Chapter 761 The First Match of 2020

Chapter 761 The first game of 2020...

The first day of 2020, Emirates Stadium, London, England.

At 8 pm, a focus game of the 21st round of the Premier League kicked off at the Emirates Stadium, with Arsenal facing Manchester United.

On December 20 last year, Arteta replaced Emery, who had a poor record, as Arsenal's head coach, so today's game is also Arteta's first match against Manchester United since he became Arsenal's head coach.

In the past four seasons, Arsenal is the team that has defeated Manchester United the most.

Since Mourinho became Manchester United's head coach, Manchester United has only lost 5 games in the Premier League, 2 of which were lost to Arsenal.

First, on May 7, 2017, in the 36th round of the Premier League, Manchester United, who was in a multi-line championship, lost 0:2 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium and had to delay the championship celebration that had been prepared.

Then, in the 30th round of the Premier League last season, Manchester United, which had extended its unbeaten record in the Premier League to 68 games, was ended by the Gunners at home at the Emirates Stadium.

It can be said that, to some extent, Arsenal is the victim of Manchester United, which dominates the Premier League and even Europe. They almost let Manchester United's first Premier League championship in the post-Ferguson era fall by the wayside, and then ended Manchester United's 68-game unbeaten record in the Premier League.

However, looking at the past 30 encounters between the two sides, Arsenal's record is somewhat embarrassing. Only 5 wins were achieved, and Manchester United won 19 and drew 5 in the remaining 25 games.

In the entire history of the Premier League, the two sides had 55 previous encounters, and Manchester United also achieved 27 wins, 14 draws and 14 losses, with a winning rate of nearly 50%, which can also be called Arsenal's nemesis.

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It is worth mentioning that Bruno was not on the court in Manchester United's last two losses to Arsenal. In Bruno's 10 encounters with Arsenal in his career, he won all of them, 8 of which were after joining Manchester United. In these 10 games, Bruno scored 13 goals and assisted 6 times, almost averaging 2 goals per game, and is the real nemesis of Arsenal.

After Arteta took over Arsenal's coaching, the Gunners have not tasted the fruits of victory. The results of 3 games are 2 draws and 1 loss. The first game was tied 0:0 by Everton away. The second game was the Boxing Day battle a week ago. Arsenal was tied 1:1 by Bournemouth away again. Then, the final battle of 2019 was 1:2 at home to Chelsea.

Therefore, Arteta is also facing a lot of pressure.

In fact, Arsenal's recent state is very bad. In the past November and December, the Gunners had a total of 13 games in various competitions, with an embarrassing record of 1 win, 7 draws and 5 losses, and only won one victory in the Premier League away challenge against West Ham United.

Such performance also made Arsenal rank 12th in the Premier League standings with only 5 wins, 9 draws and 6 losses after 20 rounds of the Premier League.

For Arsenal, the home game against Manchester United was a game that they had to win, because the cost of losing might be too much for all Arsenal players to bear!

Faced with such great pressure, Arsenal played very actively after the start of the game and took the lead early.

In the 8th minute, Maguire failed to make offside by pulling back, Kolasinac's cross from the left side of the penalty area hit Lindelof and deflected, and Pepe, who was unguarded, shot into the net from 10 yards.

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Arsenal's goal made the whole stadium agitated, and the fans were full of passion. Every time the team took the ball and passed the ball, they would give warm cheers and applause.

The Arsenal players on the court were also infected, and they all ran more actively, and their state was obviously mobilized.

The most obvious phenomenon was that not long after Manchester United kicked the goal again, the ball was quickly snatched by Arsenal, and it was near the center line. Afterwards, Arsenal began to pass back and reorganize, but the team steadily pressed forward.

The tempo of the entire game was also raised.

Of course, Manchester United was not a weak team that could be slaughtered at will. They were used to big scenes. Under the leadership of their captain Bruno, they quickly stabilized their position and launched a counterattack.

Soon, Manchester United organized another attack again.

Bruno pulled to the right to receive the ball. After receiving the pass, he quickly cut in diagonally, but this time Arsenal was prepared. Kolasinac entangled him all the way, and Xhaka also took the initiative to retreat to participate in the defense.

Bruno quickly passed the ball to Gundogan, and continued to rush diagonally to the top of the penalty area.

After Gundogan got the ball, he took two steps forward and immediately passed the ball directly to the right side of Arsenal's penalty area.

At this time, Harry Kane, who was originally ambushing at the front of the penalty area, ran quickly to the right side of the penalty area, but David Luiz followed him all the way.

When the English center stopped the ball, he tried to get rid of David Luiz's cross.

