Chapter 221 Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea

The battle for the top spot in the Premier League has only just begun.

At the end of November, the fifteenth round of the Premier League is in full swing.

Among the top three teams, Manchester United welcome Everton at home, Chelsea away to Bolton, and Manchester City's opponent is Aston Villa, which is also an away game.

Aston Villa are not a strong team, but they are not to be underestimated.

Aston Villa has made headlines in the British newspapers several times this summer, which is not good news for a team that was on the verge of relegation last season.

In July of the summer, Aston Villa players collectively remonstrated, causing a mutiny, and club chairman Ellis fired coach O'Reilly in anger.

However, Ellis continues to use coaches and players as scapegoats and can no longer pass on the crisis. Fans know better that he is the root cause of Villa's sluggish performance in recent years. The 82-year-old chairman has long lost his interest in the team's development. What passion and ambition, has been trying to sell the club - Aston Villa has been up for sale on the London Stock Exchange since October last year.

A "inverted Ellis movement" triggered by the players' mutiny.

In July and August, slogans of "Ellis leaving" were everywhere in Birmingham, and Villa's fan group even publicly issued a declaration asking Ellis to leave with dignity, so that the talents can be given to more capable young people for the ball. The management of the team has injected fresh blood, and former Villa player Gibson has also publicly stated that it is time for Ellis to abdicate.

However, in mid-August, after spending 15 months caring for his sick wife, last weekend, Irishman Martin O'Neill came out as Aston Villa's new manager.

This is also the 14th head coach appointed by Chairman Ellis.

O'Neill, 54, has also been a favourite to be the new manager of England, Newcastle and Middlesbrough. The British media then also made a high-profile evaluation of O'Neal's entry as "reawakening the sleeping giant of Villa".

Soon there was news of the Aston Villa deal. American sports tycoon and professional baseball Brown team owner Randy Lerner "eaten" 57% of Aston Villa at a unit price of 547 pence per share. , thus becoming the club's largest shareholder, with the entire acquisition valued at £62.6 million ($119 million).

Lerner is a former chairman of the board of directors of the US credit card company MBNA. The success of this acquisition also made him the second American sports billionaire to enter the Premier League boss.

After being bought by the Americans, Aston Villa are in no rush to make a big-money move.

It was clear to all that Lerner was a wealthy American and very good at investing in sports. But he didn't give Aston Villa a big revamp. Two newcomers, Yago and D-Veron, were freely transferred from the lower leagues. In the first-line team, only Dela Cruz left after the contract was terminated. The only transfer worth talking about is the joining of Petrov, 10 million yuan. Euros, neither too much nor too little, Petrov, who played for the Celtics, is still worth the price.

The deal was also considered by the media as "the most valuable transfer of the year in the Premier League".

Unfortunately. The Bulgarian striker doesn't seem to fit in the Premier League very well. He has completely lived up to the 'expectations' of the media. His position in Aston Villa is as an avant-garde, and he will often play as a striker. But so far, he has played 13 times in the league, but only helped Aston Villa scored a goal.

Aston Villa's overall performance is not too bad, so far they are ranked tenth in the league, compared to the past and the investment in the summer. It's not bad at all, it's a headache. This team has been a bit like Everton and McLaren's Middlesbrough this season, their performances are fluid, and they can lose outright to smaller clubs at home or beat big clubs away.

Such an opponent is not easy to deal with.

The time around Christmas is the best time to compete for the top spot, so everyone in Manchester City, including Wansheng, attaches great importance to each round of the league, and it is the same for Aston Villa. Before the game The coaching staff carefully studied Aston Villa's recent games, and then specially designated some defensive strategies in order to respond to Aston Villa's counterattack. Try to get the best players out there.

But it turns out that even relying on the football training master system, it is impossible to send the best lineup, because the state of the players will be changed by external influences.

For example, a player is in very good condition before the game, but affected by the opponent’s defense, his body and mentality will undergo some changes, which directly and directly affect his state. From very good state to very poor state, the two extremes may only be one mentality Just a small change.

That's what happened to Manchester City against Aston Villa.

At Villa Park, Aston Villa started to defend solidly and fight fiercely in the first minute of the score. Manchester City has long been used to the opponent's defensive moves, but even if they are used to it, they will be angry, especially in a few intense times. Fighting, after the referee showed consecutive yellow cards, the anger of the players on both sides was picked up.

The next game almost turned into a hand-to-hand battle, and it was difficult for both sides to play any matching tactics.

The game continued until the end of halftime.

At halftime, Wansheng carefully told everyone not to be affected by the performance of the opponent, but to show a sense of calm, but in the opening three minutes, a big tackle from Koppelle Ferreira completely changed his statement. It became empty talk. The referee Kohler directly showed Ferreira a yellow card. In addition to the yellow card in the first half, Ferreira accumulated two yellow cards and was sent off.

A red card is still very shocking, and both sides have restrained their actions next, but Manchester City has had to fight with ten people.

Aston Villa felt that this was a good opportunity, because they had one more man than Manchester City, but after a few waves of attacks and were almost disrupted by Manchester City's quick counterattack, Aston Villa attacked a lot more calmly, They paid more attention to defense, as a result, in the second half of the second half, both sides behaved peacefully, as if they were playing a 'friendly game'.

The game is over.

In the end, the two sides drew 0-0, and Manchester City only took one point away at Villa Park.

. .

Manchester City did not win, and the media reporters felt that there was something to watch.

Usually, whenever Manchester City is doing well, their young manager smiles and says a lot. Many media hostile to Manchester City are very unhappy about this. Now that Manchester City has drawn, they have reason to gloat. In their imagination, Manchester City failed to get the three points. The Chinese must be very unhappy. As a result, they were again disappointed.

