Chapter 615 Paper Tiger

When the players of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal stood in two straight rows and walked out of the player tunnel slowly under the leadership of the referee Philip Dodd, the slightly fat English referee immediately received some sparse cheers from the Emirates Stadium.

Before every strong dialogue, there will inevitably be some verbal battles between the supporters of the two strong teams. For example, before this North London derby, the Independent, which represents the position of Arsenal, took the lead in launching a round of offensives. From players to referees, they are trying their best to create factors that are favorable to Arsenal.

Philip Dodd is in his forties and is an international referee from England. He has rich experience in law enforcement. However, because of his slightly fat body, many people have always doubted his athletic ability. However, this referee is not a soft bone. On the contrary, he is very tough and has a strong personality.

So far this season, Philip Dodd has officiated many Premier League games and has been called a giant killer by the media, because in the four games he officiated, including Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, these four teams either drew or lost, and what is interesting is that their opponents are not strong teams.

Of course, Philip Dodd has also officiated other games, such as Newcastle's victory over Sunderland, where the Magpies played very well, and the League Cup match where the Magpies defeated Chelsea away was also Philip Dodd's.

This made the Independent, which represented Arsenal's position before the game, believe that Tottenham Hotspur, a giant team, will suffer its first defeat in the past nine months under Philip Dodd's officiating, and Arsenal will use this victory in the North London derby to once again enter the top four of the league.

But some newspapers and fans who support Tottenham Hotspur have made completely different explanations, believing that Philip Dodd is a giant killer. So far, Tottenham Hotspur is not a giant, but Arsenal has always regarded itself as a Premier League giant, so this game will definitely be Tottenham Hotspur killing Arsenal.

Judging from the performance of the past few rounds of games, many teams including Arsenal and Chelsea have obviously encountered bottlenecks. Chelsea's performance has declined a lot compared to the beginning of the season. There is no need to say more. Just look at the standings. Although Arsenal has won two consecutive games in the past two rounds, its performance is difficult to be satisfactory, and it is also very stumbling to win.

But Tottenham Hotspur's recent situation is very amazing. They have won every game with a big score. The trident combination of Messi, Ribery and Cavani has shown amazing power. Cavani plays the role of disrupting the opponent's defense in the front, while Messi and Ribery rely on their strong personal abilities and excellent back-insertion awareness to use the space created by Cavani's disruption to score goals.

Such tactics seem simple and not complicated to say, but the problem is that it is difficult to defend.

Compared with Tottenham Hotspur's strong offensive ability, Arsenal's defense is a long-standing problem.

Goalkeeper is already an old problem. Even in the period of Lehmann and Almunia, Arsenal's goal has never been reassuring. And since Campbell, Gallas, Silvestre, Senderos and Kolo Toure, Arsenal's central defender has always been a criticized role.

This season, central defender Vermaelen was introduced from Ajax, but the Belgian is currently injured and will miss this game. In addition, many professionals do not have a high evaluation of Vermaelen. It's just that the media almost praised him to the sky because of his consecutive goals in the early season, and some media broke the news that this player was once favored by Ye Qiu.

Wenger also rarely took the initiative to fire before the game. When he was interviewed by the media, he said that the strength of Tottenham Hotspur was like a bubble that was constantly blown up by the outside world, and Arsenal was like a spike that would burst this huge bubble.

Ye Qiu also fought back against Wenger's provocation, "When I heard Wenger say that we were a big bubble, a fairy tale came to my mind, the emperor's new clothes."

"Wenger is the emperor in the fairy tale. The whole world knows that you are naked, but you still have to pretend that you are wearing clothes and you have to pretend that everything is normal. I believe this game will let everyone see the truth!"

The war of words before the game also ignited the enthusiasm of the fans, but it must be said that the Emirates Stadium is quite large, but there are not many seats, it is empty, and the atmosphere at home is very bad. This has been going on for a long time. Even Arsenal players themselves said that the atmosphere of the Emirates Stadium is not like a home for a football game at all, but more like an entertainment venue.

But it was a North London derby after all, and Arsenal fans had also made careful arrangements for this match.

When the players of both teams entered the stadium together, they first cheered to please Philip Dodd. There was also a bit of mischief in it, which meant that we welcome you, the killer of the rich, to help us kill Tottenham Hotspur, the damn enemy!

Then, the commentator at the Emirates Stadium also introduced the team's starting lineup to the Arsenal fans who came to the scene.

The goalkeeper is Fabianski, the back line is Clichy, Koscielny, Squirachi and Sagna, the midfield is Arteta, Alexander Song and Denilson, and the front court is Rosicky, Chamakh and Nasri.

