Chapter 337 The wind has changed.
"Diego Costa's goal scoring efficiency makes him look like he'll win the Premier League Golden Boot!"
"Be optimistic, maybe you can win the European Golden Boot!"
"It's really unbelievable that someone can surpass Lin Quan in the number of goals!"
"So, Spanish forwards are really strong!"
"Indeed, anyone who uses it will know!"
"Torres gave a thumbs up!"
After Chelsea won four consecutive games, the Blues fans were going crazy.
When they heard that the team had bought another Spanish striker and spent 50 million pounds, they were all worried.
I'm afraid of a situation like Torres'!
Torres is very strong, but he is not suitable for Chelsea. After joining Chelsea, he only scored 46 goals in three years, and his number of goals in the Premier League has never exceeded 10 in any season!
Chelsea fans were very polite to him by not labeling him as a counterfeit product.
"Alas, if we had Diego Costa last season, we wouldn't have missed so many chances!"
Blues fans feel a little upset when they think of their failures in the league and the Champions League last season.
"Why are you saying so much? It makes us look like a grudge. Can't we just get back what we lost last year this year?"
"That's right, believe in Mourinho, believe in the Blues players, we will definitely be able to take back the championship trophy that belongs to us this year!"
The Blues fans are full of confidence and believe that they can defeat Manchester City and take back their championship trophy.
After seeing Chelsea win four consecutive games, the outside world also began to build momentum.
BBC Sports published a column listing Mourinho's record in his second year coaching a team so far.
Whether at Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan or Real Madrid, Mourinho's performance in the second year after joining the team was very good.
His team's upward momentum was very obvious in the second year. In the first year, he helped Porto stabilize the situation. In the second year, he swept all the domestic honors. In the third year, he even stabilized the top of Europe! This is the only team that is not from the top five leagues to win the Champions League in decades! At Chelsea, Mourinho helped Chelsea win the championship as soon as he came. In the second year, he led the team to successfully defend the title, breaking Manchester United's monopoly on the Premier League championship trophy.
At Inter Milan, Mourinho won two Serie A titles, and the following year he eliminated the arrogant Barcelona team in the European competition, helping Inter Milan win the second Champions League trophy in the team's history after 45 years!
Even when he was at Real Madrid, after being humiliated 5:0 by Barcelona in the first year, he successfully took revenge in the second year, leading Real Madrid to a new La Liga record with 100 points and snatching the league championship from Barcelona!
Mourinho seems to have some kind of magic. The team he coached recuperates in the first year, then breaks out in the second year and wins various honors!
However, in the third year, he started to lose momentum, conflicts broke out within the team, and then he was kicked out...
Of course, it is not yet the third year, and it is still the second year of Mourinho's heyday, so the BBC is very optimistic about Chelsea's performance this year in its column.
There are many people in the British football world who agree with the BBC's view.
Everyone agrees that this season's Chelsea is likely to be in the best and most combative form since Mourinho's second term.
So they will definitely become the main obstacle for Manchester City to defend their title in the league! Coincidentally, in the fifth round of the Premier League, the two teams will have a strong showdown.
In the end, it was Manchester City that defeated Chelsea and established its own Premier League dynasty.
It was Chelsea that defeated Manchester City and regained their glory.
After this game, everything will be clear.
However, before the fifth round of the Premier League, both teams will play in a Champions League group match.
The outside world can evaluate the status of both teams based on their performance in the Champions League group stage.
…
September 17, 5:30 pm, Etihad Stadium.
Manchester City faced their first opponent in the Champions League group stage, Zenit St. Petersburg.
Zenit was the champion of the Russian Premier League last season, while Manchester City was the champion of the Premier League last season.
Therefore, before the game, many Russian media hyped this game as a championship battle! In the past few seasons, the Russian Premier League has been playing a flourishing game of money-driven football, with huge investments every year, often becoming the top bidder during the European transfer period.
As a result, the competitiveness of Russian Premier League teams in the Champions League has improved significantly.
The Zenit team has also had its own glorious moments.
In the 2007-2008 season, they eliminated various powerful teams in the Europa League and won the Europa League championship.
In that Europa League, Zenit defeated Bayern 4:0 at home, which was regarded as a golden example by their fans but also as a great shame by Bayern.
