Chapter 319: The only Hope for the English Premier League

When the Premier League was halfway through this season, Chelsea's victory was actually expected by many people.

It's not that Chelsea's competitors are not strong enough. Compared with previous years, Manchester City and Arsenal have actually performed very well this year.

It can only be said that Chelsea's efficiency in harvesting points so far is really scary.

Manchester City has made some serious mistakes in recent rounds of games. Despite losing points in succession, it still got a total of 76 points.

There are still five rounds left in the league, and Manchester City even has the hope of pushing their season points to more than 90 points. This performance can't be said to be bad.

It's just that Chelsea has already reached 92 points with six rounds of leagues left, and this season is aiming for a hundred points.

This performance is a complete dimensionality reduction attack on other Premier League teams.

And with the foreseeable lineup not changing much, Chelsea will still maintain a strong dominance in the Premier League next season.

This is the current situation that makes other powerful teams in the Premier League feel even more headache.

If you want to compete with Chelsea, you must continue to increase your investment.

Because it is not enough to spend a wave of money, you must spend enough transfer fees in two or three transfer windows to have the opportunity to introduce enough top football players to complete the lineup replacement.

And looking around, at present, only Manchester City has the strength and financial foundation to continue to compete with Chelsea in the Premier League.

Liverpool's big boss is rich, but his investment is very rational, and there is no so-called local tyrant style at all. In the short term, Liverpool is unlikely to rise quickly.

The situation of Arsenal Club is even more complicated.

The big boss and the second boss are both rich, but both sides want to swallow up the shares in the hands of the other party.

Before they fully control the club, the two local tyrants are also afraid of making wedding dresses for each other, so they are reluctant to increase their investment.

As for Manchester United, emm... forget it, there is nothing to talk about. The Red Devils are now just a commercial club in the guise of a football club.

In terms of making money and the mentality of their own fans, Manchester United is very good.

But when it comes to football results, Manchester United is now at best, that is, it can only mix in the top four of the Premier League, and it is impossible to win the league championship.

In general, Chelsea is really in a good time now.

Several ambitious clubs in the league cannot increase their investment for various reasons, and Manchester City is the only serious opponent.

With the continued investment in the next few transfer windows, Manchester City's strength will continue to grow.

Perhaps in two seasons, they will really have the ability to compete with Chelsea.

But at least in the next season, Chelsea is still confident that they can suppress Manchester City and continue to dominate the Premier League.

The reason is simple. Even if they introduce enough big-name players, Manchester City will need at least half a season to run in the new lineup.

Manchester City's coaching staff is very clear about this.

Even if their goal is to pull Chelsea down from the position of Premier League hegemony, they need to be patient for at least one more season.

Chelsea's players certainly understand this.

So even if they once again suppressed Manchester City and successfully won the Premier League championship in advance, they did not celebrate with complacency.

Happy emotions and a faint sense of crisis appeared in the hearts of Chelsea players at the same time at this moment.

If the entire Chelsea team only had a short-term goal of winning the championship, they could have celebrated wildly now.

But to achieve the goal of three consecutive championships, Chelsea players have to look further ahead and think more at the moment of winning the championship.

Mourinho did not add too much psychological pressure to the players. At least at this moment, he still hopes that his disciples can purely enjoy the joy of winning the championship.

For next season, their coaching staff will make preparations in advance during the offseason.

The players' mentality is relaxed and tense, so that the team can go more smoothly and go further.

On the night after winning the championship in advance, Mourinho directly gave all the players a day off.

Even though the preparation time is still tight at this stage, Chelsea will soon face the second round of the Champions League quarter-finals with Juventus, but Mourinho still gave it a day off.

At the celebration banquet that night, the players in the Chelsea team were very happy, and the bonus given in advance by the big boss Abramovich also made the atmosphere on the scene very hot.

But after the dinner, the main players of Chelsea's first team basically chose to go home and rest.

On the afternoon of the next day, which was supposed to be a wonderful holiday, almost all the young players in Chelsea returned to the training base and started recovery training.

This surprised the Chelsea coaching staff, and after the surprise, they were replaced by a strong sense of pride!

"What excellent boys! If we can't laugh to the end this year, I really can't let it go! Jose, they deserve all the championship honors!"

Holland stood in the office, watching the young Chelsea players who spontaneously organized collective warm-ups on the training ground, and his words were a little excited.

Mourinho smiled but didn't say anything. He wouldn't say so much. After all, any season result in the football world is reasonable. This is the greatest charm of football.

He will try his best to lead these excellent boys to the pinnacle of football.

No matter what the final outcome of this summer is, at least he will not let himself, let alone his disciples, have any regrets.

And he also believes that God and destiny will always treat every team that strives forward fairly.

You have given everything, and what you get in the end is the result you deserve.

