Mister Legend

Chapter 520 Moving Ahead In Controversy
On October 10th, at 10:22 on Saturday night, the BBC is located in a recording studio in an office building in London. With the gesture reminder of the on-site director, the background music plays after the commercial that just ended, accompanying fans all over the world The voice that had spent more than 30 years followed immediately.

"Welcome back, this is Match of the Day on BBC One, I'm Gary Lineker, the presenter, and I'm surrounded by three old friends, Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry and Rio Ferdinand."

"Before the commercial, we had a general chat about the performance of several British teams in the European national leagues they participated in. Generally speaking, it is acceptable. For the rest of the time, I think we should turn our attention back to the Premier League. On the field, because there were many controversial incidents last weekend, they have been debated endlessly in the public until now, here I would like to invite a few people to make an evaluation and see what happened inside."

"Well, compared to the hot Manchester Derby, I think this game between the Red Army and the Gunners should be more concerned and easier to analyze, so let's start with this game, let me take a look at it first Controversial moment."

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"Okay, after watching the edited video playback, you can actually find that the main point of controversy is whether Arsenal's goal at the last moment of the game existed. I have revisited it many times before, but I still think this is a really miraculous goal. First, Chamberlain's cross from the right was intercepted on Koscielny's left arm, allowing the Gunners to counterattack. Then the second One point of contention is, was it a penalty?"

Alan Shearer, the oldest of the three guests, responded first: "I think it should be that Koscielny's arm had protruded a long way from his torso at that time, and it seriously changed the opponent's pass. This is almost exactly the same as what happened in the match between Portugal and the Netherlands in this summer's European Cup. At that time, the referee firmly awarded a penalty, so this time should be no exception. Unfortunately, Liverpool and Arsenal Anthony Taylor of the game missed the foul that was bound to change the outcome of the game."

Obviously, the greatest center in the history of the Premier League is firmly on the side of the Red Army in this penalty.

However, Ferdinand next to him has a different view. The former Leeds United and Manchester United legendary centre-back defended his counterparts: "Laurent's arm did touch the ball, but it is not clear whether it was intentional or not. It is everyone's natural reaction to take off with all your strength to maintain your body's balance with your arms outstretched, so this situation should not be generalized, and it should be clearly distinguished whether the defensive player has subjective intentions. For this handball, I am more inclined to be the ball hitter, because from It can be seen in slow motion that Koscielny's hand did not move significantly before touching the ball, so it is acceptable not to award a penalty kick."

The views of the two guests are in conflict, which is considered a gimmick for the program group, but Lineker and the audience are most interested in Henry's attitude.Because he is not only a famous Gunner, but also has the experience of profiting from handball, so when Ferdinand's statement was over, everyone turned their eyes to the face of the last guest with great anticipation.

Regarding this situation, the former King of Highbury had no choice but to smile wryly, and then slowly expressed his opinion in English that was comparable to his mother tongue.

"Theoretically speaking, the ball is indeed a handball. There is nothing to argue about. But it should not be a penalty kick. I think it should be flexibly controlled by the referee on duty. After all, the rules are dead and cannot be applied on the field. All the circumstances. Maybe in Anthony Taylor's eyes at the time, it wasn't a foul, so he didn't call a stoppage, that's all."

Knowing that such ambiguous issues cannot be argued for, Lineker did not get too entangled in whether Koscielny's handball should be whistled, but quickly shifted the topic to the second point of controversy superior.

"Let's fast-forward this video to the end of Arsenal's counterattack. Everyone knows that their goal came from a corner kick, but whether this corner kick should exist or not seems to be considered an injustice. .”

Ferdinand, who had previously held a negative attitude on the issue of penalty kicks, nodded his head in agreement with the host's point of view this time. He responded: "Yes, maybe due to the speed of the ball and the blocking of the player's body, several referees did not look at it. Clear. However, through the slow-motion playback, we can clearly find that the ball actually crossed the baseline after touching Golovin’s sneakers. This should be a goal kick without a doubt. Unfortunately, Liverpool’s luck that day was really a little bit Poor, because this time they misjudged the loss and ended their unbeaten record of 37 consecutive home games."

After analyzing these two incidents that made the Kop criticize the refereeing team for a whole week, Lineker raised his final question about this game, that is, what would have happened without this controversial goal? So would a draw result be more reasonable for both parties?

However, the answers of the three guests surprised most of the melon eaters, because two of them believed that the Gunners had a higher chance of winning in the end, and the other did not favor the home team.

Rio Ferdinand's opinion is: "Actually, before this goal appeared, Liverpool's defense had already had two problems because of their over-commitment on the offensive end, but Arsenal failed to grasp it. The time when Bameyang stopped Mkhitaryan's through ball behind him, it should have formed a one-handed goal. Considering that Klopp has no idea of ​​changing the attacking strategy, I think even without this corner, Liverpool's The goal is also in greater danger than their opponents, so it was Arsenal who were closer to scoring in the final stages of the game."

Henry agreed with his former opponents, before adding: "The Reds had 68 per cent of the ball in the game and three times as many shots as the Gunners, but looking at the nine and 10 minutes they didn't. Didn't break the visiting team's defensive line, which is considered to be inferior. Except for Sahra's long shot and Firmino's header from outside the small penalty area, Leno did not receive much test in the game. On the contrary, Arsenal Na’s several counterattacks in the second half showed a lot of threat. Even without the corner kick, judging from Coach Lee’s arrangement, they will continue to maintain the intensity of the counterattack, and the possibility of scoring is at least higher than in the second half. Liverpool, who are already a mess on the offensive end."

