Entering the finals, Chen Ping was very satisfied.

Although the League Cup has the lowest gold content, it is also a champion. For Chen Ping now, winning the championship is victory. It's just that the opponent in the final is Chelsea, who is currently in excellent form, and Chen Ping needs to think carefully about how to play against Chelsea.

However, the League Cup final was held on 27 February 2005.

There are three Premier League fixtures, two FA Cup fixtures and two UEFA Cup fixtures ahead of the Carabao Cup final. Fortunately, West Ham have already been eliminated in the third round of the FA Cup and do not need to play in the FA Cup. So before the Carabao Cup final, West Ham only had five games.

Compared to West Ham, Chelsea are currently in the fourth tier and have not gone out of any cup competition. However, Chelsea had only played one game in the knockout stages of the Champions League before the Carabao Cup final. The Carabao Cup final will not be played until the second game of the Champions League knockout stage is played.

As a result, Chelsea have one more game to play than West Ham in the coming month, for a total of six games. Including the League Cup final, there are seven games to be played. Not only that, but Chelsea's opponents are also stronger than West Ham's, including the Champions League knockout stage opponent is the very strong Barcelona Dream II team at the moment. In fact, according to the original schedule, the 28th round of matches between West Ham and Chelsea should also be in the middle. It's just that there will be conflicts because there are too many games, especially to guarantee the League Cup final, so the schedule will be adjusted. The 28th round of the Premier League will be moved to March.

Although Chelsea have to play so many games, Chen Ping does not dare to be careless. Because Chelsea are a team with a real balance of attack and defence, without many shortcomings. And the depth of the squad is the most powerful in the Premier League.

On January 29 and January 30, the fourth round of the English FA Cup began.

West Ham don't play, so it's totally okay to rest. But Chelsea have games. Chelsea are now in a stage of explosive form, which can be described as seeing God and destroying God, seeing Buddha and destroying Buddha. Met Birmingham City in the fourth round of the FA Cup,

Winning is very easy.

Birmingham are currently sixteenth in the Premier League and are not far from the relegation zone. How can Birmingham attach importance to the FA Cup at this time, for Birmingham relegation is the most important. As a result, Birmingham don't even have the FA Cup in the lower leagues yet. Facing Chelsea where is the opponent. The strength of Chelsea's substitutes has been completely complete in Birmingham.

Chelsea eased up 2-0 to beat Birmingham City to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup. Chen Ping is very happy that Chelsea have reached the fifth round of the FA Cup. Because the more games Chelsea play, the more distracted they become, the less pressure there will be on West Ham in the league.

After the fourth round of the FA Cup, February 2, 2005, it was the 25th round of the Premier League. West Ham host Crystal Palace. Crystal Palace are currently 18th in the Premier League and in the relegation zone.

Working hard to get out of the relegation zone.

But now West Ham is already very strong, whether in terms of strength or psychology, West Ham is already a standard strong team. Playing against a weak team like Crystal Palace, West Ham can't afford to miss a beat. Chen Ping will not miss.

With a score of 4-1, they beat Crystal Palace.

At this time, Arsenal continued to fall behind, losing 2-4 at home to Manchester United. But Chelsea have been doing very well and have been biting West Ham. In the 25th round of the Premier League, Chelsea beat Blackburn Rovers 1-0 away to complete an eight-game winning streak.

February 5, 2005, 26th round of the Premier League.

West Ham travel to Norwich City, bottom of the Premier League. Although the game was very intensive, because there were no other games, it was relatively easy for Chen Ping to adjust the team. While some key players may have to play back-to-back, the situation is rosy. In particular, Carrick, who is a midfielder, has played a lot of games this season, but has not missed games due to injury this season. This is very important for West Ham.

After all, West Ham is not the only one with such a busy schedule, and even more so with West Ham's opponents Norwich. Compared to West Ham's squad depth, Norwich they don't have much squad depth.

At this point, teams like Norwich will have options.

