Jagged Wings

Chapter 160 The target of public criticism
The 1:1 score also showed the young Arsenal's unstable performance in the league. Although they played well at the beginning of the season, one of the reasons why the Gunners are not optimistic today is that they are not stable enough.And whether a team's performance in 38 games throughout the season is stable or not will be the most important reason for determining their final results.

Undoubtedly, the current Arsenal is still too young to be suitable for protracted games like the league.This gap is also shown in the points. At this time, Arsenal has fallen to the third position, 5 points behind Manchester United at the top of the leaderboard, and this is still a third of the way in the league.

The only good news during this period is that in the selection of the European Golden Globe Awards, Reyes ranked second, second only to Cannavaro who led his team to win the World Cup, and Henry, the King of Highbury, beat Buffon to rank second. in third place.Reyes relied on his perfect performance, led the team to win the Champions League last season, and also reached the finals in the World Cup, and won the Silver Ball Award. Reyes' performance is as sharp as an awl!In addition to Reyes and Henry, Arsenal's German goalkeeper Lehmann also ranked tenth.In this way, in the selection of the Golden Globe Awards, Arsenal unexpectedly occupied three seats!

It's just a club with the most number of players in the Ballon d'Or, followed by La Liga giants Barcelona, ​​who have both Ronaldinho and Eto'o in the top ten.

With three players entering the top ten of the Ballon d'Or selection, who dares to say that Arsenal is not a giant?Not famous?
In the following Champions League, Arsenal's state improved slightly. They defeated Hamburg 2:1 after qualifying. The excellent performance of the substitute players lifted the spirits of the gun fans!
However, Larsenna encountered a quagmire in the league.Although the ranking is not the highest, but the unique offensive style of the flowing clouds and flowing water has made Arsenal a thorn in the eyes of many teams while attracting fans.

For Manchester United and Chelsea, other teams can get some opportunities, so when they lose, they feel that although they lose, the gap is not that big.But only when playing against Arsenal, Arsenal's well-structured, wave after wave of offensive is like a tide, completely submerging the opponent!More and more people pay attention to Arsenal, and more and more people target Arsenal.

Arsenal has become the target of public criticism, and all opponents are studying them, trying to find a way to curb their beautiful offensive, and there are endless ways to restrain Arsenal.

First of all, Arsenal's weakness is obvious. They are a team that is stronger in offense than defense. They rarely fail to score or concede.Although Fabregas is an excellent defensive midfielder, he also has to take care of offense and cannot devote all his energy to defense.Secondly, the two wings of Reyes and Hleb are doomed to make little contribution to the defense. Coupled with the configuration of the two strikers, Arsenal's defense has become a midfielder Gilberto and four defenders. matter.

Under such circumstances, Arsenal met fourth-ranked Bolton.In the 2005-2006 season, the budget-conscious "Big Sam" team successfully defended their honor again. Even in multi-line battles, there was no difficult situation to deal with. The Premier League finally ranked 8th, and the UEFA Cup entered the top 32. For Bolton, who is used to making small troubles in the transfer market, it is a record worthy of fans' joy.Bolton will never belong to the trendsetters in the transfer market, but the club will not be so poor that it only engages in internal potential. The purposeful introduction of players is their consistent policy.

This season they introduced French striker Anelka, and the team's offensive strength has greatly increased. In addition, strikers Diouf and Kevin Davis performed well, and midfielders Jenna Kopoulos and Nolan are also sharp offensively!Bolton played tough, in the Premier League is the team that beats Arsenal the most.Jenna Koplov is Arsenal's sufferer. In the match last season, the Greek player once scored twice!
In the match against Arsenal, Bolton coach Allardyce emphasized that they will not blindly defend, but choose to attack: "We will beat them with Arsenal's best defense!" Allardyce believes that as long as the team can beat Arsenal If Arsenal's offense is even crazier and can put huge pressure on their defense, then they will be able to see the scene when Arsenal's city gate opens.

This game is also a battle for the third and fourth places in the league. If they lose, Arsenal will lose the third place in the league.

