Three days after the Manchester derby, Manchester City took to the City Stadium for the third knockout round of the Carabao Cup.

The opponent is Cardiff, a team from the second division of England.

According to the original arrangement, Gao Han carried out a large rotation in this game, and intended to use Cardiff to practice the team's tactics, still adopted the three-back tactics in the first half, but the midfield became a parallel position, arranging two full-backs from Bridge and Zabaleta to start as full-backs.

In addition, the front three was also adjusted, with Petrov, Jo and Sturridge starting together.

As a result, just three minutes into the game, Sturridge's goal gave City the opener.

After that, Manchester City also had a firm grip on the pitch, with youngster Michael Johnson partnering Elano in the middle and performing well, but the team's attack never threatened.

After the rematch in the second half, Gao Han adjusted the lineup, from the original three-four-three to a four-three-three formation, the trident remained unchanged, replaced the defender Colluka, and replaced the midfielder Stephen Ireland to further strengthen the control of the midfield.

But perhaps it was the constant adjustment and change of the high cold that made the players a little unable to adapt, and Manchester City's entire attack was a little chaotic, and they couldn't break through Cardiff's goal again until the end of the game.

In the end, Blue Moon defeated Cardiff 1-0 at home and successfully advanced to the next round.

In the seventh round of the English Premier League, Manchester City continued to sit at home, welcoming London's Hammers, West Ham United.

West Ham have not fared well this season and are currently 18th in the Premier League, but the Hammers are unquestionable.

Manchester City were at home and opened the scoring for Cristiano Ronaldo with the ball on the left flank when Cristiano Ronaldo set up Karim Benzema's goal just five minutes into the game.

However, West Ham United manager Gianfranco Zola also showed a very tough performance, and did not retreat because of the difference in strength between the two sides, but borrowed from Manchester United's style of play in the Manchester derby, and attacked decisively, taking advantage of the holes in Manchester City's backline, and soon Parker assisted Charlton Cole to counterattack and equalize.

When Charlton Kerr scored, the Premier League live camera also gave Gao Han a long close-up, because Parker and Charlton Cole were both players when Gao Han was in charge of Chelsea, especially Parker, who was introduced by Gao Han.

However, West Ham were a bit greedy after the equaliser, and were soon seized by Manchester City, with Cristiano Ronaldo pushing the score back to 2-1.

In the second half, West Ham had to retreat to their own half as their fitness declined, and in the 61st minute, Sanchez assisted Benzema to score another goal to extend the score to 3-1.

In the end, Manchester City also defeated the visiting West Ham United at home with a score of 3-1.

The most impressive aspect of the game was that City had 63 per cent possession and had 25 shots on goal, 14 on target, 11 off target and three goals.

West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green has been quite impressive.

In the other key games of this round, Manchester United beat Stoke City 2-0, Liverpool beat Hull City 3-1 at home, Chelsea beat Wigan Athletic 2-1 and Arsenal beat Fulham 1-0 away.

After the match, the Premier League standings remain unchanged.

In midweek, in the second round of the Champions League group stage, all four teams in the Premier League won except for Liverpool's 0-2 defeat to Fiorentina, which also cast a shadow on the Reds' visit to Stamford Bridge in the eighth round of the league.

At the weekend, Manchester City travelled south to Birmingham to take on Aston Villa, who are known as the home of the Devils.

After a week's rest, City went on the attack, but Martin O'Neill's side built a wall in the half, only in the fifteenth minute, when City took advantage of a set-piece in front of the goal, Cristiano Ronaldo took a free-kick that was saved by goalkeeper Friedel, and Javi Martinez was quick to set up Vincent Kompany's goal.

After the rematch in the second half, Benzema assisted Sanchez to score another goal to make it 2-0.

Manchester City were never able to find the back of the net against Aston Villa and eventually won 2-0 away.

And this game was also the first time Cristiano Ronaldo failed to score this season.

But with ten goals in eight league games, the Portuguese's attacking firepower is impressive.

While Manchester City struggled to beat Aston Villa away, at Stamford Bridge in London, Chelsea's home match against Liverpool was in full swing at Stamford Bridge in London.

The score was 0-0 and the time was 90 minutes.

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Abramovich sat anxiously in the chairman's stand at Stamford Bridge, looking impatient.

More than an hour earlier, he had received the news that Manchester City had taken a 1-0 lead over Aston Villa thanks to a goal from centre-back Vincent Kompany, and half an hour earlier, he had received the news again that Alexis Sanchez had scored again, 2-0.

Manchester City are out of the Devil's home stadium, but Chelsea are still teetering on the death line.

Ninety minutes later, the fourth official on the sidelines raised a sign for three minutes of stoppage time, but the score was still 0-0.

Abramovich scolded indignantly, "Damn!"

It was a very awkward game for Chelsea and they were badly out of form throughout the game.

Scolari lined up in a four-three-two-one, with a combination of Robinho, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka up front, with Arshavin on the bench and arguably the strongest Chelsea could have put in the line-up.

