Chapter 563 Black whistle at home, Lin Quan dives?
After De Bruyne's comeback, he has been in excellent form for several consecutive games.
On November 24, in the fourth round of the Champions League group stage, Manchester City played away against Borussia Mönchengladbach. De Bruyne, who came on as a substitute, once again provided an assist, helping the team beat the opponent 2:1.
Two days later, in the 13th round of the Premier League, De Bruyne started the game. Although he was substituted less than 70 minutes into the second half, he still had an extremely outstanding performance during his time on the field.
In the first half, he assisted Aguero to score with his signature 45-degree cross. Before being substituted in the second half, De Bruyne himself scored a long shot from outside the penalty area.
The data of one pass and one goal also made De Bruyne be named the best player of the game after the game.
In the end, Manchester City defeated Burnley 3:1 away and won two consecutive league victories.
This is also Manchester City's third victory in all competitions since De Bruyne's comeback.
Although Manchester City won the game, their position in the standings did not change.
Chelsea beat Tottenham 2-1 in the London derby, winning seven games in a row while also maintaining their top spot in the league.
Because Chelsea's record last season was so bad, they only have league and domestic cup competitions this season and no European competitions to play.
But this also saves Chelsea a lot of physical energy and the trouble of running all over Europe, allowing them to deal with their league rivals in better condition.
After Chelsea won seven consecutive games, the outside world's evaluation of Chelsea has changed.
"Under Conte's leadership, this Chelsea team has found a style of play that suits them, and the players are more united than ever before. There is no longer the panic that we had in the previous two seasons, and they are gradually regaining the style of the Blues that dominated the Premier League!"
"Although Manchester City is chasing Chelsea closely, they have to fight on two or even three fronts. After the Club World Cup starts, they will have to fight on four fronts. Such a dense schedule and frequent games will be a huge test for the physical fitness and bench depth of Manchester City players. If their main players are injured again, I am afraid it will be really difficult to catch up with Chelsea."
"Considering that there are only a few games left until the halfway point, if Chelsea can win the halfway point, then they may really be able to snatch the Premier League title from Manchester City!"
Although not many people think that Chelsea's hard power is really stronger than Manchester City, weak strength does not mean that they cannot win the championship.
Although Manchester City is strong, they have to focus on other competitions and cannot devote all their energy to the league.
It may be easier to say now, but after the beginning of next spring, when the Champions League knockout stage reaches its most intense stage, the opponents Manchester City will face will certainly be much stronger than now, and Manchester City will suffer huge losses in the Champions League.
Can Manchester City, which has suffered such huge losses, still call the shots in the league?
I'm afraid it's difficult, especially with so many competitors.
Moreover, with the revival and rise of Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea, even the league is much more difficult to play than in previous years.
In this round of the league, in addition to Manchester City and Chelsea's wins, teams ranked high in the standings such as Liverpool and Arsenal all defeated their respective opponents.
The current situation in the standings remains unchanged. Chelsea is at the top of the list with a one-point advantage, followed closely by Manchester City. Liverpool is two goals behind Manchester City and is in third place. Arsenal is two points behind Manchester City and Liverpool and is currently in fourth place.
The difference between these four teams is only 3 points at most, and the competition is very fierce. It can even be said that this is the most intense competition among the Premier League championship group in the past decade.
However, whether Chelsea can win the championship depends on whether they can gain the upper hand in the strong dialogue with Manchester City.
The next round will be a direct dialogue between the two teams, which is a game worth six points.
Whoever wins will be on the top of the list, and whoever loses will be kicked out of the championship group! In view of the importance of this game, the media on Fleet Street has already started to report on it before the game even started, warming up for the game.
"Can Manchester City, which has recovered from its form, stop Chelsea, which has won seven games in a row?"
"Can Chelsea break the curse of not winning at the Etihad Stadium when they return to the devil's home ground?"
"Lin Quan VS Hazard, who is the best breakthrough player in the Premier League?"
…
Not only are the major media paying attention to these issues, but fans are also concerned about the answers to these questions.