Shearer finally concluded: "Don't mention the result of this game, I think it's time for everyone to take a good look at whether the previous judgment that Arsenal's defense is very bad is a bit too biased, although they are far from how good they are. But his performance at critical moments is still trustworthy. Especially the newly joined midfielder Ndidi is simply looking to replace Kanter as the number one defensive midfielder in the Premier League, thanks to his early days in the league. The Gunners' results are so dazzling because of their brave performance. Although it is somewhat unlikely, I personally think that as long as the Nigerian's fiery state can be maintained, Arsenal's upset victory will not be impossible."

These remarks aroused Lineker's interest, and he asked in time: "Oh? So Alan now thinks that Arsenal, which has just changed its head coach, has entered the ranks of favorites to win the championship?"

"Yes, if this kind of judgment appeared before the start of the season, or even half a month before, I think the whole world will think that I am crazy, because from the perspective of paper strength, this team is in the Premier League this season. That is to say, those who can compete for the European League qualification, compared with the three favorites of Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool, the gap is still very obvious. However, with the performance of the eight-game winning streak at the beginning, no one should maintain the previous prediction Yes. You must know that they have conquered the two strongest stadiums, New White Hart Lane and Anfield, and the gold content is beyond doubt." Alan Shearer explained his point of view calmly.

"Okay, due to time constraints, we have to shift the topic to the Manchester derby first, but when the league returns next weekend, I believe there will be enough space to discuss this team that is hitting the Premier League's opening winning streak. The record team, for Li Moody and his Arsenal, we BBC and "Match of the Day" will continue to pay attention. Now let us revisit this derby at Old Trafford..." Lineker ended the Liverpool-Arsenal matchup in one sentence, but the controversy over that game continued.

During the match day of the national team, the reports of the British media began to extend from the frequent misjudgments to whether the Premier League must introduce VAR. As of the summer of 2020, the Premier League still used the excuse of not wanting to affect the fluency of the game. Refuse to use the video assistant referee system that has been popularized throughout the world of football in the league, and it is the result of club voting.

Although the FA Cup and League Cup have tried this technology for three consecutive years since the 2017-18 season, it has still not been widely recognized by British teams.As of the eighth round of this season, there have been a large number of controversial penalties, which has once again intensified the calls for the introduction of VAR by the media and fans, and indirectly magnified every possible misjudgment. Exaggerated their impact on the results of the game, and even the overall trend of the league.

On the third Thursday of October, all the clubs welcomed back their international players one after another. Although the number of adult international players in Arsenal's team is not large among the giants, there are indeed quite a few young players selected for the youth echelons of various countries. The team's next preparations are facing a certain degree of difficulty, because in the next three weeks, they will have to face the test of a week of double matches.

On October 10th, the Gunners sat at home and ushered in the challenge of the Wolves. The latter is one of the three Premier League teams controlled by Chinese capital this season (the other two are Southampton and West Bromwich Albion). There will be some off-court tidbits with Li Moody, which will attract the attention of the outside world.

However, facing the compatriot team who are only two points ahead of the relegation zone, Li Moody did not show any mercy. Although he did not send his main players to the field due to the physical fitness of the players, he still used the advantage of the home court to firmly suppress the opponent under his feet.

It's just that this game was widely criticized by the media because of two controversial penalties, and even the joy of the home team's victory was cut by a few points.

Arsenal's start in this duel was actually very amazing. In the first 10 minutes, they scored 14 goals and [-] shots on target, and Welbeck scored in No. [-] minutes. A shot in front of the goal gave him a one-goal lead.

However, just when they wanted to make persistent efforts and put the victory in their pockets, a mistake by the linesman caused the Gunners to suffer a big blow. No. In the 301st minute, the Wolves took advantage of Ramsey's pass error and played a quick counterattack. The 34-year-old veteran Moutinho sent a very sharp long pass from the backcourt to help Morata, who was at the top (On loan from Chelsea last season, and was completely bought out this season) threw off the defender and formed a single-handedly.

Facing the German goalkeeper Leno who was forced to attack, the former Raul successor easily swayed the angle with a fake move, and pushed the ball into the home team's empty goal before Holding, who was rushing to defend, pushed the ball into the empty goal of the home team. The score was tied at 1-1.

But just when the players of the visiting team started to celebrate the goal, Arsenal had already started to surround the referee and the linesman in their own half. The defense players headed by Koscielny excitedly expressed that The forward received the ball from an offside position and the goal should be disallowed.

And the audience watching the live broadcast of the game can also see from the slow-motion replay given by the broadcaster that at the moment Moutinho passed the ball, Morata's position was indeed closer to the opponent's goalkeeper than the entire defense line of the home team. This is a standard offside violation.

Unfortunately, due to the negligence of the linesman, the gunman's complaint was not recognized, and he received two yellow cards for this action, which is a typical example of losing his wife and losing his army.

The morale of the players on the home team who were affected by this misjudgment dropped significantly in the following period, and their fighting actions became a bit louder, which caused their originally well-functioning offensive posture to become stagnant. Even the neutral players The commentators on the broadcast side are starting to worry about the unexpected end of their winning streak.

Fortunately, Jiren has his own destiny. When the time went to No.70 and two minutes, the Nigerian winger Iwobi, who dribbled the ball into the opponent's penalty area, had a continuous physical collision with the opponent's French central defender Willy Boli. After contact, he fell to the ground and was sentenced to death by the referee.

As a result, Mkhitaryan, the first penalty shooter in the team, took the penalty and sent the ball into the lower right corner of the visiting team's goal, helping the team to exceed the score again.

In the end, the score of 2 to 1 was maintained until the end. Li Moody led Arsenal to the feat of nine consecutive league victories, tying the highest record created by Chelsea in the 2005-06 season.

Only after the game, the debate about whether the penalty should be awarded turned the entire British football world upside down, and the Gunners, who had won two consecutive games, stepped into the eye of this huge storm among.

(End of this chapter)