From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 932: Manchester City Attack

Facts have also proved that Bruno's concerns are not unfounded.

On the evening of December 27th, Manchester United challenged Newcastle United away.

After overcoming the crisis of being tied by Chelsea and ushering in a wave of five consecutive Premier League victories, Manchester United finally suffered a draw again with a score of 1:1.

The goal was conceded in the seventh minute, and Newcastle took the lead in scoring! Newcastle's midfielder intercepted the ball, and Saint-Maximin shot from the top of the arc, but De Gea had no reaction at all!

Newcastle beat Manchester United 1:0 at home!

Afterwards, Newcastle United faced Manchester United with a defensive posture.

In the first half, Mourinho fielded a midfield combination of Gundogan, Kante and Bellingham, with Gundogan playing as a front midfielder. Bruno and Harry Kane both sat on the bench. At the same time, Lindelof played as a right back away from home, forming a back line with Maguire, Van Dijk and Cancelo.

The original hope was to provide a transition for the team to get through this devilish period of play, but unexpectedly Newcastle United seized the opportunity to score the first goal, while the team's offense was never able to pose a threat.

Mourinho started making substitutions from the 64th minute, first replacing Greenwood with Mahrez, intending to strengthen the attack.

In the 71st minute, Bruno came on as a substitute, replacing Gundogan.

After coming on as a substitute, Bruno quickly made a threatening cross from the left, and young player Bellingham volleyed the ball from outside the penalty area, which just brushed the post and went out of the bottom line, making Newcastle United fans break out in a cold sweat.

In the 81st minute, Dalot, who came on as a substitute, made a precise cross from the right to the back of the penalty area. Bruno quickly cut into the penalty area, grabbed the point, and volleyed the ball directly into the Newcastle United goal.

Newcastle United goalkeeper Dubravka was extremely excited in this game. He even flew to save Bruno's shot, preventing a wonderful goal, but fortunately Harry Kane followed up and scored.

Manchester United then continued to besiege Newcastle United, but Dubravka performed very well, saving Rashford and Bruno's wonderful shots in succession, and finally maintained the score of 1:1 until the end of the game.

In the end, Manchester United drew 1:1 with Newcastle United away from home.

………………

Although Mourinho lost 2 points due to a draw with Newcastle United, who were deep in the relegation zone, he was still satisfied with the result of the game.

Although Newcastle United is currently ranked 19th in the Premier League standings with only 10 points, the Magpies have been in very good form recently.

On October 2021, 10, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund announced that it, together with PCP Capital and Reuben Brothers Sports and Media Investment Group, had completed the acquisition of 7% of the shares of Newcastle United Football Club for £100 million. After the acquisition, the Saudi Public Investment Fund will own 3% of the club's shares, and the remaining 80% ​​will be divided equally between the other two partners.

On October 10, Newcastle United and head coach Bruce parted ways peacefully. On November 20, Eddie Howe became the team's head coach.

Before Eddie Howe took over as Newcastle United coach, Bruce's team had a record of 5 draws and 6 losses without a win.

Eddie Howe did not have an immediate effect after taking over Newcastle United. The Magpies suffered three consecutive defeats, making them the fourth team in Premier League history to fail to win in the first 4 rounds, with a record of 14 draws and 7 losses.

However, in general, after Eddie Howe became the head coach, Newcastle United achieved 1 win, 2 draws and 4 losses, and also got 5 points, which is an improvement compared to the Bruce era.

Although this is still the performance of a relegation team, the morale of Newcastle United has improved significantly after being acquired by a wealthy Saudi club.

Coupled with the devilish Christmas schedule, Manchester United's loss of points was not completely unexpected by Mourinho.

………………

Manchester United drew and lost points, and the happiest party was Manchester City.

Blue Moon Manchester City will face Leicester City at home in this game.

Since losing to Manchester United away, Manchester City has been invincible, and has been in full swing in recent games, scoring more than 4 goals. In this round, they returned to their home court and scored 4 goals in less than half an hour, eventually defeating Leicester City 6:3.

Just 4 minutes into the game, Fernandinho made a clever overhead pass from the middle, De Bruyne made a powerful world wave shot and scored, Manchester City took the lead 1: 0. 7 minutes later, Manchester City had a corner kick opportunity on the right side, Laporte was pulled down and made a penalty, Pogba took the penalty and scored, Manchester City led 2: 0.

In the 21st minute, Bernardo Silva made a straight pass from the front of the penalty area on the right side, De Bruyne then passed the ball diagonally to the right, Sancho followed up with a cross from the bottom, which was saved by goalkeeper Schmeichel, and Pogba made a supplementary shot in front of the goal and scored his second goal, Manchester City led 3:0.

Three minutes later, Manchester City came back. Sterling was tripped in the penalty area and won a penalty. Sterling took the penalty himself and scored. Manchester City led 3:4.

Manchester City, who were relaxed after the break, almost made a big mistake. Maddison, Lookman and Iheanacho scored three goals in 10 minutes, bringing the score to 3:3. The game suddenly became suspenseful.

