The day after Qin Xiong broke Gade Muller's annual goal record, which was once thought to be unprecedented, Liverpool had even more good news.
The defending champions, Liverpool, had won the Premier League title!
At the same time, they topped the league table for the first time this season!
The first was a game played at Old Trafford on the same day, December 31. Manchester United faced Blackburn Rovers at home.
Today was also Ferguson's birthday!
It was on Sir Alex's birthday that Manchester United created a shocking upset at home!
In the Premier League's 2011 end-of-year finale, Manchester United failed to score all three points against the league's vice-monitor, Blake. Although they temporarily equalized the score with Berbatov's two goals, they were ultimately killed by the opponent. It could be said to be the biggest upset in the Premier League in the past 20 years. It also made Sir Alex Ferguson very uneasy on his 70th birthday.
However, another surprise in the game the night before was Rooney. Ferguson did not intend to send Rooney on the field at all. The latter did not even make it to the bench! Could it be that Sir Alex had underestimated the enemy too much? No!
News from the Daily Mail revealed that the Red Devils' star player was severely punished by Ferguson. Fatty Rooney left the team without permission on Boxing Day, which was the night of Manchester United's game against Wigan. He took his wife, Colleen, to dinner outside. This blatant disregard of the team's rule of "the club prohibited going out on the night of the game." Manchester United's manager, Ferguson, was very unhappy, and the latter had the idea of freezing Rooney.
The Daily Mail also revealed that Rooney's teammates, Evans, Gibson, and their respective female companions had also attended the dinner together.
However, the matter was not over yet. During Manchester United's training the next day, Rooney, Evans, and Gibson brought the "happy atmosphere" from the previous night to the training ground. They even excitedly discussed what happened that night, which made Ferguson, who was already unhappy, furious. The "leader," Rooney, was directly called to Ferguson's office to be reprimanded by a "hairdryer."
The Daily Mail said that Rooney, who was severely reprimanded, was also told that he would not play against Blackburn Rovers in the game and would be fined a hefty £200,000 by the club.
At the same time, the next day, Manchester United's entire team was on holiday to relax. Gibson, Evans, and Rooney were also ordered to train by Sir Alex Ferguson.
Reprimanding, extra training, and a hefty fine made Fatty Lu, who was at the center of the storm, very unhappy. The Manchester United's leading striker felt that he had been treated unfairly. Rooney protested to Ferguson, and a fierce conflict broke out between the two men …
Of course, from Keane, Stam, to Beckham, no one could challenge Ferguson's absolute authority. No matter how famous they were, no matter how dazzling the halo above their heads, Ferguson was the undisputed king here. Rooney's dissatisfaction and protest could only be in vain. In the game against Blackburn Rovers, Rooney had no choice but to appear in the stands at Old Trafford.
In fact, it was not the first time that the conflict between Rooney and Ferguson had broken out. Not to mention a season ago, Rooney was deeply involved in a transfer crisis. It was said that Fatty Lu's move at that time had caused strong dissatisfaction among the veterans led by Scholes. Now, it was unknown how Rooney's "dinner party" would end. Whether the Red Devils' star player would be kicked out by Sir Alex like Beckham and Stam in the past.
Ferguson himself did not want to take the situation further. Sir Alex explained Rooney's absence this time. "Rooney's training this week was not systematic. He hasn't trained much in the past few days. So I think he will be able to recover after today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. He might be a little too tired. "
Although Ferguson defended Rooney in front of the media, according to other sources, Ferguson himself had complained to his confidants that Rooney's professionalism was far inferior to that of the current superstars. This was also an important reason why Rooney, a superstar who rose to fame in 2004, could not stand shoulder to shoulder with Ronaldo, Messi, and Qin Xiong at his peak age. He was even getting further and further away from them!
Ferguson was very disappointed!
Manchester United lost the third game of the devil's schedule, creating a shocking upset.
At the same time, the other team of the two Manchester City heroes, Manchester City, was even more shocking. They also created a shocking upset.
At the Stadium of Light, Mancini's team bombarded Sunderland's goal with more than 30 shots. Instead, they were controversially killed by Sunderland in injury stoppage time!
The two Manchester City heroes lost at the same time!
Liverpool took advantage of the situation and surged to the top of the table in one fell swoop!
Manchester City lost 0: 1 to Black Cats Sunderland at the Stadium of Light because of the Korean killer Chi Dongyuan's offside shot.
After the game, the furious Manchester City manager, Mancini, for the first time, did not blame the referee on duty, Kevin Fred, at the post-match press conference. Instead, the Italian focused more on the team's performance. He felt that the team did not grasp the opportunity well, and the slackness on the defensive end led to the failure.
"I'm very disappointed. We had many good opportunities to break the goal in the second half. Although we didn't score, we shouldn't have lost such a game. In the last 10 minutes, we gave the opponent two or three chances to shoot, and each time was very dangerous. A strong team shouldn't lose such a game. Sometimes, the game is very difficult, but even if you can't win, you shouldn't lose. You have to work hard to defend. Sometimes, it's enough to put in seven players to attack, because if you put in more, you might be counterattacked like we were. The team's performance in the second half was much better than before. We had to win this game, although it was really difficult. "
Mancini also said that they still had to play the rest of the game well. "Now we have to focus on the next game. We have to play the second game in 48 hours. We had a lot of opportunities to shake off the other teams in the rankings, but the league is still very long. We still have 19 games to play. We have to get another 45 points. "
.....
There was also a big upset at Stamford Bridge in this round. Chelsea was completely defeated at the feet of Aston Villa at 1: 3 at home. DiMatteo's team had more than enough to fight back against the opponent. But when they had to attack because they could not win in a row and were counterattacked by the opponent, it was another matter altogether!
Arsenal was lucky to take down Queen's Park Rangers 1: 0 at home with Robin van Persie's shot, and successfully entered the top four of the Champions League.
After the 19th round of the league, Liverpool won half of the championship.
The standings were as follows.
Liverpool 46 points.
Manchester City 44 points.
Manchester United 44 points.
Arsenal 36 points.
Chelsea 34 points.
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