At 5:30 pm, fans checked their tickets and entered the stadium.

The drizzle continued to fall, and the open-air Westam Stadium had no shelter, so the seats were soaked by the rain.

But such harsh objective conditions still cannot stop the enthusiasm of the fans.

The Seagulls have never lacked diehard fans. After all, the team has had an extremely bumpy road. Despite such a bumpy road, with no decent results and even falling to the English League Three without its own home ground, the Seagulls' diehard fans have never betrayed their team. A drizzle will not stop the Seagulls' diehard fans.

The Seagulls' diehard fans took their seats early in the south stand, sang the Seagulls' team song loudly, and hung a huge blue and white Seagulls flag on the fence of the south stand, fluttering in the wind and rain.

The Saints' diehard fans are naturally even crazier.

Every Saints fan has a kind of convert's enthusiasm. They regard wind, rain and adversity as a test of their loyalty and willpower. Therefore, the heavier the rain, the wilder their hearts are! The Westam Stadium, which can only accommodate 9,000 people, was filled up in an instant! Brighton, as the home team, only gave 2,000 tickets to Southampton Saints fans, and there were at least 5,000 Saints fans who came in the rain.

But even though they couldn't buy away tickets, Saints fans did not leave in disappointment. Instead, they stood outside the stadium in thin raincoats and cheered for Southampton in unison.

After disguising herself, the young pop diva Taylor Swift also came to the scene to watch the game with her female assistant.

Taylor Swift has an outstanding temperament and an eye-catching figure, but fortunately, after putting on a raincoat, no outsiders could tell that this little folk queen was present in person.

There are no VIP rooms at the Westbrook Stadium, and Gu Ran only got two tickets for the main stand for Taylor.

The female assistant was shivering in the drizzle, "Taylor, do we really have to come to watch the game?"

“Of course!” Taylor said excitedly, “I’m leaving tomorrow. This is the last time I get to watch him play football this holiday—oh, strictly speaking, I can watch it again at midnight tonight. But more strictly speaking, I basically screamed with my eyes closed that time at midnight. Of course, I didn’t scream the whole time. Sometimes my mouth was full and I could only whimper.”

Female assistant: …I shouldn’t have asked.

The female assistant quickly changed the subject, "Taylor, aren't you cold?"

Taylor said as a matter of course: "It's not cold! Watching him play football will only make me hotter and hotter. I'm worried that I won't be able to control myself and take off my raincoat! Why, are you cold? Don't you feel like you're burning when you watch him play football?"

The female assistant quickly said, "No, no! Absolutely not!"

Taylor chuckled, "…that's not normal."

The female assistant's lips trembled slightly. "Taylor, you'd better restrain yourself. There are many media reporters here. Your agent and the agency don't want you to be photographed by the media during your vacation."

Taylor shrugged nonchalantly, "Got it, don't worry, I know what to do."

After Taylor said this, the female assistant became even more worried.

Only God knows what this Sagittarius diva will be like when she goes crazy.

The female assistant only hoped that this game in the rain could be played uneventfully. It would be best if Gu Ran did not perform well.

Also sitting in the main stand were reporters from major media, as well as Chelsea's Emenalo, Liverpool's Edwards and Manchester City's Pratt.

These three old men would attend every game of Gu Ran.

This is both their job and their enjoyment.

——Getting paid to watch Gu Ran play football, and imagining the scene of signing Gu Ran back home, isn’t that just enjoyment?

Of course, it must be mentioned that Arsenal coach Wenger is paying attention to Gu Ran silently...

For today's game, William Hill's pre-match odds are: Brighton home win 3.85, draw 4.30, loss 1.79.

Judging from the odds of this handicap, bookmakers are still more optimistic about the last British Championship champion Southampton. Southampton is not only the champion team of the British Championship, but most importantly, it has the super star Gu Ran.

As long as the bookmakers are sure that Gu Ran will start the game, they will definitely not rashly give high odds for Southampton to win.

Due to weather and venue reasons, neither side held a pre-match press conference.

At 7 pm, it was still drizzling and the referee team came in to inspect the competition venue.

The venue was full of water. In fact, this condition no longer met the requirements for the competition, but... since we were already here, there would be too many procedures to postpone the event, and the referees didn't want to go through the hassle.

After the field inspection was completed, the away team Southampton was the first to enter the field for pre-match warm-up training.

In today's game, Southampton played in their traditional red and white jerseys.

When Gu Ran appeared on the artificial turf of Westbrook Stadium in the rain, the Saints fans in the north stand went crazy! Although there were only 2,000 Saints fans entering the stadium, the Saints fans outside the stadium followed suit, and the shouts resounded throughout the Westbrook Stadium!

