Chapter 1003: Plans Can't Keep Up with Changes
Southampton scored four goals in the first half, and their performance remained the same after the second half resumed.
However, although Manchester United suffered a crushing defeat, Giggs replaced two defensive players during the half-time break. In addition, the Saints were already in a winning position, so they slowed down their offensive and strengthened their control, so the score was finally locked at 4-0.
In the second half, the Saints didn't score a single goal.
But just based on the fierce bombardment in the first half and Messi's hat trick, this game is worth the price of the ticket!
It turned out that according to the British arrangement, on the third evening of the Chinese leader's visit to the UK, a Sino-British version of the manor meeting was to be held at Chequers, the Prime Minister's residence in Aylesbury, northwest of London.
But later he changed his mind and chose the underwater hotel in Southampton as the meeting place.
This is no longer a meeting at the manor, but a meeting under the sea.
With this meeting, media all over the world immediately reported and paid attention to it. The name of the Southampton Undersea Hotel is bound to become world-famous because of this meeting between the leaders of China and Britain.
The meeting was scheduled after the match between Saints and Manchester United.
As the host, Yang Huan attended the dinner meeting of the leaders of the two countries, and saw them off in Southampton early the next morning. The President took a flight from Southampton Airport to Manchester.
The originally planned visit to the football club in Manchester has now been cancelled.
The leaders of China and Britain gathered in Southampton and stayed in an underwater hotel. In addition, the Saints beat Manchester United 4-0 at home and won nine consecutive Premier League victories. This meal became the focus of major media reports around the world the next day.
Such a meeting between the leaders of China and Britain has once again brought Southampton, a port city on the south coast of England, into the world's attention. Everyone has discovered that there was such a dreamlike building at the place where the Titanic set sail.
So, for a while, Southampton's underwater hotel became a hot spot for tourists from all over the world.
In the Premier League, the Saints relied on this 4-0 victory over Manchester United to consolidate their leading position in the Premier League standings with nine consecutive wins, but because Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Arsenal all won this round of games, the Saints' lead did not widen further.
Louis van Gaal's North London team beat Liverpool 1-0 at home thanks to a goal from Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese has been unstoppable in his scoring streak in the Premier League.
In this year's Premier League scorer list, Cristiano Ronaldo and Suarez are leading by a large margin, but since Suarez did not score in this round, the Portuguese is temporarily ranked first in the scorer list.
But many media also believe that Messi’s strong comeback will bring more suspense to the Premier League scorer list.
Manchester City defeated Bournemouth 5-1 at their home ground with two shots and one assist from Aboubakar and a hat-trick from Sterling. This also allowed Manchester City to surpass Tottenham Hotspur and climb to second place in the league standings, second only to Southampton.
Arsenal defeated Watford 3-0 and ranked fourth in the league, while Ranieri's Leicester City jumped to fifth in the league, Crystal Palace ranked sixth in the league, and Manchester United fell to seventh in the league after a crushing defeat.
The situation of the Red Army Liverpool is even worse, ranking directly tenth in the league.
Although Chelsea won this round, they are still ranked 16th in the league, just one step away from the relegation zone.
This also led many fans to tease Chelsea, saying that the main goal of this season should be relegation.
Judging from the current Premier League standings, it is entirely foreseeable that it will be difficult for Leicester City and Crystal Palace to maintain this momentum until the end of the season, and their rankings will decline as the season progresses.
Lack of strength and a weak lineup are their biggest weaknesses.
After the winter break and matches with more powerful teams, they will begin to show signs of lack of momentum.
But in any case, the outstanding performance in the first nine rounds of this season has brought great attention and influence to both teams.
Southampton is still the favorite to win the championship this season, but Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur also have chances, while Arsenal and Manchester United will fight for the top four in the league.
The only regrettable thing is the fall of two traditional powerhouses, Liverpool and Chelsea. However, with teams like Leicester City, Crystal Palace and West Ham United catching up, it is also a good thing for the Premier League.
At least, it adds some suspense and surprises, right?
After finishing the ninth round of the Premier League, the Saints set off for Paris, France, to participate in the third round of the UEFA Champions League group stage.
Paris Saint-Germain is competing fiercely with Monaco for the league title in the French Ligue 1 this season.
Ronald Koeman's team did not make many changes to its defense this summer. After Costa Rican goalkeeper Navas moved to Real Madrid, the team spent a lot of money to introduce Timo Horn from Bundesliga Cologne.
The entire defense line still maintains the level of last season, but the midfield has sold older players such as Biglia, Toulalan, Capoue, etc., and introduced Schneiderlin, Sanson, Wanyama, three young players in their prime years with greater plasticity.
In addition, Hernandez and Mbappe were introduced to the forward line, and the disappointing Benzia was sold.
There is nothing we can do about this.
Originally, the team spent a lot of money to recruit Benzia from Lyon because they thought the young player had the potential to be like Benzema. However, his limited progress, coupled with the player's own problems, eventually led to Monaco having to give up and send him away.
