Christmas is a traditional holiday in Western countries, but Christmas is not a good day for the teams participating in the Premier League, especially the teams at the beginning and the bottom, because every time Christmas is counted, it means that they are possessed by the "Christmas curse" again. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

There is a tradition in the Premier League that when Christmas comes, many teams go into a short hibernation. Therefore, the situation of title races and relegation is likely to change dramatically after Christmas. In the past ten seasons, for example, from 95-96 to 04-05, only Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers in 00-01 of the 10 Christmas titles finally lifted the trophy, and the remaining 7 Christmas titles ended up missing the title, which is one of the traditional "Christmas curses" in the Premier League.

Blackburn Rovers easily won the Christmas title this season with a nine-point advantage, and it will be interesting to see if the Blue Devils can break the curse for the second time after facing the Christmas curse again after last year.

However, Jose Mourinho's Blackburn Rovers are definitely capable of saying 'no' to the Christmas Curse.

According to Sky Sports' latest stats, the Blues have dropped just five points from 17 league games leading up to Christmas, averaging a whopping 2.71 points per game, breaking the record of 2.48 per game set by United and Blackburn Rovers themselves in the 93/94 season.

Manchester United back then, like Blackburn Rovers today, were unstoppable in the league and successfully defended their title all the way.

There are always a lot of amazing coincidences in history, and with Blackburn Rovers defending their title and a record number of points per game before Christmas, does that suggest that the Blues' journey to the title will be smooth sailing?

The suspense is still ongoing.

Perhaps, suspense has long ceased to be suspense.

Blackburn's second season after winning the treble began their second season with a devastating blow - easily lifting the Community Shield and UEFA Super Cup, then winning all of the first six games without conceding a goal, and winning all nine rounds, the focus of media discussion in England and around the world is: who else can stop Blackburn, can they set a record of 10 consecutive wins at the beginning of the season, and even all those unbeaten records will be lost?

In European football, there have been many industry insiders who have crowned the "Cosmos Team" on Blake itself.

But soon, Blackburn was back on the "ground". They ended their winning streak with a 1-1 draw with Everton, who had been winless in seven games, before ending their 49-game unbeaten run at Old Trafford after a Carabao Cup substitute rotation was knocked out by Charlton Athletic at the club.

But even so, United are still 10 points behind Blackburn. For the first time, Ferguson said, "The league is no longer a marathon, it's a sprint from the start to the end." ”

On the occasion of United's centenary of the club's centenary, Ferguson certainly wanted to mark the special occasion with a title, and Jose Mourinho's side went on to win the Club World Cup, winning an unprecedented six crowns in a single year, and then winning the next ten league games.

After surviving the Christmas curse, Blackburn finally took another nap.

February 11, 2006 was a holiday for many Premier League teams. The crowd in front of the TV watched in amazement as Sky TV brought back live reports from the various stadiums, or more from the Riverside Stadium to be exact.

The Sky reporter was on the verge of madness when Blackburn Rovers trailed Middlesbrough 2-0, "Guess what, Jose Mourinho's side have never been two goals behind their opponents, and now, look at what's going on behind the scenes!" ”

And by the time Blackburn was 3-1 down, the studio had become a "drunkard's party." Jose Mourinho had already used up three substitutions at the end of the first half, and his desperate performance made British journalists make a fuss.

Perhaps for the first time, Arthur deeply understood that his team was really the "enemy of the people".

One of the factors contributing to Blackburn's decline in form is the temporary departure of the team's main centre-forward Didier Drogba this season.

After Ibrahimovic's record move to Inter Milan this summer, Drogba finally became the team's starting centre-forward.

In 17 league appearances for Blackburn Rovers this season, Drogba has delivered eight goals and three assists, and the Blues fans are starting to miss Ibrahimovic so much.

However, just as Drogba's performance is getting better and better, he has to temporarily separate himself from the team and participate in the Africa Cup of Nations starting in January this year.

Compared to the World Cup and the Copa America, the AFCOPA has a small history, with the efforts and participation of countries such as Egypt and Sudan, the Africa Cup of Nations was launched in 1957 and has developed from being limited to North Africa to becoming an all-African football event.

With more and more African players heading to European football to pan for gold, and more African players appearing in the top five leagues, African players have long since become an important foreign force in European football. Starting from Liberia's Wehe, the improvement of African players' ability has also made them more into the European giants, and now every time the Africa Cup of Nations starts, the teams and even giants with African foreign aid will be affected accordingly, which is the best proof of the status and importance of African players.

