Chapter 238: Manchester City collapses? Mourinho's psychological warfare [Transition chapter]

On January 23, Manchester City defeated West Ham United 3-0 at home and advanced to the League Cup final with a score of 9-0 in two rounds.

Lin Quan made one assist and one shot, Aguero scored a goal, and De Bruyne also scored a goal with a free kick.

Manchester City's frontcourt was in great form.

Two days later, Manchester City defeated FA Cup opponent Watford 4-2 at home and advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.

Aguero, who came on as a substitute in this game, performed brilliantly and scored three goals.

In his hat trick, two goals were assisted by De Bruyne.

De Bruyne has performed well in two consecutive games, allowing Manchester City fans to quickly remember this young man who looks like a cartoon character.

On January 29, in the 23rd round of the Premier League, Manchester City defeated Tottenham 5:1 at White Hart Lane, completing a home and away double kill against Tottenham, and both times were massacres with large scores.

Poor Tottenham conceded 11 goals to Manchester City in one season, which directly broke the team's record and left them with Manchester City phobia.

Manchester City scored a lot of goals in this game, including Lin Quan, Aguero, De Bruyne, Jovetic, Kompany and others.

After adding two new players to the team's midfield, Manchester City's offensive potential has been further developed and is even more terrifying than in the first half of the season.

"23 rounds unbeaten, who can stop this Manchester City?"

"Another Arsenal? Manchester City may break Arsenal's unbeaten record!"

The longest unbeaten record in the Premier League is Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten streak from 2003 to 2005, which is also the second longest unbeaten record in the history of the top five leagues.

Given the fierce competition in the Premier League, Arsenal's record is of great value.

Because of this, few latecomers can threaten the existence of this record.

After defeating Tottenham away, Manchester City has squeezed into the top ten in Premier League history with 23 unbeaten games in the Premier League.

There are only 9 teams ahead of them with more unbeaten games than them. With Manchester City's current form, they are very likely to catch up with these teams and further improve their historical ranking.

However, just when everyone thought that Manchester City would continue their unbeaten record in the league, they suffered an upset at home.

In the 24th round of the league, Manchester City lost 0:1 to Chelsea at home, breaking their unbeaten record of the season and their home unbeaten record.

In this game, Mourinho took very targeted countermeasures against Pellegrini's lineup.

He fielded an extreme defensive counterattack lineup and arranged three sweeping midfielders on the field to pressure De Bruyne and Kroos' passing.

Matic, the new signing Chelsea bought from Benfica at a high price during the winter break, performed very well in this game.

His strenuous running, exaggerated defensive coverage and interception range, as well as strong aggressiveness, have made technical players like De Bruyne and Kroos suffer.

Kroos and De Bruyne were either fouled or made frequent mistakes, and their passes could not get into Chelsea's penalty area.

Without the two players passing the ball, the team's offense lost its previous fluency.

The offensive players piled up in the frontcourt became mere decorations and could not threaten the opponent's goal at all.

However, Lin Quan's breakthroughs were always blocked by the opponent's iron wall. Kroos wanted to control the tempo of the game, but he almost made a mistake because of the opponent's counter-attack.

Chelsea's counter-attacks were not only concise but also efficient.

Seeing Mourinho commanding the team with such confidence on the sidelines, people once wondered if they had traveled through time and space to see the Blues in their heyday eight years ago!

At the end of the game, Manchester City had the advantage in almost all statistics.

Ball possession rate 65% to 35%, shots 25 to 13, shots on target 7 to 6, corner kicks 12 to 7, offside 0 to 4, yellow cards 2 to 4.

However, the victory belonged to Chelsea. Their clean sheet also ended Manchester City's record of scoring in 61 Premier League home games in 1,178 days.

Manchester City is only five games away from breaking Manchester United's record of 66 games in the Premier League! After the loss, the mood of the team was very low.

Especially De Bruyne himself, he tried his best to perform well in front of his old club in this game and prove to Mourinho that giving up on me was your biggest mistake.

