Chapter 786: A Chance to Shake Off Chelsea
The Carabao Cup is just an appetizer, followed by a double league and Champions League ties.
The sixth round of the league is a great time for Manchester United to get rid of Chelsea, who face mid-table side Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City, who have been bought by Middle Eastern tycoons.
Although the Premier League is long, the gap between the teams competing for the title is not large, and the vast majority of the teams that won the championship in the end do not have much advantage, and the last three seasons have been within three points, so the team aiming to win the title should not be careless in any game, and the opportunity to get rid of the opponent like this must be firmly grasped.
Manchester United are taking this game against Bolton Wanderers very seriously, with many fans saying that United cannot hold back their strength in the league for the Champions League clash with Valencia in midweek.
For Park Ji-sung, this match against Bolton is even more significant, as Bolton have another South Korean team, Lee Qinglong.
The 22-year-old joined Bolton Wanderers in 2009 and has since adapted quickly to the Premier League. Last season, he made 26 appearances for Bolton, scoring four goals, and in the first five rounds of the league this season, Lee Qinglong started four times and came off the bench once, helping Bolton achieve a record of one win, one loss and three draws, and is one of the most popular new stars in the Premier League, and is considered by South Korean fans to be the successor of Park Ji-sung.
In fact, Lee Qingyong is more talented than Park Ji-sung, and the ceiling is higher, and he has the same abundant physical strength as Park Ji-sung. At the same time, as a wide player, he has good passing vision. What is commendable is that he also has the rare technical characteristics of Korean players, strong ability to stop and touch the ball, coupled with composure and calmness that does not match his age, so that Li Qinglong has the potential to become a first-class superstar.
In fact, before the Premier League started, Korean fans began to obsess the Korean derby, some time ago Korean fans even regarded the game between Manchester United and Bolton as a contest between Park Ji-sung and Lee Qinglong, and the last round of Park Ji-sung's double red meeting did not play for a minute, which greatly hit the confidence of Korean fans, and they did not dare to brag anymore, lest when the time comes, Ferguson will press Park Ji-sung on the bench again, making the Korean derby a joke.
Recently, Park Ji-sung has fought the hardest in training, and he has completely treated training as a game, hoping that Ferguson can give him a chance to play.
Park Ji-sung didn't dare to expect to start in the talent-rich Manchester United, as long as he could have a substitute time and an explanation to his parents and fans, Park Ji-sung would be satisfied.
Ferguson has always been very satisfied with Park Ji-sung's attitude, but after all, age is not forgiving, Park Ji-sung is 29 years old, although the original Park Sanlung has not become Park Sanpang now, but there is a big gap with the peak, and Ferguson can only use Park Ji-sung as a substitute.
When the South Korean media hyped the Korean derby, the Chinese media also hyped the Asian derby between Gao Xiaodong and Li Qinglong.
Compared with the South Korean derby that may not be realized, the Chinese media think that the Asian derby is obviously more reliable, but there are also Chinese reporters and fans who think that there is no Asian derby at all, Li Qinglong and Gao Xiaodong are not at the same level at all, Gao Xiaodong is the triple crown winner and has entered the top ten of the Golden Ball Awards, Li Qinglong is just a rookie who has just entered the Premier League, how to compare with Gao Xiaodong.
Since Gao Xiaodong's transfer to Manchester United, he has become the darling of fans and media both on and off the field, and Park Ji-sung was gradually reduced to a marginal person last season, and now he is even more bleak under the backdrop of Gao Xiaodong.
Li Qinglong's performance in Bolton Wanderers this season was like a chicken blood, and they all thought that Li Qinglong would rise like a comet and become Gao Xiaodong's strongest opponent in Asia.
But the Chinese media has shrugged off South Korea's arrogance, and has not even bothered to refute it, and all the pre-match discussions are Manchester City and Chelsea's double blue meeting.
