"Fernando Gago! He scored a crucial goal! This goal pulled Nottingham Forest back from the edge of the cliff! "
The stands in a corner of the Emirates Stadium were filled with cheers. The fans there all jumped out of their seats and cheered with their arms raised high.
The Arsenal players were helpless. Wenger sat in the manager's seat and only raised his head to express his dissatisfaction.
Tang En's celebration only lasted for a short period of time. While the people around him were still clapping and cheering, he had already pulled Mitchell over.
"Done warming up, kid." Tang En glanced at Forest's number 9, who was taller than him.
Mitchell nodded with a calm expression on his face. Now that three years had passed, he was no longer the unknown player who made his debut in the Champions League.
"Our substitution was a little early. The opponent definitely didn't expect it. I hope you go up and play a bigger role, not just to score goals. Do you know what to do? "
"I know, Boss. It's not my first time in a match. "
Tang En heard him say this and laughed. "Oh, right. You're no longer a rookie. Also, go up and tell them that Sagna and Clichy are very active in the assists. Let them make use of this. "He pointed to both sides of the field and said to Mitchell. "Try to score another goal in a short period of time."
Mitchell received the order and left. Tang En walked to the side of the field and whistled, using hand signals to instruct the team to continue attacking.
Wenger did not expect Tang En to make such an early substitution. Moreover, it was after they had just scored a goal. Logically speaking, the team was performing well at this time and should try to ensure the integrity of the lineup and not interrupt the team's rhythm. This kind of adjustment should have only appeared after they lost the goal.
Mitchell came on and replaced Şahin.
Şahin was a little unhappy when he came off the field because it was too early — only 55 minutes had passed …
He high-fived Mitchell with a black face. When he walked past Tang En, Tang En did not say anything, only reaching out to touch the top of his head.
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Judging from the goal, Gago was in good form for this match. Tang En let Gago participate more in the offense while Wood defended at the back.
As if sensing Tang En's intentions, Wenger got up and issued the latest order. After that, Arsenal's two full backs stopped assisting and stayed in the backfield.
Tang En saw this scene and cursed in the manager's seat.
The enemy was too cunning!
He had wanted to take advantage of Arsenal's uncertainty to score another goal and take the initiative in his hands. But now it had become a stalemate.
Fortunately, Mitchell was able to control the ball for the team on the field, so the Forest team could still play positional warfare with Arsenal.
But Tang En still appeared a little impatient …
From time to time, he would get up from the coach's seat to pace on the sidelines, or raise his hand to look at his watch, or look at the score on the big screen. As time ticked by, the Forest team's offense still did not yield any results. On the other hand, Arsenal's offense was not aggressive enough. It seemed that Wenger was also willing to accept a draw at home.
After all, they were leading by six points. Even if it was a draw, they would still be ahead by six points. For Arsenal, being able to maintain this six-point gap would almost guarantee that they would eventually win the league title.
Wenger did not want to expend too much energy for this game. There was still a Champions League game three days later. That was the most important and he could not afford to lose.
Because of this, after 65 minutes, Wenger began to change players one after another. First, he replaced Fàbregas. As the team's core, captain, and the absolute main force, his task for this game had been completed. Wenger did not want to see him get injured or run out of energy in the last 25 minutes. Fàbregas did not express any dissatisfaction, but he definitely did not accept it gladly. Because he still wanted to continue to compete with Wood on the field …
So, after seeing the fourth official raise the sign, he hesitated for a moment, shrugged and pointed at himself, and asked the people off the field. Wenger nodded his head. Only then did he turn his head to look at George Wood in the distance, and then slowly walked off.
The Forest fans were very unhappy with his action, thinking that he was deliberately dragging out the game time. So, they desperately booed the Arsenal captain in the away fans' stands.
Fàbregas only remembered he was still wearing the captain's armband halfway, so he turned back and handed the armband to Senderos. The booing became even louder. But these boos were soon drowned out by the Arsenal fans' applause. The home fans stood up to send off their captain.
Walking to the sidelines, Fàbregas turned around and faced the field. He raised his arms in response to the fans' applause, but his eyes were fixed on George Wood, who stood near the center circle. He seemed to be looking at him too.
The two men's eyes met, and Fàbregas turned around and walked back to the substitutes' bench. He shook hands with Wenger. Wenger patted his shoulder, indicating that he did well.
Tang En was happy to see Fàbregas come off the field. He knew that there was hope for this game. Wenger clearly chose to be conservative, because he brought on a defensive midfielder — Denilson, the Brazilian who played as a defensive midfielder.
Wenger's thinking was that even if Fàbregas was off the field, Arsenal's offense still had Wilshere, so he was not worried.
But in Tang En's view, Wilshere could not be compared to Fàbregas at the moment. It was not a matter of talent, but the difference in experience.