However, Mourinho's targeted defense against him caused De Bruyne's performance to be far below his standard. Not only did he fail to help the team win, he even became a drag on the team.

This made De Bruyne feel very uncomfortable, and he even couldn't help but doubt himself: Could it be that Mourinho's evaluation of him was right, and he really couldn't adapt to the Premier League? "Don't be discouraged, it's just a defeat, it doesn't prove anything!"

After Lin Quan noticed that De Bruyne was in a low mood, he walked over, patted him on the shoulder and comforted him.

"Let's go and thank the fans who came to support us!"

De Bruyne saw Lin Quan's calm expression and nodded heavily: "Yes!"

After comforting De Bruyne, Lin Quan went to comfort other teammates one by one. Captain Kompany was doing the same thing as him.

After being comforted by the two, although the players were still not in high spirits, they still completed the task of circling the field to thank the fans.

On CCTV's commentary booth, He Wei saw that Lin Quan was not discouraged after the team's defeat, but took the initiative to stand up and comfort his teammates. He couldn't help but sigh: "This season, Lin Quan has really grown a lot in Manchester City. He is becoming more and more of a leader on the court!"

"Yes, it can be seen from his playing on the field that Lin Quan did not pursue extreme personal data, but gave many opportunities to his teammates!"

"Yeah, he's such a team player!"

…

After defeating Manchester City, Mourinho was very proud and said in front of the media:

"I think after this game, there should be no doubt about who is the best team, right?"

Since drawing with Arsenal away from home, Chelsea has won seven consecutive league games in the past month.

Taking advantage of the winter break to speed up, they overtook Tottenham, Everton and Liverpool, rushed to third place in the standings with 53 points, and returned to the championship group.

They are currently only 2 points behind second-placed Arsenal and 10 points behind top-placed Manchester City.

There are still 14 rounds of the league, and it is not impossible to catch up with Manchester City.

Especially under such terrifying pressure from Chelsea to catch up, the two teams ahead may collapse under the pressure.

Mourinho knows this very well, so he has stepped up his psychological offensive against Arsenal and Manchester City:

"Wenger is a good coach, but Arsenal's boss is not a good boss. He does not give him enough support. His team has not been able to solve the problem of insufficient bench depth. When the league is in a fast pace, it is always easy to collapse. This year will be no exception!"

Compared to Manchester City, which has no shortage of money, Wenger's Arsenal's weakness is more obvious, which is one word - poor!

Or two words - stingy! During the winter break, Wenger offered Liverpool 40 million pounds and 1 to take Suarez away, but Liverpool regarded this offer as a humiliation of Arsenal.

The Reds not only rejected Arsenal's offer, but also stated that they would never sell Suarez to Arsenal, completely blocking the possibility of this transfer.

If Arsenal had paid more money, the transfer would have actually been possible, but because they were too stingy, the transfer completely fell through.

Failure to leave Liverpool during the winter break and still no Champions League to play in the second half of the season was a big blow to Suarez. Suarez's condition deteriorated seriously in the past few games, and Liverpool's record also showed a significant decline, and Chelsea even overtook them in points.

Similarly, Arsenal's lack of offensive firepower has not been resolved as they failed to bring in Suarez to strengthen the team's forward line during the winter break.

This result can be said to be a lose-lose situation for both teams!

March is coming soon, and March and April are traditionally the seasons when Arsenal fails to perform well. Mourinho now wishes he could just sit on a small stool and watch the show.

He dares to guarantee that Wenger's Arsenal will fail again this year.

As for Manchester City, which is not short of money, Mourinho adopted another approach: "Manchester City made too many signings during the winter break, which made their lineup too crowded. I think Pellegrini must be having a headache now, not knowing how to appease the emotions of the old players in the locker room?"

Mourinho's words were not groundless. After missing the starting lineup for two consecutive games, Fernandinho expressed his dissatisfaction with Pellegrini in an interview with reporters.

