legendary midfielder

Chapter 289 Preparing for the first game of the Premier League
After the [-]-[-] victory over Manchester City, all of Arsenal's pre-season warm-up games are over.

All five warm-up matches were won, which is rare in the history of Arsenal. The most obvious change is that the organization in the middle is much more orderly than before. From front to back, every attack or defense is orderly, well-defined, and the rhythm is very strictly controlled.

What caused this result, apart from the great improvement of Arsenal's overall strength, Zhang Xu's role in it must not be ignored.

Faced with such a powerful Arsenal, all Premier League teams have a feeling of wolf coming. The head coaches of each club have to take Arsenal and Zhang Xu as the main research object, analyze the characteristics and study the countermeasures.

Of course, Arsenal themselves will not be idle. In the following days, Wenger will continue to increase the intensity of physical training to reserve physical fitness for the season. On the other hand, he will further drill tactical formations and cultivate players' understanding.

Especially the tacit understanding between the players. Although Zhang Xu is very familiar with every member of the team, his teammates are not very familiar with Zhang Xu. This is also a prominent problem reflected in the warm-up match.

At the same time, in order to continue to strengthen the team's midfield strength, Wenger is still constantly replenishing the team's strength. After all, Arsenal's financial situation has been fully restored now, and there is a lot of money to squander.

However, no players have been added yet, and news of players leaving the team continues one after another.

First, the third goalkeeper Mannone moved to Sunderland, followed by striker Gervinho to Roma, defender Miguel to Leicester on loan, Chamakh to Crystal Palace on a free transfer, and striker Wellington to Murcia on loan.

Although these players cannot be regarded as the main force, it is definitely not Wenger's style to just go out and not go in, so even Zhang Xu can guess that Wenger will continue to increase the intensity of signings in the near future.

Currently, Podolski’s teammate Ozil is the most widely spread. Although Zhang Xu’s joining has greatly enhanced the strength of the team’s midfield, Arteta and Rosicky in the midfield are both in their thirties.

At this time, Ozil, who was not very happy in Real Madrid, appeared in front of Wenger. After Wenger's repeated invitations and repeated persuasion from his teammates in the national team, Ozil was obviously shaken.

Zhang Xu is naturally very familiar with Ozil. He has played against Ozil in all three games against Real Madrid. It has to be said that Ozil is indeed a very capable midfielder.

Although Zhang Xu didn't have much contact with Ozil, he could still use Ronaldo to do his ideological work. Therefore, after hearing that Wenger was trying to persuade Ozil to join him, he called Ronaldo directly.

"Hi, Zhang? Why are you free to call me? Isn't the league starting soon?" Ronaldo's voice came out of the phone.

"Well, Cristiano, I might need your help with something." Zhang Xu got straight to the point.

"Oh? What's the matter? Tell me!"

Therefore, Zhang Xu briefly described what happened to Ozil.

"You kid, you poach the corners of our team, and you still want me to help you with your work! Zhang, it's a bit too much! Haha!" Ronaldo laughed.

"Hey, Cristiano, as you know, Ozil is not very happy staying with you. There is an old saying in China that says that a twisted melon is not sweet. Why do you stop him?"

"Well, well, Ozil is really unhappy in the team, because he is not in the head coach's plan, so he is more likely to be purged, but, Zhang, to be honest, I really don't want him to leave, because sending him to you is tantamount to adding strength to your opponent! Especially going to your place, after having Ozil, you boy will be even more terrifying!"

"Haha, Cristiano, don't tell me, you are afraid of us just because Ozil joined Arsenal?" Zhang Xu deliberately provoked Ronaldo.

"How is it possible? Well, since you said so, then I will do this for you! Just wait for the good news!" C Rome strongly denied at once, and took over the matter of persuading Ozil.

"Well, if you can't do it, then I really want to despise you!" Zhang Xu said while striking the iron.

"Hmph, underestimate me? Arsenal just wait to receive Ozil, but, Zhang, if I get this done, you owe me a favor, right?" Ronaldo said with a strange smile.

"No problem!" Zhang Xu understood Ronaldo's meaning: "As long as I can do it in the future, I will never refuse!"

"Haha, good! Just wait for your words!" Ronaldo reached his goal, hung up the phone immediately, and went to Ozil to do ideological work.

Two days later, Zhang Xu got the news from Podolski that Ozil has basically made it clear that he has agreed to transfer to Arsenal!