What makes them even more proud is that in the subsequent European Super Cup, they also beat the Champions League champions Manchester United 2:1 and reached the top of Europe! But that is all in the past. Zenit's performance in recent years is far less crazy than before.
Even though they spent a high price to buy Brazil's main striker Hulk, they were unable to make further breakthroughs.
Therefore, the British media did not buy into the Russians' hype! In their view, the Russians were shamelessly trying to scam people.
With the level of the Russian Premier League, do you dare to be compared with our world's number one league?
Manchester City is not only the champion of the Premier League, but also the champion of the Champions League.
Zenit was lucky last season and made it to the knockout stage with 6 points. Do you really think you are a nobody? Before the game, British fans were looking forward to seeing Manchester City teach the arrogant Russians a lesson at home and let them know how high the sky is and how deep the earth is! Pellegrini was not affected by the outside world and he was still preparing for the game at a normal pace.
Considering that they will face the challenge of league title rivals Chelsea at home in a few days, Zenit's strength in this match is not that strong.
Therefore, Pellegrini used a large number of substitutes, and Van Dijk was also reused by him, replacing Demichelis who was resting.
This is not the first time Van Dijk has started in the Champions League. When he was at Celtic last season, he was the team's main central defender.
He played all six group matches for the Celtics, but unfortunately the Celtics did not perform well and were eventually eliminated at the bottom of the group with 1 win and 5 losses.
This season, having joined a stronger defending champion team, Van Dijk is full of expectations for the new season's Champions League results.
Lin Quan thought that the other party would feel nervous in such an occasion, but after observing for a while, he found that Van Dijk was not nervous at all, but seemed eager to try.
The Manchester City fans who came to the scene saw Van Dijk, the hero of the lore, appear on the field and they all gave him encouragement enthusiastically.
The header that won the game at Arsenal's home ground in the last game made many Manchester City fans remember this tall guy.
If Van Dijk can perform as well in this game as in the previous one, his status in the hearts of Manchester City fans will definitely be further enhanced.
There is a player in Zenit's lineup who is very familiar to Manchester City fans - Xavi Garcia.
He was a member of Manchester City last season. This season, in order to seek more playing time, he chose to transfer away.
The team he joined was Zenit St. Petersburg.
It was such a coincidence of fate that his first Champions League game after joining Zenit was against the stadium where he once fought.
While waiting to enter the player tunnel, Javi Garcia walked to Lin Quan with some trepidation, as if he wanted to explain something: "Lin, I..."
"Come on, play well and strive to qualify together!"
Lin Quan roughly guessed what he was going to say, so he took the initiative to give him a warm hug, patted him on the back and encouraged him.
"Yes, I will!"
With Lin Quan's encouragement, Xavi Garcia felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
When the players entered the stadium, Manchester City fans who came to the scene held up a banner with a slogan welcoming Xavi Garcia back to the Etihad Stadium.
This scene moved Javi Garcia so much that he played very actively in the midfield after the game started.
In the 4th minute, Xavi Garcia made a fatal pass in the middle.
Hulk seized the opportunity of Manchester City defender Mangala's defensive mistake, dribbled into the penalty area, and shot the ball into Manchester City's goal.
There was an uproar at the scene! The Blue Moon fans were a little bit unbelievable. Just 4 minutes into the game, Manchester City fell behind? After assisting his teammate to score, Xavi Garcia was very restrained and did not participate in the celebration.
But Hulk rushed to the camera in the corner area, roaring and beating his chest, like a real Hulk.
Pellegrini was very dissatisfied with Mangala's mistake, as he was Manchester City's biggest signing this summer.
However, judging from the opponent's performance in the past few games, it is difficult for Pellegrini to have enough trust in him.
To be honest, his performance is not even as good as Van Dijk, whose transfer fee is only a quarter of his.
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But it's less than five minutes yet, it would be too radical to replace him so quickly.
Substituting players before the end of the first half indicates that the head coach is extremely dissatisfied with the player, and this action often leads to conflicts between players and coaches.
So Pellegrini decided to observe for a while! If his performance didn't improve, it wouldn't be too late to replace him during the halftime break.