Wan Sheng was in a bad mood, but he was still very calm.

He is a little dissatisfied with Aston Villa's 'savage', but he also knows that this cannot be changed. The style of each team is like this. Aston Villa will not change his style because he expresses his dissatisfaction. In addition, the game is over. . Again, it doesn't make sense. So Wansheng just said calmly, "1 point is acceptable for us. I don't think 1 point is equal to defeat, because we didn't lose!"

Many media were surprised by this view. During the fierce competition for the championship, they only scored one point against the mid-table team. No matter how you count it, it means failure, so what does this Chinese mean?

The media responded quickly. Wansheng refers to Manchester City's overall performance - so far, the league has played 15 rounds, and Manchester City has remained unbeaten for 15 consecutive rounds!

Even if it is a draw and only get one point, Manchester City has not lost. Unbeaten in 15 rounds is definitely not easy to get, but Manchester City did it.

15 unbeaten league matches are enough to satisfy Manchester City fans!

As the league champions last season and the defending champions this season, Manchester City has not fallen behind so far. This is a success in itself. In comparison, what is a draw?

In this game, Manchester City's overall performance was not very good, but no one can ask a team to perform well every game!

In a word, as the manager of Manchester City, this young Chinese has many reasons to be satisfied with taking away a point, but there is no reason to be disappointed by a draw. On the contrary, the media reporters who were expecting to see Wan Sheng dissatisfied with the draw were all disappointed. .

Wansheng was indeed not disappointed.

It’s just a draw. There are so many games in the league, it is impossible to ask the team to win all of them. What’s more, there are also factors of bad luck in this draw. The team has good chances in the second half and three of them. A shot off the post, with even one goal in it, will give the team the final victory.

Unfortunately, no.

Play and luck together determined that the team could only take one point.

It is as if the God who dominates everything decides something, no matter how hard mortals try, it will be of no use. . After watching the game, Wan Sheng thought so.

He has always hoped that the team can win consecutively, which is also related to the football training master's winning streak this season. As a result, the team will occasionally encounter a situation of invincibility. So far, the team has won 12 league games, which is no more than A 5-game winning streak.

This is really frustrating!

Wan Sheng smiled wryly.

. .

Meanwhile, the rest of the Premier League's 15th round is over.

In the battle of focus, Manchester United won Everton 3-0 at Old Trafford. Perhaps it was affected by the last draw with Chelsea. The anger of Manchester United players was all vented on Everton. On Dunn, in the game, all Manchester United players did not perform much. C-Ronaldo scored the first goal, Evra scored the first goal after joining Manchester United to expand the score, and finally O'Shea added the icing on the cake.

This is Manchester United's 8th win in the last 9 league games!

Ferguson's happy look after the game fully explained Manchester United's performance. Of course, the opposite is David Moyes' unlucky expression. Everton can almost be described as being 'slaughtered' in the game. Although they are not the Premier League's 'first team', Everton is a strong team, and it is very unpleasant to be beaten 3-0 by Manchester United.

Meanwhile, Chelsea also took three points away with a controversial goal at the Reebok Stadium.

1-0, another typical Mourinho-style victory.

Chelsea still maintained a three-point gap between Manchester United, but the Portuguese saw a bright future. "I think it will not take us too long to become the leader of the league."

Bolton players accepted the defeat with reluctance because they thought Ballack's goal was a problem. In the second half of stoppage time of the first half, Lampard took a corner kick from the left, Ballack grabbed ahead of Davis and headed into the far corner of the goal.

The controversy over this goal is not the way Balague scored, but the timing of the goal. The fourth official raised a placard before the end of the first half to show that the stoppage time was two minutes, but the referee Bennett whistled to end the first half was delayed by half a minute.

However, Bolton boss Allardyce calmly accepted the fact that he said the referee's decision to allow Chelsea to take the corner was just.

"The referees will never blow a whistle when a team is about to take a corner, and it costs us, but Chelsea should have taken the lead in the first half, even though we had a lot of chances in the second." Allardy Spotted the key.

It was Ballack's third league goal, and without exception, those goals were headers.

Since the arrival of the German, he has replaced captain John Terry as Chelsea's player with the most headers. Ballack also got the highest score shown by the media recently after the game. The German may still have a long way to go to become the core of the team. Perhaps in Mourinho's tactical system, such a day was never arranged for him. But what cannot be ignored is that he has become the one who decides the fate of the team more and more frequently, from the redundant person who was on the verge of the original.

Mourinho said before the game that his team would never repeat the mistakes of Arsenal and capsize at the Reebok Stadium.

The victory apparently gave him double confidence, so that the Portuguese shouted the slogan of "soon to be the first in the league" after the game.

"We had two tough games at Old Trafford and at Reebok. We could have dropped eight points after those two games, but luckily it's still the same. Going forward, It's going to be Manchester United's turn to fight Manchester City." Mourinho's tone was obviously gloating.

The media knew what he was referring to.

Chelsea has experienced many battles, and Manchester United and Manchester United have not played a game, that is, the direct confrontation between the two teams in the 17th round of the league.

After this round, Manchester United continued to lead the league and maintained the first place in the league. Manchester City fell two points and ranked second. Chelsea was one point lower than Manchester City and ranked third. In the seventeenth round, Manchester United and Manchester City played against each other, no matter who wins or loses , Chelsea are almost able to advance one.

Mourinho must be happy thinking of this, he doesn't have to do anything but watch. (To be continued ~^~)