Chapter 529 The Invincible Year of 2017

On the first day of 2018, Manchester United's mouthpiece, The Guardian, reviewed Manchester United and Bruno's performance in 2017 on the front page.

In 2017, Manchester United played a total of 69 official games, including 40 Premier League games, 6 Champions League games, 9 Europa League games, 6 FA Cup games, 6 League Cup games, 1 Community Shield game and 1 European Super Cup.

In these 69 games, Manchester United won 58 games, 8 draws, and only lost 3 games, with a winning rate of 84%!

In these 69 games, Manchester United scored a total of 206 goals, setting a record for the team's annual goals.

58 wins brought Manchester United 6 championship trophies.

In 40 Premier League games, Manchester United won 33 games, 5 draws and 2 losses, and got 104 points.

At the same time, they scored 122 goals in these 40 games, averaging 3.05 goals per game; lost 20 goals, averaging 0.5 goals per game.

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As for Bruno personally, he played 60 games for Manchester United in various competitions in 2017, including 38 Premier League games, 5 Champions League games, 8 Europa League games, 4 FA Cup games, 3 League Cup games, 1 European Super Cup and 1 Community Shield game.

In these 60 games, Bruno scored a total of 61 goals and 39 assists; 40 goals and 25 assists in the Premier League; 5 goals and 5 assists in the Champions League; 5 goals and 3 assists in the Europa League; 6 goals and 5 assists in the FA Cup; 3 goals and 1 assist in the League Cup, 1 goal in the Community Shield, and 1 goal in the European Super Cup.

In other words, Bruno alone made 100 goals for Manchester United in 2017!

And his 40 Premier League goals also broke the Premier League's single-year goal record.

It is worth mentioning that Bruno's teammate Harry Kane also scored 39 Premier League goals in 2017, including 21 goals in Tottenham in the first half of the year and 18 goals in Manchester United in the second half of the year.

Of course, when taking stock of Bruno's personal performance, his national team data must also be added.

In 2017, Bruno played 10 games for the Portuguese national team, including 4 Confederations Cup games and 6 World Cup qualifiers. Bruno scored 16 goals and assisted 8 times.

In other words, Bruno played a total of 70 official games in 2017, scored 77 goals and 47 assists, and directly created 124 goals, breaking his record of 122 goals in 2016.

The Guardian said that Bruno was invincible in 2017, and FIFA and France Football did not award Bruno the 2017 World Footballer of the Year and the European Golden Ball Award, which was the biggest mistake.

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In response to Bruno's outstanding performance on the offensive end, the Guardian published a cartoon.

In the cartoon, Bruno, who has become a cute cartoon character, is betting with his defensive opponent.

Due to the large range of activities and the fact that Manchester United organizes and operates the offense around Bruno, Bruno's activities are left and right, which makes all the defenders defending him suffer.

"Guess, should I kick the ball to the left or the right this time?" Bruno in the comics smiled harmlessly.

"If you guess right, you'll get a prize. If you guess wrong, it's okay."

The muscular, ferocious-looking defensive player in the comics guessed wrong. He watched Bruno score a goal, but he burst into tears and regretted it.

But in reality, even if you guessed right, you would still cry.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOALLL!!!!!!!"

"Oh my God, my God!"

"Bruno! It's Bruno again!"

"Just three minutes into the game, Bruno quickly took the ball from the left and cut inside, then shot directly with his right foot, breaking Everton's goal for Manchester United!"

"In just three minutes, Manchester United scored a goal at Goodison Park and took the lead. Everton's defenders couldn't stop Bruno at all!"

"It's said that a new year is a new beginning. Bruno is very excited tonight and looks very active."

"This is Bruno's 30th goal in the Premier League this season, assisted by Gundogan!"

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On January 1, 2018, at 17:30 GMT, in the 22nd round of the 2017-2018 Premier League, Manchester United visited Goodison Park to challenge Everton, the Toffees.

Just three minutes into the game, Bruno scored a goal for Manchester United, which showed Bruno's outstanding competitive state.

The head coach Mourinho on the sidelines was so excited that he danced with joy. He now really found that as long as Bruno was in good shape and played smoothly, Manchester United would be invincible.

And the facts also confirmed his point of view. After Bruno scored the first goal, Manchester United took the initiative and continued to attack.

Everton organized a tight defense, but it only lasted for fifteen minutes.

In the 18th minute, Bruno passed the ball back to Cancelo from the right, and the Portuguese right back made a large-scale transfer. Luke Shaw assisted Harry Kane to score the second goal of the game.

Manchester United expanded the score 2:0.

Everton lost two goals in a row, and the team's morale suffered a painful blow.

