The Red Army fans who came to Anfield to watch the FA Cup rematch between Liverpool and Reading left the stadium in disappointment.
They did not know what had happened to the team. Perhaps the team's fighting power had plummeted after the absence of a big-name star player.
Qin Xiong, Gerard, Torres and the others, who watched the game live on television at home, did not show much emotion.
As players, they understood the physical and mental pressure brought about by playing on multiple fronts.
They did not have the mentality to avoid the battle. They just recognized the reality.
The next day, the major newspapers on Fleet Street published the shocking result of Liverpool's elimination by Reading.
"Once again, Comain's purpose of giving up the domestic cup is clear!"
The Times put the news of Liverpool's elimination as the front page headline in the FA Cup report.
"It is clear that Liverpool does not intend to do anything in this season's domestic cup. The story of the FA Cup and the EFL Cup is the same. If the EFL Cup's elimination in the first game was a gamble by Comain that failed, then Comain still did not send any star players capable of deciding the game under the premise of a rematch. His thoughts are already known, which is that Liverpool will concentrate on the Premier League and the Champions League. The domestic cup? Whether or not it was not attractive enough, it was already out. After a while, people will forget about it. But Comain also cut off his own way out. If he could not lead Liverpool to win the Premier League or the Champions League after voluntarily giving up the domestic cup, then he would not be able to give every Red Army fan and management a reasonable explanation.
Do you still remember his inaugural speech?
If he could not lead the team to win the title this season, he would resign.
Good luck to Comain! "
"The Guardian", "The Star", and "442" all criticized Koeman for not taking the domestic cup seriously. Only Liverpool's local newspaper, "The Echo", believed that Koeman was doing the right thing!
Tony Barrett wrote in his column, "Liverpool needs a title! But it was not the FA Cup or the EFL Cup. They needed more important titles to restore their former status and influence!
In a sense, the Premier League title was even more important to Liverpool than the Champions League title! It was Comain's shrewd move to give up on the EFL Cup and FA Cup. Liverpool took the initiative to cut off the burden, but their competitors had to face three competitions in the coming days. This was undoubtedly good news for Liverpool, who had already established a big lead in the league tournament.
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The positive situation was indeed as Tony Barrett said. Liverpool could focus on the Premier League and the Champions League without any distractions. Before the start of the Champions League, Liverpool would only play one game a week for more than a month in the Premier League.
On January 16, the 22nd round of the Premier League began. Liverpool's main force went to Stoke City's home ground. With goals from Alonso and Gerard, Liverpool won 2: 0 in the away game.
Chelsea, who came on later, scored the craziest score in nearly 21 years at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea massacred Sunderland with a 7: 2 score!
The last time Chelsea was able to score seven goals in the league tournament was 21 years ago!
The Red Devils Manchester United used a 3: 0 win at Old Trafford to avenge the humiliation of being defeated by their opponents at Burnley in the first half of the season.
The next day, Arsenal visited the Reebok Stadium and defeated Bolton Wanderers with a 2: 0 win.
The BIG4 Group won all the rounds!
The leader, Liverpool, was still six points ahead of Manchester United and eight points ahead of Chelsea and Arsenal!
A week later, in the 23rd round of the Premier League, Manchester United took the lead at Old Trafford. Manchester United, who were in good shape recently, defeated Hull City with a 4: 0 score.
Immediately after, Liverpool won the game with a 2: 0 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers with a brace from Qin Xiong.
Chelsea continued to fight at Stamford Bridge and defeated Birmingham City with a 3: 0 score.
Arsenal, on the other hand, suffered a tough battle at Villa Park.
After 90 minutes, the two teams shook hands with a 0: 0 score.
After the 23rd round of the league tournament came to an end, although Arsenal still occupied fourth place in the standings, the gap between them and the leader, Liverpool, had widened to 10 points!
Clearly, the Arsenal Factory was falling behind!
On January 30, the last Premier League game of the first month of the new year arrived.
Liverpool returned to Anfield. Torres, Gerard, Qin Xiong and Dirk Kuyt's attacking group showed their prowess. They each scored a goal and sent off Bolton Wanderers with a 4: 0 score.
Chelsea defeated Burnley with a 2: 1 win in the away game.
At the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal faced off against their old rival, Manchester United. This was the focus of this round of the league tournament. The Liverpool players gathered to watch the game live on television.
With Rooney and Park Ji-sung's goals, as well as Almunia's own goal, Manchester United won with a 3: 1 score at the Emirates Stadium!
As a result, Arsenal had fallen behind Liverpool by 13 points after their loss in this round!
Manchester United continued to fall behind Liverpool by 6 points, while Chelsea fell behind by 8 points.
After this round and into February, Fleet Street did not focus on Liverpool's widening advantage and Arsenal's falling behind. A scandal exploded in the English football world!
Terry's "brother-wife affair" was exposed!
Terry's sex scandal was exposed by The Guardian, The Sun, News of the World and many other British media outlets.
The "brother-wife affair" that caused a sensation around the world was first exposed by The Sun. It claimed that England's current captain, Terry, had an affair with his French model girlfriend, Vanessa, who was his national team teammate and former club teammate, Bridge. Later, many secrets behind the incident were exposed one by one.
It was reported that Terry and Vanessa got pregnant a few weeks after the affair. In order to cover up the truth, Terry paid for Vanessa's abortion and gave her 20,000 pounds as compensation.
In addition to the affair with Vanessa, Terry's other affairs were also exposed. In addition, the woman was also exposed to be in contact with many of Chelsea's star players.
After Terry's "brother-wife affair" was exposed, due to his special status as the captain of the England national team, he attracted a lot of criticism from the media and was ordered to hand over the captain's armband of the England national team.
Due to the huge impact of this incident, on 4 February 2010, the England national team manager, Capello, specially flew back to the United Kingdom to meet with Terry for a face-to-face interview.
However, the development of this affair was clearly beyond Capello's expectations. As the media continued to expose more shocking news, under heavy pressure, the Italian had no choice but to reluctantly give up his treasure.
Terry also accepted an interview after learning that he had been stripped of the national team captain's armband, "I fully respect Capello's decision and I will continue to give my all for England."
Although Chelsea was bombarded by the media because of the captain's scandal, Ancelotti and Abramovich strongly supported Terry's position. They regarded the scandal as a matter of Terry's private life and had nothing to do with competition at all!
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