Arsenal's defense has always been criticized, and in this game Wenger was out with Vermaelen due to injury, including Koscielny and Squillac, both players who have just joined the team this season. , coupled with goalkeeper Fabianski who has always been a substitute, this also makes many people more worried about Arsenal's defense in this game.

You know, they are facing Tottenham Hotspur's offensive line, which is now in red and purple form, composed of Messi, Ribery and Cavani. Such a lineup can stop the wolf-like attack line. Tiger's Tottenham Hotspur?

As early as before the game, the Independent had made such an appeal, hoping that Arsenal fans could create a more enthusiastic home atmosphere in this game, because data shows that an extremely enthusiastic home atmosphere can be more powerful. The probability of guiding the referee to favor the home team is about 16%.

Therefore, after the players entered the game, when the on-site commentator introduced the team's starting lineup, every time the commentator read a player's name, there was a burst of cheers in the stands. Not too young, and at this time, the flattered Arsenal players would wave towards the stands.

"Will this turn into psychological pressure for these players?" Ye Qiu felt very funny when he saw this scene.

When the commentator read a name, the fans cheered loudly, which seemed very impressive and quite scary!

After Ye Qiu and Mauro Tassotti and others walked out of the players' tunnel, he went directly to the home team's coaching bench and shook hands with Wenger and several acquaintances from the Arsenal coaching staff. Ye Qiu had a good relationship with Wenger. By the way, He is relatively familiar with his coaching team, but both sides maintained a restrained distance before the game. After all, this game is very important to both sides.

Therefore, after shaking hands, Ye Qiu chose to walk back, while guessing was going on on the court. Tottenham Hotspur won the right to kick off, while Messi and Cavani stood in the center circle preparing Take the kickoff.

With the whistle of the referee Philip Dodd, the most watched key match in the fourteenth round of the Premier League finally ignited the flames of war, and the most excited person was the person sitting in the stands responsible for commentating on this match. Andy Gray.

Andy Gray can be seen in almost every round of important events.

"The game finally started, Tottenham kicked off and we saw..."

Before Andy Gray finished speaking, he saw Tottenham Hotspur quickly passing the ball to the backcourt. After Thiago Silva stopped the ball, he looked up and faced him directly. The ball was kicked into a long overhead pass.

I saw Ribery, the sharp knife on the left, rushing forward quickly, while the Arsenal defense led by Sagna and Squillaci retreated.

Ribery received the ball on the left wing. Facing Sagna, one-on-one, he saw Ribery making a very skillful fake move, trying to make a move, but after deceiving Sagna to move, he used With his own flexibility, he changed to cut inside, blocked Sagna with his body, and rushed diagonally toward the penalty area with the ball.

After Squillaci saw Ribery break through his teammates, he immediately rushed to intercept Ribery. However, after the Frenchman made an emergency stop and smashed the ball, he passed Squillaci again and forced a pair of consecutive shots on the wing. In the first battle, he passed two Arsenal defenders and then rushed to the bottom line.

"Beautiful! Ribery made consecutive passes, and Tottenham entered the penalty area in the first attack!" Andy Gray couldn't help but exclaimed, "Let's take a look at this attack... "

Koscielny and Squillac also quickly returned to the penalty area. They worked very well to block Ribery's inward cut, preventing the Frenchman from having the opportunity to directly face the goal, while Ribery It was one person who attracted three defensive players including Sagna, Squillac and Koscielny, so that Alexander Song had to quickly return to the penalty area.

Ribery saw that goalkeeper Fabianski also stood in a favorable position. He obviously had no chance, so he simply stopped being reckless and suddenly knocked back and passed the ball back to the edge of the penalty area. At this moment, David Silva followed up, swung his left foot and shot a curved ball from outside the penalty area.

The speed of this kick is not too fast, but the angle is too tricky. It is impossible for Fabianski, who is already standing close to the left post, to block the upper right corner, but it is precisely because he is too pursuing. The angle made the shot slightly higher than the goal and missed the baseline.

There was a clear sigh of relief from the audience, and all Arsenal fans were relieved to have survived the disaster.

"Less than thirty seconds after the opening, Tottenham Hotspur showed their excellent offensive state. After a week's rest, their state has been adjusted quite well, and their offense is very threatening, especially Ritchie. Berry's one-on-three this time!" Andy Gray followed the slow-motion replay of the game and greatly appreciated Ribery's individual show after the start.

The reason why Tottenham Hotspur's frontcourt trident is terrifying is that the two wingers on the left and right have outstanding personal strength, but at the same time, their teamwork ability is also very strong, with full tacit understanding, coupled with a tactical Cavani, who plays a huge role, makes the tactical effect of Tottenham Hotspur's trident very obvious.

