Chapter 686 Never Stop

On January 31, the Premier League winter transfer window closed. Manchester United was also very quiet in this winter transfer window. The first team neither signed nor sold players.

At present, Manchester United's lineup is very stable, the team's performance is very good, and it continues to win championships. No player wants to leave the team on their own initiative; the players have not suffered a major wave of injuries, and the team has no need to supplement the lineup.

Chelsea has made a big move, spending 64 million euros to introduce the talented winger Perisic from Dortmund, which is also the highest bid in this winter transfer window.

Except for Chelsea, the other traditional strong teams are like Manchester United, with no major signings, and Liverpool even sold a striker Solanke.

In the whole of Europe, only AC Milan and Barcelona have made relatively large signings. The Rossoneri spent 70 million euros to sign Piatek and Paqueta. The Red and Blues sold Paulinho for 42 million euros and signed the 21-year-old talented midfielder Frenkie de Jong from Manchester United in the Dutch Eredivisie for 75 million euros plus 11 million floating clauses. However, De Jong will not officially join until the end of the season.

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Manchester United's first game after entering February was to challenge Leicester City at the King Power Stadium in the 25th round of the league.

In this game, Manchester United scored early. In the 10th minute, Bruno passed the ball over the top to the right side of the penalty area, and Rashford got the ball and shot with his right foot.

In the subsequent games, although both sides had offensive and defensive attacks, neither scored a goal.

In the end, Manchester United beat Leicester City 1:0 away from home. After 25 rounds, with an unbeaten record of 22 wins and 3 draws, they got 69 points and have formed a leading position in the standings.

As Liverpool suffered two consecutive draws in the last two rounds, and Manchester City lost to Newcastle in the last round, Manchester United's lead over the two teams has expanded to 9 points and 12 points respectively.

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At noon on February 9, the first game of the 26th round of the Premier League, Manchester United visited Craven Cottage to challenge the farm owner Fulham.

Fulham's performance this season was very bad. In the first 25 rounds, they only got 17 points, 7 points behind Burnley, which ranked 17th, and ranked 19th, deep in the relegation zone.

10 rounds ago, Manchester United won Fulham 4:0 at home. Now visiting Craven Cottage, Manchester United's goal is still to get all three points.

In the first ten minutes of the game, Bruno had created two threatening attacks, one for Rashford, but Master Bila did not seize the opportunity, and the other for Herrera, whose long-range shot made Fulham sweat.

In the 13th minute of the game, Bruno created a threat again.

Bruno dribbled the ball to the front of the penalty area and passed it to Dalot who was on the right side. The latter quickly went to the bottom, but had no chance to cross the ball, so he could only pass it back to Bruno.

After receiving the ball, Bruno quickly dribbled along the right side of the penalty area to the bottom line. Using his speed and the slippery grass, he broke through the defense of two Fulham players and sent a high parabolic cross in front of the bottom line.

Harry Kane firmly occupied the dominant advantage in the penalty area and headed the ball into the goal from close range.

1:0!

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But just when everyone thought that Manchester United would score goals one after another, Fulham suddenly made a sharp counterattack nine minutes later. Schurrle from the left quickly penetrated the defense line and scored a goal after getting the ball.

1:1!

Everyone in Manchester United was a little confused, and Dalot, who was the first to bear the brunt, covered his face with shame.

After joining Manchester United in the summer, Dalot was not able to compete with his Portuguese compatriot Cancelo, so he did not have many opportunities to play in the team. Such a mistake today will definitely leave a bad impression on Mourinho, and he may get fewer opportunities to play in the future.

Bruno happened to see Dalot like this and walked over quickly.

"Don't be like this, Diogo, you have to have confidence in yourself." Bruno comforted.

"No, I really think I've been terrible recently." Dalot grabbed his short hair with both hands and said distressedly.

Bruno put his hands on his shoulders, looked directly at the young teammate and said, "Believe me, brother, you can do it, have confidence in yourself, have confidence in me, you can do it!"

Mbappe and other teammates also ran over to comfort him.

