i want to be king

Chapter 954 Unprecedented half-time champion

Some people say that the No. 18 round of the league was a collective nap for the top teams in the Premier League, and only the Manchester duo remained strong.

But when it came to the No.19 round, Feng Shui took turns.

First, Liverpool reversed Newcastle [-]-[-] at home, Bellamy scored twice and Steven Gerrard scored a goal.

Dalglish made a strong rotation of the lineup, but Bellamy's outstanding performance allowed the Red Army to take all three points on the Magpies.

Arsenal didn't have a big rotation, but still relied on Van Persie's goal to narrowly beat Queens Park Rangers [-]-[-].

Regardless of whether it is the Red Army or Arsenal, after the last round of draws, although this round was a bit bumpy and even dangerous, at least they all scored three points.

Only hapless Chelsea.

After losing to Manchester City at home, Chelsea ushered in three consecutive draws, all of which were [-]-[-]. Villas-Boas's team was questioned, and his coaching position was once again shaken.

In the No.19 round, Chelsea played against Aston Villa at home. This was originally a very good opportunity.

Didier Drogba scored a goal for Chelsea in the 203rd minute of the opening game, but no one expected that Aston Villa would equalize after only 5 minutes.

After that, no matter how Chelsea attacked, they had an overwhelming advantage, but they still failed to break through Aston Villa's goal.

On the contrary, in the No.80 and 86 minutes, Petrov and Darren Bent, who came off the bench, made two counterattacks and scored two winning goals for Aston Villa, helping the team reverse Chelsea [-]-[-] away.

After the game, Chelsea coach Villas-Boas attributed the loss of the game to the unfair schedule, because Chelsea had to finish the four Christmas games within 48 days, but Manchester United took [-] days, and there were only [-] hours between two games.

For Boas's remarks, the British media reacted negatively, thinking that he was looking for reasons and excuses for the loss.

The Christmas schedule of the Premier League is not unique to this year. It has existed for so many years in the past. This is also regarded as a tradition of English sports. Not only football, but also other events such as rugby and baseball are also played during Christmas. This is to better please the English fans.

As the head coach of Chelsea, Villas-Boas has no reason not to know all this.

As for the schedule, Chelsea's game pressure is not the greatest. For example, Manchester City, Blue Moon's pressure is greater than Chelsea.

"Boas has reason to think that the schedule is unfair to them, but if they attribute the loss to the schedule, it will only increase the jokes of others, because compared to Manchester City, is Chelsea under more pressure?"

"In the last three games, Chelsea have two home games, one away game, one away game against Tottenham Hotspur, also in north London, and they don't even need to leave London for these three games."

"What about Manchester City? Round No. 17 is home, Round No. 18 and Round No. 19 are both away games. They went south to Birmingham early in the morning on Boxing Day and played an away game against West Bromwich Albion. After returning to Manchester, they went north non-stop to Sunderland, more than 200 kilometers away."

After Chelsea lost to Aston Villa, Manchester City's game against Sunderland has not yet started, but the media believes that even if Manchester City loses, the results of the Christmas schedule are still better than Chelsea.

In other words, in terms of the schedule, Chelsea had an advantage over Manchester City, but the result was not as good as Manchester City. How can this be said?
In fact, Chelsea's ranking this season has been unsatisfactory, and now it is always hovering between fifth and sixth. There is no obvious gap from the top four expected by fans, and Villas-Boas has also been bad-mouthed by the outside world.

"The real problem for Chelsea is that Villas-Boas has lost control of the dressing room!"

The Daily Mail pointed out very sharply the biggest problem for Chelsea now.

The media reported at length, from Boas came to power, had grudges with Drogba, Lampard and Terry, and later had to re-use Drogba and Terry, but now they are always suppressing Lampard, all of which made Boas lose the support of the locker room.

Throwing the pot to the schedule is nothing but Boas's plan to delay the attack.

…………

…………

On December 31, in the No.19 round of the Premier League, Manchester City challenged Sunderland away.

Manchester City made another rotation, and this time even Su Dong was on the bench.

Guardiola arranged for Dzeko and Aguero to start at the same time, trying to strengthen the team's offense and try to win the black cat Sunderland away. At the same time, David Silva and Toni Kroos were also arranged in the midfield.

Obviously, Guardiola still wants to win this game with a record of victory.

……

After the start of the game, Sunderland, who played at home, first played a wave of rushing, but was quickly suppressed by Manchester City.

Relying on their skillful pass and control of the ball, Blue Moon quickly locked in the advantage and frequently created opportunities in the midfield.

It can be said to be paradoxical, Dzeko and Aguero both lost their shooting boots in this game.

Since before Christmas, Aguero's state has not been very good. He is obviously adapting to the Christmas schedule of the Premier League. After all, other leagues have ushered in the winter break during this time period, but the Premier League does not have a winter break.