The Westham Stadium seems to have become Southampton’s home ground!

Gu Ran applauded and thanked the Saints' diehard fans, then concentrated his mind and started warm-up training in the drizzle.

The wet jersey stuck to Gu Ran's body, outlining his strong muscles.

"Ahhhh! Gu! So handsome!" Taylor couldn't help but scream and cheer.

The female assistant quickly grabbed Taylor and said, "Calm down! The game hasn't started yet!"

The media reporters not far away cast surprised looks at Taylor.

"Who is this woman?"

"What a beautiful sound!"

"It's a pity that we can't see her face from this angle."

"I can't?"

"That shouldn't be possible. Taylor Swift is very expensive. Both of her legs cost 40 million US dollars. How could she come to such a nasty place? Moreover, if it was really Taylor, how dare she shout so loudly? Isn't she afraid of people knowing about the scandal?"

"Well, that's true."

"Maybe she's just an ordinary 180cm tall female fan."

"But... come to think of it, why do we care if she's really Taylor? Wherever Gu Ran is, there must be big news. Let's create a suspected scandal between Gu Ran and Taylor, and then there will be big news!"

"Haha! Great minds think alike!"

The news media reporters were all excited.

After hearing this, the female assistant frowned and was about to argue with these unscrupulous reporters, but was grabbed back by Taylor.

"Taylor! They're going to make up a scandal about you!"

Taylor smiled and comforted him, "It's okay, I won't let them succeed in making it up... just wait and see!"

At this time, all the Brighton players of the Seagulls also came on the field and began adaptive warm-up.

The Seagulls fans also roared wildly, and their cheers drowned out the boos from the Saints fans.

The drizzle gradually intensified, and the adaptive warm-up of both sides ended hastily in less than half an hour. The players of both sides left the field and returned to their respective buses to make final preparations for the game.

At 7:35, players from both teams lined up at the entrance and officially took to the field.

Brighton's central defender captain Gordon Gill and Southampton's captain Davis came to the referee to toss a coin.

Davis guessed wrong and got the priority to kick off, while Gordon Gill got the priority to choose the side for the Seagulls.

Gordon Gill then chose the southern half, which was closer to his own fans.

The captains of both teams shook hands and exchanged team flags according to the procedure. The players of both teams took photos in their respective half of the field and arranged their formations.

In today's game, the away team Southampton adopted a 442 formation as the start. The offensive tactic was to pass the ball directly behind the opponent, and the defensive strategy was high pressure and physical strength.

This is also the most common opening tactic used by Southampton in recent times.

Southampton's players are already very adept at this.

The two forwards starting for Southampton today are No. 9 Barnard and 18-year-old young player Tony Garrod.

Bernard has advantages in speed and physical confrontation, while Garrod is 189cm tall and can serve as a tactical fulcrum in the midfield.

The left midfielder is the small and agile player Holmes.

Holmes hasn't started for a long time. In today's game, Holmes finally got the chance, while Chamberlain sat on the bench.

The two midfielders are Lallana and Hammond - Lallana has returned from injury and urgently needs games to adjust his competitive state so that he can better cope with the future game against Everton. Hammond was rested in the previous few games and returned to the starting lineup today.

Lambert was also given a rest in this game to prepare for the fourth knockout round of the League Cup this month.

Today, Lallana's position is forward, serving as the attacking midfielder, while Hammond's position is behind, serving as the defensive midfielder.

The right midfielder is Frenchman Schneiderlin.

Gu Ran is still the left back - Gu Ran is also the core of Southampton's entire offensive and defensive transitions, and is the first target of all opposing teams.

Coach Adkins always lets Gu Ran play as the left back at the start of each game, precisely to prevent Gu Ran from being deliberately targeted.

After all, even if the opponent wanted to target Gu Ran, they couldn't let all their defenders and midfielders rush to the left side of the frontcourt right away, right?

The right back for today's game is Fonte.

The two central defenders are Aaron Martin and the equally young No. 19 player Danny Sibernet.

The goalkeeper is captain Davis.

It can be said that in this game, Coach Adkins boldly used the young defense line, and Coach Adkins also wanted to achieve the goal of training the defense line through this game.

After all, the intensity of subsequent games will become increasingly higher, and if there are only 1.5 sets of defensive lineups, we will definitely not go far.

Central defender Danny Siberia, who made his debut, seemed a little nervous and kept wiping the rain off his face.

Aaron Martin patted Danny Sibernet’s shoulder in a friendly manner and said, “Relax, with Gu here, playing football is like a vacation.”

Siberia nodded in conviction.

…

(End of this chapter)