Everyone knows that the Premier League is not easy to play away from home, especially against Manchester City.

Why?

In the 08-09 season, Manchester City won two, drew five and lost 12 of their 19 away games in the Premier League.

If they were to be ranked only on the away side, Manchester City should be relegated as they are only better than Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion, and even worse than the relegated Newcastle United.

A very important reason why Manchester City was able to finish 10th in the league in the end is that they have a good home record, ranking third in the Premier League, only behind Manchester United and Liverpool, with 13 wins and 6 defeats, and no draws.

There is no doubt that there will be more difficulties on the road, and it will certainly be quite difficult for a team like Manchester City, which has just undergone a major reshuffle and even changed the entire starting line-up with a full nine of them.

Not to mention, Violent Ben's home stadium has always been difficult to play.

Gao Han also anticipated the difficulties of Ewood Park, and he was mentally prepared for the difficulties in the game, and after using the five-star confrontation card and the defensive card to stabilize the team's defense, he had to arrange for the team to retreat.

Since the attack in the front court can't open the situation, let's stabilize the position first, organize the pass control, and then slowly push forward.

After experiencing the rush at the beginning of the game and the impact of Blackburn's crazy counterattack, Manchester City's players gradually calmed down and began to calm down, especially the midfielder led by Xavi Alonso, who tried to control the pace of the game.

But Blackburn Rovers are willing to kill wherever they want, keep counterattacking, keep fighting, plus the rain is getting heavier and heavier, Manchester City still has a lot of mistakes in passing and receiving the ball, and the home team frequently gets counter-attacking opportunities to create threats.

The first half ended with a 0-1 scoreline, with Manchester City taking the lead for the time being.

But at halftime, Gao Han didn't dare to be careless at all, and kept encouraging the players, especially for several players in the midfield, Gao Han kept encouraging them to hold the ball, pass quickly and concisely, and use the pass to consume the opponent's physical energy.

"All the players have to run, where there is space, where they need to be answered, run where they need to go, as long as our passing control can be skillfully operated, the opponent can't grab the ball, the energy will be constantly consumed, and then the game will belong to us. ”

After the rematch in the second half, Gao Han's strategy was resolutely implemented by the players.

Vincent Kompany, Xavi Martinez and Zabaleta, Xavi Alonso, Mascherano, David Silva and Luka Modric, the entire central midfield of seven players, united their minds and played with the goal of trying to dominate possession.

Blackburn Rovers took the lead in the opening of the second half, trying to take Manchester City off guard from the start, but Manchester City were prepared for this, and after a fast-paced round of attacking and defensive battles, the game was quickly slowed down by Manchester City.

When the game entered the rhythm of Manchester City, although Blackburn was able to take advantage of the rainy and slippery environment to get some opportunities frequently, it was difficult to create a threat again, but the players in Manchester City's passing and possession play, some of them were too strong, tired, and their physical energy was quickly consumed.

After only 60 minutes, Sam Allardyce made the first substitution, replacing striker Robert with striker Di Santo to strengthen the pressing up front, hoping to create a mistake for Manchester City.

In less than 10 minutes, Sam Allardyce made another substitution, with striker Gallah replacing midfielder Andrews to continue to strengthen the front.

But as the game progressed, Manchester City's midfield and backfield passed more and more skillfully, and the players played in a familiar rhythm, and began to gradually get into the groove, frequently organizing threatening attacks.

In the 80th minute, Mascherano managed to pass the ball near the halfway line to Xavi Alonso, who tried to move to the left for Cristiano Ronaldo, but the Portuguese was heavily defended on the left flank and had to pass back.

Manchester City took advantage of the situation to advance the formation to the front, Xavi Alonso took the ball again, Benzema retreated to respond, and transferred the ball to David Silva, the Spaniard made a delicate through ball, directly sent the ball to the back of Blackburn's defense, Sanchez quickly diagonally into the penalty area from the right side, and scored with a right-footed volley, 2-0!

It was a goal that completely demoralized Blackburn.

Sam Allardyce quickly made his third substitution of the game and continued to strengthen his attacking and pressing up front.

For a time, on the field, Blackburn had four strikers.

However, the game ended 0-2, with Manchester City taking all three points away from home.

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After the game, the press conference hall at Ewood Park was packed with journalists from around the world.

They came here for only one purpose, and that was the high cold.

Returning to the Premier League after a five-year absence, Alpine's first game was not satisfactory, or should it be said, far from what journalists and fans expected of him.

Spending 400 million euros and bringing in a group of outstanding stars, only to have a bit of an embarrassing game at Ewood Park, which really disappointed a lot of people, because this is not the Alpine and Manchester City they want to see.

But after winning the game, Gao Han seemed to be in a good mood, and walked into the venue with Allardyce one after the other, smiling all the way.

As is customary, it was Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allardyce who was the first to answer the question, but his answer was a bit dragged, more explaining why the team lost at home.

Sam Allardyce believes that the absence of main striker Santa Cruz due to injury is the biggest reason for Blackburn's poor attack.

