Mister Legend

Chapter 515 What is the Premier League's opening win record?

自从阿森纳在2016-17赛季跌出英超前四名、30多年以来首次在联赛中被头号死敌托特纳姆热刺队压在身下之后，他们在之后的数次北伦敦德比中就一直沦为失败者的角色，除了2017年年末的时候利用主场之利取得过一次胜利之外，最近的其余八次交手战绩仅为3平5负。

Last season, Tottenham not only completed a double play against Arsenal for the first time since the 1973-74 season in the league, but also eliminated the latter in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, not only achieving the ninth FA Cup in their club history The championship trophy also shattered the dream of the rivals in the same city who pursued the only possibility of winning the championship honor this season. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

However, after five years of swallowing their anger, the Gunners fans finally got a chance to celebrate wantonly. The last time the team they supported was able to beat their rivals Tottenham in an away game, it dates back to the League Cup in September 2015. Three rounds, as for the last away victory against this opponent in the league, it was in March 2014.At that time, the head coach of Arsenal was still a professor, and in the starting list of that game, only Koscielny was still sticking to it. The others either switched to his team or retired, which have become memories of old fans.

So although the victory in this game can't prove anything, Li Mudi obviously won the favor of the gun fans temporarily just by virtue of this special Premier League debut.In comparison, his predecessor Emery suffered extremely badly after taking office in 2018. He lost at the feet of Manchester City and Chelsea at the beginning, making the Spanish coach almost become the first in the league just after two rounds. The Arsenal coach who was dismissed from get out of class.

However, just like the media’s comments after the game, even though they were a little surprised by the Gunners’ performance, the outside world still doesn’t think that this team has played a role since the end of the Ferguson-Wenger duo and the rise of new forces such as Chelsea and Manchester City. A team that can no longer perform well will be able to do anything this season.

Compared with those championship teams that already have a strong foundation and burned a large sum of euros this summer, Arsenal are far behind in terms of core capabilities and lineup thickness.Even their legendary new head coach has not yet reached the level of Mourinho and Guardiola in terms of ability, so the British media's attitude towards this North London derby, apart from praising the performance of the Gunners In addition, they still maintain their prediction that this team will barely qualify for the European War at best.

And when the reporter asked Li Moody at the post-match press conference whether he agreed with the above-mentioned views from the outside world, the Arsenal coach replied with a faint smile: "Everyone has the right to predict, and no one else's consent is needed. No, so I'm afraid you won't be able to get anything meaningful from me. The team's goal now is to try to win every game possible, and if we work hard enough, with a little help from luck, then at the end of the season The results will satisfy everyone. As for whether it will be a trophy, a ticket to the Champions League or qualification for the Europa League, it is not in our focus right now."

"That is to say, do you think Arsenal still have a chance to win the Premier League title this season from many powerful teams?" As soon as Li Moody finished speaking, some people couldn't wait to use this additional question to try to push him to the top. The edge of the cliff.

"Have you already determined the final ranking of the 20 teams just after the first round of the league? Then, do you want to bet 100 million pounds on my team's ranking? If I win, I will Match five."

"I know that everyone is very concerned about me, a newcomer to the Premier League, or whether I will say some shocking remarks to make your newspapers sell well. But the predecessors reminded me with good or bad valuable experience time and time again. Look at me, it's better to be careful in front of you uncrowned kings, it's best not to put yourself on top of the powder keg, otherwise the consequences will become very dire."

"I'm sorry, I'm neither special (from Mourinho's famous quote) nor an ordinary person (from Klopp's self-description to reporters), just a pragmatic manager. Never I will talk lightly about the outcome before the end of the game, even when facing an opponent whose strength is far superior to my own, I will first consider whether I have a chance to win, rather than thinking about where the team will be in the ranking ten months later."

"So if people want to hear from me that 'Arsenal's priority is relegation', or 'the team is determined to win the league title' which has no practical meaning, then it can only be a pity. For me and For my players, the only goal now is how to turn the league into a two-game winning streak, and no one will even care about the League Cup draw in the middle of next week."

"So let's talk about this weekend's opponents, West Ham United. It is widely believed that the Hammers will be one of Arsenal's biggest rivals for a European place. However, this summer, Pellegrini's team invested a huge amount of money in the transfer market to enhance their combat power. In the first round of the league, West Ham United won They beat Everton 4-1, and they are in excellent form. Faced with such a strong opponent, how will Coach Li deal with it?"

Naturally, the experienced British reporter would not let Li Modi deal with it in a few words, and immediately found a breakthrough to challenge this Chinese man who had always been uncooperative in interviews.

"West Ham United is a good team, they have a group of excellent players with both talent and willpower, and there is an outstanding contemporary manager in charge, which is something that no team aspiring to achieve good results is willing to encounter. A strong enemy. But fortunately, our strength is not bad, the team's pre-season run-in is very good, as evidenced by the derby just ended today. And next Saturday's duel is another London derby, for The players are very beneficial in terms of physical fitness and adaptation, especially when the game is played at the Emirates Stadium, the support of the home fans will make us even more powerful, Arsenal is confident to play a wonderful performance, so that everyone's good mood can continue to be maintained."

Although he was extremely confident in winning the second round of the league, Li Mudi still showed his usual humble attitude—well, it might be more appropriate to describe it as pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger. Becoming a thorn in the side of that kind of championship team later will be of great benefit to the team's future situation.

