhaps influenced by Drogba's possible early end to the season, Ye Qiu left Lampard and Cannavaro, who were injured in the leg, on the bench in this game. Terry, Deco and Maicon also did not start. Chelsea arranged four main players, Ronaldinho, Rooney, Evra and Makelele, for this game. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the second team.

So, when the Manchester United fans at Old Trafford saw Chelsea's starting lineup, their first reaction was that the damn Chinese was too arrogant. Did they really want to play Manchester United at Old Trafford with this second team lineup?

It's true that Ye Qiu is not only bold, but also full of ambition.

At the beginning of the game, Chelsea directly launched a round of offensive, taking the initiative and attacking Manchester United. This immediately made the Manchester United fans at Old Trafford very unhappy. One by one, they shouted that the team should kill this group of ungrateful guys, and it would be best to kill them directly at Old Trafford.

Manchester United's main lineup was fully used in this game. The goalkeeper is Howard, the defense is Sylvester, Ferdinand, Brown and Gary Neville, and the midfielder is Giggs, Fletcher and Scholes. , Roy Keane, Cristiano Ronaldo, and the lone forward is Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The two sides played at a fast pace from the beginning. Chelsea had Cesc Fabregas and Makelele in the midfield in this game. The Spaniard was younger and less experienced than Deco, and his control over the rhythm and situation of the game was obviously not as good as that of Deco. Therefore, in this game, Ye Qiu's more important thing was to give control of the rhythm of the game to Makelele, allowing Fabregas to organize and pass the ball as much as he wanted.

In the frontcourt, Joe Cole, who has performed well this season, was pushed forward by Ye Qiu to the front of the penalty area, allowing him, Ronaldinho and Rooney to attack behind Gudjohnsen.

This is actually because Ye Qiu has figured out the lifeblood of Manchester United, which is their lack of midfield strength.

At the peak of the golden four midfielder, Manchester United's midfielder was enough to suppress all opponents, and it could also fill a series of problems in the forward and defense lines. However, with the departure of Beckham and the aging of Keane, Manchester United's midfielder The strength is obviously not as good as before. As it becomes increasingly weak, it no longer has the momentum to stop the enemy within a 30-meter area.

Not much else to say, just looking at Keane's performance this past season is enough to prove this point.

And Ye Qiu took the initiative to attack. In fact, by suppressing Manchester United's midfield, he forced the Red Devils to expose the loopholes in their defense and completely destroy their opponents.

In the 13th minute, Rooney and Joe Cole formed a cooperation on the right. They tried to break through Manchester United's left but failed. They passed back to Makelele behind him. The French midfielder passed to Cesc Fabregas who ran into the gap. , the latter got the ball and made a direct pass.

The ball passed by Brown quickly. Brown wanted to intercept, but it failed. Gary Neville's attention was focused on Ronaldinho, and in the end he could only watch helplessly. The ball passed through Brown's side, and Gudjohnsen got behind Brown. After getting the ball, he went to the left of the penalty spot in the penalty area, faced Howard, and gave it a light pick.

The ball went over Howard's head, drew an arc, and slowly fell into Manchester United's goal, 1:0!

“Goal!!!”

With the exclamation of the on-site commentator, the entire Old Trafford stadium suddenly turned from a bustle of people to silence. It was noisy just now, and the Red Devils fans, who were eager for Manchester United to give Chelsea a fatal blow, At this time, everyone was looking down at the stadium with their mouths open. The group of Chelsea players wearing blue jerseys were celebrating.

The players of the Red Devils and Manchester United who were wearing the red jerseys of the home team were just like them. They all looked stunned. Obviously, they could not accept this sudden goal. Some people must even be wondering. How did the goal come into play? How could he be scored so easily?

This is not the first time that Howard has been scored against his own goal by such a goal. In the last game against Norwich, the team's goal also came from a high ball. Although the American goalkeeper is 1.88 meters tall, he can defend against high balls. It has always been his weakness. Not only him, but Carroll, who competes with him for the main position this season, is also lacking in golf.