Dalot is very popular in the locker room. He is the kind of person who is very friendly to everyone. No one will hate such a teammate, not to mention that mistakes and self-doubt on the football field are common.

"Didn't he steal a ball? Then find an opportunity and steal one back yourself!" Bruno encouraged fiercely.

Dalot looked at Bruno deeply and nodded vigorously.

Make up for his mistakes, this is the best way for him to redeem himself!

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When the game reached the 33rd minute, Bruno did not get a chance on the left and moved to the right.

After Dalot got the ball on the wing, he shook off the defensive player and cut inside, passing the ball to Mbappe.

The French international understood and pushed the ball in front of him. The Portuguese right-back quickly inserted it, caught up with the ball at the edge of the penalty area, and shot directly, penetrating Fulham's goal and surpassing the score again.

2:1!

After scoring the goal, Dalot was so excited that he rushed out of the stadium, jumped over the billboards, and rushed directly to the away fans' stands, celebrating his goal in a somewhat crazy way.

Many Manchester United players, including Bruno, Herrera, and Mbappe, gathered around him to celebrate with him.

"Thank you!" Dalot put his arm around Bruno's shoulders and said gratefully.

Bruno grinned, revealing a row of dazzling white teeth, and laughed: "Then give me an assist."

Entering the halftime break with a 2:1 lead, Mourinho also raised a lot of questions about the team's performance in the first half, especially on the defensive end.

Of course, it is irresponsible to blame Dalot for all the mistakes.

The young Dalot has always been better at attacking than defending. Manchester United uses him because they like his offense, but this has to tolerate his hidden dangers on the defensive end, which is an old problem of all offensive full-backs.

After the second half, Manchester United quickly launched a wave of offensive. Herrera avoided the tackle and passed the ball to Mbappe on the right. The French winger passed the ball directly into the penalty area, and Bruno turned and shot into the near corner at a small angle.

3:1!

This is Bruno's 29th Premier League goal this season!

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After leading by two goals, Manchester United can basically be said to have a sure win, but Bruno still has no intention of relaxing.

As a time traveler, Bruno knows how well Liverpool and Manchester City have performed this season. Although these two teams are currently nearly double-digit behind Manchester United, Manchester United will be caught up by their opponents or even reversed if they are not careful.

After all, in Bruno's memory, this season Manchester City finally won the championship with 98 points, beating Liverpool with 97 points, making Liverpool the highest-scoring runner-up in the history of the five major leagues.

Now, although Manchester City has become the highest-scoring runner-up in the history of the five major European leagues with 97 points last season, even if Liverpool gets 97 points again and becomes the runner-up, it is only tying Manchester City's record. Liverpool's performance of getting 60 points in the first 25 rounds is entirely possible to get 97 points after the end of the season.

Manchester City, on the other hand, is doomed to not get 98 points after only getting 60 points in the first 26 rounds.

Just two days ago, Manchester City's 27th round of the game was already in advance, and they beat Everton 2:0 away.

Of course, Manchester City will still be a strong competitor of Manchester United, because Manchester United's performance far exceeds that of another time and space, resulting in a great change in the situation of the Premier League, and the final result of the season may also change as a result.

Moreover, it is entirely possible that one of the three teams will have the same points, and then there may be a situation of competing for goal difference.

So, whenever possible, Bruno will help the team to win more goal difference.

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Mourinho and other Manchester United players didn't think of Bruno's intentions, and thought he wanted to score twice, thus scoring his 30th Premier League goal of the season.

Since next weekend is the FA Cup, and Mourinho plans to play with Chelsea in the FA Cup with a substitute rotation lineup, Bruno is also in the rotation plan, and then start in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Schalke 04 next week, so he will have a week of rest, so he is not in a hurry to replace Bruno.

In the 65th minute, McTominay replaced Harry Kane.

Seven minutes later, Mahrez replaced Rashford.

Both substitutions were to adjust the team's offense.

Mourinho also hopes that Bruno can score a goal, and he himself is constantly working hard on the court, constantly looking for opportunities.