Chelsea, who have won seven games in a row, look high in morale and unstoppable.
Although Manchester City has fallen into a slump for some time, the prestige they have built up in the past three years is still not to be underestimated.
In such an important game that is likely to determine the champion of this season, who will have the last laugh? The head coaches of both teams attached great importance to this game and chose to train in a closed manner without letting the outside world know about their training. It seems that they are preparing for this game.
On December 3, the sky over the Etihad Stadium was covered with dark clouds.
When the game started, the temperature in Manchester dropped to 2-3 degrees. If it rained at this time, it would be a huge test for the players on both sides.
Rain is a normal thing in Manchester.
But even though the sky was covered with dark clouds, it couldn't stop the enthusiasm of the fans.
The not-so-big Etihad Stadium was packed as usual. In addition to a large number of local fans, there were also many foreign fans who came from all over the world to watch the game.
For these fans who have come from afar, it is definitely a very lucky thing to be able to appreciate the peak showdown between Manchester City and Chelsea up close.
The head coaches of both teams obviously had some big tricks up their sleeves. When the fans saw the positions of the players from both teams on the court, they were all shocked.
Manchester City and Chelsea both chose to play with 3 defenders! The difference is that Manchester City's formation is 3421, while Chelsea's formation is 343. After the opening, both teams were more cautious and did not launch an attack rashly.
Chelsea's formation was originally more focused on offense.
But after Manchester City players tested their defense, they soon discovered that Chelsea's focus in this game was on defense.
This is not surprising, after all, Chelsea has not beaten Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium for several years.
The team still has some psychological trauma, and Manchester City's offensive ability is known to the world. When facing them, paying attention to defense is the basic skill of every team.
In the entire football world, there are very few teams that dare to go head-to-head with Manchester City.
Chelsea has a lead in points, so as long as they don't lose this game, a draw would be acceptable to them.
Chelsea cannot afford to lose to the team that is arguably their biggest threat on the road to the title.
Seeing that Chelsea played so conservatively, Guardiola waved his hand, signaling the team to press forward and start an attack.
In this game, the three defenders selected by Guardiola were actually very particular. He abandoned Zabaleta and Kompany and chose Van Dijk in the middle, Kolarov on the left and Stones on the right.
Both of them are players with strong offensive capabilities. Obviously, when Guardiola chose these players to start the game, he had thought about using offense to defeat Chelsea.
Under Mourinho's coaching, Chelsea once had the strongest defensive capabilities in the Premier League.
Although Mourinho has left, many of the players from that year have also left the team.
But the gene of iron-blooded defense seems to be engraved in the bones of Chelsea players.
Facing Manchester City's fierce attack, Chelsea launched a defensive counterattack and did an excellent job in defense.
Conte has done a pretty good job in transforming Chelsea over the past six months.
Under his coaching, the Blues' defense has a hint of an Serie A team's. Not only has the overall defensive ability been improved, but the team also plays in a very organized manner. The players cooperate very well with each other, and there are almost no mistakes when rotating and filling in positions.
After 45 minutes of the first half, Chelsea, as the defending side, did not receive a single yellow card.
From this point we can see that Chelsea's defense was very successful and very clean.
But even so, it still couldn't stop Manchester City from sending the ball into Chelsea's goal.
In the injury time of the first half, Chelsea's central defender Cahill scored an own goal, giving Manchester City a big gift.
This goal loss was actually very damaging to the morale. The first half of the game was about to end, but in the last few seconds you scored an own goal, which made all the efforts of everyone in the first half go to waste. It really made people cry.
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But when Conte was in the locker room, he did not blame the players, and even comforted Cahill who scored an own goal.
"You guys played great, I'm so proud of you!"
“But you can do better!”
Conte's first words attracted the players' attention, and everyone looked up at him curiously.
Conte's words were not just polite remarks to comfort the players. He was really proud of these players.
After all, apart from Cahill's own goal, Chelsea did not give Manchester City any chance for the entire 45 minutes in the first half.
In the entire football world, there are probably not many teams capable of doing this.
