Arsenal's 4: 1 win over Everton did not become the focus of the first round.
Chelsea eventually chose Mourinho to take charge of the Blues. The outside world was more curious about how the team would perform in the new Premier League season. Abramovich's signing this summer was equally surprising. He recruited a lot of capable players for Mourinho, and Mourinho, in order to win over people's hearts, immediately announced to the outside world after he took charge of the team: Chelsea does not need Qin Xiong. We have the world's best midfielder, Lampard.
When Chelsea faced the Red Devils at Stamford Bridge in the first round of the new season, Chelsea presented a midfield combination that did not seem to need Qin Xiong. The muscular midfield composed of Tiago Makelele and Lampard made Chelsea start to look steely, and they beat Manchester United 1: 0 at home, kicking off Mourinho's aggressive prelude at Stamford Bridge.
A successful team did not change.
In the eyes of the outside world, Arsenal was still the same as last season, including the main lineup.
In the league tournament in August, Qin Xiong did not play for a minute and spent all of it on the substitutes' bench.
And Arsenal's start to the new season was unusually strong!
The fourth round of the Premier League ended on August 28.
Arsenal and Chelsea were neck and neck in the first and second place in the table, leading by goal difference.
They beat Everton 4: 1 in the away game, beat Middlesbrough 5: 3 at home, beat Blackburn Rovers 3: 0 at home, and beat Norwich City 4: 1 in the away game.
Arsenal scored four goals in each of the four games, and their offensive firepower was amazing.
Meanwhile, Manchester United's new season was plagued by injuries and the team's main players did not prepare well in the summer, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Heinze. The Red Devils' start was terrible.
They only won one game in the first four rounds, losing to Chelsea and tied with Blackburn Rovers and Everton. They were directly behind the leaders, Arsenal and Chelsea, by seven points!
The Premier League, which opened in mid-August, had an average game every four days, which showed the tight schedule.
In this half a month, Qin Xiong had gone through a gradual recovery period. After this period of time, he clearly felt that his body's condition had improved by a level. Moreover, he had become a brand new person in the training of his physical reserves.
He was ready to fight for Arsenal, even if Arsenal's fans might have forgotten about him.
He thought that the China players, who came to the team in the summer with the club's highest bid, were useless.
But Wenger did not think so.
Wenger had been looking forward to the day when Qin Xiong was ready for everything.
On August 31st, the English Premier League went on a truce and the second round of the EFL Cup came.
Wenger included Qin Xiong in the starting list and let him officially represent Arsenal in his debut game. This was also related to the fact that the four Premier League matches in half a month had severely depleted most of the main force.
The second round of the EFL Cup.
Arsenal was a guest at the New Neil Stadium.
What awaited them was a London derby.
The opponent was a second-tier English league team called Millwall, which had just changed from League One to the English Football League Championship.
On the bus with the team, although Vieira, as the captain, would not play, he was still in the game list. He deliberately walked to Qin Xiong's seat and gently patted Qin Xiong's head with his hand. Qin Xiong turned his head to look at him, only to see Vieira say to him with a serious expression, "Be careful on the field today."
Qin Xiong was stunned for two seconds before he nodded solemnly.
According to Fàbregas, the weaker the team in England, the more the team had a more aggressive style of play.
And the top teams in England had to adapt to the European style of play because they had to go to Europe. They could not defeat the "cunning" continental style of play by relying on aggressive confrontation. Therefore, generally, when playing against the top teams, in fact, they paid more attention to the real collision of skills, tactics and team strength.
But if they were to play against a middle or lower tier team, they had to be wary of the opponent's excessive aggressiveness in the confrontation.
Qin Xiong could more or less see this point. After studying the Premier League games for half a month and understanding the characteristics of the opponents, he found that the weaker opponents would use rougher confrontation to limit the stronger opponents.
This might also be the current situation in the world of football. The weak against the strong, in addition to the conservative tactics, also existed in the strategic killing posture. It was just that in England, the football values would be more tolerant of "confrontation" and even encourage it. Therefore, this boundary was very blurred. Often, there would be a confrontation that went too far and became an undisguised killing.
Millwall was on the south side of the Thames River, but the club belonged to East London regionally. It was a pair of arch-rivals with West Ham United and was also the most famous cradle of football hooligans in England.
