Chapter 301: Gua and Mu Both Make a Scene, an Eye-Catching Battle Between the Two Blues

Tottenham and Sheffield United ended their final EFL Cup semi-final showdown on the night of January 28th.

With a slight advantage of a one-goal victory in the first round, Tottenham narrowly defeated Sheffield United 3-2 in two rounds and successfully joined Chelsea in the EFL Cup final.

This is the final stage that the FA would like to see.

The London Derby is a meeting between bitter rivals. The more exciting the final is, the better it will be for the promotion of the EFL Cup.

However, there is still a full month before the start of the EFL Cup final, and the FA is not in a hurry to promote it.

What they are more concerned about is the "Double Blue War" that is coming soon!

The importance of this game to Manchester City is self-evident.

Chelsea's current league record is 21 wins and 1 draw, while Manchester City has 17 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses.

Trailing Chelsea by as many as 10 points, Manchester City wants to close the points gap with Chelsea. They must seize this face-to-face opportunity!

Otherwise, this season will be nothing more than a repeat of last season's ending of being steadily crushed by Chelsea.

It is really uncomfortable to hope that other league opponents can attack Chelsea, and then watch Chelsea steadily score points over and over again, and finally watch Chelsea win the championship early!

Guardiola knows, and all Manchester City players also know, that their best chance is in the next round of direct dialogue with Chelsea!

There is a gap in strength between Manchester City and Chelsea, but in terms of tactical games, the two teams are almost completely equal.

When other Premier League teams play against Chelsea, the gap in strength can indeed be seen, and they will basically be severely suppressed by the all-main force Chelsea on the scene.

Manchester City is currently the only team in the Premier League that can allow Chelsea to temporarily avoid the edge and develop ball-control tactics in the backcourt.

Neither Arsenal nor Tottenham forced Chelsea to control the ball in the backcourt.

So no matter how big or small the opportunity is, Manchester City is qualified to challenge Chelsea.

In order to counterattack and win the Premier League championship this season, they can only move forward and compete head-on with Chelsea again.

Once they retreat, they will basically withdraw from the competition for this season's league championship.

The tense atmosphere before the war enveloped the entire Premier League.

On January 31st, starting from 12:45, the 23rd round of the Premier League will begin one by one.

Today's Premier League battle will not come to an end until 17:30 that afternoon.

As the "main course" of the final game of the day, of course it is the double blue battle between Chelsea and Manchester City!

There are no other Premier League matches starting during this period, so almost all Premier League fans will also pay attention to the focus showdown between Chelsea and Manchester City.

Regarding this battle, the players and coaches of both sides appeared to be more cautious before the game, and they all used some official clichés in interviews with the media.

When asked about the tactics chosen and the starting players, Mourinho and Guardiola remained silent.

It was not until the last hour before the start of the game that fans saw the starting lineups of the two teams today through media disclosures.

Chelsea's starting players still seem to be quite satisfactory, and the main players are basically playing. I think the starting lineup will not change much.

But Manchester City's starting lineup excludes Aguero who is healthy. In the last round of the league, Aguero played a full 90 minutes!

This is huge news. No reporters or fans would think of the sudden conflict between Aguero and Guardiola.

The relationship between the master and apprentice has been very good since they started working together last season.

And after Aguero scored in the last round of the league, he was very excited to celebrate with Guardiola on the sidelines by hugging him.

Therefore, ruling out the possibility of disagreement between the generals, let’s take a closer look at Manchester City’s starting roster.

Many fans who reacted quickly guessed Guagliola's tactical ideas instantly.

"No forward formation! Guardiola will directly use the no forward formation when facing Chelsea today!"

"Wang Defa?! Guardiola has started to work hard again! He didn't stay up all night and ruin his brain, did he???"

"How can we guarantee goals without Aguero... Well, it seems that Aguero has not scored many Chelsea goals before, but is it really a good choice to drop the main striker before such a crucial game?"

Premier League fans from all over the world complained about Guardiola's starting selection today.

But when the two teams finished their warm-up and finally went through the pre-match ceremony, they were about to start a head-on battle.

The formation that Chelsea put up instantly helped Guardiola attract the fans' complaints!

Chelsea's starting lineup will not surprise fans.

But...what kind of trouble is Chelsea, who has put up a 3421 formation on the field, going to do? ? ?

"Holy shit! Mourinho was influenced by Rogers? Isn't this too over the top, 3421 formation? Didn't Chelsea just beat Liverpool to pieces? I'm a little dizzy, I can't understand!"

