Chapter 354: Problems with the Team

Almost no one expected Chelsea to beat Manchester United so easily at home, and the slump shown by Manchester United in the game was also visible to all, which made more people pessimistic about Manchester United's ability to beat Chelsea and advance in the League Cup.

In the press conference after the game, Mourinho said bluntly: "I didn't see any magnanimity from them. If I hadn't known in advance that this team was Manchester United, I would have thought it was a Premier League relegation team."

"They stayed in front of the goal the whole game. We tried our best and our boys performed well, but no one would get a satisfactory score against such an opponent. I hope we won't encounter this situation at Old Trafford again. This would be a step backward for the Premier League and I think the fans would not be satisfied with this kind of game."

Although Mourinho's words expressed everyone's thoughts, they made the old knight very embarrassed. He didn't say anything more and just walked away.

For this 60-year-old man, the recent games are really disappointing. Manchester United's performance is really disappointing, but the old knight knows that this game is not because the Manchester United boys performed poorly, but more because the opponent is too strong. The result that Manchester United only lost two goals is already very good.

"We will be waiting for them at Old Trafford."

When the Manchester United bus was about to leave, the team captain Roy Keane did not forget to use these words to boost morale, but more people regarded them as the harsh words of a loser.

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With the end of the game, the Premier League giant that won the treble in 1999 seemed to have slowly fallen down, but in everyone's eyes, another stronger blue giant was slowly standing up.

The Premier League has never lacked strong teams that perform brilliantly in European competitions. This time, the situation has changed and Chelsea has been strongly praised by the media.

The Dutch boy Arjen Robben, who scored a goal in this game, and his "partner" Damien Duff frequently appeared in the fans' field of vision, and Wang Li became the focus of the focus. Major media outlets rushed to interview him, and almost everyone was optimistic about the future of this young black-haired boy.

Although this was just an English League Cup match, the direct dialogue between Manchester United and Chelsea, two Champions League favorites, was indeed of great significance before the European knockout rounds. After the game, almost all media in Europe reported on the game and gave high praise to Wang Li, who shone throughout the game.

In this game, Portugal's "News" dispatched three reporters. Their focus was of course on Portugal's brightest new star Cristiano Ronaldo. Unfortunately, throughout the game, C. Ronaldo's performance failed to bring any highlights to the Portuguese fans. His performance disappointed all the Portuguese media.

In the report on the second day, the News could only say sourly: "The protagonist of this game is undoubtedly Chelsea's Alan Wong. The performance of this young player is completely worthy of his highest salary among all football players. Facing Chelsea who are eager to score goals, even with the strong Portuguese star C. Ronaldo, Manchester United can only defend the goal steadily. Perhaps we should pay more attention to the external things of the game. For example, in the Champions League, what should we do when we encounter Chelsea? Facing such a Chelsea and such an Alan Wong, can we win?"

The influential French Football newspaper in European football also began to talk about Wang Li's performance and Chelsea's performance. They even reminded Barcelona to "be careful" and hoped that a team could stop Chelsea's dominance. You know, if Chelsea has this kind of performance in every game, it will be almost impossible for the European giants to beat such a Chelsea.

No club has the confidence to beat Manchester United like that.

Under such circumstances, media such as Germany's Kicker and Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport added fuel to the fire. They issued the statement "Take down Allen and rule the world". They called on their country's top teams to introduce Wang Li if they want to get good results in future competitions. It would be absolutely terrifying for the opponent to have such a player.

This makes many big European clubs more eager to get Wang Li, but facing Abramovich, who is not afraid of money offensive, and Chelsea, which has an outstanding record, their "giant clubs", "money" and "sincerity" that have worked all the time are completely useless. At least in the winter transfer, getting Wang Li can only be a dream.

In short, after this game, except for the winning Chelsea team, almost all other teams felt a little disheartened.

After winning this game, Blues fans have become more concerned about Chelsea's League Cup form. Although this is just a tasteless event, it is still a good appetizer for Chelsea, which is short of trophies.

The victory in this game also made Chelsea fans look forward to the confrontation between the team and the giants. What they are most looking forward to is of course the match against Barcelona in the Champions League. Although Barcelona has just risen, no one will underestimate the team with Ronaldinho, the world footballer. Even though these two home and away games have not started yet, everyone knows that they will definitely be a match like Mars hitting the Earth.

After the game, Chelsea Club took a day off. Wang Li used this day to shoot a commercial, which was a promotional video for Nike in Asia.

In fact, Wang Li had no talent for filming movies, and he was even worse than a rookie in this regard. After a busy day, Wang Li had been impatiently doing various actions under the director's command. Although he felt uncomfortable in the process, he had to work for the money. Nike paid him a lot of pounds, so he had to do his job well.