Increasingly, we hear about the superstars of South America not participating in the Copa America, and the Copa America itself is in trouble, with the next Copa America not yet known. However, since 1968, the Africa Cup of Nations has been held every two years, and it has never changed, and has attracted the attention of the world with its drama and magic.

The most frustrating aspect of the "Africa Cup of Nations virus" is the schedule, especially for the Premier League, which has no winter break. The team was already underwhelmed after three consecutive weeks of Devilish fixtures during the Christmas period, and the hapless ones could be riddled with injuries, and the departure of the most physical African players would be incalculable for the team.

Hence Blatter's proposal in January 2008 that FIFA hopes that the Africa Cup of Nations will consider scheduling the tournament in June-July each year. Unfortunately, this season coincides with the rainy season in some countries in Central and West Africa, and it is difficult to hold cup-type continental events, so the selection of host countries has been too limited and has not been implemented.

As Ivory Coast's current number one star, Drogba will definitely not just want to go through the motions this Africa Cup of Nations, so it is very likely that Blackburn will not be able to welcome back their number one striker in a short period of time.

At the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations, Côte d'Ivoire reached the final for the first time after eliminating Zambia and Cameroon. Despite the Ivory Coast's strong performance, their final opponent was four-time champions Ghana, and there were few pre-match favourites on "The Elephant" to go dark. However, in the final played in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, the Ghana team with the famous star Anthony Yeboa was unable to knock on the opponent's goal, and the result was a 120-minute game that ended 0-0.

In the penalty shootout, the two sides created a miracle of all players on the field, until the 11th round, after the penalty was won, Ivory Coast goalkeeper Alain Gouamene saved the shot of Ghanaian player Bafo, 11:10, Ivory Coast won the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time, and the only time so far.

On 4 February this year, two AFCDA quarter-finals kicked off in Cairo and Port Said: Cameroon against Côte d'Ivoire on one side and Nigeria against ****** on the other.

If there is anything that these two quarter-finals have in common, it is undoubtedly that they were 1-1 for 120 minutes, and then they both staged crazy penalty shoot-outs.

In Cairo, Ivory Coast and Cameroon, who boast super centre-forwards Drogba and Samuel Eto'o respectively, played 1-1 with Cameroon in the space of 120 minutes, with neither Drogba nor Samuel Eto'o on the scoresheet, but both played an important role in the subsequent penalty shoot-out.

In this crazy penalty shootout, all 11 players from each team, including the goalkeeper, played on the pitch and did not miss a single miss, which is extremely rare in the entire history of football, and the atmosphere was extremely tense.

Under great pressure, another cycle began, and in the 12th round, Eto'o stepped forward to take the penalty, and the right footed shot of the "Cheetah" went over the crossbar; For the Ivory Coast, Didier Drogba came on and the "Monster" scored with a powerful shot.

In the end, Ivory Coast eliminated Cameroon 12-11, ending this thrilling and crazy penalty shootout.

Cameroon were knocked out after a classic penalty shoot-out, but the team's 29-year-old captain, Rigobert Song, set a magical record: he made 27 appearances in the final stage of the Africa Cup of Nations, breaking the previous record of 24 held by legendary Ivorian goalkeeper Gouamene.

While Drogba was happy after the quarter-final penalty shootout of Cameroon, Arthur and Jose Mourinho, who were far away at Blackburn, were depressed as it meant that the return of their number one centre-forward would be delayed by at least another week.

After Drogba participated in the Africa Cup of Nations, Blackburn can only use Van Persie and Larsson in the center forward position, but the former is only 22 years old and cannot carry the banner of the Blue Devils' forward attack alone, and the latter is about to turn 35 years old.

"Arthur, I've really had enough!" Jose Mourinho caught Arthur, who rarely came to the club once, and kept spitting bitter water.

"I'm not worried about the league, but the quarter-final between us and Barcelona in the Champions League is going to start on Wednesday, but until now, I don't know who to choose as a starting centre-forward?" Jose Mourinho is now also regretting agreeing to Ibrahimovic's departure in the summer.

"Didier is coming back soon, isn't he?" As soon as Arthur finished speaking, he saw a TV news report that Ivory Coast beat Nielia 1-0 thanks to Didier Drogba's goal to reach the final.

"Huh? José, looks like you're going to have to put up with it a little longer. (To be continued.) )