'If we had him, we would have been more able to take chances and the game would have changed completely. ”

For such words, the media reporters are hesitant, because Blackburn are missing Santa Cruz, but Manchester City are also missing a Kaka, both sides are big losses, and even have a greater impact on Manchester City's technical and tactical aspects.

As the winner of this match, Gao Han himself was satisfied with the team's performance.

'Yes, there is no doubt that Blackburn have every reason to think that the result of the game was unfair to them because they created more scoring chances than we did. ”

After the game, Gao Han got the statistics of the game as soon as possible.

In terms of shots on goal, Blackburn had a total of seventeen shots on goal, nine on target and eight off target, while Manchester City had just eight shots on goal, half of Blackburn's, with just five shots on target, scoring two goals and three off target.

Judging from the number of shots on goal, Allardyce said that if Santa Cruz can play, Blackburn's ability to seize opportunities will be higher, which is certainly not untargeted.

But if you look at the possession rate, Manchester City is as high as 58 percent, and Blackburn Rovers is only 42 percent, and the gap is also very large, which shows that from the overall level, Manchester City is still firmly suppressing Blackburn.

It should be said that the problems exposed by Manchester City in this game are basically the same as in the warm-up game, they are all old problems, so Gao Han has long been mentally prepared for this.

'Actually, I think my players are getting into shape, but we still need a little bit of time, we're a team that's just going through a regroup, and we can't be asked to be at our best from the start, right?'

But Gao Han also said that the players worked very hard, and many players made considerable contributions.

'For example, Petr Cech, as I said, he is the best and most well-rounded goalkeeper in the active goalkeeper and I am very proud of his performance in this game. ”

Facing Blackburn's nine shots on target, it would have been difficult for City to come out of the way without Peter's brilliant play.

That's why Gao Han praised Cech by name.

'Of course, we have a few other players who have worked really hard and are very good, but we are not good enough to work together, we are not good enough, we don't have enough chemistry and we need more games. ”

After that, Gao Han specially praised Blackburn, thinking that the home team had created a lot of trouble for his team, and Allardyce's coaching was very good, which made Allardyce embarrassed, and praised Manchester City in turn.

After the whole press conference, although Gao Han was the away team, he became the protagonist, but the press conference did not become tense as some media reporters deliberately wanted to guide, but the atmosphere was harmonious, Gao Han and Allardyce finally got up to shake hands and hug goodbye.

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In the first round of the Premier League, Chelsea beat Hull City 2-1, Manchester City beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0 away, both games were very difficult, and Manchester United beat Birmingham 1-0 at home with Rooney's goal, which was also not easy.

Only Arsenal were the standout, beating Everton 6-1 away.

It was a hearty victory, setting the stage for a three-goal lead early in the first half, and Moyes could do nothing but watch his side be slaughtered by the Gunners at Goodison Park.

It wasn't until the final minute of the game that Saha saved some face for Everton with a consolation goal.

Cesc Fabregas was named Man of the Match with two passes and two shots, Robin van Persie provided two assists, and Gallas, Vermaelen, Da Silva and Denilson all scored one goal each.

Arsenal also relied on this six-goal victory to reach the top of the Premier League standings.

After the first round of the game, Sky TV selected the best player of the round, and Bregas was the only one, and the best coach of the round, Wenger won the honor over Gao Han.

In the best 11 team, Manchester City selected three players, namely Modric, Sanchez and goalkeeper Cech, which is the team with the most selections in the best team in this round.

Arsenal and Manchester United each had one man selected, with the Gunners having Cesc Fabregas and Vermaelen, Manchester United having Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes, and Chelsea having only one Didier Drogba in the best team.

However, although Manchester City has three players selected in the best team of this round, the media is not satisfied with Manchester City's performance in this round of games, and the evaluation is not high, or even low.

The focus of criticism was mainly on the team's offensive and defensive levels.

When the famous reporter of the Guardian Green Wald wrote a column commenting on the game, he mentioned that several defenders of Manchester City were obviously not suitable for the back three style of play, especially Javi Martinez, who had always played as a midfielder, and suddenly retreated to the position of central defender, whether it was the selection of positions or the defense was very problematic.

Kompany was a right-footed player, but he played at left centre-back, while Zabaleta was at right-wing-back, but was deployed by Gao Han to a right centre-back, which left the players a little confused.

Another point of criticism is on the offensive end.

Everyone knows that Gao Han's best thing is attacking, but this Manchester City team did not play a satisfactory attack, the attack seemed to be very chaotic, the thinking was not uniform, once the ball entered the front, it seemed to become a headless fly, blind head.

Of course, as Gao Han said, every player in Manchester City's starting eleven has changed, and many of them are even coming to the Premier League for the first time, and they need time to adapt and run in. ”

"But I would like to remind Gao Han that the Premier League is the most competitive league in the world and there won't be much time left for Manchester City. ”

Greene Wald's column writes about the opinion of the majority.

Time is really running out for Manchester City.

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