At the beginning of this season, Monaco won three consecutive games. Although the team had many problems, they won steadily.
But in the fourth round of the league, Monaco lost 1-2 to Paris Saint-Germain at their home ground, giving up their position as the league leader in vain.
This battle put Monaco and Ronald Koeman under a lot of criticism and pressure.
However, Monaco management, led by Michael Bolingbroke and Jean-Luc Bussin, have successively expressed their support for Ronald Koeman and believe that he can lead the team out of the shadows.
Although Monaco's performance in the next two rounds was not ideal, with one win and one loss, the gap with Paris Saint-Germain widened.
But after learning from the mistakes, Ronald Koeman quickly found the key to the team's victory. In the next four rounds, the team won four consecutive victories, including a 6-0 away victory over Guingamp, a 3-0 home victory over Rennes, and a 4-1 home win over Lyon.
However, although Monaco has won consecutive games, Paris Saint-Germain's performance is not bad either.
Although they drew with Bordeaux and Lens in the fourth and fifth rounds of the league respectively, Paris Saint-Germain won all the subsequent matches.
Therefore, in the current French Ligue 1 standings, Paris Saint-Germain is still ahead, with Monaco two points behind in second place.
But there is no doubt that the championship battle between the two teams has become completely fierce.
At this time, Southampton, visiting the Parc des Princes, not only has to win the third Champions League group match and defend the top spot in the group, but also has to bear the heavy responsibility of helping Monaco break Paris Saint-Germain's unbeaten streak.
As soon as the game started, the Saints went all out and attacked frantically.
In this game, Sanchez replaced Suarez in the starting lineup. The latter had to rest because he had participated in national team games continuously and then played in the game against Manchester United right after returning.
As a result, in the 16th minute, Sanchez made a low pass after a forced breakthrough on the right, and Hazard followed up with a shot from the left, which penetrated the Paris Saint-Germain goal.
Paris Saint-Germain consciously strengthened its defense, and the back line led by Thiago Silva and David Luiz arranged the defense very tightly, and Southampton couldn't find any opportunities for a while.
In the second half, Kovacic replaced the injured Toni Kroos, and Ancelotti had to slow down the team's attack.
Paris Saint-Germain seized the opportunity, pressed forward and intensified the attack.
But in the 67th minute, young player Chambers on the right made a wonderful pass, and Messi relied on his strong personal ability to break through David Luiz and scored a goal with a single shot, making it 2-0.
Paris Saint-Germain was not willing to be outdone and pressed forward again, but Varane made a long pass from the backcourt in the 78th minute, and Messi easily made an offside move and scored again, making it 3-0!
This goal also completely sentenced Paris Saint-Germain to death!
There was a deathly silence at the Parc des Princes. Everyone looked at the score in disbelief, watching as their team, which they thought was extremely strong, was beaten to a pulp by the British Saints in their own backyard.
The score of three to zero shows the gap in strength between the two teams.
In the end, the Saints successfully escaped from the Parc des Princes with a score of 3-0, but what was left behind was depression and melancholy, and even a little reflection, for everyone in Paris Saint-Germain.
The French media even said after the game that the only thing between Paris Saint-Germain and Southampton is Messi!
But is Messi the only one missing?
After returning to the Premier League from the European arena, the Saints quickly headed north and defeated the Reds Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield in Liverpool with goals from Messi and Suarez.
Although Liverpool's league ranking is still tenth after this game, the 2-0 defeat to Southampton still made the Reds feel depressed.
Coincidentally, Chelsea lost 1-2 to West Ham United away in this round, and their ranking dropped again.
But Tottenham Hotspur in North London beat Bournemouth 5-1 away from home, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a hat-trick, and took the lead at the top of the standings.
This also surprised the British media, and they began to hype it up, believing that Messi and Suarez together were barely comparable to Cristiano Ronaldo.
That's right, if we look at the number of goals scored by both teams, it is indeed the case.
However, when Messi was interviewed by Charlene Lahiri, he responded publicly and said that he was in very good shape and would definitely score a lot of goals.
"The competition between me and Cristiano has just begun!"
Suarez also publicly expressed his unwillingness to be outdone in an interview with the Times.
"Everyone thinks that the top scorer should be Cristiano or Leo, but why no one says it's me?"
“I hope to break other people’s perception of this!”
However, some media analysis believes that since Messi's comeback, Suarez's goals have been curbed and he no longer has the exclusive chances created by Saints players like before.
Therefore, many media believe that whether it is Messi or Suarez, if they want to catch up with Cristiano Ronaldo, they must have unlimited firing rights in the team like the Portuguese.
But head coach Ancelotti clearly doesn't think so.
When the British media, as well as the media and fans around the world, were hyping and paying attention to the goal-scoring battle between Messi, Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo, Sun Yue suddenly came to Southampton.
He also brought a very important piece of news, which made Yang Huan sigh helplessly.
Plans really can’t keep up with changes!