However, Manchester City soon broke the suspense again. Four minutes after Iheanacho scored, Manchester City seized the opportunity of a corner kick on the right side. Laporte headed the ball into the goal and Manchester City stabilized the situation at 4:5.

At the end of the game, there was a corner kick on the right side. Diaz headed the ball to Sterling, who swept the ball into the net in front of the goal and scored his second goal. Manchester City secured the victory 6:3.

………………

After the game, the entire British and European media were shocked by Pogba's two consecutive goals. Everyone believed that Manchester City's No. 6 player finally completed his transformation and played at his best in the crucial Christmas devil's schedule after being under heavy pressure throughout the season.

Guardiola also spoke highly of his favorite player in the press conference after the game: "I had a hunch that he could change the game. Paul has been in very good form recently. I think he is on his way to the peak of his career, and he himself has shown a great and urgent desire."

Regarding his favorite player, Guardiola made no secret of the fact that he is a strong contender for the Premier League Player of the Year this season.

"Before the winter break, everyone would have considered Bruno Fernandes from Manchester United or Salah from Liverpool. Of course, both are excellent players, but I believe that after the winter break, everyone will add one more candidate, that is Paul Pogba.

"All three players have excellent goal-scoring abilities and can use their outstanding performances to push the fans to the highest peak. We should expect these three players to bring huge changes to the Premier League this season."

………………

With the end of this round, the Premier League has truly ended the first half of the game.

Of the other matches in this round, except for three that were postponed for some reason, the remaining six had already been decided before the match between Manchester United and Newcastle United.

The previous dark horse West Ham United lost 2:3 to Southampton at home, was overtaken by Tottenham in the standings and fell out of the top six.

Arsenal beat Norwich 5-0 away, tying the team's biggest away win in the Premier League. In the first half, Saka scored a goal and Tierney expanded the advantage; in the second half, Saka scored another goal, Lacazette scored a penalty kick, and Smith Rowe added icing on the cake, firmly sitting in fifth place in the standings.

Tottenham Hotspur played against Crystal Palace at home. In the first half, Ronaldo broke the deadlock, Lucas Moura scored a goal, Zaha was sent off, and Son Heung-min expanded the score in the second half. In the end, Tottenham Hotspur won 3:0 at home against Crystal Palace, and rose to 29th place with 6 points.

Chelsea, which had been in an unstable state for more than a month, played against Villa away and still had some problems. In the 28th minute, Targett made a cross from the left side of the front court at a 45-degree angle, and James headed the ball into the net, which was even more tricky than the angle of the shot. Chelsea fell behind 0:1. However, Chelsea then began to explode, Jorginho scored twice from the penalty spot, Lukaku scored a goal, and finally reversed the victory 3:1.

In addition, Brighton defeated Brentford 2:0.

The Premier League is halfway through, and the Premier League standings look like this:
Manchester United has 19 wins and 17 draw in 2 rounds, ranking first with 53 points;

曼城19轮14胜2平3负，积44分排名第二；
切尔西19轮12胜5平2负，积41分排名第三；
利物浦18轮11胜5平2负，积38分排名第四；
阿森纳19轮11胜2平6负，积35分排名第五；
热刺16轮9胜2平5负，积29分排名第六；
西汉姆联18轮8胜4平6负，积28分排名第七；
狼队18轮7胜4平7负，积25分排名第八；
……

Judging from the standings, Manchester United's advantage is still huge, but it is equivalent to the huge lead of 13 points over Manchester City at the end of the Manchester derby. In the last 8 rounds of games, Manchester City has narrowed the points to 4 points, narrowing the gap to single digits.

The reason for this is that Manchester United was first tied by Chelsea in the 13th round of the Premier League, and then in the just-concluded Christmas devil schedule, they were tied again by the relegation team Newcastle United and lost points.

Of course, losing points is normal in Manchester City's Premier League season. It is impossible for Manchester United to win all season without losing points.

For example, Manchester United's current 17 wins and 2 draws are already one of the highest half-season results in Premier League history.

In the 30 seasons of the Premier League, this result is enough to rank in the top three!
Moreover, all the half-time champions with higher points than Manchester United this season were created by the Manchester United under Mourinho!
In the 2016-2017 season, Manchester United had 18 wins and 1 loss in the first half, and with 54 points at halftime, it broke the Premier League halftime championship points record!
In the 2017-2018 season, Mourinho's second year at Manchester United, the Red Devils won 19 consecutive games in the first half, breaking the Premier League's historical half-time points record with 57 points!
Next is Manchester United this season. In the first half of the 19 league rounds, they remained unbeaten with 17 wins and 2 draws, and earned 53 points!
而在穆氏曼联开启之前，英超半程积分最高的，也是穆里尼奥所保持。他带领的切尔西在2005-2006赛季前半程取得17胜1平1负的战绩，拿到了52个积分。

(End of this chapter)