"Ferguson used to always laugh at Arsenal's high defense. He even made fun of Wenger many times, saying that if he wanted to beat Arsenal, the simplest and most direct tactics would be to cross the ball from the wing and hit the ball high. Anyone can beat Arsenal, but Now, Manchester United is facing the same problem."

"Judging from this goal conceded, the distance between Brown and Ferdinand is a bit wide. This is the main reason why Fabregas easily ripped apart Manchester United's defense through through balls, but Howard obviously also saw this loophole. He hesitated to fill this hole by attacking, and just when he hesitated, Gudjohnsen got the opportunity from here, and the subsequent lob left Howard, who was obviously positioned outside, helpless!"

"Chelsea's ability to fill holes in the defense through goalkeeper attacks is a characteristic that is widely appreciated by many professionals. Van der Sar is a typical attacking goalkeeper. Ye Qiu also strongly encourages him to expand his defensive scope and area to fill in gaps. There are loopholes in the defense, but Howard is not Van der Sar after all, and the Americans obviously lack the necessary confidence.”

"However, Manchester United's problems are also very clear now. Everyone knows that Manchester United's weakness in the midfield has been the biggest obstacle to the team's achievements since last season. Ferguson's attempt to introduce Rooney failed, and he wanted to recruit Rooney from Bayern. Munich's introduction of Owen Hargreaves has not been successful, causing Manchester United's midfield adjustments to always be at a standstill."

"In the past period of time, Manchester United has been involved in the turmoil of being acquired by the Glazer family, and the Glazer family also promised Ferguson that once the acquisition is completed, they will come up with a generous transfer fee in the shortest possible time. Reorganize Manchester United’s lineup so that this team can regain its fighting power to compete with Arsenal and Chelsea.”

But these are things for the future. Now Chelsea is taking advantage of the lead not long after the opening to launch the most violent attack on Manchester United's goal. Especially in view of the weakness of Manchester United's midfield and Ruud Ruud's lack of counterattacks, Chelsea is almost brutal. Unreasonably, he just pressed forward and was bombarded indiscriminately.

Rooney wanted to break through and enter the penalty area on the right, but was double-teamed by Ferdinand and Sylvester. The English boy had to choose to protect the ball, bring it back, and then left the penalty area, but did not pass the ball to Joe Cole instead directly distributed the ball to the left side of the top of the penalty area, and saw Ronaldinho quickly shake off Gary Neville and run over to meet Rooney.

Stopping the ball, adjusting his weight to his left foot, and swung his right foot, he heard a bang. Ronaldinho's right foot hit the ball directly, and the ball drew a very obvious arc. After flying up, it fell quickly, almost touching the angle between the right post and the crossbar of the goal, and once again got into Manchester United's goal.

"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!"

"World wave!!! A world wave at the frontier of the restricted area!!!! Absolute blind spot!!!!"

Ronaldinho kept waving his fisted hands and quickly rushed out of the Manchester United penalty area. He kept shouting along the way to vent his excitement after scoring. He rushed to the bottom of the Manchester United fans' stands, clenched his fist and blasted towards mid-air, as if in response to the previous provocation from Manchester United fans.

"2:0, the current situation is becoming more and more unfavorable for Manchester United. Chelsea's offensive ability is indeed very sharp. Manchester United's defense was captured twice by the Blues in less than half an hour. This is indeed all No one can think of it!”

"Ye Qiu did not play at his best in this game. Lampard, Terry, Deco and many other main core players did not play. Coupled with the team's injured players, Chelsea's lineup was not even a second team. Too bad, but relying on this Chelsea second team, the Blues easily took the initiative in the game at Old Trafford! "

The live TV camera was shown on the sidelines. Ye Qiu was brazenly high-fiving his assistants and players, smiling from ear to ear, looking confident that he had already won. Ferguson, with a gloomy face, sat on the sidelines. He entered the home team's coaching bench without saying anything or making any movement, making it difficult to figure out what he was thinking.

In fact, the game was not played, and both sides knew the winner.