Maybe you know how to defend, but that's only in theory. It's hard to defend on the football field, because Tottenham's attack is not just one time, but they keep the offensive pressure for 90 minutes, and their offensive routine is not static, but they are constantly changing according to the situation.

And more importantly, Tottenham's offensive weapons are not just offensive routines.

In the second minute, Tottenham launched an attack on the left, Ribery ate Sagna one-on-one again, but the cross was blocked by Squirachi and David Silva took a corner kick. Kompany pressed Squirachi to hit the back post. Fortunately, Fabianski stretched his legs to block the ball out of the goal when his center of gravity had moved to the left.

Two consecutive waves of attacks made Arsenal's goal a scene of panic. Everyone saw Tottenham's excellent game state and overwhelming strength advantage.

"From the current lineups of both sides, Tottenham Hotspur does have an advantage in strength. Arsenal's lineup, especially the defensive lineup, is indeed full of temptation for Tottenham Hotspur. That's why Ye Qiu launched a desperate attack at the beginning of the game, because he knows that for Arsenal, whose defense is weak, offense is the best defense. But we don't know whether Wenger has targeted Tottenham Hotspur's tactics."

Playing a rush attack after the opening is not a secret at all. The key is whether you can defend it and how long your defense can last. This is the key to the problem.

Arsenal's defense used to be afraid of Drogba, because Drogba kept using his body to ravage those unlucky defenders in the frontcourt, but Cavani is no less, because although his body is not as strong as Drogba, the important thing is that he can run, and he will use constant running to drag you to death.

For such an opponent, it is useless for you to defend the start. The key is whether you can defend until the end.

After trying to attack from the left twice, Tottenham Hotspur changed direction this time, to the right.

Messi got the ball on the right, but Clichy and Arteta who was returning to defense prevented him from doing whatever he wanted, so Messi passed it back to Fabregas, and then ran to the middle, immediately attracting Clichy to the middle, but Alves on the right rushed forward at high speed. Fabregas immediately sent an over-the-top pass to Alves after getting the ball.

Alves rushed up quickly, caught up with the ball, and directly passed the ball to the middle of the penalty area. Cavani blocked Koscielny with his body in the penalty area, and headed Alves' cross towards the goal, but this time Fabianski had already determined Cavani's only attack angle, and the ball went directly into his arms.

Cavani shook his head and gave Alves a thumbs up with a wry smile, but looked at Koscielny with a bit of resentment. If there was no central defender behind him, he could consider shooting from the opposite angle, and Fabianski would be finished, but because of Koscielny, his shooting angle was blocked, and Fabianski easily judged it.

Although it failed to achieve the effect, Tottenham's attack this time was very threatening.

"Within less than five minutes of the game, Tottenham Hotspur had already had three shooting opportunities. We saw that Arsenal's defense was just as Ye Qiu said before the game, just like the emperor's new clothes, standing naked in front of Tottenham Hotspur's guns, and Tottenham Hotspur from North London had no mercy on them, just pushed them down and went in!"

Andy Gray also had to sigh. From the start of the game, Tottenham Hotspur's recent state is indeed too good, especially the team's offense, but this also reflects another fact, that is, Arsenal's defense, not just defense, but also the Gunners' overall lineup, is indeed quite different from Tottenham Hotspur.

Of course, Rosicky, Nasri, or even Arteta and Alexander Song, all have European-level strength, but the question is, in addition to these players, does Arsenal have other stars to show off?

When the individual strength gap eventually piles up into the overall gap of the team, the originally small gap will become a huge strength gap.

Arsenal's performance against strong teams so far this season has not been ideal, and it has even been like this in the previous seasons. If it is only once or half a time, then there is nothing to say, but when you can't play well against strong teams for a long time, then people have to doubt whether your team is really strong or fake.

"Since the start of the game, Arsenal has been suppressed by Tottenham Hotspur, who is playing away, and has not had a single shot opportunity so far. Wenger seems to be very anxious about this situation and frequently walks to the sidelines to direct."

Andy Gray sympathizes with Arsenal. After all, the former top Premier League team and the favorite to win the championship are suppressed by their mortal enemies in the same city and district. It can be said that it is a one-sided situation. It is really embarrassing and embarrassing.

"Now for Arsenal, the most important thing is to stabilize the situation first and keep their own goal. In this way, there will be a chance to create a counterattack. As long as there is a counterattack, Tottenham Hotspur's offensive will be weakened, and the defensive pressure will naturally be relieved!"

This is what Ye Qiu said. There is no absolute in football games, only relative. This is what Andy Gray wants to say now. Premier League commentators are not only passionate in their commentary, but also have very high professional knowledge and football tactical literacy.

But less than a minute after Andy Gray finished speaking, Tottenham Hotspur finally broke through Arsenal's goal!