"I can help the team. I am no worse than the players on the field. As for why I am not allowed to play, I think it is the coach's prejudice!"

Fernandinho is a midfielder that Manchester City brought from Shakhtar Donetsk last summer for 40 million euros. Players of this value are basically used as core midfielders in other teams.

However, he was repeatedly placed on the bench at Manchester City and even stable playing time could not be guaranteed.

The World Cup is coming soon. If he continues to sit on the bench, Brazil's head coach Scolari may give up recruiting him.

This made Fernandinho feel a sense of crisis, and he seemed to want to use this method to put pressure on the club and Pellegrini to put him back in the starting lineup.

However, the Brazilians clearly miscalculated.

Pellegrini could not tolerate players challenging his authority as head coach with this attitude, so he imposed a very severe punishment on Fernandinho - Fernandinho was suspended from the team for 10 games.

He doesn't need to think about playing in the next two months!

Seeing that his incitement worked, Mourinho began to increase his intensity: "Manchester City will collapse like Arsenal. Without Fernandinho, their midfield defense will have problems. Neither De Bruyne nor Kroos can replace him. It's a pity that Pellegrini doesn't seem to know how to use him!"

Mourinho's response won the favor of Fernandinho, who praised Mourinho as a wise coach.

This move led to rumors that the Brazilian wanted to join Mourinho.

Pellegrini basically did not make a direct response to Mourinho's various remarks before.

He knew that Mourinho was good at talking nonsense and playing psychological tactics, but he himself was not an expert in this area, so he didn't want to fall into the other party's trap.

But now, he really couldn't bear it anymore.

Even honest people have tempers! "Mourinho should shut up, his team is 10 points behind us!"

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Facing Pellegrini's counterattack, Mourinho was not angry but happy.

As long as he fights back, it means he has been fooled!

"Ten points is not a lot. Maybe before the end of March, my team can catch up with Manchester City!"

I don’t know whether Pellegrini fell into Mourinho’s trap or he wanted to prove himself.

In the 25th round of the league away game against Norwich, Pellegrini used the same lineup as the previous game against Chelsea.

However, in this game Manchester City's midfield was once again targeted by the opponent.

After losing the support of the midfield, Manchester City, which had the best offensive firepower in the Premier League, was silenced and was tied 0:0 by its opponents away from home.

This was the second consecutive game in which Manchester City was shutout, while in another game, Mourinho's Chelsea beat Newcastle 3-0, winning eight consecutive games and narrowing the gap between the two teams to 8 points.

After this game, people who originally did not believe Mourinho's predictions for Manchester City began to doubt Manchester City.

After being shut out in two games in a row and being chased by Chelsea by 5 points in such a short period of time, are they really going to collapse as Mourinho said? After the game, Mourinho said to reporters with a smug look on his face: "No one should doubt my words now, right? The last game was 10 points, and after this game it became 8 points. Maybe it won't be surprising if it becomes 6 points or even 5 points in the next game!"

"Manchester City should not have replaced Fernandinho. If Pellegrini does not correct this mistake, his team will lose points next time!"

Reporters are also happy to see scenes where a team leads by a large margin and then is reversed. The last time this happened was during the 1995-1996 season at Newcastle.

On that occasion, Newcastle was leading by 12 points but was defeated by Ferguson's Manchester United using psychological tactics and was ultimately reversed.

The situation now is exactly the same as it was back then.

Manchester City's lead over Chelsea is even greater than the lead the Magpies had over the Red Devils.

If Mourinho can lead Chelsea to reverse Manchester City and win the championship this time, even those reporters who have criticized or even attacked him before will not be able to help but applaud him!

If Manchester City seemed to be on the verge of collapse, then second-placed Arsenal had really collapsed.

At Anfield, Wenger's team was beaten 5:1 by the Reds!

Despite Suarez's poor form, the game remained goalless.

But among the Reds, Skrtel and Sterling stood out, scoring a hat trick and a brace respectively, helping the team to a big win over Arsenal.