The questions after the press conference were still centered around Arsenal's expected performance at the beginning of the season. Among them, the BBC reporter analyzed the situation of the next few rounds of matchups and believed that as long as the Arsenal can gnaw down the tough bone of the Hammers, it will be very easy. There is a possibility of a seven-game winning streak, which would be one of the best starts in the history of the club and the entire Premier League.For this kind of flattery, Li Mudi immediately responded:

"What you said is meaningless. I have already said that the team will have a day off tomorrow. The training from the day after tomorrow until Saturday morning is aimed at the opponents in the second round of the league. What is the three-game winning streak?" , Five consecutive victories are all just imagined in the minds of you imaginative writers. In fact, as a newcomer to British football, I have no idea how those records exist. The opening league of the Premier League The winning record is meaningless to me and my team, we just hope that after each game, we will not walk into the locker room with regrets, that's all."

The next day, some media reported on this uncontroversial topic. The article claimed that "the Gunners coach is quite self-aware, not because he has achieved some results in Italy and Russia, just like Muhammad 16 years ago. Rinho also uttered wild words, but whether this also means that he does not have much confidence to succeed here, we still need to wait and see. Finally, I still want to popularize knowledge for him here. The record was set by Chelsea in the 2004-05 season, with 9 consecutive victories. If you count the previous League One League One, then it is their arch-rival Tottenham Club's 1960 consecutive victories in the 61-11 season, and this It is also the best start record in Europe's top five leagues."

This article was obviously written from the point of view of amusing Li Moody, and it did not cause much repercussions at the time, but after the next two months, Arsenal's winning streak was actually maintained. , When everyone found this report again, they realized what kind of face-slapping show they had missed.

On the evening of August 8, when the referee blew the final whistle for Arsenal's home game against West Ham United, more than 23 fans of the home team celebrated wildly, and 5 supporters of the visiting team looked in disbelief Formed a stark contrast.Because the electronic display board at the Emirates Stadium actually showed a score of 5 to 2, which was obviously a result that no one had expected before.

In this London derby, Li Moody once again demonstrated his good defensive counterattack strategy, but the formation has become 4-3-3, with Golovin, Aubameyang and Nigerian winger Iwobi forming a three-fork frontcourt With the support of midfielders such as Mkhitaryan and Lucas Torreira, the Halberd almost turned the visiting team's half into a racing game, allowing the iron team, which is already at the middle and lower levels of the league in terms of speed The Hammer Gang's defense line was almost smashed through the sieve under repeated attacks.

In the end, Arsenal, which only got 18% of the ball possession rate, actually achieved a huge lead in the shooting data with 7 to [-]. If it weren't for the visiting team goalkeeper Adrian to make two key saves, the result of this game It is likely that the record for the largest point difference in the history of the two teams will be refreshed.

After two rounds, Li Moody's team climbed to the top of the Premier League standings by virtue of the advantage of more goals. The last time the Gunners reached the top of the league dates back to 2015.

It's just that due to the sluggish state of West Ham United, the outside world still doesn't pay much attention to Arsenal's two-game winning streak, because in the eyes of most people, Li Moody's tactical thinking is still old-fashioned. Not too difficult to deal with.As for other mid-range teams, as long as they prepare well before the game and apply tactics properly, they still have a great chance to avoid losing.At least in one's own home court, the Gunner's "Quick Whirlwind" can be weakened, and if the opponent's defense line full of loopholes can be forced to make mistakes, winning is not impossible.

This view seems to have been confirmed in the last round of the league in August. The away game faced West Bromwich Albion, which had a thrilling relegation last season and did not make major adjustments in the transfer window. Halberd Hawthorn course too.The final score was 3 to 4. If the game time can be extended by another 10 minutes, maybe the home team nicknamed the bloomers will be able to keep at least one point.

This score and the way the home team scored three goals exposed that Arsenal's current defense is still difficult to make effective defenses when dealing with the impact of a team with excellent speed.West Bromwich Albion's Scottish winger Oliver Burke actually scored 11 one-on-one successes and 10 times in the game. After teasing and applauding, one person contributed one goal and two assists, and was undoubtedly elected the best player of the game.

After the game, major British media once again put their focus on Arsenal’s future performance. They believed that although the team had achieved three consecutive victories at the beginning, the weakness of the backcourt had been fully exposed through these few games. , It will become more and more difficult to obtain the previous victory in the future, and the ranking will eventually return to a position in line with its true strength.

However, there are still some people who have had a positive impact on the team after Li Mudi took over. They scored a total of 11 goals in three games, with an average attack power of nearly 4 goals per game. It is also rare.Although this data can't explain anything for the time being due to too few reference games, the fast and efficient team offensive strategy displayed by Arsenal in the three games still created great difficulties for the opponents. The most critical reason why you can still reap the victory when the defense is tight.

For the above praise, Li Moody is still very happy. After all, in the current environment where his team is being bad-mouthed, there are still people who can give positive comments, which can be regarded as an additional support.

However, in his heart, he did not agree with the statement that only Arsenal were good offensively. Although the team was scored three goals in a row by West Bromwich Albion in the last game, it was because of the team's many defensive players. Happened only during vacations.In fact, after one and a half months of running-in, the Gunners' defensive ability has been significantly improved compared to last season, and it is not just a tofu project as the outside world evaluates.As long as the tacit understanding between the players is improved, it will definitely surprise the outside world, and then it will be time for the British media to slap themselves in the face.

But before that, the league just ushered in a two-week national team match day, which slightly disrupted the momentum that the arsenal had just picked up.

It's just that everything has pros and cons, Li Modi can just use this precious time to deal with personal affairs, besides spending time with his little angel, he also needs to take care of Coventry's affairs.Because he is the biggest shareholder of the club no matter how you say it, even if you want to be lazy, you can't really care about nothing, otherwise there may be a situation that everyone doesn't want to see.

(End of this chapter)