host must win

Chapter 650: Moving Forward Firmly

Although Manchester United won the game, they still had no choice but to rank second because Chelsea defeated Tottenham Hotspur, who had performed very well this season, 2:1 in a London derby. In the first round of the match, Cargo overwhelmed Manchester United by 1 point and occupied the top position in the standings.

In another strong dialogue, Arsenal, fifth in the standings, defeated Liverpool, third in the standings, 2:1 at Highbury Stadium.

Liverpool, which lost, is 1 points behind Manchester United, which has one game less, and Chelsea, which is at the top of the list, is as high as 19 points.

In the middle of the week, Manchester United continued to play against the Hammers to help West Ham United at Old Trafford.

Since it was a double match a week, Ferguson made some adjustments to the starting lineup. The Dutchman Ruud van Nistelrooy returned to the main lineup and served as the captain.Ryan Giggs and 500 Mr. Neville also did not start, and Fletcher and Pique replaced them as the main players.

West Ham United is currently ranked in the middle of the standings and hopes to compete for a ticket to the European War, so this game is very active, while Manchester United is struggling.However, the team still defeated the opponent 1-0 with Ruud van Nistelrooy's goal just before the end of the first half.

In the 45th minute, Pique hit the opponent with a long shot from outside the penalty area. He immediately jumped up to grab the header and gave it to Park Ji-sung. Sweeping everywhere, the Dutchman scored his 6th goal of the season, surpassing Henry and rising to the second place in the scorer list, second only to Yin Jun, who is at the top of the list.

At the end of halftime, the Dutch applauded Park Ji-sung and thanked him when he exited the field.

With the win in this game, Manchester United once again overtook Chelsea and rose to the top of the standings in the 29th round of the same match.

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On the weekend, Manchester United continued to play and went to the Hawthorns to challenge West Brom in bloomers.

Ruud van Nistelrooy had to fly directly to the Hawthorns from the Netherlands on the morning of the match day due to the death of his mother-in-law, but he was still told to wait for an opportunity on the bench.Richardson also replaced South Korean winger Park Ji-sung, who returned home due to a family death. The former helped West Bromwich Albion to avoid relegation last season.

The last time West Bromwich Albion won Manchester United dates back to 1982.

Manchester United took the lead in the 16th minute. Giggs took a left corner kick. Yin Jun scored a header from 9 yards in front of the goal. a step far!
Manchester United expanded the score in the 64th minute. Cristiano Ronaldo cleverly picked a pass from the middle. Yin Jun catapulted his left foot from 12 yards in the middle and scored. This is Yin Jun's 30th league goal this season.For other players, the seemingly unattainable 30-goal mark is just that in front of Yin Jun.He has joined Manchester United for four seasons, and has scored more than 30 league goals in two seasons!

Recently, Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy have performed well, breaking through the 20-goal mark in the league one after another, but compared with Yin Jun, who has already broken through the 30-goal mark, the gap is a bit big.

If in the first two seasons, Henry and Van Nistelrooy could compete with Yin Jun on a par, with Yin Jun's gradual growth and maturity, it is difficult for the two of them to pose too much threat to Yin Jun.

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A day later, Chelsea suffered an upset in the league as they lost 0-1 to Fulham at Craven Cottage, their third defeat of the season.

With the loss to Fulham, when the league reached the 30th round, it was discovered that Chelsea had fallen behind Manchester United by 5 points in the standings!

This surprised everyone.

After all, Chelsea had already been eliminated from the Champions League before, and many people believed that the Blues, who focused on the domestic arena, would make great strides in the league and leave Manchester United behind.After all, Manchester United will soon usher in a wave of multi-line battles.

But the result is that Manchester United has made great strides in this wave of death matches, winning continuously, and quickly widening the points gap with Chelsea.

Chelsea lost 0:1 to Fulham, which was the first time the Blues lost to this opponent in 26 years. Mourinho planned to use a victory to smash the rumors that he would leave Stamford Bridge in the summer, but wait. It was the third defeat in the Premier League this season.

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Mourinho split the game in two, the watershed being his 25th-minute substitution.

"Although the final score was 0:1, the performance after 30 minutes is different. According to the performance in the first 30 minutes, we should lose, but according to the performance after 30 minutes, we should win."

The data seems to be on Mourinho's side. Chelsea's failure to pull back the score seems to be just a matter of luck.

In terms of ball possession rate, Chelsea reached 60.2%, Fulham was compressed to 39.8%, the scene was overwhelming, and the ratio of corner kicks was 16 to 0, the Blues had an absolute advantage.However, after careful analysis of the game process, Chelsea's "ball possession advantage" contains water.The ratio of shots between the two sides is 9 to 6, and Chelsea only has 3 more shots. As for the number of threatening shots, Fulham is not much worse than the Blues. Except for the goal, Collins John's single shot was saved by Cech, Pembry Odd's free kick also hit the post.

Chelsea's situation changed in the second half, but most of the threats came from Duff and set-pieces on the left.The Irishman was one of the few players in good form for the Blues, and he gave Lampard an excellent chance in front of goal, but it was a pity that the latter shot high.

This game exposed Chelsea's fatal problem, that is, the midfielder has little effective possession of the ball and a low passing rate.

In terms of staffing, Chelsea's midfield is dominated by interception and destruction. Makelele and Essien are representatives of this aspect. Lampard's long pass is accurate, and he can have excellent points and direct passes in counterattacks, but In the positional attack, the lack of belt control ability limits his power. Once the opponent gets stuck on this point, Chelsea's lack of creativity in the midfield will be exposed. It is difficult to have a smooth pass and penetration. 60 Most of the ball possession rate comes from invalid kicks in the backcourt.

In many cases last season, Chelsea had to rely on wingers to show their strength in front of the field, especially Robben. His breakthrough is often the source of threat, but this season the Dutchman's state has declined, and the rise of Joe Cole has made up for the loss to a certain extent , but Duff also has a gap compared with last season, and Wright Phillips has adapted so far. The power of the winger group has declined as a whole, which affects the sharpness of Chelsea's offense.

This season, Chelsea scored more goals from set kicks, but the total number of goals was basically the same as the same period last season (58). is their deadliest deficiency.

To improve this, Mourinho needs to make adjustments in terms of staffing.It is said that Mourinho has told Abramovich that Chelsea must bring Yin Jun to Stamford Bridge in the summer if they want to continue to compete with Manchester United in the Premier League and make breakthroughs in the Champions League and even win the championship.

(End of this chapter)