But attacking does not mean not defending. In fact, Bolton put a lot of effort into the defense of this game. They vowed not to let Arsenal play at the rhythm they want!
The two sides entered into a very fierce fight at the beginning of the game. The Bolton players did not compete with Arsenal's skills. They pulled the Arsenal players into a physical confrontation and planned to beat them on this!
Only 10 minutes into the game, Bolton received two yellow cards, one of which was for a foul on Reyes by a Bolton player.Reyes is now Arsenal's offensive sharp knife, and his sharp breakthrough on the left is Arsenal's most important weapon!Everyone knows that Reyes needs to be defended very tightly. Most teams will arrange a midfielder to help defend Reyes on the right.

Reyes is used to such treatment.Under normal circumstances, the opponent will continue to send people to invade themselves. When one person takes the card, another person will come up to defend him.

Fortunately, Reyes has excellent physical fitness and delicate technique, and can always use his own technique to avoid the opponent's crazy tackles.Despite the opponent's fierce press, Chu Zhongtian still created a threatening offensive for the team in the 14th minute of the first half. He dribbled on the left to attract the attention of many opponents, and then sent a through pass , Torres succeeded in anti-offside.Bolton's goalkeeper Habsey struck out in time to resolve the crisis ahead of Torres.

After that, Bolton strengthened his defense against Reyes. After all, Reyes is a player who needs backcourt support. Once the opponent restricts the space, it is difficult for even Cesc Fabregas to pass the goal.

"Fuck, your sister's Bolton!" Reyes whispered after being knocked to the ground in a fight.The opponent's intention was very clear, if he was not allowed to catch the ball, even if he managed to catch the ball, the opponent's defensive players would rush forward immediately to prevent Reyes from making any moves.

The left was restricted to death, and Hleb, who was only relying on the right, couldn't provoke any sparks. Arsenal's offense suddenly became a game of ball possession without threat.

After Bolton clamped down on Arsenal, he gradually revealed his hideous face!

In the 51st minute of the second half, Jenna Kopoulos took advantage of Reyes' forward attack and suddenly received the ball. He forced a breakthrough on the left side of Chrissy, who had returned from injury, and then made a cross. Former Arsenal player Ane Erka scored a goal and Bolton took the lead at home!

The lagging Arsenal launched a crazy counterattack.While Bolton began to defend and counterattack steadily. In this game, Arsenal showed their young and immature side. Blindly relying on the two sides also made it easier for the opponent to defend.Cesc Fabregas once tried a long shot, but today his shooting state is really not very good. Not only did he fail to score, but he did not pose any threat to Bolton's goal.

Arsenal continued to attack and wanted to equalize the score, but it turned out that Bolton seized the opportunity to score two goals in a row, rewriting the score to 3:0!

Although at the last moment of the game, Reyes forced a pass from the left and Henry grabbed a point to get back a goal, but it was only to save face and had no effect on the situation of the game.

Arsenal eventually lost, and their encounter was unbeaten in four games!

Not only that, but worse, because of the loss of this game, they handed over the third position in the league.

Arsenal's defeat has made some people complacent. They think that after a series of previous high-profile performances, Arsenal's good performance has come to an end.

After all, they are old players who have left so many, and they are in a period of renewal. It is enough for Arsenal to play the role of a spoiler.

After losing the game, the players know that they will definitely not have their good fruit.Sure enough, Wenger announced the punishment for the team in the locker room: the holiday on the second day of the game was cancelled, and they had to practice more.

On the other hand, Wenger reprimanded all the players with a serious expression.

Although he was very dissatisfied on the surface, in fact Wenger was far less angry than the surface.

On the contrary, he was a little lucky!
Losing to Bolton is not a good thing, but it is a good thing, because it makes the players soberly aware that this is the Premier League, and there are so many strong players here!Don't underestimate any opponent, they are not qualified to do so, the rebuilding Arsenal is not the original invincible team, they must accept ups and downs and falls.

There is a saying in China that goes, "If you lose your horse, you will know it is not a blessing." It is really suitable for Arsenal.After just losing the ball, news that is good for Arsenal came one after another.

The first is the news that Reyes won the title of best young player in Europe.

For his impeccable performances last season, Reyes won the Boy Ballon d'Or, the top European publication for voting for players under the age of 21, selected by the Italian newspaper All Sport football reporter.

