Chapter 77: The exciting battle for the top spot under the devil's schedule
Chapter 77: The exciting battle for the top spot under the devil's schedule
For some powerful teams, winning only one League Cup or FA Cup in a single season is not considered a success at all.
At best, it can only be regarded as a guarantee for the season's results.
But for some teams, if they can win a cup championship every season at this stage, the fans will be quite satisfied.
Newcastle is now in the stage of transformation from the latter to the former.
Just looking at Li Chen himself, the players of Newcastle and the senior management of Newcastle.
With such a huge investment, winning only one English domestic cup title this season is certainly not a success.
But for Newcastle fans, they have not tasted the taste of championship for a long time and they are very satisfied with the result of winning a championship every season.
Even though they know that the team they support is already very strong and has even been at the top of the league table for a long time.
But they are afraid of being poor after all. Their cautious mentality makes them dare not discuss their feelings after winning the League Cup and the celebration scenes with friends and family on the Internet even now.
There are even many Newcastle fans who have been deeply influenced by Li Chen's usual calm and low-key remarks.
They have discussed how to rally around other Newcastle fans if the team loses the Carabao Cup final.
Let's not let everyone be used by the media and disrupt the team's more important league championship process.
This scene is rare. Newcastle fans now do not behave like the supporters of a wealthy team at all.
Li Chen also found it interesting when he learned about this situation while surfing the Internet.
However, he has no intention of changing the current mentality of his fans.
He thinks this is good. Fans have demands on the team and a desire for championships, but they can also restrain themselves from stirring up trouble in public opinion.
If you want to celebrate wildly or attack the opponent's fans, it will not be too late to do it after you actually win the championship.
After all, the winner is the king and the winner takes all. Anyone can become a dark horse in a football game before the dust settles.
What's more, Manchester United, which has completely switched to a defensive counterattack recently, has rebounded and has maintained an impressive record of nine rounds unbeaten since losing 2-3 to Arsenal.
In the Europa League knockout stage, they also eliminated the favorite to win the championship Barcelona with a total score of 4-3 and entered the round of 16, and their morale is high.
It's hard to say whether Newcastle can easily beat Manchester United within 90 minutes of the game.
So it is a good thing to be low-key and cautious.
Li Chen once again criticized the somewhat impetuous atmosphere within the team at the team preparation meeting.
If it were at the beginning of the season, many players in Newcastle might have thought that Li Chen was too cautious.
But now, when the world champion coach "Sir Lee" opened his mouth, all the players sitting in the conference room nodded frequently like good kids, directly indicating that whatever the boss said was right.
The sharp increase in personal authority made Li Chen's control over the team and the entire locker room easier and more relaxed.
After getting rid of their unnecessary impetuousness, Newcastle's players quickly understood the correctness of Li Chen's cautious approach to various competitions in the following fierce league battles.
On the evening of February 2th, Newcastle faced the challenge of West Ham United at home.
Prior to this, Manchester City, which had already completed the seventh round of league make-up matches in advance, had quietly surpassed Arsenal in the standings.
The Blue Moon Army is currently in second place in the league, only two points away from Newcastle, which has 54 points with one game less.
The situation for winning the championship has become increasingly intense as Manchester City has overtaken the rankings.
Feeling the huge pressure from Manchester City, Newcastle's main players made up their minds before the game that they must withstand the pressure and defeat the Hammers!
Unfortunately, the progress of the event did not go as smoothly as they had hoped.
The root cause of the bad luck is not that the Hammers are now outstanding in strength and in great shape, but because the Hammers, who have fallen behind Leeds United and Nottingham Forest in the rankings, are only one step away from falling into the relegation zone!
West Ham United, who were fighting to avoid relegation, showed great will and fighting power in this game!
From the beginning of the game, they were more determined to fight to the end than Newcastle's starting players.
Crazy pressing, close combat as much as possible, and the ubiquitous defensive stranglehold.
