Football King Bale

Chapter 209 The return of traditional power

With Chelsea's 4-0 away victory over Bolton Wanderers on Monday night, it meant that the four traditional giants of the Premier League had a sweet weekend.

Winning all four games, Manchester United swept Birmingham 7-0, Arsenal defeated Wigan 3-0, and Liverpool also rarely defeated Wolves in three consecutive away games without conceding a goal. Counting the Blues, the traditional top four have won at least 3 goals, and all of them have zero opponents, with a score of 17-0 in the four games.

Because of Liverpool's weakness and Chelsea's downturn since the winter, the Premier League's top four have very few chances to win in the same round this season. Previously, they had only appeared three times in the third, ninth and tenth rounds.

At the same time, it is not easy to win, and it is even less easy to win so easily. Needless to say, Manchester United, which had a seven-goal victory in this round's four games, Arsenal had such a huge advantage that if it hadn't been for the opponent's goalkeeper, "the half-time score would not have been 1-0, but 1 followed by 0." Chelsea and Liverpool had relatively no advantage in away games. So big, but the calmness of controlling the rhythm in a balanced game is more gratifying to the fans of both teams.

Last season the Premier League showed signs of chaos, but this season due to the aftermath of the World Cup, big-name stars are often in poor form. The goal rates of the two top strikers Torres and Rooney have declined significantly. Didier Drogba, Lampard, and Fabrega Si also suffered a series of injuries, which affected the ups and downs of many giants.

Except for Manchester United, which remains unbeaten due to Bell's super explosion, the other three teams, Arsenal, have lost 5 games, Chelsea has lost 6 games, and Liverpool has even reached double digits with 10 games.

During the Christmas period, the "Guardian" has counted the number of games lost by the four giants, reaching 19, which is a new high in the Premier League in the past 15 years. Previously, only the 2000-2001 season had 19 games in the same period, and that data is still watery. At that time, Chelsea was not even considered a wealthy club.

If this ratio is followed, the end of the season is expected to break the historical record of 37 losses in the semi-finals in the 1997-1998 season.

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In times of crisis, the big-name shooters from the four giants finally found themselves. Berbatov, Robin van Persie, Torres, Drogba, and Anelka took turns showing off, causing the frequency of blockbusters released by the fallen giants to slow down suddenly in the New Year.

Berbatov was tied with Carlos Tevez in the top scorer list after the last round, but last weekend he scored his third hat-trick of the season. The media is also advocating that the dashing brother is expected to challenge Shearer's five-point score in a single season in the 1995-1996 season. The legendary record of wearing the hat for the first time.

Bell, who also scored a hat trick in the game, did not have such high expectations.

Although this hat trick is Bell's fifth hat trick this season, it is only his second hat trick in the Premier League this season. The other three hat-tricks occurred once in the League Cup and twice in the Champions League.

Although Bell leads the Premier League scorer list with 11 goals, this is the result of his continuous and stable performance, rather than the occasional two or three bursts like Berbatov. All 29 of his goals were spread over 19 games.

Chelsea, who have almost forgotten the feeling of winning away from home, can win again after 6 away games. The collective recovery of the offensive line is the key. In the first 55 minutes, the trident of Drogba, Anelka and Malouda only had one man. ball.

Van Persie, who basically spent 2010 recuperating from injury, was almost wasted. After entering the New Year, he suddenly came to his senses. He scored 7 goals for Arsenal in five official games this month, and only one was scoreless. His hat trick against Wigan was still a success. His first time in eight years and first time in his Premier League career.

Torres has scored 4 goals in the past 5 league games and is already in his best form this season. Last Saturday against Wolves was the Spaniard's second brace this season.

The forward played half the role in the relegation team. Aston Villa sent away Carew and spent 24 million to buy Bent. The reason is that "he can single-handedly determine the outcome."

In fact, excellent shooters have a huge influence on wealthy clubs. Kuyt believes that "as long as Torres and Gerrard are not injured and in normal condition, we will be better than 80% of the teams we play against."

Big-name forwards lead the resurgence of giants, and the old pattern of BIG4 has returned to the Premier League in this round.

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After an extremely difficult month of competition, Manchester United's main players finally ushered in a rare respite. The next weekend is the fourth round of the FA Cup. According to Ferguson's plan, he will send out a mixed lineup of substitutes and young players to train the team and rest the main players.

Even in the second leg of the League Cup semi-finals on Wednesday night, in the away game against Birmingham, Ferguson decided to send a substitute lineup.