Wood alone was more than enough to deal with him, and after Wilshere was frozen, Walcott, Bella and the others could not play to their full potential. Nottingham Forest would have more energy to put into the offense. They looked for an opportunity to score.
In the following game, Nottingham Forest gradually took the initiative in the midfield, and began to pressure Arsenal's penalty area. Arsenal went into a defensive position.
Forest's offense was fierce, but they seemed to have forgotten Tang En's request during the halftime interval. Rafinha received the ball outside the penalty area twice in a row, dribbled the ball horizontally, and directly shot long shots. One kick missed, and the other shot flew. This made Tang En, who was watching the game off the field, very unhappy. He rushed to the side of the field and loudly shouted Rafinha's name.
Rafinha became well-behaved after being shouted at by Tang En, and no longer blindly shot long shots.
Tang En then returned to the technical area, muttering.
"Such a waste of opportunity … Do they still think they're ahead by at least three goals?"
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Five minutes after Fàbregas was substituted off, Nasri was also substituted by Ramsey in the 75th minute.
Tang En looked coldly at Wenger's substitution. Then he also made his own adjustments, and Bentley was substituted by Moke.
Moke's mission was simple, to use his technical advantage to create enough trouble for Arsenal's defense on the left flank.
Since Lennon left, Forest's right flank was mostly Bentley's domain. Moke was still a little immature, but in some special situations, he was more useful than Bentley.
Breakthrough! Breakthrough! Breakthrough!
Before going on, Tang En held onto Moke and made him forget everything else, leaving only this one thing in his mind. Then he went on to break through Arsenal's defense.
He did it very well. In terms of speed, he was not fast, but his combination with the ball was very good, making it difficult for Arsenal's defenders to intercept the ball easily.
For a moment, Clichy's side became the focus of Nottingham Forest's offense, and the entire Arsenal team's defensive focus shifted to the left. Not long after Nasri went on, he quickly became a defensive midfielder.
They successfully defended against Forest's wave after wave of attacks until the 80th minute.
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Tang En looked at his watch. It was already the 80th minute, and he still had one substitution left. A few people had some problems with their stamina and seemed to need to be substituted off to rest. For example, Bale. His current assists were no longer sharp. Even if he ran up, he would no longer actively return to defend. Fortunately, Wood was at the back to help him fill in, so Arsenal did not seize the opportunity to score.
Tang En only brought Leighton Baines, the left back, to the away game. If he were to be substituted, their offense would inevitably be weakened. Because he needed Baines' defense.
Should he let Bale go down to rest, or rest in advance for the Champions League in three days? Or should he substitute an offensive player and continue to strengthen the offense?
Tang En thought for a moment and called up Agbonlahor from the substitutes' bench.
He wanted to give it his all.
A minute later, the fourth official signaled for Forest to make a substitution. Agbonlahor replaced Gareth Bale.
Removing a full back and replacing him with a striker was a gamble that Tang En was staking everything on.
Just like what he said to the players at halftime: If we admit defeat here, we will not be qualified to continue to compete for the title.
He hoped to use this substitution to remind the players that he had not forgotten this sentence, so he hoped that the players on the field would also not forget — victory was their only pursuit.
After Agbonlahor ran onto the field, he took advantage of the dead ball to call everyone over. He clenched his fists and shouted at his teammates, "Boss, let us continue to attack. We must win!"
After hearing this, the Forest players all turned their heads to look at the sidelines. Tang En stood there with a serious look on his face.
"What about the defense? Bale has gone down. Rafinha is not cut out to play as a center back … "Gago was a little worried.
"Don't worry so much. Let's score first!" Agbonlahor was in high spirits.
Wood said, "I'll be in charge of the defense. Don't worry about it."
He ended the argument as soon as he spoke. No one had any objections.
"Then it's settled. We must score, we must win! "Agbonlahor clenched his fists to encourage the tired guys. "Guys, the treble, think about it!"
Gago panted heavily and nodded. "There are still ten minutes. Find a way to score a goal against them."
The group of people dispersed after setting their goal.
Another minute later, the Forest team broke into the penalty area, but Ibišević collided with Almunia during the scramble. The latter fell to the ground and could not get up. The referee called the team doctor onto the field.
The Nottingham Forest fans in the stands were still complaining that Almunia was deliberately delaying the game time, but Tang En did not have the time to reason with the fourth official. He hurriedly called Wood to the sidelines to give him instructions.
"Pass the ball! Pass the ball from the air to the front of Arsenal's goal and pass it to Mitchell! But don't let him score. He's not the main attacker. Let him snatch the ball from the back and then send it over. Do you understand? He's not the main attacker, but we have to let the opponent think that he's the one to solve the problem. " Tang En kept using hand gestures to supplement, which made people involuntarily think of the word "flustered."