When Qin Xiong came to the New Neil Stadium to start warming up, he saw more than 16,000 Millwall fans in the stands. They were fanatically and passionately cheering for the team. At the same time, they did not miss any opportunity to ridicule and humiliate Arsenal's players.
This in itself would make Qin Xiong puzzled.
It seemed that the Millwall fans, known as the Mad Lions, were born with offensive attributes, like mad dogs. They obviously had no grievances and were just playing a football game, but they would extend the confrontation of the game outside the field.
But if one knew that Millwall and West Ham United were notorious hooligan teams, then there was nothing to make a fuss about.
Qin Xiong walked back to the locker room after warming up, ignoring the Millwall fans in the nearby stands who gave him the middle finger and some racist remarks.
He had already encountered racial discrimination in the Netherlands. That was in the game against Feyenoord. In fact, he was not the only one who would encounter such a situation. Arsenal also had black players in the team, and they were also the targets of racist abuse.
Qin Xiong had a good mentality. He did not feel wronged or uncomfortable. Why should he take it to heart when a group of beasts were barking at him?
In the locker room, Wenger emphasized that the pace of the game should be faster to avoid falling into a partial hand-to-hand battle with the opponent.
In terms of strength, even if Arsenal did not send out the main force, they should be better than Millwall in terms of team fighting ability.
But that was only in theory.
Millwall was the runner-up of the FA Cup last season!
Qin Xiong appeared for the first time wearing the Arsenal uniform. He walked into the stadium full of energy.
"Finally, finally, finally, let us see the rookie Qin Xiong that Arsenal bought for 10 million euros in the summer. The MVP of the Champions League final made his debut in England a little late. According to our understanding, he did not participate in Arsenal's pre-season training in the summer. Instead, he returned to China to lead the China national team to participate in the AFC Asian Cup. He became the champion of the FIFA Confederations Cup. It is hard to imagine that a 19-year-old Asian player can win so many honors in a year. Dutch Cup, Eredivisie, Champions League, AFC Asian Cup. It looks great. He came to the team of the defending Premier League champions full of honor, but can he adapt to English football? Will he be like his compatriot Dong Fangzhuo, who was bought by Manchester United as a commercial acquisition? Haha, we have to observe his performance today. Will he become the next Bergkamp that Wenger talked about? Oh, Wenger has already said that many young Arsenal rookies will become Bergkamp, but so far, there is only one Bergkamp. "
Qin Xiong stood at the back of the center circle. His position today could be said to be the attacking midfielder. Behind him were Flamini and Fàbregas. At the front was the French striker, Aliadiere, and on the two wings were Robin van Persie and Reyes.
When Aliadiere kicked off, Reyes passed the ball back to Qin Xiong.
Almost at the same time as the kickoff, Millwall's striker immediately rushed up. Qin Xiong observed his teammates' running positions.
He did not care about the opponent's striker's charge at all. It was simply too amateur!
He was very confident that he could protect the ball and turn around on the spot. He thought that he could bypass the opponent's striker who came up to snatch the ball because the trajectory of the opponent's body center of gravity was clear at a glance.
Yes, he did it.
When he was halfway through protecting the ball and turning around on the spot, he knew that he had successfully bypassed the opponent. As long as he turned around, he could dribble the ball forward and just cross the opponent.
But as he continued to turn around, he suddenly opened his eyes wide and a sense of crisis surged in his heart.
He noticed the Millwall striker's foot movement from the corner of his eye. The opponent's foot kicked over, but it was not to rush the ball!
It was to target Qin Xiong's supporting leg!
Qin Xiong did not expect that the opponent would directly and viciously commit a foul to kill at the beginning of the game!
This, this, this, this is simply a crime!
And it was premeditated by the opponent!
No matter how fast Qin Xiong's reaction was, at the cost of losing his balance and falling to the ground, he still could not escape from the opponent's premeditated slash and foul action!
He was directly swept to the ground!
Boom!
The New Neil Stadium erupted into thunderous cheers!
The Millwall fans applauded and cheered for their leading striker, Neil Harris. The ear-piercing whistles seemed to be showing off that he had just done an amazing thing on the field!
Qin Xiong, who had just stepped into the English competition for the first time, fell to the ground and hugged his left leg with both hands. He did not stand up again, nor did he shout, but his entire face was covered in cold sweat.
His left calf was kicked by the opponent without the protection of the leg guard. It was already swollen and painful to touch!
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