Chapter 224 Welcome Back to the Era when the Iron-Blooded Blues Dominated the Premier League! [Please Subscribe, Big Guys! ]

Wenger is in a good mood this season.

Ever since Cavani initially adapted to the Premier League and scored his first goal for Arsenal.

All Arsenal players and staff can easily sense the professor's joy.

Yes, after two difficult seasons, Arsenal is finally back on track.

There are still three rounds of league games, and the 2013-2014 Premier League season will be halfway through.

Currently ranked second in the Premier League, Arsenal has also regained its dazzling style that makes all Gunners fans proud.

Solid midfield and backcourt defense, smooth passing and cooperation, and a surging offensive like mercury pouring down the ground.

Cavani, the Arsenal record signing who was once questioned by the media at the beginning of the season, has cleared his name with 13 league goals.

And the old Toulalan has directly become the midfield daddy in the hearts of all Arsenal fans.

If the two wings are upgraded again, then Arsenal fans feel that they will dream back to ten years ago!

That dreamy unbeaten season that won the Premier League title...

Unfortunately, the professor's small coffers that he had saved for several years have been emptied this summer.

The big boss above did not say how much money he would spend on reinforcements in the winter transfer window. It seems that Arsenal will not make any big moves in the upcoming winter transfer window.

With the explosion of results this season, Arsenal fans' confidence has gradually increased.

But looking at the lineup and record of Chelsea ahead of them, even the most confident Arsenal fans can't say "We are stronger than Chelsea".

Every time the happy professor thinks of Chelsea led by Mourinho's smooth rise, the smile on his face will be restrained.

And seeing the approaching date of the battle with Chelsea, Wenger has rarely made more stringent training requirements for his players.

Regarding this focus battle between the first and second place in the first half of the Premier League, various media have already stepped up their efforts to promote it.

Many media in Manchester are also constantly waving flags and shouting to build momentum for the two teams Chelsea and Arsenal.

However, these pro-Manchester City media just want the top two teams in the league to play more intensely.

No matter who wins or loses, it is a good thing for Manchester City.

After all, Manchester City and Arsenal both have 37 points now, and it is only because of the disadvantage of goal difference that Manchester City ranks third in the Premier League.

If Arsenal loses, then Manchester City only needs to beat Fulham normally in the next round, and they will surpass Arsenal by three points and become the second in the Premier League.

If Arsenal beats Chelsea, it will also be a good thing for Manchester City.

By then, the points gap between them and Chelsea will be narrowed to one win.

Chelsea will play Liverpool later, so as long as Manchester City does not lose the chain, they and Arsenal will have the opportunity to surpass Chelsea in the sprint stage of the halfway point of the league!

For a while, the second and third teams in the standings were eyeing the first place in the league under Chelsea.

The Chelsea players who were still training hard at the Cobham training base and preparing for the game step by step had no time to pay attention to the situation of their opponents.

Three consecutive days of high-intensity tactical drills made most of the Chelsea players complain bitterly.

After completing physical therapy every day, they almost fell asleep when they got home, so how could they have the mood to read the half-true and half-false news from various media.

On the fourth day of preparation, the training intensity slowly decreased, and Mourinho left the players two and a half days of physical recovery time.

In the past few days, the London reporters who squatted outside the Cobham training base and watched the Chelsea players half-dead were very curious. What tactics is Chelsea preparing?

However, at this stage, the Chelsea players are very tight-lipped. In desperation, the reporters can only wait patiently until December 22.

At the pre-match press conference that day, a large number of reporters asked questions, wanting to know the tactical plan formulated by Mourinho before this big battle.

They certainly didn't expect the tactical details, but if they could ask for some general tactical framework, they could also go back and write an attractive news article.

What they didn't expect was that Mourinho didn't hide it this time, but generously revealed his tactical ideas.

"The offensive ability of this Arsenal is very strong now. I think their goal-scoring ability can be ranked in the first echelon in the entire European football world. They are very dangerous.

Cavani, Giroud, Podolski... Arsenal has many excellent forwards, and they also have many excellent offensive midfielders. I think I don't need to explain how good Cazorla is.

We must limit Arsenal's offense, compress their offensive space, and target their dangerous players. Yes, I am sure we will work harder on the defensive end..."

Mourinho's frankness made the reporters on the scene very happy.

But on the other hand, his un-Mourinho approach made the reporters seriously suspect that he was using them as guns.

Mourinho has used the media to release tactical smoke bombs too many times. He is a typical repeat offender!

However, after the pre-match press conference that day, various media outlets that received the news stepped up to write articles and rushed out multiple related news reports.