Bruno is very different from other players. Once most players are anxious, their emotions will be a little out of control. As long as they are given a little chance, whether it is a good opportunity or not, whether they are sure or not, they will kick directly. So once they get anxious, their shooting accuracy drops sharply, and even affects the team's offensive efficiency.

But Bruno is different. He is anxious in his heart, but he still remains calm and rational. His creed is never to fight a battle without confidence, which makes him shoot very efficiently even though he can't be said to be 100% accurate.

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The game is still going on, and Manchester United still has the last substitution quota.

There is no suspense about the outcome at this time. Including Herrera, Mbappe, McTominay, Mahrez and Dalot, they are all trying to help Bruno create opportunities, but Fulham is obviously guarding Bruno.

Until the 83rd minute, Fulham's defense showed a flaw. Bruno suddenly changed his position to the left again, pulled to the left line to receive Mahrez's pass, and passed the ball back to Dalot who was advancing, and quickly inserted himself diagonally to the front of the penalty area.

Dalot dribbled the ball to the bottom, attracted the attention of the defense, and passed it back to the front of the penalty area.

When Bruno stopped the ball, he moved it to the middle, cut inside quickly, and shot with his right foot. The ball drew an arc, almost sticking to the right post, and quickly went into Fulham's goal.

4:1!

Bruno scored twice, scoring his 30th Premier League goal of the season. He also became the second player in Premier League history to score 30 goals in three consecutive seasons.

In the 27-year history of the Premier League, before Bruno, only Alan Shearer, the greatest scorer in Premier League history, was able to score more than 30 goals for three consecutive seasons.

The former Southampton, Blackburn and Newcastle striker scored 31 goals in the 1993-1994 season, followed by 34 goals in the 1994-1995 season, and then 31 goals in the 1995-1996 season.

However, in the first two seasons of these three seasons, the Premier League was still 22 teams, and there were 42 games in each season.

In fact, Alan Shearer played 40 and 42 games in the first two seasons. Only in the 1995-1996 season did he play less than 38 games, 35 games.

So, strictly speaking, Bruno is the first player to score more than 30 goals in the league for three consecutive seasons after the Premier League entered 20 teams!

It is worth mentioning that this game was Bruno's 100th Premier League game.

In the 2016-2017 season, Bruno played 36 Premier League games; in the following 2017-2018 season, Bruno played in all 38 Premier League games. Now he has played in all the first 26 Premier League games this season.

In these 100 Premier League games, Bruno scored a total of 109 Premier League goals.

However, Bruno is not the player with the most goals in the first 100 league games in the top five leagues. This record is still held by his national team teammate Cristiano Ronaldo. After joining Real Madrid, the Portuguese captain scored 111 goals in his first 100 La Liga games, with an extremely terrifying goal efficiency.

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After Manchester United won 3:0 away, the traditional Premier League teams that played next won one after another. Arsenal beat Huddersfield 2:1 away, Liverpool beat Bournemouth 3:0 at home, and Tottenham beat Leicester City 3:1 at home...

And the biggest upset of this round happened between Manchester City and Chelsea.

No matter which team wins, it is not considered an upset. The reason why this game is called an upset is because of the score of this game.

At the Etihad Stadium, Guardiola's team slaughtered Sarri's Chelsea 6:0!

The Blues' defense this season is not bad. They only lost 25 goals in the first 25 league rounds, with an average of only 1 goal per game. But in this game, they were poked 6 transparent holes by the Blue Moon!

In this game, Chelsea was scored 4 goals by Manchester City in the first 24 minutes, and fell into an extremely passive situation. Including the 0:4 away loss to Bournemouth in the 24th round, Chelsea has lost 4 or more goals in two consecutive away games, and the last time they lost 4 goals in consecutive away games in the English top league was in December 1990.

In other words, this time Chelsea broke the embarrassing record that had been sealed for nearly 30 years.

In addition, the score of 0:6 also refreshed Chelsea's record of nearly 30 years of disastrous defeat.

Not only in the league, but also in all the competitions Chelsea has participated in, the team has not lost by such a humiliating score in 29 years.

The last time they lost by 6 goals in the league was in 1986, when they lost 0:6 to Queens Park Rangers.