If it were the era of three substitutions in football, Li Chen would be happy to see West Ham United overdraw their fighting power in advance in exchange for a balanced situation at halftime.
But times in football are different now.
Mid- and lower-tier Premier League teams like West Ham United really have to be willing to fight hard and pay the corresponding price - for example, if they receive multiple yellow cards in a game.
Then they are indeed qualified to fight against stronger opponents to the end.
After all, we can now replace 5 people in a game.
Such substitution rules are of great benefit to coaches like Li Chen who have strong on-the-spot adjustment capabilities.
But it has also correspondingly raised the bottom line for mid- and lower-level professional teams in the entire football world to score points when dealing with strong rivals.
West Ham United made good use of this substitution rule today to fight Newcastle to the end.
At the end of the first half, in order to curb Newcastle's central attack as much as possible, Paqueta, full-back Caofar who tried to move inward as much as possible to assist in defense, and right center back Corell all received yellow cards.
According to common sense, in the second half of the game Newcastle can focus on attacking West Ham United's right defense area.
As long as West Ham United's players who received yellow cards early do not want to be sent off, they can only reduce their defensive efforts.
But Moyes simply replaced Cao Far and Corell during the half-time break.
Instead, they are replaced by Cresswell and Ben Johnson, who are full of energy and have no defensive worries.
As for Paqueta?
Moyes led the team to attack first in the second half, but after 10 minutes of fruitless offensive football, he replaced the Brazilian midfielder with Soucek, who had stronger defensive capabilities.
At this point, all the results of Newcastle's 45-minute attack in the first half were in vain.
It was not until the 70th minute of the second half that Maddison caused Rice to commit a tactical foul and receive a yellow card. Newcastle's offensive dilemma was gradually resolved.
But at the critical moment, Moyes' defensive courage still allowed West Ham United to hold the defense line narrowly.
C Ronaldo's shot hit the post at a crucial moment and Chris Wood, who came on as a substitute for Havertz in the second half, headed the ball slightly wide, both made countless Hammers fans in front of the TV gasp!
In the last minute of regular time, West Ham United goalkeeper Fabianski made two consecutive saves to block Ramos' winning header and Guimaraes' follow-up shot!
West Ham United are stuck.
Under the huge pressure of relegation, they also burst out with strong fighting ability and successfully took away a point from St. James' Park.
For Newcastle, this absurd game had no other meaning except to reflect their strong offensive firepower and bad luck. Nearly 70% ball possession, 24 shots, 11 shots on target, 11 corner kicks, 92% pass success rate...
Even though they played such dominant offensive data, they still couldn't score a goal. The media reporters at the scene felt sorry for Newcastle.
However, Li Chen, who had behaved a little wildly and manically during the game, praised West Ham United's tenacious performance after the game.
"That's the power of unity and that's the power of football. I have to say that West Ham United performed better today because they played a better game under greater pressure than they expected.
David taught me a lesson, damn, he really took advantage of the substitution rules to the extreme, but I have to congratulate him.
It's not just because of this game, but because I see that under his leadership, West Ham United will be able to unleash more strength and possibilities in the future.
They will definitely be able to avoid relegation this season, I have no doubt about it, and I wish them good luck..."
Li Chen's post-match speech won him the favor and applause of the Hammers fans.
Because he is not like many other coaches who advocate offensive football and shout that the better team did not win the game when faced with such a situation.
Or even worse, they criticize their opponents' utilitarian tactics.
What the hell, if the better team didn't win, how can you have the nerve to say that your team performed better?
Also, are teams that value defense more inherently sinful?
They fought desperately to avoid relegation, but the result of their all-out efforts was scorn and criticism from the opposing head coach?
What kind of bullshit is this!
Li Chen's appreciative speech made West Ham United supporters feel truly respected.
Their total commitment and fighting spirit were recognized by stronger opponents.