Just be fooled, anyway, the sales of news related to Mourinho are very good now. Reporters have doubts, but the media and newspapers don’t care so much.

The quick actions of the media made Wenger, who saw the relevant news that night, also surprised and confused.

If Mourinho hadn’t said this tactical thinking at the pre-match press conference, Wenger really thought that Mourinho would play a defensive counterattack at the Emirates Stadium.

But now Mourinho himself admitted that he would strengthen defense, but Wenger didn’t believe that Mourinho would be as honest as he said.

In the discussion with great interest of countless fans, time soon came to December 23.

Nine matches have been played in the past two days in the 17th round of the Premier League, with only the match between Arsenal and Chelsea left to be played.

Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle and Everton, the four top six teams in the Premier League, all won.

The pressure immediately came to Arsenal and Chelsea, the two top two teams in the Premier League.

The Emirates Stadium was already crowded early that night.

As the two most powerful and competitive teams in London in the past decade, the London derby between Arsenal and Chelsea is truly worthy of the name.

There is not much deep hatred between the two fan groups. If we talk about the hot atmosphere before the game, it is definitely not as good as Arsenal and Tottenham.

But when it comes to attracting more neutral fans, the battle between Chelsea and Arsenal now far exceeds other so-called "London derbies".

And the intersection between Wenger and Mourinho, the old enemies, is also quite interesting.

After two rounds of playing in Serie A and La Liga, Mourinho's temper has become much more restrained compared to seven or eight years ago.

Before the game, the fans saw Mourinho and Wenger hugging and greeting each other on the sidelines, which made many reporters on the sidelines say it was a pity.

"I still prefer the unruly Mourinho. It would be great if he continued to mock Wenger as an expert in failure!"

The reporter of The Sun grumbled with great regret.

On the other side, the veteran reporter of "442" sneered.

"Mourinho has led three different teams to the top of the Champions League. He now has four Champions League trophies! There are also countless league titles and cup titles.

He is not really crazy. He needs to attract media attention like before. If anyone dares to say anything bad about him, there will be a lot of fans and coaches standing up to speak for him.

Unless someone takes the initiative to provoke him, why would he still be at odds with other coaches?"

The reporter of The Sun felt very unhappy, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that there was no reason to refute.

Mourinho is now a complete winner in life. Except for not leading the national team, he has directly won the Grand Slam of honors in the club.

What triple crown, six crowns, Champions League defense, Mourinho has already won them all.

He has no pressure to achieve results when leading Chelsea now. At most, he just wants to make up for the previous regrets.

Not to mention that his record with Chelsea is still so good now. There is really no reason to argue with other coaches.

Wenger and Mourinho argued for a long time, but they still couldn't figure out what Mourinho's tactical thinking was today.

They were so familiar with each other's tactical ideas that if they didn't change their tactics, they basically knew how the other side would play with their eyes closed.

But will Mourinho really not change his tactics today?

With doubts, Wenger could only watch his players finish warming up patiently like the reporters before, waiting for the time before the game to run out bit by bit.

At 8 o'clock that night, Oliver, a famous Premier League referee who was watching the time, blew the whistle to start the game on time!

The huge fans in China also listened to Zhan Jun's familiar commentary and watched this focus battle officially start!

Today, Arsenal and Chelsea both adopted the 4231 starting formation.

Arsenal's starting goalkeeper is Polish goalkeeper Szczesny.

Gibbs, Koscielny, Mertesacker and Sagna lined up from left to right on the back line.

Arteta and Toulalan are the double defensive midfielders, and Ramsey is the attacking midfielder.

Cazorla and Walcott are the left and right wingers respectively.

Cavani is the starting striker.

Chelsea's starting lineup has not changed much compared to the previous game.

Cech is still the starting goalkeeper.

Ashley Cole, Terry, David Luiz and Azpilicueta start the defense.

Matic and Lampard are the double defensive midfielders.

Li Ang, Hazard and De Bruyne are on both sides of him.

Ibrahimovic is the starting center.

The starting lineups of the two teams are exactly the same, and it seems that they both pay great attention to controlling the rhythm of the midfield.

After the game started, Arsenal, who kicked off first, would naturally launch the offensive first.

After all, it was at home, and it was not Arsenal's style to show weakness at the beginning.

Chelsea did retreat first as Mourinho said before the game.

Li Ang, Hazard and De Bruyne also defended their own half steadily, and only Ibrahimovic was nailed at the top of the arc of the center circle of Arsenal.

This is a tactical position that is very consistent with Chelsea's usual style of play, but Wenger's heart is still uneasy.