As long as he passed the ball in, Bruno could quickly insert and grab the point.

But David Luiz was obviously prepared and blocked him behind him. Harry Kane had no choice but to turn around and protect the ball. When he saw Cancelo coming up, he immediately passed the ball back.

The Portuguese right-back had already reached a position almost balanced with the top of the penalty area, but he was close to the right side. He wanted to go down the bottom, but Xhaka followed him closely.

Cancelo was not sure, and when he saw that Harry Kane had not had time to return to the middle of the penalty area, he decisively chose to stop and dribble the ball to the inside.

Just at this time, Bruno ran back from the front and raised his hand again to ask for the ball.

Obviously, he saw an opportunity!

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Bruno did see an opportunity.

Arsenal's defense is indeed very solid. Even when Manchester United was running back and forth, their entire back line was still very neat.

But no matter how solid the defense is, it is inevitable that there will be loopholes. The problem with Arsenal's defense is that they pressed too high, especially when Bruno retreated to the right side of the penalty area to receive Cancelo's pass, their entire defense line almost pressed to the penalty spot.

Papastathopoulos defended in the top of the penalty area, Torreira moved to the right side of the top of the penalty area, and the two protected the front of the penalty area.

It can be said that Arsenal's two lines of defense are already very meticulous.

It can be seen that Arteta has done a lot of work after taking over Arsenal, at least Arsenal's defensive strength has been greatly improved.

In this case, it is difficult for Manchester United to open up if they attack head-on.

But now the pace is very fast, and the defense line is slightly forward. It is obvious that they are afraid of Bruno's long-range shooting ability and are worried that he will suddenly kick after receiving the ball. This is no joke.

When Bruno received the ball, through his own observation, he clearly grasped the situation of the whole court.

He chose to pass the ball horizontally to Gundogan, who temporarily broke away from Torreira's defense, and he quickly changed direction and rushed behind Kolasinac at the fastest speed.

Gundogan also understood, and when Bruno just started, he quickly passed the ball directly into the penalty area, passing it to the bottom line from the gap between Kolasinac and David Luiz.

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Bruno's starting speed was very fast. In an instant, he shook off Kolasinac and rushed directly into the penalty area.

David Luiz's reaction speed was also not slow. He quickly chased back, but he was still one step ahead of Bruno.

Bruno caught the ball outside the right corner of the small penalty area, and David Luiz's position was almost parallel to him.

At this time, Bruno can have three options.

First, he can pass the ball horizontally to the middle. Harry Kane is no longer offside, and Rashford has also caught up at the back point.

But whether it is Xhaka or Niles, they are blocking them tightly in front of them, and passing the ball horizontally may not be able to find them.

Another option is to stop and dunk, try to shake off David Luiz and then shoot with his left foot, but since Papastathopoulos and others have returned to the small penalty area, the possibility of this shot is not high.

The last option is also the boldest, that is, to accelerate to the bottom line and then shoot directly.

The shooting angle is already very small in the right corner of the small penalty area. If you move one step further to the bottom line, the shooting angle will be even smaller, and it is even hard to say whether you can kick it at that time.

Relatively speaking, the first option is the safest and most reasonable choice.

If teammates can seize the opportunity to score, Bruno will be the first credit, but if they can't score, Bruno will not be blamed.

It can be said that this is the most reliable option. Whether it succeeds or not, he will be praised.

The third option is the most risky. If he scores, it will be better. If he doesn't score, he will definitely be called selfish.

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All this information flashed through Bruno's mind the moment he received the ball, and he made a decision in an instant.

Bruno almost paused at the moment of receiving the ball, and then immediately accelerated with the ball.

David Luiz just instinctively stopped with Bruno, and then he was thrown away.

And after Bruno threw David Luiz away, he quickly chased him and kicked directly.

Arsenal goalkeeper Leno bent down to prepare for the save, and he stood next to the right post.

At that moment, Bruno noticed that there was an extremely narrow gap between his left foot and the goal post. Bruno judged that the ball could pass through this gap.

This judgment comes from his usual training. The right post and Leno's left foot are like the two poles he used in training, and all Bruno needs to do is to shoot the ball between the two poles.

He kicked the ball almost without hesitation!

In order to better avoid Leno's left foot, he deliberately hit a rebound ball.

Leno's attention is also quite focused. He has been staring at Bruno. After seeing Bruno shake off David Luiz, he knew that Bruno must shoot. He immediately bent down to prepare for the save, while also guessing at what angle Bruno would shoot.

As a result, Bruno chose the near corner, which was a somewhat unexpected choice.