The schedule is dense and there is a lot of competition for points. At this time, a team like Norwich will also pick opponents. A desperate fight against a strong team like West Ham would not do Norwich any good. After all, the thickness of their lineup is limited, and they are basically a set of main lineups to play games.

Playing with West Ham is exhausting, and the future games will not be easy to play.

Therefore, it is also their strategy to retreat appropriately and focus on the relegation opponent. The more intensive this kind of game is, the better Chen Ping's basic training for West Ham players will be, that is, the players' physical advantage is great.

West Ham continued their strong run with a 3-0 win at Norwich.

Not to be outdone, Chelsea won 2-0 at their home stadium against Manchester City. Since the start of December, West Ham and Chelsea have been surprisingly good so far.

Both teams almost swept the Premier League. Whether it was against a strong team or a weak team, the performances of both teams were jaw-dropping.

February 12, 2005, 27th round of the Premier League.

West Ham host Southampton, 19th in the Premier League. Since the 25th round of the Premier League, West Ham have met three teams in the Premier League relegation zone in succession. Crystal Palace, Norwich City, Southampton, three teams currently in the bottom three of the Premier League.

Chen Ping did not relent, and West Ham did not nap at all.

They beat these relegation zone teams very strongly. During the game, Lambert once again came to the fore and scored a hat-trick. The later the season, the more intense the game, the greater West Ham's physical advantage and the better West Ham's performance. That's the case in this game, Southampton don't say that the strength is not as good as West Ham, the technical and tactical ability is not as good as West Ham, and even the running ability is far inferior to West Ham. At the end of the game, West Ham ran more than 14,000 meters more than Southampton, which is equivalent to one more player on the field.

West Ham won 5-0 against Southampton. The first grab

After the game, Lambert was already admired by all the media. Since the end of 27 Premier League games, Lambert has scored 32 Premier League goals for West Ham, more than 30 league goals. Lambert has become the most efficient striker in the Premier League since its inception. surpassed the Premier League sharpshooter Shearer of the year, and the sharpshooter Henry after entering the 21st century.

What's more, there are currently around ten rounds left in the Premier League, and according to Lambert's form, he could even score forty league goals. Once Lambert does score 40 league goals, it will be a Premier League goal record. What's more, Lambert is a native of England.

In recent seasons, the Premier League's scorer charts have been dominated by foreign players. Especially the top scorers such as Henry and Vanney, they are even more overwhelming for local players. Even Owen, England's last world-class homegrown striker, was suppressed by Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy, and even left Spain this season. After Owen left Liverpool, the homegrown strikers who stayed in English football were far from world-class strikers. Originally, the most promising thing in the entire English football scene was Manchester United's talented Wayne Rooney. Unexpectedly, Lambert, who no one expected before the season, conquered the Premier League instead, and even kept breaking various goal records.

What's more, Lambert just celebrated his 23rd birthday. In terms of age, Lambert is not very old at all.

How could the English media let it go.

All sorts of touting followed. Including what Chen Ping said before, Lambert's remarks that he can win the Golden Globe Award have also been constantly mentioned by the media. Many media in England began to say that Lambert had a chance to win the Ballon d'Or. Once West Ham win the Premier League, it will be a legend that will cause a stir in European football. As West Ham's main striker, Lambert deserves to win the Ballon d'Or.

However, at this time, Chen Ping was low-key.

Because Chelsea are already crazy at this time, there is no team that can stop Chelsea. Chelsea have played more games than West Ham and are against stronger opponents, but they are still on a winning streak. In the 27th round of the Premier League, Chelsea won 1-0 away at Everton, who were in form in the second half of the season.

After the 27th round of the Premier League, West Ham began their journey to the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup.

On 16 February 2005, West Ham took on Austrian side AK Graz. Chen Ping took the main players to Austria. This is the first time this season that Chen Ping has played a League Cup game with his main players. Even when he faced Lazio at home, Chen Ping did not let all the main players play. But this expedition to Austria is to put all the main forces on the field.