After losing by a large margin, Wenger's team gave up the second place and was overtaken by Chelsea by one point, temporarily ranking third in the standings.

Behind them, Liverpool and Tottenham are eyeing them covetously.

Arsenal seems to be considering giving up the dream of winning the championship and preparing for the battle to maintain the top four in advance.

Manchester City has no time to sympathize with Arsenal because the 26th round of the league is about to start.

In order to solve the team's offensive problems, Pellegrini made adjustments to the starting lineup in midfield.

He asked Yaya Toure to play as a defensive midfielder, acting as a protective barrier in front of Kroos to reduce the defensive pressure on Kroos.

Manchester City’s previous defeats were mainly due to their midfield problems.

Mourinho may be right. Without Fernandinho's defensive toughness, Manchester City's midfield is a bit soft.

Neither Kroos nor De Bruyne are physically strong players with outstanding defensive abilities.

It's a bit unprofessional for them to do this kind of work.

Therefore, they should be equipped with a defensive midfielder with a large defensive coverage area, active running and strong physique to protect them.

The most suitable candidate in Manchester City is Fernandinho, but the latter has been suspended by Pellegrini.

If the Chilean does not want to go back on his word and slap himself in the face, he will definitely not lift the ban on the Brazilian before the 10-game ban is served.

Therefore, he can only transform Yaya Toure, a B2B type midfielder, into a defensive midfielder, let him give up attacking and focus on defense. In this way, he should be able to achieve the effect he wants.

In addition, in the frontcourt attack, Pellegrini also specially formulated some tactics based on Lin Quan's characteristics to solve the team's offensive problems.

Amidst doubts from the outside world, the 26th round of the Premier League officially began.

Manchester City faces the challenge of the Black Cats Sunderland at home!

In the first half, Yaya Toure's sweeping interceptions in the midfield blocked the opponent's multiple attacks. After Manchester City took control of the midfield, several passers in the team took turns delivering ammunition to the striker.

In the second minute of the game, Lin Quan received an assist from De Bruyne to help the team score the first goal.

In the 32nd minute, Aguero received a pass from Lin Quan and scored another goal. Manchester City temporarily led Sunderland 2:0.

Judging from the results of the first half, Pellegrini's transformation seems to have been successful.

Manchester City fans who came to watch the game at home were all relieved. The team had not won in two rounds, which made them a little worried.

Now it seems that there is no need to worry, Manchester City is still Manchester City, and their strength is still strong! At the 75th minute of the second half, Manchester City still firmly grasped the initiative on the field.

Although they were unable to expand their lead due to the opponent's tight defense.

However, the advantage of a two-goal lead, coupled with the fact that the opponent is not a team with strong offensive strength, makes Manchester City fans generally feel relieved.

Pellegrini calmly waited until the 80th minute to start making substitutions. He replaced Lin Quan, Kroos, David Silva and others to prepare for the Champions League knockout match a few days later.

However, Pellegrini had just made a substitution when the situation on the field suddenly changed.

Sunderland's No. 10 Wickham was in great form, scoring two goals in the 85th and 89th minutes, almost single-handedly tying Manchester City.

When the referee blew the final whistle, the Manchester City fans at the scene all had expressions of disbelief on their faces.

They couldn't believe that their team was tied by the opponent like this! Including this game, this is Manchester City's third consecutive game without a win in the Premier League.

But the good news is that Mourinho's team also lost its momentum.

In another match that ended at the same time, Chelsea was tied 1:1 by West Bromwich Albion away from home.

Like Manchester City, they also led the entire game, but were equalized by West Bromwich Albion in the 89th minute.

Calculating the time, the time when Chelsea suffered the last-minute goal was almost exactly the same as Manchester City.

After this round of matches, the gap between Manchester City and Chelsea has not changed and is still 8 points.

However, Manchester City's three-game losing streak has caused the outside world to be generally worried about them.

There are 12 rounds left in the league. Can the eight-point lead really be maintained until the end?

(End of this chapter)