This is also due to the fact that Manchester United, who came on as a substitute, defeated Birmingham 2:1 at home half a month ago, which gave Ferguson more trust in Manchester United's young players.

And just when Ferguson led the Manchester United second team to Birmingham City again, another pair of opponents in this season's League Cup semi-finals had already decided the winner. After an upset loss in the first leg away from home, Gunners Arsenal achieved a 3-0 victory at home in the second leg, thus eliminating the mid-table team Ipswich Town in the British Championship with a total score of 3:1.

Therefore, as long as Manchester United can eliminate Birmingham and successfully advance to the final, they will compete with the Gunners for the first championship of the season at the new Wembley Stadium on the last day of February.

There was no upset in the game a day later. Manchester United, who played half as a substitute and half as a youth team, still defeated Birmingham 2:1 away from home and advanced to the League Cup final with a total score of 4:2.

After losing to Manchester United three times in half a month, the team was also in a very difficult situation in the Premier League. Birmingham's Orient chairman lost his trust in Roberto Di Matteo. The coach was dismissed the day after losing in Birmingham. He was fired and replaced by Hodgson, who had just dismissed get out of class at Liverpool.

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The Manchester United second team, which finished the game in Birmingham, did not return to Manchester, but rushed to Southampton on the south coast of England without stopping.

On the afternoon of January 29, they will compete with the English Championship team Southampton for a ticket to the fifth round of the FA Cup.

This is the home team where Bell debuted, but Bell did not go with the team. He is on vacation. Because of two consecutive League Cup and FA Cup games, Bell got a rare opportunity to rest.

In the warm coastal city of southern England, Manchester United, who played as a substitute, struggled a bit. Both sides failed to score in the first 45 minutes of the first half. When they were about to enter the halftime break with a tie, they did not expect Manchester United to take the initiative to send gifts.

Butterfield kicked the ball from the right, Schneiderlin let the ball go, Evans misjudged the ball's landing point, and the ball hit his shoulder. Choopulo intercepted the ball and broke into the right rib of the penalty area from 12 yards with his right foot and scored in the near corner. , Manchester United fell behind 0:1.

At halftime, Manchester United trailed the English League One team 0:1. This was undoubtedly a result that Ferguson was not satisfied with.

They wanted to advance easily with some reservations, but when facing a half-time deficit, the team had to use its full strength. In the end, with two goals from Owen and Hernandez in the second half, Manchester United had a thrilling 2:1 away victory over Southampton and advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup.

After the game, Ferguson said in an interview with Manchester United's official TV station that the team had complicated things today. He said: "In this game, I tried to set up a diamond midfield. Of course we used to stand parallel through the midfield. To maximize the use of the width of the field, today’s formation obviously cannot do this.”

"We did maintain a certain degree of possession, but it was not a threat at all. We only had two or three shots from outside the penalty area. In short, we were useless in the first half. It was that goal that Southampton scored That ball gave us a rude awakening."

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Starting the second half with a goal behind, Manchester United undoubtedly hopes to change this embarrassing score immediately. So Ferguson replaced Fabio with Brown at the beginning of the second half.

However, things didn't go as planned for them, so shortly after the start of the second half, Ferguson called on Giggs and Nani, using up the remaining two substitutions.

Sure enough, this adjustment had an immediate effect - first Irving equalized the score, and then Hernandez scored the winning goal.

Ferguson spoke highly of the goals scored by Irving and Hernandez. He told reporters: "It was Irving's goal that pulled us back from the quagmire of defeat. Hernandez, he only had One chance, but he took advantage of it and scored the winning goal."

Manchester United's poor defensive performance in this game is not unrelated to the lack of personnel, but in next Tuesday's game against Aston Villa, Ferguson will no longer face a stretched back line - then, including All defense generals including Rafael, Vidic and Ferdinand will return to the team.

The most eye-catching player in Southampton's squad is Chamberlain. This 17-year-old rising star has attracted the attention of many giants including today's opponents Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal.

Especially Manchester United, because of Bell's superb performance in the team, they have more urgent hopes to get Bell's younger brother.

But Southampton said that Chamberlain will finish the season at St. Mary's Stadium and they do not want to sell this young talent now.

In the post-match interview, coach Adkinson kept mentioning this. He emphasized: "We are not eager to transfer him at all, and we are not looking for a new home because we don't want to sell him. I think let him Staying and playing with the team to finish this season will be more beneficial to his development. I believe you have seen his performance on the court and he can still improve."

"I think during the transfer window, there are always what-ifs. What we can do is control what is controllable. It will close at 11 o'clock on Monday night, and then the what-ifs will naturally be closed. Evaporated.”

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