Chapter 56: United
After this round, the Premier League title race has reached a fever pitch, with only five league games remaining, with Liverpool currently at the top of the table on 68 points, while Blackburn Rovers and Arsenal are second and third respectively with 67 and 66 points. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
In this situation, everyone is unanimously optimistic about Liverpool, who have never won the Premier League, followed by Arsenal in third place, and Blackburn Rover?
Many more just see them as a chaperone.
For Blackburn supporters, these days must have been disappointing nights.
Under the backdrop of Mourinho's pre-match declaration that "the league is like a holiday", Blackburn has only scored 5 points in the last 4 rounds, making it extremely difficult for him to play the next league. But if you've watched the game, you'll realise that it's normal.
With festive anticipation, Mourinho and his 18 players arrived in London and came to Stamford Bridge, but unfortunately, after 90 minutes of confrontation, Blackburn could not get all three points, and in front of more than 1,300 Blackburn fans who came from afar, Blackburn still did not score a goal, and could only rely on defense to get a point, and they were flat and untempered.
In addition, Stam was sent off for two yellow cards in the latter stages of the game, and the Dutchman will miss the game in the next game.
The game was lost, the players were very disappointed, they did fight, but the frequent mistakes, the arbitrary tackles, were not going to give them a win against Chelsea.
Speaking after the game, Mourinho said: 'Chelsea deserved a point, they did well. ”
Only one point was taken in this game, which made it very difficult for Blackburn Rovers to play the next game, but Mourinho did not lose confidence, "There are still 5 rounds of the league, we are only 1 point behind Liverpool at the moment, this is not an insurmountable point, I think as long as we don't make mistakes, the championship will definitely be ours in the end!" ”
And Mourinho also deliberately pointed out: "We have one more game against Liverpool, I believe we will win!" ”
Jose Mourinho was referring to Blackburn Rovers who will face Liverpool in the penultimate game of the league, which could well decide the Premier League title this season.
It is pertinent to say that although Blackburn lost this game, the fighting spirit and enterprising spirit shown in the second half are worthy of recognition. And unlike Chelsea's current scores, which can't go up and down, Blackburn Rovers are obviously more anxious about scores.
Mourinho also admitted: 'Chelsea are a team with solid results, very good together, a team that is well knitted, our players are in a bad situation in the league, it has been hard lately, Chelsea can lose but we can't. ”
And when Ranieri commented on Blackburn's performance, he responded that it was "more refined than at the start of the season". In Ranieri's view, Blackburn Rovers are more aggressive and start to become more nuanced, "Blackburn Rovers are pursuing a tough style of play as a whole, and now I feel that they are playing more finely, especially with a player like Gyuli. ”
At a time when the outside world was worried about Blackburn, Henning Berg and Jeff Kenner, the team's two veteran captains, stepped up and took action.
After returning to Blackburn Rovers after the Chelsea team, the two former Blackburn mainstays, who won the Premier League, held an intra-squad meeting within the club, limited to first-team players.
In this closed-door meeting, Henning Berg and Jeff Kenner gathered all their teammates and sat down to discuss how they could continue to win.
None of the Blackburn players directly revealed what was discussed at the closed-door meeting, with only the team's two captains speaking to Blackburn's local media.
"We're going to tell us what needs to be done and what we're going to do." "At this point, we can't afford to lose our hearts and minds because then we're going to lose the season's work. ”
'We can never lose confidence and play fearless and confident every game to get back to the top of the UK. Jeff Kenner said:
"When we figure things out, we can win back-to-back games." Henning-Berg said.
The performances of the two "old men" of Henning Berg and Jeff Kenner made Arthur once again feel the importance of keeping them with a high salary.
Soon after the players' own internal closed-door meetings, Arthur quickly convened the club's top management for a management meeting and a banquet for all the first-team players.
Blackburn Rovers have found time to meet and speak to the team at every crucial moment in recent years. Amazingly, Arthur's speech was immediate, and Blackburn always showed a strong rebound in the shortest possible time.
Now, less than three days before Blackburn's final five league games, Arthur's presence has once again injected great excitement into Blackburn's squad at a critical moment when the team is racing against time to prepare for the game.
At this management meeting, Arthur did two things, the first of which was to put forward the "Nine Musts".
The "nine musts" are: life must be self-disciplined and strict with oneself; You must train hard to improve your technical level; Must firmly believe in the strategy and tactics of the manager; Must have a strong fighting spirit and will; Must have a tenacious fighting spirit; There must be a strong insatiable pursuit; You have to have a good attitude; Must have team spirit; The opponent must be respected, the referee must be respected, the fans must be respected, the media must be respected.
On the surface, all the "musts" are required of the players, but in fact they show the attitude of the club's top management - believe in Mourinho and support Mourinho.
In recent times, questions have been raised about Jose Mourinho, something he has not encountered since taking charge of Blackburn.
In this regard, Arthur expressed his support for Mourinho in particular, "Whether it is the training ground or the playing field, at any time and under any circumstances, there should be no distractions. I'm sure everyone will believe in the manager's technical and tactical arrangements. The team is a unit, it's normal to make mistakes on the pitch, don't blame each other, follow the manager's strategy and tactics, and play firmly."
Regarding Arthur's speech, Mourinho said: "Today, the boss met with everyone and talked about the 'nine musts', which I feel is very remarkable. Through more than a year of work, we have grown a lot and made great progress, but we must always remember that we must continue to put in a lot of efforts and must not relax. We are the best team in England. ”
And the second thing Arthur did in this management meeting was logistics.
As a veteran who is almost 30 years old, Stam can deeply feel the club's upgrading in terms of security.
In the last five rounds of the Blackburn Rovers league, Arthur's late guarantee is the best in history so far.
In order to play the last 5 league games of the season, Arthur set up a special last5 preparation work leading group, with Arthur himself as the team leader, Vice Chairman Mensa Bangsu and others as the deputy team leader, and the top leaders of each department as team members, giving Blackburn a "green light" to prepare for the game.
Secondly, Arthur announced that a well-known insurance company will be the first official sponsor of the club's financial sector, and they will provide Blackburn with a "golden leg" insurance of 30 million euros, which is the first professional sports disability insurance in football in England. This is the maximum group insurance coverage for professional athletes in England. In terms of coverage upgrades, the company offers Blackburn Rovers a high sum insured, up to €10 million per person.
At the heart of the safeguards is a significant increase in the winnings, and Blackburn's prize money package this season is unheard of in the English Peninsula.
The specific plan is as follows: win the Premier League championship with a prize of 10 million pounds; £1,000,000 for a single win.
Roughly calculated, if Blackburn wins all five games in the next five games, the total prize money will be at least 15 million pounds!
Obviously, this in the summer of 2002, an astronomical amount!
With the guarantee in place, Blackburn's morale is currently high, "The external conditions are good, as a player, I will definitely go all out, try to finish every game after that, and hope to have a good result." Stamm said.
It can be said that in this league championship, Arthur's preparations in all aspects are very meticulous and there are many factors to consider. Whether they can win the Premier League this season is up to Jose Mourinho and his players.
Arthur has used the last bonus magic weapon, which can be described as the hole cards, except for prayer, he really has no way and tricks to think of at present.
"I hope that we can unite as one, and we can really break the gold!"