Chapter 954: Unprecedented Half-Time Champion
Some people say that the 18th round of the league was a time when all the strong teams in the Premier League took a collective nap, with only the two Manchester giants remaining strong.
But by the nineteenth round, the tide had turned.
First, Liverpool reversed Newcastle 3-1 at home, with Bellamy scoring twice and Gerrard scoring one goal.
Dalglish made a significant rotation of the lineup, but Bellamy's outstanding performance allowed the Reds to take all three points from the Magpies.
Arsenal did not make major rotations, but still beat Queens Park Rangers 1-0 thanks to Van Persie's goal.
Whether it is the Liverpool or Arsenal, after the disappointing draw in the previous round, although they both had some bumps and even dangers in this round, at least they both got three points.
Only unlucky Chelsea.
After losing to Manchester City at home, Chelsea suffered three consecutive draws, all of which ended in a 1-1 draw. Villas-Boas's team was questioned and his position as coach was once again shaken.
In the 19th round, Chelsea played against Aston Villa at home, which was originally a very good opportunity.
Drogba scored a goal for Chelsea in the 23rd minute of the game, but no one expected that Aston Villa equalized the score just five minutes later.
After that, no matter how Chelsea attacked and had an overwhelming advantage, they were still unable to break Aston Villa's goal.
On the contrary, in the 83rd and 86th minutes, Petrov and substitute Darren Bent's two counterattacks scored the winning goals for Aston Villa, helping the team to reverse Chelsea 3-1 away.
After the game, Chelsea head coach Villas-Boas attributed the defeat to the unfair schedule, because Chelsea had to play the four games on Christmas within eleven days, but Manchester United had fifteen days, and two of the games were played within only forty-eight hours.
The British media reacted negatively to Boas's remarks, believing that he was looking for reasons and excuses for the loss.
The Premier League's Christmas schedule is not a new one this year. It has always existed for many years and is also regarded as a tradition of English sports. Not only football, but also other events such as rugby and baseball are played during the Christmas period, and even extra games are played. This is to better please local fans in England.
As Chelsea's head coach, there is no reason for Boas not to know all this.
As for the schedule, Chelsea's game pressure is not the greatest. For example, Manchester City and the Blue Moon are under greater pressure than Chelsea.
"Boas has reason to think that the schedule is unfair to them, but if they blame the defeat on the schedule, it will only add to the jokes of others, because compared with Manchester City, is Chelsea under more pressure?"
"In the last three rounds of games, Chelsea have two home games and one away game. One of the away games is against Tottenham Hotspur, also in North London. They don't even need to leave London for these three games."
"What about Manchester City? The 17th round was a home game, and the 18th and 19th rounds were away games. They went south to Birmingham early in the morning on Boxing Day to challenge West Bromwich Albion. After returning to Manchester, they went north without stopping to Sunderland, which is more than 200 kilometers away."
After Chelsea lost to Aston Villa, Manchester City's match against Sunderland has not yet started, but the media believes that even if Manchester City loses, their performance in the Christmas schedule will still be better than Chelsea.
In other words, Chelsea has an advantage over Manchester City in terms of schedule, but the results are worse than Manchester City. How can this be explained? In fact, Chelsea's ranking this season has not been ideal, and it is now always hovering between fifth and sixth. There is still no obvious gap from the top four expected by fans, and Villas-Boas has also been criticized by the outside world.
"Chelsea's real problem is that Villas-Boas has lost control of the dressing room!"
The Daily Mail even pointed out very sharply what Chelsea’s biggest problem is right now.
This media reported in great detail that from the time Boas came to power, he had feuds with Drogba, Lampard and Terry, and later had to reuse Drogba and Terry, but now he is always suppressing Lampard. All these have caused Boas to lose the support of the locker room.
Blaming the problem on the schedule is just a delaying tactic by Boas.
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On December 31st, in the 19th round of the Premier League, Manchester City challenged Sunderland away.
Manchester City made another rotation, and this time even Su Dong sat on the bench.
Guardiola arranged for Dzeko and Aguero to start at the same time, trying to strengthen the team's offense and strive to beat the Black Cats Sunderland away. He also arranged David Silva and Toni Kroos to sit in the midfield.
Obviously, Guardiola still wants to win this game with a perfect record.
…
After the game started, Sunderland, playing at home, first launched a wave of attacks, but were quickly suppressed by Manchester City.
The Blue Moon quickly secured the advantage with its skillful passing and control of the ball, and frequently created opportunities in the midfield and frontcourt.
It is strange that both Dzeko and Aguero lost their shooting boots in this game.
Since before Christmas, Aguero's condition has not been very good. He is obviously adapting to the Premier League's Christmas schedule. After all, other leagues have already entered the winter break during this period, but the Premier League does not have a winter break. Instead, it is the period with the most intensive schedule. This is indeed something that many players need to adapt to.
