After another week of practice, Forest faced Aston Villa at home.
Nottingham Forest's starting lineup for this match was no different from the last round of the Premier League away challenge against Blackburn Rovers. However, Tang En saw hope in the match — the players were getting more and more in sync with each other's positioning and passing. This showed that his insistence on this aspect of training was successful and correct.
However, the progress of the match was not smooth sailing. Under the deafening singing of the home fans, Forest had intended to take advantage of the situation to launch a fierce attack on Aston Villa and strive to score first.
Unexpectedly, the first to score was the away team. Just four minutes into the match, Aston Villa's Swedish international, Olof Mellberg, opened the goal guarded by Darren Ward with a long shot. This goal caused the City Ground Stadium to fall silent for a moment.
The singing had just started, and our team had already conceded a goal. Many people had not even found their seats. Only when they heard the cheers from the away team's fans did they turn to look at the scoreboard in shock.
0: 1! The home team, Nottingham Forest, had fallen behind!
Was the result of the last round of the Premier League going to be a repeat? Would the Forest team's return to the Premier League four years later start with two consecutive defeats?
The cameras focused on Tony Twain, who sat in the manager's seat. Since January 2003, this man had quickly become the Forest fans' favorite manager. The secret was that he could always bring victory to the Forest fans when they needed it. As the youngest manager in the Premier League this season — only 35 years old — many people questioned his ability to lead the team to battle in the Premier League.
Turning his head to look at David Kerslake, who sat beside him, Tang En did not speak. He habitually thought that the person sitting there was Des Walker. When Walker left, he said that his ability was not suitable for Premier League level competitions, so he needed to train himself.
Then what about Tony Twain? He did not doubt his ability. This was a necessary confidence, even if it seemed a little blind at times … But the current situation forced him to start proving himself again.
So, he turned his head again to say to Kerslake, "There's nothing to worry about. We have 86 minutes to equalize … and overtake the score."
Kerslake nodded. Tang En was right. Conceding a goal in the first four minutes of the match was a foregone conclusion. It was better than conceding a goal four minutes before the end of the match.
Aston Villa were a little conservative after taking the lead. It was clear that they did not expect to take the lead by one goal in the first half. Mellberg was a center back. It was rare to see him rush up and score from a long shot.
Forest seized the opportunity when Aston Villa relaxed slightly and launched a massive counterattack under Tang En's signal, regaining control of the rhythm of the match.
Finally, in the 38th minute, wave after wave of the Forest team's offensive put a lot of pressure on Aston Villa's rear defensive line. Ribéry made a sharp breakthrough on the left flank and then passed the ball to Aston Villa's center back, Laursen, who was busy making a mistake and headed the ball into his own goal!
An own goal!
The City Ground stadium was in a frenzy of cheers.
Ribéry was surrounded by his excited teammates who congratulated him on his outstanding performance. The French lad, who jumped from the French Ligue 3 to the main force of the English Premier League team, was promoted as quickly as he dribbled the ball on the field. He also won the hearts of the Forest players at an even faster pace.
"Well done!" As an assistant manager, David Kerslake looked even more excited than Tang En. He rushed out from the manager's seat and leaped high.
Tang En just stood up and raised his arms. Ribéry's performance was within his expectations. Of course, how could the future French national team's midfield core, who was going to be inducted into the French national team and become Zidane's successor, not be able to handle a match like this?
The Sky TV commentator shouted Ribéry's name and praised Tang En. "Oh my god! Where did he find this genius? Franck Ribéry! One and a half months ago, he was still a nobody. But now, he's the Scarface Fiend! "
The commentator used the scar on Ribéry's face and the name of the famous Hollywood violent movie to create a nickname that followed Ribéry until his retirement — Scarface!
Did it sound good? Ribéry liked it very much.
The final result of the match was 1: 1. Ribéry's lively performance on the left flank made many Forest fans dispel their doubts about him. They could only worship Tony Twain's judgment of people.
※ ※ ※
A newly promoted team had scored their first points in the Premier League this season. Such news only had a local market in Nottingham. Outside of Nottingham, no one cared if the Forest team had lost again, and no one cared about Ribéry's excellent play. Now, almost all of England was singing praises for one team and one person — on August 22, 2004, when Forest tied with Aston Villa, Wenger's Arsenal reversed Middlesbrough's 5: 3 at home, tying the record of the most consecutive unbeaten matches in England's top league set by Forest during Clough's era.
Before the match, the Premier League's chief executive presented a small Premier League Championship Trophy to Arsenal in recognition of their unbeaten record last season. The trophy was engraved with the words "Arsenal, 2003-2004 Champions, 38 matches, 26 wins, 12 draws, 0 losses." At the same time, Henry also received the "Golden Boot" as the award for last season's best striker.
All of this looked like a celebration party for Arsenal. The troubles caused by the Middlesbrough people were quickly drowned out by the cheers of the Arsenal people.
Arsene Wenger was riding on the crest of success. Arsenal left them in the dust and looked almost invincible. All opponents had to bow their heads in front of the Gunners.
Did Wenger, the Frenchman, experience the feeling of being alone and seeking defeat?
After the match, Arsenal's official website made a special feature, listing the scores and opponents of the 42 games, as well as the times, to commemorate the glorious road that the team had gone through. Then under the line "42, Arsenal 5-3 Middlesbrough, 22-08-2004", there was a row of red words:
25-08-2004, Nottingham Forest – Arsenal, 43?
The last "43" and the question mark were highlighted, but maybe … this was not a question?
(To be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. COM. There are more chapters. Support the author and support the original reading!)
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