Zhang Xu is also very happy about this. As the strength of the team increases, the chances of winning various championships will increase greatly. Why did he come to Arsenal? Isn't it to gain more honors and championship trophies?

Before the start of the Premier League, in addition to personnel adjustments, many things happened.

For example, on August 21th, Arsenal submitted a [-]-man squad for the UEFA Champions League qualifiers to the Europa League, and Zhang Xu was selected as a matter of course.

The following is the list of 21 players and their numbers:

Goalkeepers: 1-Szesny, 21-Fabianski, 50-Martinez
后卫：3-萨尼亚、4-默特萨克、5-费尔马伦、6-科斯切尔尼、17-蒙雷亚尔、28-吉布斯

中场：7-罗西基、8-阿特塔、14-沃尔科特、16-拉姆齐、18-张旭、19-卡索拉、22-萨诺戈、42-艾斯菲尔德、44-格纳布里、58-泽拉朗

Forwards: 9-Podolski, 12-Giroud
除以上21人名单外，在1992年1月1日以后出生，且在15岁后为阿森纳效力至少两个赛季的球员，自动进入欧冠B名单。他们包括：10-威尔希尔、15-张伯伦、25-詹金森、26-弗林蓬等。

For another example, on the international match day in the middle of the week, in addition to Zhang Xu, many teammates were called up to the national team to prepare for friendly matches.Mertesacker and Podolski have been named in the squad for the August 8 friendly between Germany and Paraguay in Kaiserslautern.Szczesny was included in the squad for the August 14 friendly between Poland and Denmark.Sagna, Koscielny and Giroud are also part of Didier Deschamps' France squad for a friendly against Belgium in Brussels on August 8.Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott are also in the England squad for a friendly against Scotland at Wembley.Cazorla was selected for Spain's away game against Ecuador.

It has to be admitted that this international match day still has a great impact on Arsenal's league preparations. The team's tactical drills and the cultivation of tacit understanding among players will be affected.

Fortunately, Zhang Xu, the core of the team, did not receive the call-up of the national team. For Wenger, this could not have been a better thing.

On August 8, the team's international players rushed back to the team to actively prepare for the first round of the league.

At this time, various British sports media began to offer odds for each club to win the league championship.

Although Arsenal has La Liga assist Wang Zhangxu to join, and the five warm-up matches also had a near-perfect performance, but not all the media are optimistic about Arsenal this season.

The world-renowned bookmaker William Hill offered odds for the Premier League giants to win the championship. Chelsea topped the list at 8 to 15, followed by Manchester City at 2 to 5, No.3 was Manchester United at 2 to 9, and Arsenal only ranked fourth at 1 to 6.

Although the odds are not very high, many media still give Arsenal a high evaluation. For example, "Sky Sports" published such an article on August 8: "China zhang joins, Arsenal's strength has greatly increased and it is expected to win the championship!" "

The article reads: After a series of hearty warm-up matches, Arsenal gradually emerged with many positive factors. Sagna returned to his state and perfectly assumed the important task of defending on the right, facing his former teammate Nasri many times.

Although Gibbs was attacked by Milner, Zabaleta, Keylor Navas and Richards on the left, he was still indestructible.

Koscielny was rock-solid in the middle, blocking the opponent's low-level crosses many times, and Mertesacker's strong air control ability also made the opponent's high-altitude bombing no threat.

Ramsey was reborn from Nirvana, with one pass and one shot reflecting the Welshman's comprehensive ability as a midfield metronome.Arteta continued his stable performance, with excellent pass and control vision, providing a good guarantee for Arsenal's quality of transition from defense to offense.

Podolski and Walcott cooperated tacitly with their teammates, passing and shooting well.

The most important thing is that when China Zhang joined, Arsenal finally had a core in the true sense, a core that can control the rhythm of the game!

In the previous warm-up matches, we were surprised to find that as long as China Zhang played, Arsenal could control the rhythm of the game in a short period of time and quickly take the initiative in the game.

In the past, Arsenal always had various chronic problems in defense, especially the gap between the central defender and the full-back was infinitely enlarged due to the weakness of the defensive midfielder covering a small area.

Now, because of China Zhang, his perverted speed and unimaginable physical ability allow his defensive organization to extend to every corner of the pitch. In this way, Arsenal's previous chronic problems in defense have been completely solved.

Arsenal without shortcomings is very scary!They are fully capable of competing for the league championship this season, and even the championship of other competitions!

　The new book "Greenland Paladin" will be released soon, so stay tuned!This book will stick to the end!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)