But the team is behind now, so the strategy for the second half has to be changed.
…
After the start of the second half, Conte replaced Pedro with William.
William's appearance has greatly enhanced Chelsea's offensive power.
It is difficult for Manchester City's defensive players on the wing to keep up with William's speed. Moreover, this guy not only has speed, but his positioning and passing also continue to pose threats to Manchester City's flanks.
However, even so, Manchester City still played very calmly. In the 58th minute of the second half, they even played a series of wonderful cooperation in the frontcourt. Finally, Lin Quan made a straight pass in the penalty area, Aguero rushed over and shot the ball towards the goal.
Chelsea's goalkeeper had already surrendered, and the ball had already rolled to the side of the goal line, but at this moment, Chelsea's No. 15 rushed over and made a thrilling save on the goal line, knocking the ball out.
When Aguero saw that the ball did not go in, he hugged his head in frustration and fell to his knees. He regretted why he didn't try harder.
If this ball could be scored, there would be basically no suspense in this game.
Wasting opportunities will be punished, and just two minutes later, Chelsea responded.
Fabregas' long pass found Diego Costa, who carried Kolarov and completed a low shot, breaking through Navas's defense and equalizing the score.
This ball ignited the enthusiasm of the Blues fans in the stands. Within two minutes, Chelsea fans experienced the feeling of going from hell to heaven.
Two minutes ago, when seeing the team being beaten to the ground by Manchester City and almost conceding another goal, countless Blues fans were terrified to the extreme, fearing that the team would be defeated again by the overlord Manchester City.
But after only 2 minutes, they threw away all the fear in their hearts, and were filled with joy and full of ambition.
If we keep playing like this, it may not be impossible to beat Manchester City away!
After Chelsea equalized the score, Manchester City seemed quite angry and the players worked harder in attack.
In the 65th minute, Manchester City's attack once again hit Chelsea's penalty area. Lin Quan dribbled into the penalty area and was about to shoot when he was tripped by the opponent's defender David Luiz.
This should have been an undisputed penalty, but the referee seemed not to see it and instead gave Lin Quan a yellow card, thinking he was diving.
There was an uproar at the scene. The Manchester City fans in the stands, including the players on the field, were all stunned.
Doesn't this guy know that Lin never dives? Showing a yellow card to a player like this and judging him for diving, is this guy hired by the opponent to blow the whistle?
Aguero had been dissatisfied with the referee for a long time. In the 24th minute of the first half, he was tripped by his opponent in the penalty area. The referee did not make any comments at that time, and this time he blatantly blew a false whistle.
Aguero was so angry that he came up to reason with the referee, but the referee didn't want to pay attention to him and instead signaled for the game to continue.
Chelsea players saw that Manchester City's attention was on the referee, so they acted quickly and decisively, catching Manchester City off guard.
William, who came on as a substitute, received a pass from his teammate, rushed into Manchester City's penalty area at lightning speed, defeated the goalkeeper in a one-on-one duel, and scored the goal again.
The score became 2:1 and Chelsea reversed the game.
Aguero and other Manchester City players were unhappy when they saw that the referee ignored their protests and actually considered the goal valid.
They came up to surround the referee, and Aguero and Fernandinho even pushed the referee.
Needless to say, the referee immediately took out two red cards and sent Aguero and Fernandinho off respectively.
The Manchester City players on the field and the Manchester City fans in the stands were all enraged. Many emotional fans near the edge of the field began to try to climb over the fence and rush into the field to teach the referee who blew the whistle a lesson.
Many fans began to throw coins, mineral water bottles and even mobile phones and other miscellaneous items onto the court.
The referee was far away and was not hit much, but the assistant referee and the fourth official who were close to the field were unlucky. Even Chelsea's coaching bench was hit by a "rain" of coins and mineral water bottles.
Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control, the game had to be interrupted, and the referee, under the protection of security personnel, hurriedly left the court with "coin rain" overhead.
If the instigator continues to stay on the field, no one can say what will happen. If Manchester City fans lose their minds, rush up and beat him to death, then the situation will be serious.
(End of this chapter)