Sixteen minutes later, this time it was Mbappe who took charge. With the assist from Harry Kane, the French international scored in the penalty area, further expanding the score for Manchester United.

3:0!

Manchester United was in high spirits with a three-goal lead in the first half.

During the halftime break, head coach Mourinho praised the team's performance and repeatedly encouraged the players to keep up the good work and strive to win a big victory on the first day of the new year.

The saying "a good start" is not only for Chinese people, but also for Westerners, but they don't call it a "good start".

In the second half, Everton's defense only lasted for fourteen minutes again.

In the 59th minute, Kante got the ball at the front of the penalty area and passed it behind him. Bruno stopped the ball with his chest and turned around to volley with his left foot, scoring another goal for Manchester United and scoring twice.

4:0!

Everton was completely defeated!

After leading by four goals, Manchester United slowed down their offensive and strengthened their ball control. Everton had no intention of taking the opportunity to counterattack, and they had chosen to give up the game.

Mourinho replaced Bruno with Mata in the 70th minute.

As time enters 2018, Manchester United's schedule is still intensive.

After all, the Premier League team is about to usher in the FA Cup, and with the Champions League knockouts that will begin in February, Manchester United will usher in a four-line battle.

In this case, it is very important to seize every opportunity to give core players like Bruno a rest.

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In the first Premier League in 2018, the other teams of the big6 also performed well. Liverpool beat Burnley 2:1 away, Tottenham beat Swansea 2:0 away, and Manchester City beat Watford 3:1 at home. Only Arsenal and Chelsea, who played directly in this round, shook hands and made peace at the Emirates Stadium with a score of 2:2.

The Premier League, which has many powerful teams, has strong dialogues that other leagues do not have.

After all, each team of the big6 team has to play two rounds with the other five teams every season, that is, 10 games. The six teams will have 30 strong dialogues in a season, and there will be a strong dialogue in almost every round.

This is also the reason why the Premier League is so interesting and popular. After all, every round of the game has a strong dialogue that fans like to see.

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Manchester United won four goals in the league and their morale is high.

At 8 o'clock in the evening on January 5, Manchester United ushered in the third round of the FA Cup, playing against Derby County at home.

Derby County is currently the second-ranked team in the English Championship, and its strength is not weak. But compared with Manchester United, the gap is still a bit big.

Especially in four days, Manchester United will usher in the first round of the League Cup semi-final with Manchester City, so Mourinho made a large rotation of Manchester United's lineup in this game.

However, in order to ensure the victory of the first home game of the new season, Mourinho did not arrange for Bruno to rest.

Ten minutes after the opening, Bruno received Valencia's pass on the right and broke through Derby County's goal, opening the record for Manchester United.

This is also Bruno's first goal in the FA Cup this season.

In the 36th minute of the first half, Mata assisted Ibrahimovic to score, expanding the score to 2:0.

After the second half, Bruno was still very active on the right.

In the 60th minute, McTominay replaced Ibrahimovic and served as the team's center forward.

Bruno and all his teammates worked hard to create opportunities for him, because the Scotsman was eager to score a goal.

Finally, in the 75th minute, Bruno planned, Gundogan assisted, and McTominay scored his first goal in 2018.

The Scottish teenager was so excited that he knelt on the sidelines for a long time when celebrating and was unwilling to get up.

Afterwards, Manchester United never scored again. The score of 3:0 was maintained until the end of the game.

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In the third round of the FA Cup, the opponents of the Premier League teams were not too strong, especially the big6 teams, so they all won and advanced to the next round.

Liverpool is the worst luck among the big6 teams. Their opponent is Everton, their city rival. After a fierce Merseyside derby, Liverpool defeated Everton 2:1 and entered the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Manchester City's opponent is also a Premier League team, the Red Wine Army Burnley. However, they did not cause much trouble to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, and were easily defeated by the Blue Moon with a score of 4:1.

Chelsea almost overturned. In the match with the English Championship team Norwich, they drew 0:0 with the Canaries away and will have a rematch.

Tottenham Hotspur beat AFC Wimbledon 3:0 at home.

Arsenal became the only team to overturn in the big6. In this event, which was nicknamed "thermos cup" by some fans, the Gunners actually lost 2:4 away from home in the game against Nottingham Forest, which is in the middle of the English Championship.

Bruno also had some feelings. Arsenal even lost the "thermos cup" so early. No wonder Wenger will be dismissed after the end of this season.

After all, with Arsenal's strength, it is undoubtedly a foolish dream to want to go all the way in the league or the Europa League.

As for the Europa League semi-finals, they may not be able to escape from Chelsea.