Before the acquisition of Manchester City by the Middle East, the principle that the enemy of the enemy is a friend is the one who runs for the enemy, Manchester City and Chelsea have a close relationship, Manchester City not only blocked Manchester United themselves, but even preferred to lose themselves to help Chelsea and Manchester United compete for the title.
But after the acquisition of Manchester City by the Middle East tycoons, Manchester City, who are ambitious and expected to become giants, is not willing to be Chelsea's little brother again, so Manchester City and Chelsea have also begun a brutal fight, last season Manchester City doubled Chelsea, and defeated the Blues 4:2 at Stamford Bridge, helping Manchester United, but Manchester United did not seize the opportunity, and was finally overtaken by Chelsea and lost the championship.
Before the game against Manchester City, Chelsea won five consecutive league games, and even had a better goal difference than Manchester United in the first four rounds, against Manchester City, Chelsea are bent on revenge for last season's double killing, sandwiched by five consecutive wins, and want to eat Manchester City away from home.
However, Chelsea people have forgotten that Manchester City's manager Roberto Mancini is also an Italian coach and that the counter-attacking defence is ingrained into the bones.
In the face of Chelsea's onslaught, Manchester City played steadily, waiting for an opportunity to play Chelsea's counterattack, Chelsea dominated the whole game, but Manchester City finally beat Chelsea 1-0 with a goal from former Manchester United player Carlos Tevez, breaking Chelsea's all-win golden body.
Chelsea's defeat is great news for Manchester United, although Valencia, the Champions League opponent in midweek, is also a strong opponent, but now that Chelsea have lost, the importance of the weekend game against Bolton has surged, and even Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson has said that such a good opportunity is very rare, and Manchester United must seize the opportunity to beat Bolton Wanderers and take the initiative in their own hands.
The English media also believe that Manchester United will have no problem qualifying from the group regardless of their away game against Valencia, and now it is time for United to go all out in the league to beat Bolton.
Because this season's league title is very important to Manchester United, Manchester United now has the same number of top-flight titles as Liverpool, if Manchester United win this season, they can overtake their arch-rivals Liverpool and become the real supremacy of England, and also help Ferguson realize his sentence "My greatest wish is to pull Liverpool off the throne." "Arrogant or cowhide.
The more important the game, the more intense the training for Manchester United became, and on one occasion, Park Ji-sung had a very rare argument with Fletcher over a tackle.
Fletcher usually has a good impression of Park Ji-sung, and he knows that Park Ji-sung is desperate to play in the game against Bolton, so he didn't bother with Park Ji-sung.
However, many things are not something that can be achieved by hard work, and after training the day before the game, Ferguson announced his starting line-up for the next day, and Park Ji-sung was again omitted.
At the moment when Ferguson finished reading the starting 11, Park Ji-sung felt that it was dark in front of him and almost fell out of his chair.
Park Ji-sung first thought of his parents, who flew to England to watch him play, and the South Korean fans who were waiting for him in front of the TV, all looking forward to witnessing a Korean derby. But Park Ji-sung wants to disappoint all their expectations, and this strong sense of self-blame makes Park Ji-sung embarrassed.
As a South Korean player, Park Ji-sung is strong-willed and has an indomitable spirit, and after training, he personally went to Ferguson to ask why he was not selected.
Ferguson still has a good impression of Park Ji-sung, he patiently explained to Park Ji-sung that although he trained very well, what Manchester United needed was not defense, but attack, and Park Ji-sung was far inferior in attack whether it was compared with Giggs or Nani, so he chose Giggs and Nani, but Ferguson said that if the situation allowed, he would give Park Ji-sung some playing time, which made Park Ji-sung a little relieved.
Although it was a foregone conclusion that he would not be able to start, Park Ji-sung did not give up, he went to the Laurie Hotel where Gao Xiaodong lived again with gifts, hoping that if he had the opportunity to play, let Gao Xiaodong take care of him more.