Chapter 836 The Gunman Provokes
Ferguson coached Manchester United for 24 years and experienced countless strong enemies. Facing Mourinho, he had no victory in three embarrassing years. He and Benitez had a deep hatred, but he could be called Ferguson's lifelong enemy. , but only the gentle Frenchman Wenger.
When the Frenchman Arsene Wenger took up the coaching job of Arsenal in 1996, the proud Ferguson initially did not take this opponent seriously. At that time, even Arsenal's own fans were doubting the Japanese league manager. The coaching level of the head coach. However, it only took Wenger one season to become familiar with the Premier League. He quickly won the league and FA Cup double championship in the 1997-98 season, and was named the Premier League Coach of the Year that year. He was prevented from winning three consecutive league championships. The dominant Ferguson finally met the biggest opponent in his career.
Arsenal then rose strongly and won the championship with a record unbeaten record in the 2004 season. From then on, every season's match between the two teams was regarded as the most important focus of the Premier League, with Ferguson and Wenger even more They use everything from verbal sparring to psychological warfare. When the relationship between the two was at its most tense, Ferguson was once asked: "If you had only one bullet in your pistol, would you choose to kill Arsene Wenger or the Spice Girl?" Ferguson's answer was: "Give me two bullets." ?"
But in recent years, with the arrival of Benitez and Mourinho, especially the strong rise of Chelsea, Ferguson's attention has temporarily shifted to Mourinho and Benitez. Trapped in the club's financial constraints and some mistakes in coaching philosophy, the Arsenal team coached by Wenger began to decline. The conflict between Ferguson and Wenger gradually eased. Although they still mocked each other, there were fewer wars of words than before.
In the 17th round of the Premier League, Manchester United faced Arsenal for the 210th time, and Ferguson faced Wenger for the 43rd time. Since Wenger's Arsenal is now tied for second with Chelsea in the standings, it poses a major threat to the leading Manchester United's league championship. The threat, the battle between the Gunners and the Red Devils, which has been a little quieter in recent years, has become particularly eye-catching.
Last season, Arsenal was extremely close to their first championship title in the past five years. They clung to Manchester United and Chelsea in the first half of the season and even led the Premier League for a time. However, encountering the bad luck of main players being injured in turn, the young gunners unfortunately fell behind in the final stage. It seems that the success was a failure, but the inevitability is unavoidable - problems such as weak defense, insufficient recruitment and overuse of Cesc Fabregas led to the regrettable results of last season to varying degrees.
According to the tradition of ordinary wealthy clubs, in this case, they will definitely recruit heavily in the summer transfer in order to make a comeback. They are also heavily in debt. Ferguson decisively spent 80 million euros to buy Inter Milan's core Gao Xiaodong, and only then created 15 A record of consecutive wins, but Arsenal is the same as in previous seasons. There have been constant transfer rumors throughout the summer, from Werder Mertesacker, to Montpellier's Bosnian captain Spasic, to recent rumors. Roma's abandoned player Mexes, from Gao Xiaodong to Schwarzer to Adler, there are constant news that Wenger wants to buy players, but the only new player who has been put in place is center back Koscielny, who is also the most expensive player for the Gunners this summer. The signing, from Lorient, is worth 12.5 million euros; the Moroccan forward Shamacher, who has been worried about Wenger for a long time, finally came to invest this summer, but he has become a free agent without costing the Gunners a penny.
Obviously Wenger still believes in his young guards. He believes that Ferguson can rely on a group of young people from the Class of 1992 to establish a Premier League dynasty. As long as he persists, even if he cannot establish a dynasty, he still hopes to win the Premier League championship.
In fact, Arsenal started the season really well. In the preseason, Beira won Arsenal's only Emirates Cup in recent years on Nasri's goal against Celtic in the opening game 1 :1 drew with Liverpool, and then won consecutive big scores against the underdogs. It only lost to Chelsea in a strong dialogue, but then defeated Manchester City 3:0. After defeating Fulham 2:1 in the last round,
Arsenal has caught up with Chelsea and only needs to look up to Manchester United in the standings. Although the 11-point gap is a bit big, if they can defeat Manchester United in the away game, they can immediately ignite hopes for the league championship.
In the Champions League, Arsenal also had an easier time. After defeating Partizan Belgrade 3-1, they also ensured that they would qualify for the group stage one round in advance, and their record was better than the same period last season.
Arsenal pays more attention to this strong dialogue with Manchester United than Manchester United. Since Chelsea is about to start a London derby with Tottenham, in the eyes of Arsenal people, this game with Manchester United can almost compete with a league championship. Comparable.
If Arsenal can win this game, the points gap between Arsenal and Manchester United will be reduced to 8 points. The 8-point advantage is not unattainable when the league is not halfway through. In addition, if Chelsea cannot defeat the Heat If Arsenal beat Manchester United, Arsenal's position will be even more favorable.
Professor Wenger, who rarely takes the initiative to provoke, this time took the initiative to launch psychological warfare against Manchester United.
In an interview with a reporter from the BBC before the game, Wenger said: "Now Manchester United is encountering difficulties. They drew with Blackpool in the League Cup and suffered a disastrous defeat at West Ham United in the League Cup. This ended their 15-game winning streak. This ended Manchester United's longest unbeaten run in 12 years, but their opponents were all weaklings. This is enough to show that Manchester United has reached the end of its strength. 15 consecutive victories have drained their physical strength and energy. Now it is us who beat them. In good times, it was Manchester United who ended our 49-game unbeaten run in the league a few years ago, and it is Arsenal who ended Manchester United's 16-game unbeaten run this time. This is God's will."
The coach has spoken, and of course the captain must keep up. Arsenal's captain Fabregas is an indispensable presence for Arsenal. Fabregas was Arsenal's tactical core, top scorer and assist leader last season. This season he is still the key to how far Arsenal can go. Faced with such an important battle, Cesc Fabregas also publicly declared war on Manchester United. .
"Manchester United is a great team, but they are not invincible. Since West Ham United can beat Manchester United by a big score, then of course we can also do it. I think Arsenal has always been inferior to Manchester United and Chelsea over the years. Poor. The reason why we failed to win the championship was not only due to luck, but also because the Premier League referees' enforcement standards were too loose and encouraged teams that played rough football. If the enforcement standards of the Champions League or La Liga were used, Arsenal would have at least three more league titles. . I think the key to victory or defeat in this game against Manchester United is not me, Arshavin or Gao Xiaodong and Rooney, but the referee. If the referee can treat the fouls on the court fairly, the victory should belong to us."
Arsenal's ace forward, the new Bergkamp Van Persie also said that Manchester United is just a paper tiger. They are not invincible. The 11-point gap looks huge. If we can beat Manchester United at Old Trafford, we can reduce the points gap to 8 points, then Chelsea and Tottenham will see hope. At that time, the suspense of the championship will be back.
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