Arsenal stood at the threshold of history, which inevitably made Fleet Street extremely excited. Arsenal's complete victory over Juventus at home was celebrated. Although the outside world was suspicious of overdoing it, Arsenal's internal state of excitement was extremely strong.
Even though Arsenal was unique in the Premier League, they could not help but be tainted with the emotional characteristics of the Premier League teams.
In the 32nd round of the Premier League game that followed, Arsenal played at home against the relegation team, Aston Villa.
In the closing stages of the season, it was not easy for the relegation teams to play. However, Arsenal relied on the indiscriminate bombardment in the opening stages to create chaos in front of the opponent's goal in the eighth minute of the game. Flamini shot the ball into the goal from the penalty area.
The first goal came.
Aston Villa held on to the death for the sake of points. It was meaningless.
In this kind of game, the breakthrough goal was the most difficult and also the most decisive.
Arsenal scored early on, and Aston Villa was utterly defeated in the following period of the game.
The Gunners' goals came one after another. Henry scored a hat-trick, Qin Xiong scored four assists, and Arsenal slaughtered Aston Villa with six goals at Highbury!
In contrast, Chelsea had more tricks when they needed to break through the dense defense. When they were the guest to challenge Birmingham City, which was ranked lower than Aston Villa and was already in the relegation zone, they were forced to a draw by Birmingham City because they did not have the skills to break through the goal!
Arsenal once again led Chelsea by six points!
Fleet Street's tone began to change completely. They no longer expected Chelsea to create miracles. Although Mourinho was the star manager that Fleet Street pursued, in terms of the nature of the game, Chelsea's overly utilitarian and conservative playing style was powerless when they needed to attack with all kinds of moves at the critical moment. In the end, Arsenal expanded their lead while they were at their wits' end. This not only made Fleet Street more unscrupulous in their ridicule of Mourinho, but they also targeted Chelsea's boss, Abramovich.
Look at what you got out of all your investment?
Chelsea had improved tremendously. From a quasi-first-rate team, a team that was not even at the bottom of the first-rate, to a team at the peak of the first-rate in three years!
The only thing that was missing from being a super-class was glory and greater influence.
But the sum of Chelsea's investment in the past three years was more than that of many first-class players in the past five or even ten years!
And the result?
Could he only tragically become the Premier League runner-up?
Would the strongest Premier League runner-up in history be remembered? Would he be worshipped?
Of course not!
There were six rounds left in the Premier League. Arsenal led Chelsea by six points. In the eyes of Fleet Street, Arsenal, who had remained unbeaten in all 32 rounds of the Premier League this season, had almost locked in the Premier League title. They would start the Premier League hegemony from the Arsenal against the Premier League with three consecutive victories!
After Chelsea was forced to a draw by Birmingham City in the away game, shocking news came from Stamford Bridge: if Chelsea could not win the Premier League title this season, Mourinho would be swept out by Abramovich!
The haze surrounding Stamford Bridge was full of sadness. The Blues fans and generals loved and supported Mourinho, but it was an indisputable fact that the team could lose the Premier League long-distance race in a heartbreaking way for two years in a row. Abramovich's approach was understandable. His investment in the team, coupled with the promise he made when he took over Stamford Bridge: to make Chelsea a dream team. The team advocated beautiful football.
Mourinho might have helped Abramovich achieve the former, but the latter was still a little far away, even drifting further and further away from the pursuit of beautiful football.
.....
Arsenal went to Turin, Italy, to prepare for the second leg of the Champions League 14 final.
Before the game, the Italian media's outlook for the game was very pessimistic. Arsenal's momentum was like a rainbow, and their lead was so huge. Although Juventus had the advantage of Nedved being able to play, the suspension of Emerson and Vieira was already very fatal.
In addition, Arsenal's record of nine consecutive clean sheets in the Champions League this season was still continuing. Just looking at the results of the game, Arsenal's defense was simply impeccable. Juventus was not a strong team that could play a dazzling offensive effect. In other words, Juventus' spear was not sharp enough and seemed to be unable to shake Arsenal's strong shield.
Wenger, who was calm on the surface, was actually a little nervous and trembling on the inside.
Finally, he was about to lead Arsenal to create a new club history and lead the team to a new height.
But he was also worried that the seemingly foolproof situation would be shattered by one accident after another in Turin. In the end, he would stagger back to London with a heavy heart like in the past.
He did not want to play out the story of unfulfilled ambitions and coming back next year again.
Therefore, to be on the safe side, he still sent all the elite players he could send to Turin.
Having seen the spectacular glory of the Bernabéu, coupled with being used to the pure football stadium of the Premier League, Qin Xiong was not very excited about Juventus' home ground, the Stadio Del Alpi, which surrounded the football field with a track and field track, did not excite him. Instead, he felt a little strange. He could hardly feel the strong pressure of the home atmosphere.
The Premier League's stadium was surrounded by the stands, and the fans were very close to the field. Whether it was the shouts or the cheers, they could directly "bombard" the players on the field.
But the periphery of the Stadio Del Alpi was surrounded by the track and field track, and the fans in the stands were obviously far away from the field.
Arsenal played very steadily at Juventus' home ground. They did not take the initiative to take risks and strived to make the defense foolproof. Qin Xiong and Fàbregas worked together to control the situation on the field. Juventus' Nedved did not come back at a good time. He lacked the strong defensive support of the midfield. Instead, he took the initiative to take on the heavy defensive responsibility, so he could not give Arsenal enough pressure in the offense.
As a result, Arsenal had more than 63% possession of the ball in the whole game, and Juventus only attacked a few times.
In the first round, Juventus first fell behind in a cowardly manner and then gave up on themselves.
Then in the second round, they were slowly killed by Arsenal's method of boiling the frog in warm water.
A dull 0: 0 was the final result. The game was neither exciting nor confrontational. Juventus lost the ticket to the Champions League semi-finals with a total score of 0: 3.
Arsenal, on the other hand, created a new history after playing steadily for 90 minutes!
"Congratulations to Arsenal for defeating Juventus with a total score of 3: 0 and advancing to the semi-finals of the Champions League this season! This is the first time in their history that they have advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League. At the same time, Arsenal also created a great record in the Champions League: 10 consecutive Champions League games without conceding a goal!
We have reason to expect Arsenal to go further. Their characteristics in the Champions League this season are clear. They focus on defense, strengthen the aggressiveness of the offense, and simplify the complexity. The offense relies on a group of three or four players, and the defense relies on the whole. According to the changes in the game situation, they can also choose to control the situation on the field. Wenger's ten years of sharpening his sword has finally begun to pay off! "
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