But Dzeko has been in the team for quite some time, and he was unable to adjust to his current form this time.
As a result, Manchester City completely controlled the advantage on the field, but failed to score and missed good scoring opportunities again and again.
Sunderland missed a great opportunity in the first half. It came from a counterattack. Bendtner had a one-on-one chance, but Courtois saved it and he failed to score.
In the second half, they were under overwhelming pressure from Manchester City and couldn't even launch a decent counterattack.
Manchester City had the advantage but couldn't score. It was a lot of noise but little results. They had a high possession rate and many shots, but just couldn't score. This made many people worried.
In the 75th minute, seeing that the situation had not been reversed, Guardiola finally lost his patience and replaced Su Dong.
In just less than thirteen days, this is Su Dong's fourth game.
He started in all the previous three games, but was substituted off early. This time, the team originally did not plan to let Su Dong play, but Su Dong took the initiative to ask to be on the bench just in case. Unexpectedly, he ended up playing.
Manchester City had the advantage, and Guardiola replaced Dzeko with Su Dong, who had absolute dominance in the penalty area.
Sunderland defended tenaciously, determined to keep the point at home.
After the two sides fought for a few more minutes, in the 86th minute, Su Dong used his body to lean on Wes Brown in the penalty area and passed the ball back to Toni Kroos. The latter's shot from the top of the arc was tipped over the crossbar by Sunderland goalkeeper Mignolet and turned into a corner kick.
Manchester City then took a corner kick, and David Luiz headed the ball from close range, but it hit the crossbar and bounced back into the penalty area. Everyone was surprised to find that Manchester City really had no shooting boots tonight.
But just as the ball was slowly falling, Su Dong in the penalty area used his body to push O'Shea away, blocked Wes Brown, turned his back to the direction of attack, and stopped the ball firmly at his feet.
He tried to turn around, but was desperately blocked by Wes Brown and O'Shea. Goalkeeper Mignolet also followed and was ready to save the ball, but Su Dong suddenly hit his heel.
The ball passed through the gap between the defensive players and slid to the front of the unguarded small penalty area.
David Silva quickly followed up and shot with his left foot.
The ball went into the net! In an instant, the Guangming Stadium, which was originally bustling with people, suddenly became silent.
No one could believe it. After holding on for more than 80 minutes, the game was about to end, but at this critical moment, they actually lost the ball.
Isn't this just a joke?
…
Manchester City finally won Sunderland 1-0 away with David Silva scoring a goal assisted by Su Dong.
The process was one in which we had all the advantages, but it was also very dangerous. Fortunately, we got the valuable three points in the end.
This allowed Manchester City to finally win 19 consecutive games and win the half-season championship of the Premier League this season!
This is the first time in the history of the Premier League, England's top league, and even Europe's top league that a team has been able to win the half-season championship with a perfect record. This was unimaginable in the past.
Everyone was also shocked by how quickly Manchester City rose.
In just three years, backed by the strong financial resources of the Abu Dhabi consortium, Guardiola's passing and controlling system, and Su Dong's superior strength, Manchester City has become a powerful force that cannot be ignored in European football.
At the same time that Manchester City beat Sunderland 1-0 away from home, Manchester United played at home against Blackburn, the second-to-last team at the bottom of the standings.
In this game, everyone originally thought that Manchester City’s victory over their opponent was a foregone conclusion.
On the one hand, Blackburn is too weak, on the other hand, Manchester United has won the last two rounds by 5 goals and is unstoppable. Comparing the two, there is no reason for Manchester United to lose points.
As soon as the game started, it seemed to confirm the outside world's judgment that Manchester United had the advantage and was just around the corner to score.
Unexpectedly, when defending a corner kick, Berbatov pulled down his opponent in the penalty area and was awarded a penalty kick. Yakub calmly took the penalty and scored a goal for Blackburn.
In the second half, Jakub dribbled past Carrick and Phil Jones in the penalty area and scored another goal for Blackburn, 2-0! At this point in the game, the atmosphere had completely changed.
Manchester United then launched a fierce attack, with Berbatov scoring two goals in a row to successfully equalize the score.
But in the 80th minute of the game, there was another corner kick opportunity, and Blackburn center back Hanley scored the winning goal for Violent Ben.
Thanks to Hanley's crucial goal, Blackburn beat Manchester United 3-2 away from home, creating the biggest upset in the Premier League this season.
Who would have thought that the Red Devils Manchester United, ranked second in the standings, would be upset by the second-to-last team Blackburn at their home ground.
Losing these three points widened the points gap with Manchester City to twelve points, but this is not the key.
The point is, being defeated by Manchester City at home was bad enough, but now they were beaten by the second-to-last team. This was a severe blow to Manchester United's morale.
After the game, Ferguson was furious and said he was very disappointed with the game.
The media also continued the previous hype and began to speak ill of Manchester United, believing that the Premier League championship was no longer a foregone conclusion.
(End of this chapter)
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