This promotional video is a one-minute Nike advertisement, and it also has some public welfare aspects in it. Because the rules of television channels in many third world countries in Asia are not clear, there are still many channels that can run one-minute ads. Since it can be broadcast, of course the longer the time, the more effective it will be.

Of course, this was just the opposite for Wang Li. There was a shot in the commercial that required him to do a handsome move, but when Wang Li did it, it seemed unnatural no matter what. This made the work time much longer, and this shot alone took several hours.

After filming the entire advertisement, Wang Li even felt more tired than playing a 90-minute intense competition.

Of course, these are all things outside the football field. Wang Li is first and foremost a football player, so after the holiday, he returned to the club and participated in the team's daily training.

In fact, Mourinho boldly granted this holiday in order to keep the team in shape and let the players relax. Chelsea's recent games are too intensive. On the third day of the game with Manchester United, they fell into the quagmire of the league again.

In the 23rd round of the Premier League, Chelsea traveled to North London to challenge Tottenham Hotspur away.

Tottenham's performance this season is indeed very good. As a North London team, they are only 13 points behind their city rivals Arsenal. Currently, they are ranked 7th in the league, which can be said to be very strong.

In the first half of the match, Tottenham suffered a big defeat at Stamford Bridge, and this time it was at home, so Tottenham fans were very excited to cheer for the team. They hope that Tottenham can be the team that ends Chelsea's winning streak, which will make them feel very proud. In fact, this idea is not entirely for Tottenham's points. As Arsenal's mortal rival, Tottenham fans hate Arsenal to the core. Arsenal was defeated by Chelsea at home, so they hope that their team can draw with Chelsea. In this way, they will feel extremely honored.

In fact, they have many opportunities, because the current league is basically a training ground for Mourinho. Chelsea can afford to lose when they are leading second-placed Arsenal by so many points. On the contrary, Chelsea's players are reluctant to let go because it involves a large amount of bonuses. Therefore, they feel that they are performing better in the league than in other games recently. This is the role of money.

As a battle between the first and seventh place in the Premier League, this match is undoubtedly the focus of the 23rd round. At the same time, the English media also called this match a "test battle". As the name suggests, Chelsea is used to test Tottenham's strength. This is mainly because many media and fans this season are incredible about Tottenham's performance, but have recognized Chelsea's performance. This is the popular positioning of the two teams in the hearts of fans. The main reason is of course that Tottenham does not have any outstanding stars.

"Such competition is conducive to the development of Premier League teams. Tottenham has performed very well this season, so we hope that other mid-level Premier League teams can also perform in this way, so that every game in the Premier League can be full of suspense. In a few years, when fans from other countries look at Premier League games, if they can say "there are no upsets in Premier League games", then we will have succeeded. I think most clubs still need to learn from Tottenham's successful way. They don't have too famous stars, but they can compete for the qualification for the League Cup. A new force in English football is rising."

Although the media found a more serious meaning for the game, it is undeniable that they all consciously ignored Chelsea.

Everyone knows that Chelsea is too strong, which is not conducive to the development of the Premier League. If such a club dominates for too long, no star will choose a club other than Chelsea, because they will not see the hope of winning the championship. But at least now, Chelsea is not strong enough. This is not because of strength, but because there is no continuous championship support. This is just an assumption. However, at least this season, it has become meaningless to talk about the ownership of the Premier League championship.

Before this game, there was no war of words between the two teams. At the pre-match press conference, Tottenham's head coach also congratulated Chelsea on their current record and simply declared that "we will work hard for a victory in the game." This very polite performance prevented the two teams from arguing. In fact, this is mainly because there is not much competition between Tottenham and Chelsea. Although both are Premier League teams in London, there are many teams in London. Tottenham's main rival is still Arsenal, while Chelsea's rival is Fulham. West London and North London are basically like two cities.

Last season, the two teams might have been in competition for the League Cup and the Champions League, but with Chelsea's outstanding performance this season, the gap between the two teams has widened. For Tottenham, it doesn't make much difference whether Chelsea's record is good or bad. In any case, they don't have the ability to win that championship trophy.

Although it seemed that the relationship between the two teams was very harmonious, this game was much more exciting than the previous one. In the 90 minutes of the game, the two teams scored a total of 7 goals.

Just 7 minutes into the game, Tottenham striker Defoe took advantage of a corner kick and scored the first goal for the team with a header, which made all the Tottenham fans excited, as if they had seen the dawn of victory in the game.