Li Chen's equal appreciation for teams of various styles has impressed many neutral fans with his open-mindedness.
Of course, Li Chen is definitely not in the mood to watch the fans' praise and flattery of him.
It is one thing to sincerely admire the resilience West Ham United showed in this game.
He was also upset about losing points to West Ham United.
In the worst case scenario, if Arsenal and Manchester City both win.
Then Arsenal, who have played the same number of games as Newcastle, are only 3 points behind Newcastle.
Manchester City, who have played one more game, will catch up with Newcastle and temporarily eliminate the points gap between them!
This is really an exaggeration. You know, Newcastle has not lost a league game yet.
The biggest mistake they made was to draw three games in the first 21 league games.
But even so, the opponents were still not really left behind by them, and instead kept chasing and getting closer.
The battle for the top spot in the league this season is too fierce.
Fortunately, Liverpool has long since dropped out of the championship race, otherwise it would be too scary.
Think about it, the league has reached the 22nd round, and four teams are unable to widen the points gap.
要不就是18胜3平，要不就是17胜3平1负这样的超级战绩，真是让前四以外的其他队伍看到都绝望。
Li Chen had already prepared for the worst, and he was also ready to appease the players and boost the morale of the team at the training ground the next day.
A few hours later, the result of the match between Arsenal and Manchester City came out, which surprised him and made him extremely happy.
"Damn you, Kong Erlangzi! You really are the one who comes wherever there's fun! I won't curse Tottenham for the next week, well done!"
Li Chen laughed out loud in his rented villa as he watched Tottenham beat Manchester City 1-0.
Who could have thought that Manchester City, who had just defeated Tottenham 2-0 in the replay a few days ago, would be retaliated by Tottenham today!
As for Arsenal, who were forced into a 1-1 draw by Everton in an upset?
Li Chen can only say that the Premier League relegation teams in the second half of the league are really not to be touched.
These things are really poisonous. In the first half of the league, they all pretended to be dead, and anyone who saw them could bully them.
But once the second half of the league begins, these soft persimmons turn into super water ghosts and will kill anyone they see!
No one expected that the three championship contenders would lose points unexpectedly in this round of the league.
What’s even more bizarre is that when Newcastle failed to hold on first, Manchester City and Arsenal, who clearly had the opportunity to go further, made big mistakes one after another.
The carnival feast for Chinese Premier League fans is here.
Because Qiangzi's emoticon pack of "I gave you a chance but you're useless" can come in handy again.
Manchester City and Arsenal fans who were teased in various sports forums could only helplessly accept it with their faces covered.
On February 2, Newcastle traveled to an away game to participate in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
They had good luck in the draw, as they drew Fleetwood from English League Two.
The Newcastle substitutes who got the chance to start did not make any mistakes and simply won 6-0, helping the team advance to the final 16 of this season's FA Cup.
After leading the team to victory, Li Chen immediately led the team back to Newcastle to prepare for the 23rd round of the Premier League against Bournemouth three days later.
In this round of the league, Arsenal and Manchester City, who appeared first, were trying their best to wash away the shame of their defeat in the previous round of the league and were eventually ridiculed by public opinion.
In the end, Arsenal beat Brentford 3-1 at home, and Manchester City also won Aston Villa 2-0 at home.
The pressure finally came to Newcastle.
However, in this round of the league, facing Bournemouth, a serious relegation zone team, Newcastle went all out and swept the opponent 4-0.
Ronaldo had a burst of momentum, scoring two goals and making one assist, helping the team secure the victory early on.
However, Newcastle's honeymoon period in the schedule has come to an end.
In the next 20 days, they will face the most challenging schedule of the season.
In the league, they will play Liverpool and Manchester City consecutively, and there will also be a League Cup final against Manchester United in between.
This gives the entire Manchester City team, which is currently only three points behind Newcastle with one more game played, real hope of overtaking!
(End of this chapter)