"They will get the fairest result... Let's start working! We must also try our best to prepare as much as possible. Come on, continue to review the second round match against Juventus..."

At the Cobham training base, Chelsea's players and coaching staff are making their pre-match preparations.

They, or the powerful players who have reached this point in the Champions League, do not have enough time to prepare for the game.

Two days later, the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals started again!

This time, Chelsea became the last team to appear.

On the evening of April 21st, after a brutal battle, Bayern defeated Dortmund 3-1 in two rounds and entered the top four of this season's Champions League.

There were no surprises for Real Madrid, and they eliminated Manchester City 5-3 in the final two rounds, seizing another seat in the top four of the Champions League this season!

On the evening of April 22, Chelsea and Juventus, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid appeared together.

In the last round of the battle, Atletico Madrid won 1-0 at Arsenal's home court, which was exactly the same score as Chelsea's victory over Juventus.

With Manchester City already eliminated, Chelsea and Arsenal, two teams from London, have become the last teams in the Premier League.

In this round of competition, Arsenal went to Spain to challenge Atletico Madrid, which seemed to be in danger.

Because Atletico Madrid has never lost at home this season, the Calderon Stadium has buried the bones of Real Madrid and Barcelona one after another in La Liga.

In the Champions League, the powerful players from all walks of life who went to the Calderon Stadium to challenge could not get even half a cent here.

Even for the most die-hard Arsenal fans, it is difficult for them to have much confidence in their team's reversal at this time.

On the contrary, Chelsea, who will face the challenge of Juventus at Stamford Bridge tonight, has won the favor of too many neutral fans.

At 19:45 in the evening, two Champions League battles started simultaneously in London and Madrid.

With the tragic thought of a last-ditch effort, Arsenal launched a desperate charge against Atletico Madrid at the Calderon Stadium.

At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea calmly put up a fence, waiting for Juventus to bump into them and fall into their tactical trap.

For Uncle Jon, in this round of competition, he had to be congenitally passive at the tactical level.

Because no matter what kind of opening design he makes, Juventus must eventually embark on the path of active offense.

The game time is only 90 minutes, and if a goal is scored, Juventus will have the confidence to drag Chelsea into overtime.

In this game, as long as Juventus can score two goals, Chelsea will be completely passive!

Therefore, even if he wants to seek stability, Allegri cannot slowly kill the game time with Chelsea.

It will be more advantageous for Juventus to play this game out!

The same 442 starting formation as in the previous round was also adopted, but Juventus played much more aggressively in this game.

Chelsea gave up their most played 433 this season and returned to their classic formation of 4231 last season.

However, Mourinho still did not let Li Ang retreat to the midfielder position, and together with Matic formed a sweeping combination with the most prominent defensive role.

In this game, Matic and Kroos were behind, and Li Ang still served as the attacking midfielder.

From this arrangement, it is easy to see what the Chelsea coaching staff is thinking today.

Of course, defense must be defended, but Chelsea will not be passive to the end. If Li Ang presses forward, he must counterattack Juventus.

In order to better achieve the tactical effect of rapid advancement on both wings, Mourinho did not even start De Bruyne in this game.

With Hazard on the left and Salah on the right, Chelsea has maximized the counterattack speed on both wings.

In the middle, Ibrahimovic is still very capable of playing ball.

Just thinking about this forward and midfield configuration, you can probably estimate how big the threat of counterattack is.

Juventus fans were sweating in their hands from the beginning of the game.

Today, Li Ang did not deliberately limit Pirlo's performance, so Juventus started quickly on the offensive end.

Compared with the offensive on both wings, Juventus's strong rushing ability in the middle is obviously more powerful.

Morata has assumed the role of tactical fulcrum very well.

Tevez, Vidal, and even Pogba, who comes in behind, can use his tactical cover to better attack the Chelsea defense.

Matic has competed with Vidal many times in the previous round.

He knows the versatility of Chile's midfield and its ability to explode on the offensive end.

Therefore, he also put more defensive attention on Vidal, who has a considerable range of activities.

The defense against Pogba was naturally a little lax, which resulted in Chelsea's defensive passivity in the opening stages of the game.

As soon as Pogba started to exert his strength, he used his personal ability to hit long-range shots from outside the Chelsea penalty area or send overhead passes to deliver cannonballs to Tevez.

That is to say, my sister-in-law was in great form today. In the 7th minute of the opening game, she blocked Tevez's shot from close range.

Otherwise, if Juventus grabs the start and wants to equalize the score as soon as possible, it might actually come true!

Such a passive situation made Mourinho frown.

Fortunately, both Marco and Kroos are very smart midfielders.

The two discussed and quickly adjusted the defensive strategy. Kroos expanded to single-handedly defend Pogba. If he couldn't defend, he would directly use personal fouls to stop him from advancing.