"Someone tell me this is not true! How come Mourinho has also learned from Guardiola and started to improve the tactics at the tactical level...Has Chelsea ever played a 3421 formation in this season and a half? Why is it suddenly doing this?"

"Maybe he won too much and Mourinho wanted to try what it feels like to lose."

"Okay, this fucking reason seems reasonable now... but this game is more interesting! Damn it, I suddenly feel excited!"

…

The discussion topics about this game among fans suddenly exploded and doubled on the Internet.

The commentators from various countries who had completely guessed Chelsea's starting lineup wrong before were now busy blaming Mourinho in their hearts and apologizing to the audience.

After the game officially started, they took the time to quickly re-introduce the starting lineups of the two teams.

"…Chelsea's starting three central defenders are Thiago Silva, Terry and Kalas.

Left wingbacks Bertrand, Matic and Leon are in the middle, and right wingback De Bruyne.

The two central midfielders are Hazard and Kroos, and Ibrahimovic is in the front as the starting center forward..."

"Manchester City's starting goalkeeper today is Joe Hart.

On the back line: Clichy, Mangala, Kompany and Zabaleta are lined up from left to right.

Fernandinho and Fernando are double defensive midfielders, and David Silva appeared in the starting position of attacking midfielder today.

Left forward Milner, right forward Jesus Navas, single striker Fabregas..."

With the rapid introduction of commentators from various countries, the starting lineups of Chelsea and Manchester City were also quickly rolled out and presented to fans from various countries.

Fabregas's starting position was indeed in the forward position.

Just like the pseudo center forward he played in Barcelona in the past few seasons.

But after the Stamford Bridge Stadium took the lead in kicking off, Fabregas quickly integrated into his own midfield.

Manchester City almost gave up the running intrusion on the front of Chelsea's penalty area, and directly formed a large group of six people in the midfield to control the ball.

If Chelsea still chooses to play the conventional 433 formation today, it will indeed suffer from insufficient number of people in the midfield.

But under the unconventional 3421 formation, Chelsea's midfield can quickly assemble a 6-man fighting group!

In terms of midfield confrontation, the two teams invested the same number of people. Manchester City did not have the advantage expected before the game. Chelsea accidentally hit the right time and Manchester City played a tie at the beginning.

Mourinho's eyes flashed a trace of surprise. To be honest, he did not expect Guariola to boldly change the formation in this game and use a strikerless formation to compete with him.

And he would use the three-center-back system in this game, and it was not a whim.

Just like the idea of ​​cracking the backcourt ball control in order to deal with Manchester City's increasingly perfect high-pressure tactics.

The reason why Mourinho has the idea of ​​playing a three-center-back and six-midfield formation is to restrain Guardiola's passing and controlling tactics.

As long as the two wingbacks can actively return to defense and not lose their positions easily on the defensive end, this formation will naturally have an advantage in the midfield confrontation.

If it can better curb the performance of Manchester City's midfield, Chelsea will be able to hold more winning cards in the competition on the field.

However, Mourinho was more focused on the 352 tactical play at the beginning.

Until he met Rogers' 3421 genius formation, Mourinho and Holland took a look.

Hey, it seems that this kind of play and position is more suitable for the ability of Leon and Kroos on both offense and defense.

So after the two came down, they started to adjust their previous tactical ideas directly.

And a set of 3421 formations improved by the Chelsea coaching staff was re-launched today.

For this specific set of tactics, the entire Chelsea team has naturally tried it many times on the training ground, and the effect is good, so it will be used today to fight Manchester City.

At present, the effect seems to be good. At least Chelsea has not fallen behind in the midfield confrontation.

On the defensive end, Li Ang and Matic have protected the flank area of ​​their own half very tightly.

Manchester City is good at midfield penetration and direct pass to the flank. It seems that it is difficult to work today.

Amid the cheers of tens of thousands of fans at home, Chelsea decisively counterattacked Manchester City as soon as they got the chance.

At most, Chelsea even had as many as six players pressing into Manchester City's defensive third zone!

In terms of pressing defense, Chelsea is also swift as the wind.

Manchester City's backcourt players may have just grabbed the ball, and Kroos and Hazard will counterattack in the first time, and the Chelsea players behind will intercept them layer by layer.

Karas sometimes presses over the center line to assist De Bruyne to double-team the opponent. This kind of counter-grabbing strength makes many fans in front of the TV feel scalp numb!

