Chapter 1,192 Showdown Between Old and New

Chelsea is Manchester United's main rival in the league.

Since Abramovich took charge of the Blues, the Premier League title has been between Manchester United and Chelsea.

After four rounds of the Premier League, Manchester City and Manchester United are currently ranked first in points, and Chelsea, with three wins and one draw, is in second place.

Compared with Manchester United, Chelsea has made much bigger moves this summer. In addition to recruiting Torres and David Luiz with huge sums of money during the winter break last season, Chelsea also invited "Mourinho II" Villas-Boas this summer. Moreover, they are also adding young players with great potential such as Lukaku, Courtuis and Romeu in the transfer market. The addition of "New Warcraft" can greatly enhance the team's dominance in the opponent's penalty area, and Sturi Qi's return can also improve Chelsea's chronic problem of poor breakthrough ability.

In theory, Chelsea is a perfect team. Before the start of the season, fan media believed that the Blues' problem was, can Villas-Boas sort out the locker room?

When Mourinho came to Stamford Bridge, he could say that he was a Champions League-winning coach, and this group of players was nothing; but Villas-Boas faced a group of big guys who held multiple Premier League and FA Cup championship trophies. .

However, judging from the first four rounds of the league and one round of the Champions League, Villas-Boas still has some control over the team, and he gets along well with the team bosses. The record of four wins and one draw has won the hearts of fans and reporters. and unanimous praise from the club’s top brass.

However, in the four league games and one Champions League game since the start of the new season, Chelsea's opponents are not strong. Many fans and reporters think that such a victory is not very convincing. As long as the coach is not too bad, he can achieve this. , Strong dialogue is the real test for Boas.

Sunday's trip to Old Trafford will be Villas-Boas' first real test as Chelsea manager.

But Villas-Boas should be grateful that he had so much time to prepare for such a collision.

Because many of Villas-Boas's predecessors started their Chelsea careers with a game against Manchester United. Ranieri's first game was a 3-3 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford. Mourinho defeated Manchester United 1-0 in Stamford Bridge in his first game. Grant lost 0-2 to Manchester United shortly after taking over. Ancelotti appeared in the 2009 Community Shield, but the two sides ended in a draw. After taking over as Chelsea coach, he had five games to prepare for this, which is already a luxury these days.

Although this was the first major game, Villas-Boas has a good record in big games.

In Villas-Boas's first club, the University of Coimbra, there was only one game that could be called a battle, which was the last-place battle with Setubal. As a result, the University of Coimbra defeated its opponent 3-0.

Villas-Boas has experienced several battles since arriving in Porto.

Especially the El Clasico against Benfica. Villas-Boas defeated his opponent 5-0 at home in his first El Clasico, and also won 2-1 away in the second leg, winning the league championship at the Stadium of Light.

Porto's success in the Europa League also shows that Villas-Boas can perform well in big scenes.

But it turns out that Boas's opponents were all unknowns, but now, Boas's opponent is the best coach in the world, Ferguson.

In addition, Ferguson's extremely high winning rate against the "rookie coach" (leading the team to play in the Premier League for the first time) is also a hurdle in front of Villas-Boas. Among all the Premier League managers who led their teams to encounter Manchester United for the first time, only Mourinho achieved victory.

Of course, Boas, who has always been good at gathering intelligence, knew this.

But Boas was not afraid of Ferguson. Before the game, Boas expressed respect to Ferguson and also issued a challenge.

"Sir Alex Ferguson is the greatest coach in the Premier League and perhaps the best coach in the world. He has coached more than 2,000 games and won dozens of championship titles. His achievements are amazing."

"What's even more frightening is that Sir Alex Ferguson is never satisfied with the status quo. His use of newcomers is shocking. After Class 92, Sir Alex Ferguson has now created a young Red Devils with Gao Xiaodong and Rooney as the core. They won the championship last season We have won the Triple Crown and won 5 consecutive victories this season and are the favorites to win the league.”

"However, we are not afraid of Manchester United, nor are we afraid of Ferguson. In the 8 years when Mr. Abramovich took charge of the Blues, Chelsea did not lag behind Manchester United. Now Chelsea is not old. Our structure is very reasonable. Frank Lampard, Te... Lee and Cech are still top players, and young people such as Mata, Kalou and Sturridge can compete with the best players."

"Sir Alex Ferguson is still great, but I think his era is coming to an end, and the Red Devils' history of dominating the Premier League will eventually come to an end. This time we go to Old Trafford with the goal of winning, and I believe we can end Manchester United's winning streak. , I have enough confidence in my players.”

Villas-Boas also specifically mentioned Gao Xiaodong, "I have worked with Gao. He is a magical player. There is no denying the greatness of Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson, but I think that among the two Triple Crown winners of Inter Milan and Manchester United, Gao takes the most credit. Without his turnaround at critical moments, Manchester United and Inter Milan would not be able to win the Triple Crown. In this game, I am not afraid of Old Trafford's unbeaten record. I am only worried that my players will not be able to stand Xiaodong. high."

Although Villas-Boas is known as the little Mourinho and has achieved good results in the Portuguese Super League, these are not worth mentioning in the eyes of Ferguson. Now he is just 33 years old and is not as young as Ferguson's son. Ferguson was very unhappy when someone dared to openly challenge Ferguson before the game.

Ferguson always likes to play psychological warfare before games, and of course he will not let Boas go this time.

"If a 33-year-old who has never played a professional game and coached 90 games can become a coach of a wealthy club, I can only say that I was a failure at the time. At the age of 33, I was only coaching an amateur team in the second division of Jiangsu Province. A coach can only earn 40 pounds a week."

"I dare not say that young people will not be successful, but if Villas-Boas can lead Chelsea to win the Premier League championship, it will be a huge miracle. If he can win the Premier League championship this season, then I will Just resign and go home."

Not only the duel between the youngest coach Villas-Boas and the oldest coach Ferguson is the focus of this red-blue war, but also the duel between Chelsea's new core Mata and Manchester United's core Gao Xiaodong, Chelsea's new forward Torres and Manchester United forward Rooney. The duel is also the top priority of this game.

Needless to say, Gao Xiaodong's status in Manchester United, and Mata made his debut just two days after arriving at Chelsea, and then started two consecutive games. He scored two goals and provided two assists in three games, establishing his position as the core of the offense. Whether Chelsea can break Manchester United's goal in this game depends on Mata's performance.

Torres's feeling in front of goal still hasn't returned, but his two assists in the Champions League prove that he contributes to the team. Moreover, his record at Old Trafford is very good. The Spanish golden boy has always been Manchester United's defender. Dickey's nemesis, if Torres can find his form, Manchester United's defense will be greatly threatened.

Rooney's role in Manchester United is second only to Gao Xiaodong. The connection between him and Gao Xiaodong is a nightmare for any defense. Although Chelsea only conceded three goals in the first four rounds of the league, opponents such as Norwich, West Brom, and Sunderland It can make their defense on tenterhooks. This kind of performance will definitely require extraordinary performance to stop the combination of Rooney and Gao Xiaodong.

In short, the two teams are equally strong and each has its own advantages. Relatively speaking, Manchester United, which plays at home, has a greater advantage. However, it is a miracle that Villas-Boas can coach Chelsea at the age of 33. No one dares to say that he cannot be like Mourinho. O beat Ferguson.