To this day, the Blues fans were still brooding over Chelsea's home game against Arsenal in the closing stages of the previous season. That was Chelsea's last chance to overturn Arsenal at the end of the season, but Chelsea did not seize it at home. Or rather, Chelsea did not take the risk to take the risk of losing at home and fight to the death with Arsenal.
In that game, Arsenal also used extreme defensive counter-attack tactics in the away game, so that Chelsea could not get a chance to counterattack. Mourinho did not let the team press heavily to launch a fierce attack, resulting in the two teams shaking hands in a dull and slow-paced game. Arsenal retreated unscathed and finally won the title with a winning streak.
Today's game gave Mourinho a bad feeling. The reason was that it was the beginning of the season. Although the powerhouse teams were more vigilant about the gains and losses in points than the average team, Arsenal seemed to continue to use defensive counter-attack tactics in the away game with a complete lineup.
In a positional battle with possession of the ball, Arsenal's formation did not press forward. They relied on Henry, Pires, Qin Xiong, and Ljungberg to attack in a controlled manner in the front field. They would shoot when they had the chance, and did not pursue the penetrating cooperation they were best at.
Penetrating the pass and cut required running forward. The closer they were to the opponent's goal, the greater the chance of success. But similarly, if the attack failed, then the players who attacked in the front field were almost impossible to participate in the defense because Chelsea's counterattack was too fast! It was meaningless to go to the front field to counterattack.
Now Arsenal set up a tight formation and even easily gave away the ball to Chelsea. They let Chelsea attack and Arsenal play defensive counter-attack. So what kind of effect could Chelsea play?
Mourinho had been focusing on building the team's defensive counter-attack tactics. Chelsea's habitual pattern was to seize the ball and suddenly play a quick counterattack when the opponent's rhythm of attack and defense changed, so that the opponent would be destroyed by the counterattack storm before they could complete their defense or hastily set up their defense!
Now Chelsea was going to play positional battle. How would they play at Stamford Bridge?
After the offense advanced past half of the field, there was no space for their wingers to plug in and sprint forward. The space for passing and cutting almost did not exist. Chelsea's offense had a fatal problem: lack of creativity!
In a counterattack attack with a huge space, a precise pass was not called creativity! Because even the spectators in the stands could see where there were gaps and where to pass the ball. It was normal to see the gaps. After all, the space was very wide. Whether the pass could be in place or not was a matter of footwork technique, and basically had nothing to do with creativity.
Tearing apart the opponent's defensive line in a narrow space was the true test of creativity.
Most of the time, Arsenal had at least eight players in defense, three in the midfield and the middle. Silva could assist in defending the left wing on the flank. Ljungberg, on the right wing of the midfield, was active in retreating. On one hand, he could pincer Joe Cole. On the other hand, he could also supplement the defensive zone of Fàbregas in the middle.
Lampard could not go deep into the front line. He could plug in greatly during the counterattack. In a positional battle, if he ran into Qin Xiong – Fàbregas – Silva's encirclement, then his teammates behind him were likely to be unable to send the ball to his feet. After all, Essien and Makelele were still mainly defensive. Before Mourinho ordered a change in posture, they would not rush to go against the manager's intentions. Not to mention, Makelele was the kind of defensive player who stayed in front of the arc of the penalty area for a long time.
Chelsea's offense was terrible. Lampard had no space to break through in the middle, and he did not have the absolute speed to get rid of Arsenal's midfield defense.
Joe Cole was more of a team player than Robben. Ljungberg and Lauren restrained his play, further reducing the possibility of Chelsea's successful cooperation in the front field.
Although Robben played freely on the right wing, he could not connect with his teammates in the middle. After Ashley Cole consciously gave up on the outside, and Silva's sniping, Robben did not do anything other than occasionally blasting out a non-threatening long shot.
Drogba fell into a state of isolation and helplessness in the front line. He could not get the ball from his teammates at his feet. He could only play his role by competing for headers through crosses.
In the 27th minute of the game, Lampard tried to pass the ball to Drogba directly. Touré intercepted it accurately and Arsenal launched a counterattack. Touré passed the ball directly to the front, and Fàbregas took the ball with his back to the side.
Pires began to push forward on the flank to attack. Mourinho shouted at Robben on the sidelines, meaning to let Robben actively participate in the defense.
Pires dribbled to the front of Chelsea's danger zone. In front of Arsenal's eyes was Chelsea's tightest defensive line. Four defenders and three midfielders. Lampard returned directly to defend after the unsuccessful pass, which made Chelsea's defense look tight.
Pires passed the ball to Qin Xiong in the middle, and Qin Xiong took the initiative to run to receive it. He was likely to compete with Essien for the ball.
In a short period of time, Qin Xiong felt Essien's strength. He was more resistant than Chelsea's former main midfielder, Tiago, and his defense was better. He was simply an African rhinoceros!
Essien had never played against Qin Xiong, but his teammates had reminded him: Never underestimate Qin Xiong!
He was slower than Qin Xiong for the ball. He calmly did not speed up to snatch the ball, worried that Qin Xiong would stop and pass to shake him off.
Qin Xiong faced the incoming ball and pretended to directly knock the ball to break through, but his raised left foot stopped above the football. He did not touch the ball!
The football was missed by him.
Essien was suddenly shocked and exclaimed in his heart: A perfect feint!
At that moment, he already believed that Qin Xiong would break through him!
Lampard, on the right side of Qin Xiong, was also shaken by Qin Xiong, and the football rolled a meter in front of him.
Qin Xiong immediately plugged in diagonally after he missed the ball. The missed football was plugged back by Ljungberg and stopped. Then Ljungberg stuffed it in the direction of Qin Xiong's running position.
When the football rolled from behind, Qin Xiong would soon encounter Makelele. Before that, he did not stop the ball and knocked the ball directly to the front of the penalty area, and then quickly rushed past Makelele's right side.
His running position in the attack was explosive. Otherwise, he would not have been able to shake off Chelsea's defenders and capture the fleeting offensive space.
However, the Chelsea players were still very calm and did not rush up in a panic. Gallas withdrew into the penalty area, Carvalho was relieved, and Ferreira withdrew into the penalty area to reduce the space for Henry to break through.
When Henry touched the ball in front of the penalty area, he knew he had no chance to break through or shoot directly. He directly knocked the ball horizontally and completed a two-one pass with Qin Xiong.
It was as if Arsenal had sent out a suicide squad to look for almost non-existent offensive space under Chelsea's heavy encirclement.
Qin Xiong's mood was a little heavy. Chelsea's defensive line was layered, and he had no space to break through. Carvalho was coming up, and Makelele would also cut off the pass between him and Henry. At the same time, he would also block his breakthrough space to the middle of the penalty area. The only one he could break through was Carvalho, but to break through, he had to speed up. Gallas was waiting for an opportunity to move behind Carvalho.
In desperation, Qin Xiong directly chose to lift his leg for a long shot!
The football deflected out of the goal and rolled out of the end line less than a meter away from the right post.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
