On the weekend, the last game of the 33rd round of the Premier League started at Stamford Bridge!
Arsenal came to Stamford Bridge again and Chelsea was on standby.
Qin Xiong and Sylvia appeared in the VIP seats at Stamford Bridge hand in hand.
Bergkamp replaced Qin Xiong on the field today and Campbell, who had just recovered from a minor injury, returned to the starting lineup.
Wenger and Mourinho appeared on the sidelines together. The Chelsea fans in the stands cheered more enthusiastically than a few days ago for the Champions League game.
"Now the outside world is optimistic that Chelsea will reverse Arsenal in the closing stages of the league and win their first Premier League title. After all, the blow of Arsenal's defeat in the Champions League was too big. Coupled with the recent overall team depletion, Chelsea still has a certain advantage. Plus, they also have the home advantage!"
Mourinho was now full of confidence. He firmly believed that Chelsea would reverse Arsenal!
Wenger stood on the sidelines with his arms crossed and a calm look on his face.
No one in the outside world knew that after being eliminated from the Champions League, Wenger would repeatedly study the videos of the two legs of the game between Arsenal and Chelsea every night when he returned home. He tried to find out the root cause of why Arsenal, which seemed to be the strongest team since he took charge, eventually lost to Chelsea.
The reason must be complex and diverse, physical fitness, state, lineup, timing, geographical advantage, and so on.
But Wenger still insisted that Chelsea's success was not accidental. Arsenal's offense had almost reached its own limit.
This limit was not ideal. It was like if Wenger pursued the most beautiful football, he could give him a young Figo, Buffon, Nesta … The pursuit should always be based on his own reality. Arsenal's resources were limited. He had almost reached the limit of Arsenal's offense and defense on a balanced basis.
If he could not take the advantage to defeat Chelsea, then what would he do next season? Would he not be in danger when he met Chelsea again?
So, he still had to improve and think about how the team would develop in the next stage.
Outsiders could not see the traces of the vicissitudes of life on his aging face. His hair had also turned a little white. It could not be said that he was worried to death for Arsenal. That was his job in itself. He just wanted to do his job better and do it best.
The competition began.
When the game went on peacefully for 15 minutes, the Chelsea players on the field frequently looked at Mourinho. It seemed that their confused expressions were all asking the same question: What should we do?
With his hands in his pockets, Mourinho was furious. Arsène Wenger! What are you doing?!
Arsenal did not send Fàbregas today, but instead used Flamini.
Flamini Vieira Silva.
Was the defense strong enough?
Of course, it was extremely hard.
Moreover, Pires also stayed on the flank of the backfield, doing the work of moving the offense forward from the flank instead of dribbling forward.
Arsenal often only had Henry alone in the front field, waiting for Pires or Bergkamp to pass him the ball, and then relying on his individual ability to try to create a shooting threat.
What was rare was that Arsenal's offense changed from varied to simple and boring.
Obviously, Arsenal was also playing defense today!
And it was not an ordinary defense based on balance, where the end point seized the opportunity to counterattack, but an extreme defense!
Wenger was filled with stubbornness and unwillingness. He looked at Mourinho and thought to himself, Aren't you the most popular coach in Europe? Come on! It's your home ground, let your players attack! What? You only know how to play defense? If I give you the initiative, you won't attack?
After playing beautiful football for a season, Arsenal today, whether it was based on the strategic situation or their own situation, defensive counterattack was the best strategy.
As long as they did not lose at Stamford Bridge, Arsenal was still the top team.
Taking the risk to attack in an away game, and the opponent was an expert in defensive counterattack. Was this not courting death?
Mourinho, as long as Chelsea could score a goal first, Arsenal would have to attack. Perhaps the result would be a crushing victory for Chelsea!
But if Chelsea could not attack and Arsenal counterattacked to score a goal first, then Chelsea would probably have to attack and score two goals. Could Chelsea accomplish such a task?
Wenger gritted his teeth. He had some regrets. If he had ordered the team to play this kind of scene a few days ago before the start of the second leg of the Champions League game, he might not have let Chelsea score first as long as it was an extreme defensive counterattack that won the game. But it was only after the failure that he suddenly realized. This kind of thing was too common.
Mourinho's forehead broke out in cold sweat on the sidelines.
Should he attack hard to shake Arsenal, or let the game be in a deadlock and watch Arsenal retreat?
He knew that if Chelsea won this game, it would almost be a lock for the league title.
But on the other hand, what if Arsenal won?
Then it could also be announced that Arsenal had successfully defended their title!
Because Arsenal's lead would expand to a net win!
They had the advantage of goal difference. As long as they did not have a big defeat later, even if there was a small loss, Arsenal would be on top of Chelsea.
Mourinho did not give instructions for a long time. Chelsea's players could only execute the pre-game strategic deployment step by step. Of course, they mainly played defense and counterattack. In a conventional attack, it was difficult to make waves in Arsenal's dense defensive zone by relying on only three or four players in the front field.
Mourinho weighed the pros and cons. He had to think carefully before making a decision.
Chelsea's lack of creativity was naturally related to their tactical practice.
The reason why their counterattack was fast and fierce was actually related to the lack of change in the overall tactics.
This included the basic strategy of the players' positioning.
For example, Arsenal's rich offensive creativity was based on a kind of near-disorder, relying on the long-established tacit understanding of the players. During the movement, the players frequently changed positions and roles, which made it difficult for the opponent to guard against.
Chelsea's defensive counterattack actually had relatively low requirements for the players' positioning. In order to ensure the efficiency of the counterattack, the offensive players had strong requirements for the control of their respective areas.
Once there was space, the backfield players would see their teammates in that area when they passed the ball forward. They would immediately pass the ball to ensure the speed and efficiency of the counterattack to achieve a smooth and fast effect.
And this was the most powerful part of their counterattack. It looked monotonous, but it was also difficult to exert great power.
And this requirement became a kind of thinking constraint for Chelsea's positional play. There were few positional switches between the players. In fact, it was just a change of environment for individual play. The overall thinking did not change much. In the positional play, they wanted to rely on point-to-point passes. They lacked the threat of further player positional changes and movement to shake Arsenal's tight defensive line. It was really difficult.
Like when Arsenal broke through the dense defense, the attacking midfielder changed into a winger, the side midfielder cut into the attacking midfielder, the striker changed into a winger or the second striker, and the full back rushed to the front line and changed into a striker. Could Chelsea play the role change and team cooperation?
They could not play it!
It was not a matter of ability at all, but a constraint of thinking and tactics!
The more Mourinho thought about it, the more pessimistic he became. When his Chelsea broke through the dense defense, it was almost impossible to break through Arsenal's defensive line if they did not pay the price of at least six people to attack. It was almost impossible to touch Arsenal's goal.
And if there was a large space in the backfield with only three or four people defending, God knew what kind of good show Bergkamp and Henry would put on.
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