Jagged Wings

Chapter 193 The Peasant Wisdom of Portsmouth

Kick-off at 03:30 pm on May [-]th.Arsenal are still two points ahead of Manchester United, who want to win the title.First they have to beat West Ham at their home ground, and then hope Arsenal lose to Portsmouth at their home ground - it's almost impossible!
So a few days before the game, the media already believed that Arsenal would successfully win the Premier League championship after three years of absence!
Only Manchester United still did not give up. Ferguson said in an interview that he did not think that the league title was already in Arsenal's pocket. The difference of two points was not that big, it was just one game.Until the last second of the last round of the league, he will not easily admit defeat!
Arsenal fans scoffed at this: Do you think we will lose to a belly like Portsmouth?

Before Manchester United had time to react, Portsmouth, who was lying on the ground, jumped out first and declared that in the game against Arsenal, they would never let Arsenal get their wish and win the championship trophy!

Of course, apart from winning this game, Arsenal also has another focus, which is the battle for the top scorer between Reyes and Drogba!
Reyes scored 23 goals this season by virtue of scoring twice in the last game, surpassing Didier Drogba who scored 22 goals to become the top scorer.

Although Reyes said that his desire for the Premier League championship is much higher than that of the top scorer, his teammates expressed that they will do their best to help Reyes score goals in the next game and overtake Drogba .

It is the dream of every fan to see the team crowned.

On May 03th, starting from noon, Arsenal people began to flock to the Emirates Stadium, singing and dancing along the way. They were all looking forward to the game starting at 30:[-] in the afternoon and Arsenal to win the trophy.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, there was already a lot of people inside and outside the Emirates Stadium!Portsmouth fans and Arsenal fans are very different. The two are polite to each other off the field, but once inside the stadium, the warm atmosphere will make the fans' nature explode!
Portsmouth fans just have to sing their team anthem.Arsenal fans will inevitably boo to interfere.At this time, the riot police will be very nervous. They hold their shields high, raise their batons, and look at the opponents in the opposite stands with wide eyes. Naturally, the opponents of the fans are also fans!

"Welcome to Arsenal's Emirates Stadium! We are here to broadcast live the final round of the 2006-2007 English Premier League for you. The result of this game will be related to the ownership of the league championship! Through the broadcast lens of the TV , we can clearly see that the Emirates Stadium is now full, even sitting in the anchor room, we can feel the enthusiasm of the fans!"

When the Arsenal players stepped into the field from the tunnel.The Emirates Stadium was boiling for the first time, and everyone was on their feet, cheering for their hero.

In such an environment, the players can burst out 120% of their energy to remember more and greater honors for themselves and the fans.Wenger didn't arrange any specific tactics for this game, he just asked Arsenal to play as usual.

Because Portsmouth's strength cannot be considered strong, as long as they play normally, defeating them is not a problem!
But Portsmouth threatened to attack Arsenal before the game, they must be prepared!

What did they do to prepare?

At the beginning of the game, Fabregas gave the ball to Reyes. As soon as Reyes got the ball, the opponent's midfielder pushed Reyes down from behind.

The referee called a frontcourt foul and did not give a card.

Now everyone knows that Portsmouth's "nirvana" is foul tactics.

But for Arsenal, obviously such a tactic is more suitable for them.

Although the voices of the home fans were very loud, it was difficult for Arsenal to cooperate with Portsmouth's strangling tactics.More often, they are constantly repeating the situation of dribbling-losing the ball-dribbling-losing the ball.

This stalemate continued, and the game lasted for three 10 minutes, which was quite dull for three 10 minutes.

Even the commentator was yawning, thinking that there was no bright spot in this championship battle, and the non-stop fouls made the game have no continuity and were often interrupted.

However, foul tactics will always hurt yourself!
No.30 In the second minute, when Reyes was kicked down by the opponent's midfielder again, the referee finally showed a yellow card to Portsmouth.

But this foul, also near the center circle, left Arsenal's free kickers with no room to play.Portsmouth's tactics are full of the "little peasant wisdom" of being a weak team. They will not confront Arsenal head-on.Specially find the most uncomfortable place for Arsenal to start, and the place to start is far away from the goal, and does not give Arsenal any chance at all!

Such a cunning team is really difficult to deal with!

After being brought down again, Reyes spread his hands helplessly lying on the ground: How can we play such a game?

But he is not the kind of person who can give up. If you want to solve a problem, there are always more solutions than excuses!
Soon, Reyes discovered that in order to compress Arsenal's space, Portsmouth would always subconsciously shrink the formation.

It looked safe, and when Arsenal were attacking, they were full of people in the box.

But think about it in reverse, if Arsenal control the ball in the backcourt, will the Portsmouth people press out in order to maintain the revitalization?

Reyes made up his mind. He liked to run forward, but now he started to lean back.

For Arsenal, a sharp-edged figure, the Portsmouth coach has made special arrangements, and there will always be a follower to follow him.Now that Reyes has retreated, the midfielder will also press forward with Reyes.

In order to maintain the formation, the entire Portsmouth formation was pulled out!

And there was a little ideological contradiction between the two Portsmouth midfielders who were pulled out. The defensive midfielder who defended Reyes wanted to press up to limit Reyes' range of activities.But the other midfielder wanted to shrink back, so that Arsenal would not have the chance to fight back!

The ideological contradictions are arranged on these two midfielders, and it also runs through the entire Portsmouth team.

This is the paradox of defense!
So Portsmouth's formation was pulled out of place by Arsenal!
Reyes ran to the back of the middle circle and received the ball. This position was originally owned by Fabregas, so he didn't keep up with Reyes' midfielder. He thought his teammates would defend Reyes, but he didn't expect his own Teammates were not pulled out like myself,

No defense!

Reyes turned around with the ball, and the opponent's two defensive midfielders were taken aback and rushed forward together.But confronting Reyes head-on is not afraid of anyone. His dexterous fake moves passed the two who were rushing too hard. Just when Portsmouth's central defender was still hesitating whether to pounce, Reyes There was a slight arc at the corner of his mouth, he took the ball with his right foot and rubbed it lightly, the football flew high and fell directly towards the goal!

lob!

The Portsmouth keeper hastily backed away, but didn't reach for the ball!
The atmosphere at the scene has already begun to warm up...

The football was attached to the lower edge of the crossbar and just slid into the goal!
There was a sudden burst of cheers at the Emirates Stadium, and more than 8 fans followed the on-site host and shouted the word that had been prepared for a long time.

"gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

(End of this chapter)