He knows Mourinho, just as Mourinho knows him.

Mourinho can be stubborn and conservative, but he will never be honest!

The first five minutes of the game seemed quite calm.

It's not that the two teams' fight on the court was not fierce, but such a tactical development was not unexpected by most fans.

But when Wenger saw his disciples began to press forward as a whole and invade Chelsea's half on a large scale, he suddenly became alert in his heart!

"Aaron, Aaron (Ramsey)! Move back a little! Let Santiago (Cazorla) move closer to you!"

Wenger paced to the sidelines, shouting loudly for Ramsey and Cazorado to pay attention to their defensive positions.

But as soon as he finished speaking, Walcott's inward pass on the right was intercepted by Matic's attacking defense!

For a moment, all Chelsea's midfielders and two full-backs rushed forward at full speed!

After intercepting the ball, Matic did not drag the rhythm. After a little observation, he directly sent a long pass.

The long pass went straight to Ibrahimovic who was nailed in Arsenal's half!

Arteta, who had previously followed the team's overall forward movement and organized the attack near the midline, did not have time to quickly return to Toulalan's side.

So the French midfielder could only rely on himself to interfere with Ibrahimovic's defense at this time.

However, Ibrahimovic did not intend to turn around and advance immediately after taking the ball, so Toulalan's interference was not a threat to him at all.

After all, he only needed to hold the ball with his back to the goal and pass it to Li Ang who was advancing in time!

Some Ibrahimovic was holding back Toulalan, and after receiving Ibrahimovic's return pass, Li Ang easily took the ball and completed a long diagonal pass again!

From the backcourt to the frontcourt, and then from the middle to the wing, Chelsea only used three passes in total!

Such counterattack efficiency and neat counterattack scenes made countless neutral fans in front of the TV cheer!

But for the more than 50,000 Arsenal fans at the scene, Chelsea's extremely fast counterattack was a complete disaster for them!

But in their deafening boos, Chelsea did not stop their counterattack.

Azpilicueta, who accurately unloaded Li Ang's long pass, resolutely continued to advance with the ball on the wing.

Until Gibbs had to leave his defense zone and press forward to make a defensive interception, Azpilicueta passed the ball to De Bruyne who continued to go down the bottom.

It is no exaggeration to say that De Bruyne's cross-passing skills are now famous in the Premier League.

Gibbs and Toulalan who were chasing back did not dare to let De Bruyne easily kick the ball from the bottom.

But as if he was waiting for them to double-team him, De Bruyne did not cross the ball directly, but completed an inverted triangle pass after dribbling to the edge of the Arsenal penalty area!

Outside the Arsenal penalty area, which lacked the protection of Toulalan, Li Ang, who deliberately ran a beat slower, just caught up!

He adjusted his pace without any hesitation and kicked the ball!

The football was like a cannonball, penetrating the defensive crowd in the Arsenal penalty area!

Szczesny's reaction was quite fast, and he was also very smart not to push off the ground and jump, because that was too time-consuming.

Almost instantly, Szczesny completed the force, stretching his long arms to expand his defensive area as much as possible.

At the moment when his palm touched the football, he did not feel a bit of surprise in his heart.

Because Li Ang's shot was too powerful!

Szczesny was unable to keep his hand stable, and the football broke through his interception smoothly, changing direction slightly and continuing to fly towards the Arsenal goal!

When the football crossed the line and hit the side net, it spun and finally fell headfirst into the grass inside the Arsenal goal.

Tens of thousands of Gunners fans at the scene hugged their heads in disbelief!

Li Ang has already started to make the long-lost mask-wearing celebration!

In the winter night, his hair was messed up while running, but it was this mess that made him look more free and unrestrained.

At this moment, his figure and face were the same as the goal he scored just now.

So handsome!

Commentators from all countries were also completely messed up at this moment!

Just seven minutes into the game, Chelsea scored a goal in their first quick counterattack!

What's going on? !

What about the evenly matched battle between the two Premier League powers?

How come Arsenal was severely beaten by Chelsea at their home ground!

If Arsenal can't stop this Chelsea, how much trouble can Liverpool behind them cause Chelsea?

Chelsea's players celebrated wildly at Arsenal's home stadium.

Mourinho on the sidelines also stroked his hair, which had grown long in the past six months but had not had time to trim it, and smiled and applauded continuously.

Suit, medium-length hair, handsome and high-spirited!

Watching this scene, Chelsea's fans seemed to have instantly returned to the summer of 2004.

That glorious era when the iron-blooded Blues began to dominate the Premier League!