However, Mangala quickly proved with his actions that Pellegrini's decision was wrong!
In the 22nd minute of the game, Mangala made another fatal mistake. He headed the ball in the penalty area and passed it to the opponent's midfielder Witsel.
The latter seized the opportunity and shot the ball into the goal.
Navas had no way to deal with this ball as the opponent's shot was too close to the goal.
If after conceding the first goal, Manchester City fans just felt that something was not right with the team's condition and did not feel too worried or panicked.
Then as they lost the second goal in the first half, Manchester City fans really started to panic.
The team's defense is like tofu dregs, and the guy wearing the No. 15 jersey feels like an undercover sent by the opposing team.
How can we win with such a shoddy defense?
This ball was lost at a very bad time. Before losing the ball, Manchester City launched continuous attacks on Zenit's goal and almost equalized the score.
But after conceding the second goal, Manchester City's offensive stalled and the team's morale was severely damaged.
On the other hand, after Zenit scored the second goal, the whole team went crazy.
We actually scored 2 goals at the home ground of the defending champions!
We are going to beat the defending champions!
On the sidelines, Pellegrini's face turned pale.
He called Demichelis, gave him some instructions, and prepared to substitute him.
In the 25th minute, Manchester City made personnel adjustments.
Demichelis came on to replace Mangala who was in poor form.
The latter was clearly in a very bad mood when he left the field and ignored Pellegrini who was standing on the long side.
This scene was caught by reporters on the scene!
The reporters' eyes lit up and they all wrote hundreds of words in their minds, trying to analyze the discord between Manchester City's generals and coaches and the huge conflicts in the locker room.
After Demichelis came on, Manchester City's defense stabilized.
Zenit's attack did not achieve the same good results as before! In this game, although Mangala's performance was poor, Van Dijk's performance was remarkable.
If it weren't for his solid performance on the defensive line, Manchester City would probably have conceded more than two goals!
With the defense stabilized, Manchester City's offense finally improved.
In the 38th minute of the first half, Lin Quan made a breakthrough and seized the loophole in the opponent's defense. He hit the upper left corner of the goal with a long shot outside the penalty area, helping Manchester City to score a goal.
During the half-time break, Pellegrini returned to the locker room angrily.
I originally planned to have a good talk with Mangala, but I found out that he was not in the locker room at all.
This made him so angry that his blood pressure suddenly rose! It seemed that he had to deal with this guy!
In the second half, Manchester City continued to make substitutions.
David Silva came on to replace Milner.
This substitution achieved immediate results. Taking advantage of David Silva's advantage, Manchester City launched a series of strong attacks from the left.
In the 58th minute, David Silva sent a cross from the left, and Aguero, who was in front of the goal, missed the first point. The opponent's goalkeeper also misjudged and failed to touch the ball after attacking.
Lin Quan at the back post took advantage of an opportunity and easily kicked the ball into the goal.
The score became 2:2, and Manchester City equalized the score.
After equalizing the score, Lin Quan did not waste time celebrating. Instead, he immediately turned over, rushed into the goal and fished the ball out, then returned to the center circle with the ball to prepare for another kick-off.
Zenit's players watched the victory that they had just won fly away, and each of them looked very frustrated.
Xavi Garcia couldn't help but sigh, even with Lin here, Manchester City is still so difficult to beat!
Seeing that the situation was not good, Zenit's head coach immediately gestured to the team to retreat and defend for a draw.
I can’t get 3 points, so I must not lose this 1 point!
However, after Manchester City fully gained momentum, it was not so easy to maintain a draw.
After Zenit retreated and defended with all their strength, Manchester City's attack became more fierce.
In the 78th minute of the second half, Kroos made a long shot to help the team reverse the score.
Five minutes later, De Bruyne scored directly from a free kick, setting the score at 4:2.
Manchester City finally won the first game of the new Champions League season at their home stadium.
However, this victory was not quite what many people expected, especially when Chelsea beat Schalke 04 4-0 next door.
Manchester City's hard-fought victory was completely outshined!
So, before the big battle between Manchester City and Chelsea, the outside world's opinion changed.
There are more and more voices that are optimistic about Chelsea!
(End of this chapter)