But Dzeko has not been in the team for a short time, and this time he failed to adjust his state.

As a result, Manchester City completely controlled the advantage on the field, but failed to score for a long time, and repeatedly missed scoring opportunities.

Sunderland missed an excellent opportunity in the first half, which came from a counterattack. After Bendtner formed a single goal, he was saved by Courtois and failed to form a goal.

In the second half, they were overwhelmed by Manchester City and couldn't even make a decent counterattack.

Manchester City is gaining power but not scoring. There is a lot of thunder and little rain, and the ball possession rate and the number of shots are very high, but they just can't score. This makes many people worry.

No.705 minutes, Guardiola saw that the situation had not been reversed, finally couldn't bear it, and replaced Su Dong.

In less than thirteen days, this was Su Dong's fourth match.

The previous three games were all starters, but they were all replaced early. This time, the team originally did not intend to let Su Dong play.

Manchester City took advantage, and Guardiola replaced Dzeko with Su Dong, occupying absolute dominance in the penalty area.

Sunderland defended tenaciously, vowing to keep this point at home.

After the two sides fought for a few more minutes, at No. 806 minutes, it was Su Dong who leaned on Wes Brown in the penalty area and returned the ball to Toni Kroos.

Then Manchester City sent a corner kick. David Luiz headed the goal from close range, but it hit the crossbar and bounced back into the penalty area. Everyone had to be surprised to find that Manchester City really did not have shooting boots tonight.

But when the ball fell slowly, Su Dong in the penalty area squeezed O'Shea away with his body, blocked Wes Brown, turned his back to the attacking direction, and stopped the ball firmly under his feet.

He tried to turn around, but was surrounded by Wes Brown and O'Shea desperately. Goalkeeper Mignolet also followed, ready to save, but Su Dong suddenly hit his heel.

The ball passed through the gap between the defensive players and slid to the front of the unguarded small penalty area.

David Silva quickly followed and easily pushed with his left foot.

The ball crashes into the net!
In an instant, the Stadium of Light, which was originally full of voices, suddenly became completely silent.

Everyone couldn't believe it. After struggling for more than 80 minutes, the game was about to end. At this juncture, the ball was conceded.

Isn't this just a joke?

……

Manchester City eventually beat Sunderland [-]-[-] away with Su Dong assisting David Silva to score.

The process took all the advantages, but it was very dangerous. Fortunately, it finally scored a precious three points.

This allowed Manchester City to finally win the half-way championship of the Premier League this season with [-] consecutive victories!

This is the first time in the history of the Premier League, England's top leagues, and even the top European leagues that a team can win half of the championship with a record of complete victories. This was unimaginable in the past.

Everyone was also very shocked by the rapid rise of Manchester City.

In just three years, relying on the strong financial resources of the Abu Dhabi consortium, Guardiola's pass and control system, and Sudong's superhuman strength, Manchester City has become a powerful force that cannot be ignored in European football.

At the same time that Manchester City beat Sunderland [-]-[-] in an away game, Manchester United played at home against Blackburn, the deputy squad leader at the bottom of the standings.

In this game, everyone thought that Manchester City's victory over the opponent was a certainty.

On the one hand, Blackburn's strength is too poor. On the other hand, Manchester United has beaten their opponents by five goals in the last two rounds. Compared with the two, Manchester United has no reason to lose points.

At the beginning of the game, it seemed to confirm the judgment of the outside world. Manchester United had the advantage and the goal was just around the corner.

Unexpectedly, during a corner kick defense, Berbatov pulled down his opponent in the penalty area and was awarded a penalty kick. Yakubu calmly took the penalty and scored a goal for Blackburn.

After changing sides in the second half and fighting again, it was Yakubu who passed Carrick and Phil Jones on the outside of the penalty area in a row, making another victory for Blackburn, [-]-[-]!
By this point in the game, the atmosphere had completely changed.

Manchester United then launched an onslaught, with Berbatov scoring two goals and successfully equalized the score.

But in the No. 80 minute of the game, it was another corner kick. Blackburn central defender Hanley scored the winning goal for Violence.

Relying on Hanley's key lore, Blackburn beat Manchester United [-]-[-] away, breaking the biggest upset in the Premier League this season.

Who would have thought that the Red Devils Manchester United, who ranked second in the standings, were upset by the deputy squad leader Blackburn at their home court.

Losing these three points, the point gap with Manchester City has widened to twelve points, but this is not the key point.

The point is, it doesn't matter if they were defeated by Manchester City at home, but now they are blown up by the deputy squad leader. This is too serious a blow to Manchester United's morale.

Ferguson was even more furious after the game and said that he was very disappointed with the game.

The media also had a lot of previous advocacy, and they all bad-mouthed Manchester United, thinking that the Premier League champion has lost suspense.

(End of this chapter)