In this award, Reyes won 2 out of 3 votes and got 5 points. No.[-] is Fabregas from Arsenal who got [-] points. No.[-] is Messi from Barcelona .Arsenal's rival Tottenham's Aaron Lennon is the highest-ranked player in the UK, at No.[-], and another Arsenal player on the list, Theo Walcott, ranks [-]th.

Followed by UEFA's selection of "Best Team of the Year" and "Best Coach of the Year". In a total of 11 positions and one head coach award, there are five candidates for each award, and the total number of people is 60. people.Among these 60 people, there are a total of nine people from Arsenal.

First, Wenger, who led the team to win the Champions League, was nominated for the best coach; secondly, Henry and Torres were nominated for the best forward; then Reyes and Fabregas were nominated for the best midfielder; in the selection of the best defender, love love , Toure and Gallas were selected, and Lehmann also nominated for the position of the best goalkeeper.

The voting will last for one month, and the announcement of the major awards is scheduled for the end of January 2007.

With these good news, Arsenal's morale quickly recovered, and in the next north London derby, they beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at home.

But everyone didn't take this small victory seriously. As we all know, the derby is the cruelest and most difficult to measure by strength.In many derby battles, the stronger side is often not as good as the weaker side in terms of record.So although Arsenal won the derby, they didn't let the outside world care.

Because in the next round of competition, they are about to usher in a strong opponent-Chelsea.

In the eyes of the outside world, this is an encounter they like to see.Needless to say, Arsenal, their good and fast football has caused panic in the whole of the UK, so the whole of the UK is looking forward to their loss; and under the leadership of Mourinho, Chelsea has always insisted on "peace with people". Fight, fight with heaven" line of struggle.The FA's displeasure with Mourinho has become clear: in the previous 13 rounds, Manchester United had 8 controversies involving possible rewriting of the score, of which 7 were controversies favorable to Manchester United, and Manchester United's profit ratio was as high as 88. %.However, Chelsea had 7 disputes involving possible rewriting of the score, but none of the favorable disputes and penalties, and the profit ratio was 0%, that is to say, all the disputes and penalties were unfavorable to Chelsea.

"I am proud of my team to be able to fight 12 people and still maintain second place in the league!" Mourinho said.

"Not in good shape? No, there is no such problem. I believe my players are always at their peak!" Wenger was full of confidence.

In terms of starting lineups, both teams have sent out the strongest lineups since both teams won the first place in the group in the UEFA Champions League in the middle of the week.For Chelsea, Terry, Gremi, Ashley Cole and Makelele started one after another. Drogba continued to partner with Andriy Shevchenko in the striker line. The Ivorian broke through the Gunners' gate three times last season.

As for Arsenal, Henry missed due to injury, Senderos replaced the suspended Toure, and Hleb replaced Ljungberg in the starting lineup.

Ashley Cole, who faced his former owner for the first time after his transfer this summer, became the focus. He shook hands with his former teammates before the game with a serious expression. A few Arsenal fans who were visiting took out "money" to express their respect for the rebel dissatisfied, and every time he took the ball, he was booed neatly by the Arsenal fans.

Because of Cole's existence, the game was full of gunpowder at the beginning, which also brought the two sides into a close combat stage. In the opening minute, Ashley Cole was tackled by Hleb in the backcourt.In the 1th minute, Drogba stopped the ball in the chest to give Ballack a good chance, but the Ivorian was offside first.

In the 8th minute, Reyes assisted and stuffed the football into the right side of the penalty area, and Torres shot high.Soon, Chelsea returned the favor, and Lampard's low shot 20 meters away from the middle was confiscated by Arsenal's goalkeeper Lehmann.

With Gallas gone, Reyes' opponent on the left was replaced by Gremi this time.Of course, before that, he had to face Barack.The joining of Shevchenko and Ballack is more self-willed by the Chelsea boss, and Mourinho can't put these two superstar-level tasks on the bench, so Chelsea gave up 433 this season and changed their formation. 442. Sacrifice a midfield position and increase the striker Shevchenko's position.

Although the captain of the German national team Ballack came to Chelsea, he was originally in the middle of the midfield, but he can only be used as a wide player.Although not very good in speed and breakthrough, but the defense is very stable.

Reyes has a new opponent!
He was closely guarded by Ballack. If he got the ball with his back, he would not even think about turning around;In the confrontation with Ballack, his advantage is not great.