Matic still kept his troops in place, taking up the position first and interfering with Vidal's forward attack in the penalty area.

After such adjustments, the effect of Juventus's strong attack at the beginning was greatly reduced.

Although Li Ang was in the midfield, he was still very careful in observing the defense in the backcourt.

Seeing that Marco and Kroos stabilized the midfield defense, he was not in a hurry to retreat to assist in defense.

In the 12th minute of the first half, his patient waiting finally brought Chelsea's first threatening counterattack.

Matic successfully intercepted the ball from Vidal's feet, and Kroos sent a long pass to Li Ang as soon as he received the ball!

Pirlo decisively returned to defense, Marchisio headed up, but was knocked away by Li Ang's rude receiving and turning!

After advancing to the front of Juventus's defensive zone 3, Li Ang quickly transferred the ball to his own right.

After getting the ball, Salah decisively chose to speed up and directly used his speed advantage to get rid of Evra!

It was just that his last cross was a little bit off.

Ibrahimovic failed to grab a point, and Li Ang had not successfully inserted into Juventus' penalty area at this time. Bonucci, who picked up the leak, headed the ball back to the midfield.

Chelsea's first threatening counterattack of the whole game failed, but the process of the counterattack still came out.

Li Ang also gave Salah an encouraging thumbs up.

The rhythm of the game then returned to the mode of Juventus attacking and Chelsea defending.

And after a full 10 minutes, Chelsea ushered in the second counterattack opportunity of the whole game.

This time, Li Ang took away Pogba and Pirlo in Juventus' midfield through running and feinting, and Kroos was able to successfully hold the ball and insert!

However, in this counterattack, Kroos did not pass the ball to Salah again, and TK still trusted Hazard more.

Seeing this, Li Ang decisively moved to the left to support Hazard's advancement.

However, Hazard was also very confident. He changed direction and accelerated twice on the wing to shake off his position. After getting rid of Lichtsteiner's defense, he decisively cut into Juventus's penalty area!

Ibrahimovic also used running to help Hazard open up shooting space.

However, when facing Bonucci's close defense, Hazard did not shoot at the first time, but chose to fake a shot and dunk!

His smart fake move completely got rid of Bonucci's defense!

Perhaps he was too anxious, Bonucci turned around and chased after two steps, and then directly chose to shovel and intercept!

This made Hazard, who had adjusted his pace and was about to shoot in the far corner, fall headfirst into Juventus' penalty area!

For a while, Juventus's penalty area became the most lively area on the field.

Chelsea's players raised their arms and shouted to the referee, but Juventus' players waved their hands to indicate that Hazard had dived.

Bonucci was still lying on the grass at this time, feeling guilty and not daring to get up.

The referee on duty did not hesitate too much. After receiving the prompt from the linesman, he blew the whistle and pointed to the penalty spot in Juventus' penalty area, and also showed a yellow card to Bonucci lying on the ground!

"Bonucci made a big mistake! He paid the price for his lack of calmness, and Chelsea got a very good penalty opportunity!"

The commentator of Sky Sports in England almost cheered out loud at this moment.

Li Ang took the football handed over by Kroos and walked to the penalty spot, ignoring the verbal interference from the Juventus players beside him.

"Boy, I'm watching you! I know where you will kick, I know!"

Buffon was still chattering, he didn't seem nervous at all, but was very relaxed and jumped left and right to prepare.

Li Ang also ignored the senior football player. After putting the ball on the penalty spot, he took a deep breath and slowly retreated.

The waiting time was not long. Perhaps in the hearts of Li Ang and Buffon, there was no exciting inner monologue.

All they had was absolute belief in their own strength!

Li Ang shot hard without hesitation and scored a penalty kick. Buffon also made a save in the direction he judged very firmly!

The two completed a silent and exciting duel at this moment!

Li Ang kicked the ball to the right side of Juventus' goal, in the same direction as Buffon's save.

But this time, the angle he hit was more tricky!

The football hit the right post of Juventus' goal and was finally bounced into the net. Buffon might only be less than a centimeter away from rubbing the football with his fingertips!

One thought of heaven, one thought of hell.

When all Chelsea players celebrated the goal passionately.

In Juventus' penalty area, Buffon was slapping the grass angrily, and Chiellini and Lichtsteiner also put their hands on their waists, full of helplessness!

A few minutes later, Atletico Madrid also successfully scored a goal at home, and now leads Arsenal 2-0 in total.

Two stadiums, same score, but for the two powerful teams in London, the situation is completely different at the moment.

Arsenal is going further and further away, heading towards the end of its Champions League journey this season.

And Chelsea, as the last hope of the Premier League, has also rushed into the last dragon's pool of the Champions League.