Wood nodded. "Understood."
"Go tell them about this change. Tell Gago that if we pass the ball, he's determined to plug into the penalty area and ignore the defense in the middle."
"Should I defend?"
Tang En nodded. "Yes!"
"Okay, no problem."
Wood ran back to the field and told the whole team about Tang En's adjustment.
※ ※ ※
Wenger called Senderos to the sidelines while Almunia was receiving treatment and told him to pay attention to defending Mitchell. Senderos was the only person on the field who could compete with Mitchell in terms of headers and height. At this time, Tang En would definitely use the simplest method — a diagonal pass into the penalty area and let Mitchell fight for the header — to try to score. Then, all he had to do was to watch Mitchell.
After the match resumed, Wenger began to feel gratified by his previous arrangement — Mitchell had indeed become the focus of Forest's offense. Senderos struggled to fight for the header at the start and was not at a disadvantage.
But then, the situation changed.
In terms of physical strength, Senderos had been running for almost 90 minutes. He could not keep up with Mitchell, who came up in the second half. In terms of tactics … Mitchell was also not the true end point of Forest's offense.
When George Wood successfully intercepted the ball in the backfield, his position was on the right flank. As he said, he went to play as the right back.
At that time, Walcott planned to rely on his speed to force a breakthrough against Wood. Unfortunately, Wood's precise positioning made it impossible for him to increase his speed. The ball under his feet was easily intercepted by Wood. He just symbolically snatched the ball from Wood in front of him and ran back to where he came from. And Wood did not pass the ball to Gago in the middle like the commentator thought. He did something that surprised everyone — he dribbled the ball forward from the side!
Walcott did not expect Wood, a temporary player, to dribble the ball to assist like a true full back. He watched Wood run past him and did not react at all.
When Wood rushed past the center line, Arsenal's defenders still thought he would pass the ball to Gago in the middle or Fernández in front. So, everyone's defensive attention was on the two at the back. Just like that, they watched Wood continue to dribble the ball along the sidelines …
"Ah ah ah! George Wood is still dribbling the ball! Not a single Arsenal player went up to defend. They are defending against Gago, Fernández and even Mitchell. Not a single one went up to defend against George Wood! He's still dribbling the ball! "
The commentator became excited. That was because every time Wood did something abnormal, the following story would be very exciting.
"Don't leave him alone —!" Wenger stood up from his seat, throwing away the gentle temperament of a "professor" and roared. As an experienced old manager, he smelled danger from Wood's abnormal behavior.
Fàbregas also got up from his seat and felt nervous. He had changed his clothes and sat on the substitutes' bench with a towel draped over his shoulders to chat with his teammates. At this moment, he could not help but leave the substitutes' bench and walk to the sidelines. He stared intently at George Wood, who was running like the wind on the sidelines.
His stamina is really good …
This was the first thought that popped up in Fàbregas' mind. The second was — sh * t!
The manager's loud reminder made the Arsenal players change their minds. Just as Sagna was about to leave Fernández to defend against Wood, Wood passed the ball. He passed the ball to Fernández.
When he saw this pass, Sagna suddenly had such a wonderful feeling — he finally passed the ball!
Then he threw the manager's words to the back of his mind and turned to pounce on Fernández. In the habitual thinking of many players, George Wood would never run to the sidelines to pass the ball.
But they were wrong.
After Fernández found out that Wood passed the ball to him, he did not stop moving forward. Instead, he continued to run forward. He did not make any gesture to ask him to pass the ball, but Fernández just felt that he should pass the ball instead of dribbling it himself.
So, when the ball was passed over, and Sagna was still following closely behind, he did not hesitate to push the ball out again. The goal was the empty space on the sidelines, where Wood was plugging in at high speed!
"Two-pass one!?" The commentator's tone was clearly surprised. Clearly, he did not expect the Forest team to open up the game from here. Since Bale came off the field, the commentator had more than once said that Tony Twain had crippled one of his own sides. Now the scene he saw made him feel embarrassed, as if he had been slapped in the face.
Wood's playing style was very concise, which was reflected in this handling of the ball. He was not like other wingers who liked to take the ball again and then pass the ball, even if he had lost the best opportunity to pass the ball at that time. No one could tell what kind of habit it was. Perhaps it was purely to let the ball stay at his feet for a while longer. He was also not like other wingers who liked to directly cut inside to break through.
He saw the ball rolling towards him and did not stop the ball. He directly swung his leg and kicked the ball towards the front of the goal!
Until this moment, many people in Arsenal were still hoping for a fluke. None of them went up to defend against Wood because they felt that Wood's passing skills must be terrible, because no one had seen him have any decent passing skills …
This time, Wood's passing skills still seemed terrible …
Very high, very floating.