But in terms of midfield, Arsenal is stronger. Makelele is old. Lampard is also a master who likes to assist in the frontcourt. Fabregas is not at a disadvantage in the battle with Makelele , and even faintly have the upper hand!
In the 16th minute, Fabregas hoisted the football into the right side of the penalty area, Hleb made a cross from the bottom, and Torres shot in front of the goal and missed the left post.

In the 22nd minute, Fabregas dribbled forward with the ball, passed Makelele and Lampard, Ballack came up to defend, and then Fabregas took the opportunity to distribute the football to the left, Reyes caught the ball and killed Entering the penalty area and shooting, the ball bounced high off the feet of Chelsea centre-back Carvalho. Chelsea goalkeeper Hilario couldn't make a save and could only watch the ball fly into the far corner!

This is Reyes' 11th goal of the season!
1: 0!

Seeing that Arsenal's continuous attack finally paid off, Arsenal fans jumped from their seats, waving their arms vigorously and shouting the name of the goal scorer Reyes.

To be honest, Arsenal fans are envious of Chelsea's crazy money-burning behavior.Of course, since Chelsea poached Cole, this envy has turned into raging hatred!
This season, Chelsea bought Ballack, Shevchenko, Ashley Cole, and their transfer expenditures reached a new high; Arsenal also spent a lot of money under their stimulation, and introduced Torres and Rosicky at a high price.

So gun fans are very confident!
Arsenal scored a goal, but Chelsea is not a soft persimmon that can be pinched casually. To be able to confront the FA to this point, Mourinho's ability to be under pressure is not at 01:30!After losing the ball, they did not surrender, but actively counterattacked!

In the 29th minute, Chelsea equalized and Gremiko assisted and Drogba scored.

But they were not happy for too long. After 10 minutes, Arsenal took the lead again. This time, Hleb passed back from the right. The unguarded Flamini shot from 14 yards in the middle. Hilario made a save and the ball into the network.

Before the end of the first half, the tenacious Chelsea equalized the score again.Lampard's midfield free kick was directly thrown into the penalty area. In the small penalty area, central defender Carvalho blocked the ball with his body, and Ballack next to him immediately sent the ball into the empty goal, 2:2!

In the first half, the two sides scored four goals. Everyone played offensive football, and the offensive match made the fans very enjoyable.But it is not enough to meet the needs of such fans, and neither side wants to be the loser.

In the second half, the two teams changed places to fight again.As a result, Chelsea, the visiting team, had the upper hand in the first place. A series of offensive kills made Arsenal a little embarrassed, and Reyes could only retreat to the half to help the team defend.

Wenger saw that in the midfield competition, the opponent's rich experience had the upper hand, so he waved the flag and Rosicky replaced Van Persie.

After Rosicky came on the field, he appeared in the middle and formed a double avant-garde with Fabregas. Arsenal's formation was changed to 4141. Gilberto defended behind alone, and Fabregas and Rosicky defended and let go of the attack!
Such a change made Chelsea a little overwhelmed-they had previously treated Fabregas as Arsenal's playmaker and strictly guarded him.But now there is another Rosicky who can pass the ball, what should they do?
While Chelsea were not adapting to this change, Arsenal made a sudden effort.In the 63rd minute, Cesc Fabregas made a long pass from the backcourt. Rosicky stopped the ball in the middle and then sent a through ball. Torres successfully entered the penalty area against offside. Then he faced goalkeeper Hilario who blocked the angle eight meters away from the left. Score from the far corner!

3: 2!

"Arsenal scored again!!" The commentator shouted excitedly, "They are on the offensive and fully recovered in this game!"

Chelsea continued to attack after being led, but the controversial penalty reappeared, and the 30-year-old Ballack began to decline in physical strength as time passed.When Reyes passed him with speed once, Barack had no choice but to pull Reyes down.

red card!

The referee did not hesitate to punish him off the court!

It was difficult for Chelsea without one person to organize a counterattack. In the end, Arsenal defeated Chelsea 3:2 at their home court, avoiding a three-game losing streak.

In this round of the league, Manchester United drew away and Bolton lost to Bossie Ham United. Among the top four teams in the league, only Arsenal won. As a result, Arsenal narrowed the gap with the top three.

And this gap doesn't really seem that far away...

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I used to like Barack when I was younger.

(End of this chapter)