But such a set of lineups, in their home stadium, has never been able to break through Liverpool's goal.

Benitez's targeted tactics for this game were very tightly arranged, and players such as Gerrard, Skrtel, Glen Johnson and others were very active, causing a lot of problems for Chelsea's attack and defence.

Liverpool have had twelve shots on goal so far, and Chelsea have one less than Liverpool with eleven.

Corners, offsides, etc., Chelsea are also inferior to Liverpool, and even have fewer fouls.

The Blues had a dominant statistic in the game, with a 52 per cent possession rate, which was not much the same as Liverpool's, and the efficiency of their shots, with seven on target from 11 shots, compared to just three of Liverpool's 12 shots on target.

The reason why there is so much difference is due to John Terry's outstanding performance at the back.

This made Abramovich a little unwilling, because he guessed that tomorrow there will definitely be media reporters who will use the topic to play and hype Gao Han's contribution to Chelsea back then, which is the last thing Abramovich wants to hear.

"Is the game over there?" Abramovich sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose hard.

Granovskia, the assistant sitting next to him, nodded and mumbled, "It's over, 2-0, Manchester City won." ”

After hearing this, Abramovich sighed again and wanted to scold his mother.

So far this season, two teams have won both sides in the Premier League, one against Alpine Manchester City and the other against Chelsea.

Manchester City's performances this season have not been satisfactory, especially in attack, and Chelsea's move away from Rijkaard's pursuit of possession and more pragmatic play after Scolari's arrival has made the Blues look less than good, but they are very efficient at picking points, after all, the team is still very strong.

But in this game, facing Liverpool, it was impossible to live or die.

If this game is drawn, then Chelsea's winning streak will come to an abrupt end, so how can Abramovich be reconciled?

That is, when Abramovich was about to scold his mother, a burst of cheers suddenly broke out in the stadium.

Seeing Robinho dribbling forward on the left flank and being tripped by an opposition defender, the referee did not hesitate to award a free-kick in front of the goal, while Lampard ran to the penalty spot and quickly whined in a free-kick.

The ball fell to Didier Drogba at the edge of the box.

I only saw the Ivorian monster suppressing Carragher and Skrtel with a strong body, and after receiving the ball, he squeezed away the two defenders, turned and dribbled the ball sideways, and then saw Anelka rushing over, and immediately passed the ball to the top of the arc.

Where would Anelka miss such an opportunity and go straight to the curling volley.

I saw the ball go through a wonderful arc, past the players in the box, and grazed the fingertips of the Spanish goalkeeper Reina, who was flying to save, and crashed into the Liverpool goal behind him.

The referee's whistle sounded the moment the goal was scored!

In an instant, the entire Stamford Bridge stadium suddenly boiled.

Abramovich even rushed out of his seat and shouted at the stadium.

"Damn, it's finally a goal! It's a damn goal for me!"

"Yay! Eight wins in a row!"

"Damn bastard, damn Gao Han, come and see, we're also winning eight in a row!"

The anger that suppressed the whole game finally disappeared at this moment, with Anelka's goal.

…………

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1-0, the final winner in stoppage time, Chelsea won 1-0 over Liverpool.

Abramovich's oblivious shouting in the stands was also captured by media reporters at the scene.

Although there was a lot of noise at the scene, Abramovich was scolding in Russian, no one heard what he was saying, and everyone could tell from his uncontrolled behavior that he was venting his excitement.

With a win over Liverpool, Chelsea maintained an eight-game winning streak.

However, at the end of the game, Manchester City overtook Chelsea on goal difference to move up to the top of the Premier League table, followed by the Blues, both teams on an eight-game winning streak without defeat.

This has undoubtedly given countless British media hype fodder.

Everyone knows that there have been many years of grievances between Gao Han and Chelsea, if Gao Han left Chelsea before, he always chose to deal with it in a low-key manner, then last season, Abramovich directly fired head coach Rijkaard on the bus, and after Gao Han witnessed the scene, he broke out in full swing and criticized Chelsea's lack of respect for the manager.

It can be said that this incident became the fuse for the outbreak of contradictions between the two sides, and the bombardment of Gao Han also put Chelsea in a difficult situation for a while, and no one wanted to take over such a notorious team.

In the end, Abramovich still used multiple layers of connections and did not hesitate to offer a high annual salary, and finally persuaded Scolari to use the authority of the Brazilian coach to calm the Chelsea dressing room and rebuild an iron army to compete with Manchester City led by Gao Han in the new season.

It is clear that Abramovich's goal was achieved.

Scolari's eight-game winning streak has given Chelsea their best start to the league since the Alpine.

It was also after this round that Manchester United and Liverpool showed signs of decline, and the Premier League gradually presented a situation in which Manchester City and Chelsea competed for dominance.

After the eighth round of the Premier League, the Europa League was suspended again for a two-week international break.

But just when the national team was gearing up and competing for the last few tickets to the World Cup in South Africa, a news from the United States once again pushed Gao Han to the forefront of the world's media.

(End of chapter)