In a way, Manchester City fans are proud enough at this moment, because the Chelsea they are facing is the Chelsea that is really going all out.

This kind of defensive intensity is basically only enjoyed by Manchester City.

Teams like Liverpool and Tottenham can't withstand Chelsea's high-intensity pressing for 15 minutes.

Arsenal may be better, but they are still a little weaker than Manchester City, let alone Chelsea.

Of course, Manchester City fans may not want such pride.

As soon as they saw the game fall into a stalemate in the midfield, they subconsciously felt that it was not good.

Because in the previous encounters with Chelsea, whenever such a game situation occurred, it meant that Manchester City's offensive operation was successfully clamped by Chelsea.

If Manchester City wants to win this game, it needs to ensure that the offensive end is unimpeded.

But Chelsea is not very interested in completely defeating Manchester City.

The two teams now have a gap in points, and the advantage of three wins is enough for Chelsea to face the subsequent league challenges calmly.

It would be better to beat Manchester City and extend the advantage to four wins.

But if Manchester City can be defeated more economically and the two teams draw, it will also be a good result for Chelsea.

In the final analysis, Manchester City did not give Chelsea too much pressure to catch up in the league.

If Manchester City is only five or six points behind Chelsea now, Mourinho's tactical thinking must be to beat Manchester City first.

There is no great sense of crisis or pressure. Chelsea only needs to be vigilant against the few pursuers at the top of the list.

Li Ang kept observing Manchester City's tactical adjustments on the court.

Now he seems to be an experienced hunter, not in a hurry to lure prey into the trap, but constantly thinking about how to subdue the disobedient beast in front of him at the lowest cost.

In terms of tactical layout, Manchester City will not make a big mistake. Guardiola seems to be making a fuss in this game, but the strikerless formation he chose actually maximizes Manchester City's ability to control the ball.

This is what this Guardiola-style Manchester City is best at now. It is undoubtedly very correct to use their strengths to fight against strong opponents.

But at the mental level, Li Ang is very sure that the less anxious Chelsea is, the more impatient Manchester City's players will be.

He is waiting for an opportunity, not an opportunity for Manchester City players to make mistakes at the tactical level, but an opportunity for them to make wrong judgments because of their impatience.

Fabregas and Silva will definitely be able to keep their composure. After all, the tactical responsibilities they shoulder and their own personalities determine this.

So if you want to find a breakthrough, you still have to be on the wing.

Li Ang waited patiently, and he and Matic were also very patient in defending in the backcourt.

Until the 26th minute of the first half, Milner, who got the ball on the right side of Chelsea, suddenly made an offensive attempt to cooperate with Clichy in a two-pass-one match!

His choice is actually quite normal. Offensive players need to exert a certain degree of subjective initiative and constantly try to break through in order to better tear open the opponent's defense.

But he chose the wrong target to break through.

De Bruyne's return to defense was not very timely this time, but the defensive combination of Leon and Kalas was not something Milner and Clichy could easily challenge.

Their two-on-one cooperation only passed the ball twice quickly on the wing.

At the moment when Clichy advanced, Kalas had already turned quickly and blocked his position.

And Leon had already accelerated before Milner and intercepted the ball on the wing!

This is the great opportunity that Leon has been waiting for!

De Bruyne, who had not been able to retreat in time before, was now Leon's perfect target for a long counterattack.

The football that broke through the air above the court closely linked the two figures in the front and back fields together.

Clichy and Milner's forward attack allowed De Bruyne to move unimpeded on Manchester City's left wing!

Fernandinho had been taken away by Kroos who advanced smartly.

Just when countless fans in front of the TV thought that De Bruyne would keep going down to the bottom until near Manchester City's penalty area.

He was very "willful" and sent a long arc cross ball directly!

This pass drew a beautiful and deadly arc in the air.

It can be said that 99% of the forwards in the football world cannot respond to this cross ball to form a shot.

Because the ball was very fast and it was a half-high ball, it was too difficult to handle.

But when the man at the front of Chelsea's formation was called Ibrahimovic, such a cross appeared on the court. It seemed very reasonable!

One pass and one run, a volley shot after drawing the bow and arrow!

Joe Hart was beaten by Ibrahimovic's shot again!

And at the moment when the football penetrated Manchester City's goal.

Standing in his own half, Li Ang had also raised his arms high, smiling and welcoming the passionate cheers from the Blues fans in the nearby stands!

The excitement of the double blue battle has just begun!