This kind of start did catch Chelsea off guard. In most of the games this season, Chelsea scored first, but the current situation was that Tottenham scored the first goal with their traditional attack. However, this made Chelsea coach Mourinho on the sidelines quite satisfied. He is now looking forward to Chelsea losing a game to remind these proud young men that we are not invincible yet and it is normal to lose if we don't play seriously.

However, what the Portuguese did not expect was that the power of money was incredible. All Chelsea players wanted to win because that meant they could continue to receive substantial bonuses.

So just 3 minutes later, Wang Li's long shot from the right side of the penalty area made his England teammate Paul Robinson burst into tears. His hands touched the ball, but the inertia caused by the huge force still made the ball go straight into the net. Tottenham fans were only happy for 3 minutes before the score was tied by Chelsea.

When Mourinho saw this scene on the sidelines, he was thinking about letting Wang Li have a rest in the next league game. Even in this game, he wanted Wang Li to leave the field early so that other players could find some game form without Wang Li. Of course, this may not be necessary, but Mourinho's idea is to use the league to train his players. Only teams that are not afraid of any difficulties can have the opportunity to win more championships.

However, before Mourinho could do anything, Chelsea scored again.

In the 29th minute of the first half, Damien Duff dribbled the ball to the front of the penalty area and made a beautiful heel pass to William Gallas behind him. The offensive French defender scored the second goal for Chelsea with a wonderful long shot, which even made Frank Lampard, who had not experienced the feeling of scoring a goal for a long time, jealous.

After the goal, in order to vent his jealousy, Lampard was the first to press Gallas to the grass, and then he lay on top of him, acting as a cushion for other players. Of course, the result was dismal, and this "upright man" who always demanded grace was only slightly better than the French man who was about to cry.

After Chelsea scored the second goal, Tottenham's attack did not weaken because they were afraid of the opponent's goal. They continued to attack fiercely. Mendes and Redknapp on the left and right roads frequently passed the ball to the middle. The repeated attacks made Chelsea's defense even a little overwhelmed. This may be more because Chelsea's previous games were too smooth. The team's perfect performance in offense made the backcourt defense a little slack.

However, Chelsea's attack did not stop. Taking advantage of a fast break opportunity, Wang Li single-handedly passed three people and finally made a steady diagonal pass, giving the opportunity to Arkin Robben who followed up. The latter pushed the ball into the empty goal, making the score 1:3.

The first half of the game ended with a score of 3:1. During the half-time break, Mr. Mourinho, who hoped to train his players, made three substitutions. Wang Li, Robben and Lampard were all substituted one after another at the beginning of the second half. This even made Tottenham fans see the hope of equalizing the score again. The pressure that Wang Li brought to them on the court was too great.

In the second half, although Chelsea made three substitutions, the playing styles of the two teams did not change, and they continued to compete in offensive battles.

In the 57th minute of the game, Tottenham midfielder Sean Davies scored a goal for the team with a free kick, bringing the score to 2:3.

Now, Tottenham ranks seventh in the league, and it is definitely not due to luck. Without Wang Li, Chelsea's performance can only be said to be a draw with Tottenham. Seeing this kind of game, head coach Mourinho frowned. He does not want to see Chelsea become a one-man team.

But the fact is that after Wang Li and Robben left the field, Chelsea's offense actually felt weak. Drogba was simply unable to support the team alone in the frontcourt, and the Irishman Damien Duff's breakthrough ability was not strong. Without too intensive cooperation, it was difficult for the football to enter Tottenham's penalty area.

In the 81st minute of the game, Chelsea defender Glen Johnson committed a foul in the penalty area and the referee directly awarded a penalty kick. Tottenham striker Kanoute scored the goal and equalized the score for the team, which put Chelsea in the crisis of a draw or even a loss.

Perhaps before the game, no one expected the game to turn out like this, even Tottenham coach Santini, who thought the team was going to suffer a major defeat.

However, perhaps Santini was blinded by the excitement of the draw. After the team tied the score, he made a wrong instruction - to return to defense and maintain the score.

Indeed, for Tottenham, it is absolutely acceptable to draw with Chelsea at home.

But now the Chelsea team on the field is no match for Tottenham in terms of morale alone, and after Tottenham gave up the attack, Chelsea's chance came.

Facts have proved that the temptation of money is very strong. In the last minute of the game, Chelsea captain John Terry scored a header to help Chelsea overtake the score again. This lore-winning goal was almost a stab in Santini's heart, making him regretful.

However, this obviously had no effect on the game and Chelsea eventually won the game.

However, head coach Mourinho was obviously very dissatisfied with the entire game process. It can be seen that Chelsea players will definitely face the wrath of the Portuguese.