There is no doubt that Manchester United is definitely not weak, but the problem is that their shortcomings are too obvious.

Even Norwich and some other mid-tier and lower-tier teams that are relegating can pinch Manchester United's seven inches and beat the Red Devils, let alone Chelsea. This is why Ye Qiu dared to shout before the game that he would be in the second team. , all reasons why they can beat Manchester United.

To put it bluntly, even if Chelsea plays with a full substitute lineup, in terms of strength, they will definitely rank high in the Premier League!

The game has developed to this point, let alone Ferguson, even if Ye Qiu were to coach Manchester United, he would not be able to do anything. The reason is very simple. If you want to reverse the situation, you have to seek change, but what Manchester United lacks most now is change.

Ferguson's stubbornness in the defense is well known. Even during Ferdinand's suspension, he refused to sign players in the defense. Not only because he knew that the core problem was not in the defense, but also because he believed more in solidity. The defensive line comes from the tacit understanding between the players, rather than the individual strength of the players.

As for the midfield, what are the variables in Manchester United’s midfield?

Cristiano Ronaldo, Keane, Giggs, Scholes, almost all the midfielders that Manchester United can field have been arranged by Ferguson. What can he do to change?

There is a saying that goes well, it is difficult for a wise woman to make a meal without rice, which is the current portrayal of Ferguson.

Therefore, even when the Red Devils fans at Old Trafford booed out of dissatisfaction, Ferguson still did not make substitutions, but only made partial adjustments in an effort to stabilize the situation.

The first half finally ended with a score of 2:0.

During the halftime break, Ferguson made a substitution and replaced Fletcher with French forward Saha. This was also his only substitution in the entire game, because he really had no tricks to offer. .

In the second half, Chelsea no longer adopted aggressive tactics, but instead tried to control the game steadily.

Saha is a very special player. Ferguson paid such a high price to introduce him, but he actually did not value his scoring ability, because in Manchester United, in terms of scoring ability, who can compare with Ruud van Nistelrooy, the king of the small penalty area?

When Ferguson introduced Saha, he mainly valued Saha's ability to turn around and play with the ball. Because of Saha's presence, Giggs, Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo's threats from the back can be used to their full potential. Come out, but Ruud van Nistelrooy's presence seems a bit redundant, because everyone knows that Ruud van Nistelrooy's most threatening area is in the penalty area.

It's not that if you step in after leaving, Ruud van Nistelrooy will not get opportunities, but it will be relatively fewer than in the past.

There is a very famous statement about forward scoring in tactical theory. You can create 15 scoring opportunities in a game. Even an amateur forward can score many goals; but if you can only create 5 goals in a game, Every scoring opportunity, even if your forward is Ronaldo, it will still be difficult for you to score.

The truth explained in this argument is actually telling everyone that the strength of a team's goal-scoring ability does not lie in the forward, or in other words, the impact of the forward is actually very small. What really determines the decisive factor is your ball path.

In the past, the forwards played the ball, but now the forwards played the ball for the midfielders. Ye Qiu could foresee that Van Nistelrooy's days at Old Trafford would come to an end, because Ferguson could not let such an outstanding forward become a decoration in the front.

Moreover, Manchester United wanted to reorganize and adjust the team's entire tactical offensive system. Van Nistelrooy in the front and Keane in the midfield must be taken down. They have become the biggest obstacles to Manchester United's change.

Ye Qiu understood this truth, but he would not let the players show mercy.

In the 71st minute, Brown passed the ball diagonally to Sylvester. Rooney quickly inserted and knocked the ball horizontally after intercepting the ball. The ball passed by Ferdinand. Joe Cole inserted from behind and easily pushed the ball into Manchester United's goal 6 meters in front of the goal, 3:0!

Up to now, there was no suspense at all. If Manchester United reversed after leading 3:0, Ye Qiu and Chelsea would just die by hitting the wall!

Even all Chelsea fans were looking forward to the result of the game between Arsenal and Everton, because it determined whether Chelsea could win the championship in advance after the end of this round!