Twain raised his head off the field and narrowed his eyes at the silver-white ball high up in the dazzling lights.
The people below even had enough time to fight for positions.
Senderos looked up at the ball while grabbing Mitchell's jersey with his hand to prevent him from slipping away.
After passing the ball, Wood lost his balance and fell out. He sat on the ground and watched the ball fly towards the back of Arsenal's goal.
"Watch out for his header shot!"
Almunia nervously reminded his teammates around him in front of the goal.
"Watch out for Ibišević!"
Of the two center-backs, one went to defend against Mitchell, and the other went to defend against Ibišević.
Senderos and Mitchell jumped at the same time. The Swiss center-back felt that he was stuck in his position, but in fact, he was only stuck by half a body's length.
Mitchell still found a little space. He twisted his body in the air and squeezed Senderos to the side.
The football fell, and Almunia gave up the idea of jumping directly into the air to fight for the ball with them. With the center-back there, he would not rashly attack.
Mitchell, who was in the air, felt that he was flying. He would have this feeling whenever he tried his best to jump, and he enjoyed it very much. He saw the football in the air, and he also saw the top of Senderos's head. Then he realized that he had jumped a little higher than the other person …
He was looking for someone. Ibišević was already being guarded against, and he could not pass there.
Gago, where was Gago?
A yellow figure appeared in the corner of his eyes.
No matter who it was …
Mitchell swung his head hard!
Senderos's header in front missed!
The football did not fly towards the goal. Instead, it flew in the opposite direction.
Amidst the crowd, the yellow figure appeared out of nowhere. Despite being pulled by Denilson, he still struggled to move forward, lean back, stretch his legs, and pad!
Gago felt that he had kicked the football, but he did not know what would happen next.
Almunia now realized that he had made a mistake — he should not have let the two big men, Senderos and Mitchell, block in front of him. He could not see what was happening in front of him at all!
When he saw the football flying over, his mind was still blank. He did not even make a save at all. He just watched the football fly past him and into the goal …
The ball went in?
The Arsenal players and fans were unexpectedly calm at this moment. They were just asking themselves.
The ball really went in?
With a minute left in the game and injury time, the ball went in?
The ball went in!
How is this possible!!
The Emirates Stadium, which had been silent for a moment, suddenly became an erupting volcano.
"Hard — to — believe — it! Hard — to — believe — it!! This is unbelievable! " The commentator pressed his hands on the soundproof headset and roared loudly because he could not hear his own voice.
Tang En rushed out of the technical area amidst the screams of the Arsenal fans behind him. He opened his arms, clenched his teeth, and waved with all his might. He looked like a person who had a mental illness and was hysterical.
Following closely behind him, more Forest players and coaches rushed out of the technical area. They hugged the people around them and knelt on the ground to thank God.
Eastwood was so emotional that he was about to cry. His eyes were red, and he pulled at his clothes and roared. No one could clearly hear what the Gypsy was shouting about.
Gago, who was pulled to the ground by Denilson, glanced at the goal out of habit. When he saw the football really lying in the goal, he went crazy.
His eyes widened and his pupils constricted. Blood suddenly rushed from his neck to his head, dyeing his face red.
He clenched his fists tightly, feeling that he was clutching fate by the throat.
"… If we give up here, we don't have the right to be champions! … If we can't beat Arsenal, we can't win the league title! If we lose to Arsenal here, then we can't win the Champions League in three days' time! … If such an opportunity is not worth it for our whole team to grit our teeth and fight for! Then what else is there in this world that is worth fighting for? What else is there in this world that is worth fighting for?! "
The boss's passionate voice rang in the ears of every Forest player. Now, they could proudly claim that they were qualified to fight for the championship title.
He climbed up from the ground, shook off his teammates behind him, and ran to the corner flag. He took off his jersey and threw it into the sky. He did not care if the referee would give him a yellow card. At this moment, he just wanted to vent to his heart's content. Gago, who was known for his elegance, took off his shirt to celebrate after scoring a goal for the first time. It looked like the Argentine kid was really excited.
Even George Wood, who rarely showed his emotions, clenched his fist and waved it hard after he stood up from the ground.
Immediately after, he was hugged by Mitchell, who rushed up to him.
At the Emirates Stadium, in the heart of their enemy Arsenal, in front of 60,000 Arsenal fans, the Nottingham Forest players were wantonly celebrating their last-minute comeback goal. They did not care about the mood and feelings of the home team at all as they vented to their heart's content. At this moment, it was as if they were the owners of the stadium.
The Emirates Stadium was silent.
In the home team's technical area, Arsène Wenger held his forehead with his left hand and lowered his head, not wanting to see the scene in front of him.
He had nothing to say about this result. He still had one thought in his mind — the Champions League.
Let's fight to the death in three days' time, Tony. This is a real fight to the death!
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