Because after this game, there is only one game until the League Cup final. That was the second match of the UEFA Cup knockout round. There was also the fifth round of the FA Cup, as well as the twenty-eighth round of the Premier League. However, West Ham have already been knocked out of the FA Cup, and the Premier League round of 28 against Chelsea has been adjusted due to a clash with the League Cup final.

In addition, the second match of the UEFA Cup knockout round and the League Cup final are only two days apart, and it is impossible to let the main players play for the League Cup final. You can't let the main players rest for more than half a month, which is not conducive to adjusting the state of the main players. So in this season's UEFA Cup, West Ham played for the first time with an all-main team.

There was no suspense in the game.

Graz AK is very weak. He was in a very weak Group F, and AK Graz was also very difficult to appear. In front of him are teams like AZ Alkmaar and AJ Auxerre.

The strength of West Ham's main force is top even in European football, let alone Graz AK. The first time the main players played in the League Cup, these main players are in good form. West Ham comfortably beat AK Graz 3-1 away and have already reached the last 16 of the UEFA Cup with one foot.

25 February 2005, the second match of the UEFA Cup knockout round.

In order to consider the League Cup final two days later, plus the 3-1 victory over the opponent in the first game, Chen Ping sent a complete substitute lineup. However, even if it is a substitute lineup, West Ham's strength is higher than that of Graz AK.

At home, West Ham defeated Graz AK 2-1 and eliminated Graz AK 5-2 on aggregate to reach the last 16 of the UEFA Cup. Since the restructuring of the Champions Cup, the top teams in European football have gone to the Champions League, the gold content of the League Cup has dropped greatly, the influence has shrunk sharply, and there are basically no strong teams in the League Cup.

This is even more true in the 0405 season of the League Cup.

There is no traditional powerhouse to be found. West Ham started in the UEFA Cup qualifiers, went through the group stage, and played a knockout game, where they met the most famous team they faced were Lazio. With the exception of Lazio, West Ham have not faced a truly European powerhouse. Newcastle are currently the most famous team in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup. There are quite a few other teams, and there are even some teams whose names have not even been heard of.

When West Ham played in the UEFA Cup, Chelsea also started their game. On 20 February 2005, in the fifth round of the FA Cup, Chelsea began to make their choices. Four-front operations are easy to say, but difficult to do.

Don't look at the depth of the Chelsea bench, there are a bunch of European players on the bench. But playing on four fronts is also a very heavy burden for Chelsea, and the players are also very tired. In the fifth round of the FA Cup, Chelsea could not survive, not to mention the opponent in the fifth round was the Premier League powerhouse Newcastle.

Mourinho couldn't do his best for the Champions League knockout round in a few days. Newcastle's current situation is that the Champions League is impossible, and even qualification for the UEFA Cup is difficult to obtain. In the Premier League, it is almost a team that has no desire. Therefore, we attach great importance to the League Cup and FA Cup.

The result was a 0-1 defeat to Newcastle in the fifth round of the FA Cup and Chelsea left the Cup.

For West Ham and Chelsea, the burden is too heavy now to abandon the FA Cup. But for teams like Arsenal and Manchester United who don't have a chance to win the Premier League, the FA Cup is still very important. Therefore, they still attach great importance to the FA Cup, and they have eliminated their opponents one after another to reach the sixth round of the FA Cup.

February 24, 2005, Champions Cup one-eighth knockout.

Chelsea went to Camp Nou.

The result was a 2-1 defeat for Chelsea by Barcelona. Not only that, but Chelsea and Barcelona have caused a lot of trouble. Jose Mourinho blamed referee Frisker for entering the Barca dressing room at half-time and speaking intimately with Rijkaard. said that because of this, Drogba would be sent off in the second half. Almost directly criticized Barcelona for having a relationship with the referee on duty, Franks.

Jose Mourinho's post-match remarks caused an uproar. This is the hottest news in European football at the moment.

The rumor is boiling.

Even the referee on duty was threatened with death by Chelsea fans, and Mourinho instantly became the public enemy of the entire referee. In the midst of all this distraction, the time came on February 27, 2005, which was the time for the final of the English League Cup.