The third round of the Premier League was over.
Manchester United and Manchester City led the table with nine points after three consecutive wins.
Chelsea won two and drew one with seven points.
The defending champion, Liverpool, had six points.
Arsenal had its worst opening in Premier League history, with only one point after three rounds without a win.
After Arsenal lost 15 goals in two rounds, Arsenal's season goal was automatically downgraded by Fleet Street: from fighting for the championship to fighting for the fourth place!
The draw ceremony for the new season's Champions League group was held in Zurich.
The defending champion, Liverpool, was assigned to a group that was not too challenging.
Liverpool, Marseille, Borussia Dortmund, Olympiacos.
On September 1, the European football transfer market officially closed.
The summer transfer operations of the Premier League's powerhouses were also settled.
The Red Devils, Manchester United, ceased all activity in the transfer market after the start of the league tournament. Like Liverpool, they determined their line-up early and did not make any more adjustments.
Manchester City, after bringing in Agüero, successfully took over Arsenal's Nasri. For the first time in recent years, the summer signings failed to break the 100 million euro mark, but they were only 8 million euros short.
Chelsea made a move in the transfer market a little late. After failing to take down Modric, the Blues successfully brought in Mata, locked in the new generation of Magic Beast Lukaku, and the earliest to bring in Meireles. The strength of the Blues' Chelsea lineup improved a lot.
The worst was Arsenal.
In the summer, Fàbregas, Nasri, Clichy and other important star players left.
After two consecutive fiascos, Wenger made frequent moves the day before the transfer market closed. Arteta, Pu Zhouyong, Mertesacker, Santos and Arsenal spent nearly 30 million pounds on the last day of the transfer market!
With the reinforcements on all fronts, Arsenal could at least alleviate the predicament of having too many players lined up for battle.
.....
Qin Xiong returned to China and recuperated directly at the national men's football team Xianghe Training Base.
As the China team represented Asia in the last World Cup, it directly qualified for the third round of the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup in Brazil. After the first two rounds, the Asian qualifiers for the top 20 came.
China, Jordan, Singapore, and Iraq were in the same group. The top two teams in the group advanced to the top 10.
In the first match against Singapore, China's national team was waiting for Singapore's arrival in Kunming.
Qin Xiong did not follow the team to battle. He waited in Beijing for the results of the match and then prepared to participate in the second match of the group stage in a few days.
Under the leadership of Gao Hongbo, the China team went on a killing spree in Kunming. Singapore's strength was not worth mentioning, and the China team easily won the match with a score of 3: 0.
After winning the game, the China team went to Jordan.
Qin Xiong returned and put on the captain's armband to lead the team in an away game against Jordan.
With the addition of Qin Xiong to the team, the China team's fighting ability rose sharply.
Jordan was not able to resist for long at home. China took down their opponent with 2: 0 thanks to goals from Qin Xiong and Gao Lin.
The China team, which had won both matches, was in a good position to advance. As long as they played well in the next back-to-back matches against Iraq, they would basically lock in their place to advance.
Qin Xiong only played for 60 minutes in the match against Jordan. Gao Hongbo did not want Qin Xiong to be troubled by injuries in the recent period.
Qin Xiong, who had recovered his health, returned to Liverpool.
The fourth round of the Premier League arrived as scheduled.
The defending champion, Liverpool, went to play against Stoke City in an away game.
Stoke City, who defended with all their might, used fouls and killing tactics to let Liverpool only take away a 1: 1 draw in the away game.
Comain commented on the game after the game, "The current situation is somewhat frustrating. Even at their own home ground, many teams in the Premier League will defend with all their might against Liverpool. They don't care about the feelings of the fans and just want to get points from Liverpool. Even if it's just one point, it will make them as excited as if they have won the championship. We can only express our helplessness. Who asked Liverpool to be the strongest team? Too many teams are targeting us. "
The reporters seized on the mistake of the goalkeeper, Reina, in the game to give a big gift and make things difficult for Comain.
Comain was the first to defend his disciple and defend Reina.
"The goalkeeper will be focused for 90 minutes, but our opponents may only have one or two chances in 90 minutes. Today, Stoke City only had three shots in the entire game, but they scored a goal. Reina did make a mistake, but I don't think this mistake represents his level. He can do better. The story ends here. Reina is a member of our team that we have absolute trust in."
Comain's depression did not come out of nowhere.
In his first season as the manager of Liverpool, the games were easy to play!
At least the games were open and there were many opportunities.
Because Liverpool had not won the championship for many years, they were not wary of their opponents.
But in the second season, more than half of the Premier League teams would use intensive defense to deal with Liverpool.
But this also depended on the situation.
Once Liverpool knocked on the opponent's goal and took the lead, the opponent would change their tactical strategy to try to counterattack. The more they counterattacked, the more flaws there would be in the opponent's rear defensive line, and Liverpool could score more goals.
But in this season.
The situation had become completely different.
Many of the opponents had no ambition to win.
They thought that if they could force a draw with Liverpool and get one point, it would be a victory.
Even if they could not win, it would be a victory if they lost less and avoid being massacred by Liverpool to make the headlines. This also made them feel at ease.
This led to Liverpool's opponents not only setting up an iron bucket formation when they faced the middle and lower tier teams, but also using killing tactics to deal with Liverpool, regardless of home or away.
In such a situation, it would be strange if Comain was not depressed!
The other games in the fourth round of the Premier League were uneventful.
Manchester United massacred Bolton Wanderers by 5: 0 in the away game. The Red Devils' powerful offensive firepower in the new season was frightening after they massacred Arsenal by 8: 2 in the previous round.
Manchester City beat Wigan Athletic by 3: 0 at home. Mancini seemed to have trained Manchester City into shape and gradually showed its terrifying power.
Chelsea beat the black cats, Sunderland, by 2: 1 at the Stadium of Light. Villas-Boas' team won three consecutive league games. Everything looked so good.
Arsenal finally got their first victory in the new season after a frenzy of reinforcements.
After defeating Swansea City by 1: 0 at the Emirates Stadium, Wenger claimed that the team's situation would get better little by little and now there were signs of recovery.
After four rounds, Manchester United and Manchester City led the table with 12 points from their four consecutive wins.
Chelsea followed closely behind with 10 points.
Liverpool only had 8 points and it looked like the gap between the two Manchester City heroes had begun to widen.
Arsenal's 4 points looked unusually pitiful.
Just as Liverpool was preparing for the first round of the Champions League group stage, a sensational piece of news broke out in Fleet Street. This news affected Qin Xiong and caused him to be suspected by the outside world.
The Sun exposed a shocking piece of news: a top player in the English Premier League had tested positive for * * *, and his identity would be officially exposed on Thursday night.
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