After beating Queens Park Rangers in the first round, Blackburn Rovers beat Crystal Palace 2-0 in their second game thanks to Duff's second consecutive goal and Carsley's icing on the cake. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

In this game, the only things that interested Arthur were Crystal Palace's starting centre-back Fan Zhiyi, and Alonso, who came on as a substitute in the 67th minute.

Because he has only been in the team for less than 10 days, Alonso has been very positive, but the effect is mediocre, but it is still quite much expected by Arthur.

As for the Crystal Palace backline led by Fan Zhiyi, Arthur only has hehe - because this is a backline that is at the bottom level even in League One, which is really not worth paying attention to.

However, after back-to-back home wins over Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace, Blackburn Rovers have a three-game winning streak.

Facing Crewe, a weak team that has been hovering in the middle of League One in recent years, Souness continued the starting lineup of the previous two consecutive wins.

In the 25th minute, David Dunn created a free-kick opportunity, Duff's cross was excellent, and Carsley's header flew just over the crossbar. Five minutes later, Blackburn Rovers were back in the game when Duff cut inside after a quick break down the left and fired wide of the near corner.

At half-time, neither side scored a goal, and the draw was a drawless for the time being.

In the 52nd minute, Blackburn Rovers took a quick tactical corner, Gillespie crossed low from the right, and David Dunn's flanking shot went just wide.

A minute later, Duff and Gillespie collided against the wall and fired just wide of the left post.

In the 71st minute, the newly joined Benayoun replaced Simon Grayson as a right wing-back, and it was his cross from the right that gave Blackburn the best chance of the game, but Ben Boggs sent a volley away from goal.

In the end, in the 90 minutes, neither side scored a goal, and had to accept the end of the handshake.

In the fourth round three days later, at the home stadium of promotion contender Norwich, in the face of more than 10,000 home fans, the 500 Blackburn Rovers fans who came with the team did not fall behind at all, and neat fan clothes, scarves and team flags fluttered.

Souness made considerable changes to the starting line-up for this game, with Ben Boggs, who had squandered many chances to score in the last game, being squeezed to the bench by Didier Drogba, the Ivory Coast Monster solo, Duff and Benayoun flying on the wings, David Dunn and Alonso forming the core of the midfield, and Carsley sitting in the back.

And with too many games playing in the early stages, older captains Henning Berg and Jeff Kenner were not in the starting line-up, with Carvalho and Paolo Ferreira taking their place.

As it turns out, Carvalho and Paolo Ferreira outgrew Henning Berg and Jeff Kenner at their peak, but the Portuguese defenders are still very young.

The Norwich winger seized a chance to force a cross through Ferreira, Carvalho was on the mark, allowing the opposition striker to strike a powerful shot from the top of the box, and the ball cut a beautiful arc between the right-hand post and the crossbar, and Friedel did not react at all.

Souness cursed a few words in his heart, rubbed his hands helplessly, and then signaled to the players on the field not to be affected by the opponent's lucky ball, especially Carvalho and Paolo Ferreira to continue to maintain their rhythm, and let Caslino strengthen the steal in the midfield, even if there are more fouls, to minimize the opponent's long-range shots.

If Norwich's frontcourt players are allowed to constantly attack Blackburn's backline, it will definitely cause a lot of psychological pressure for young Carvalho and Paolo Ferreira.

In the ensuing game, both sides played more cautiously, and before the end of the half, Alonso, who had been pinned on by Arthur and Souness, finally shone brightly, and after winning the ball near the center circle, he directly found Benayoun on the right with a precise diagonal long pass.

The Israeli full-back burst into the box with the ball and flashed out of angle, suddenly cutting inside with a low left-footed shot into the near corner of the goal, and the ball grazed the post and rolled into the goal. Benayoun, who won the silver boot last season in the Israeli league, opened the scoring for Blackburn!

After that, the two sides did not achieve anything, and the game went into halftime.

In the second half, the Norwich striker grabbed a point in the penalty area to win a corner kick on the right side for the team, and then the home team quickly sent a short corner to the feet of the Norwich captain, who directly crossed the middle, and the Norwich No. 9 center met the ball with a right-footed volley to equalize the score.

In the 59th minute, Norwich City got another chance to take a free kick on the right side, and it was the opponent's No. 9 striker who nodded the ball before Carvalho grabbed it, and the ball flew into the goal by grazing the back post, and Norwich at home overtook the score within ten minutes.

The momentum of the Blackburn fans was hit hard again, and although they were still shouting for the team as always, the sound was clearly not as loud as it had been.

Friedel took the ball out of the net and kicked it into midfield with no expression, and Peacock came over to comfort his team-mate who had made a mistake, but Carvalho was frustrated and kicked the post.

Fortunately, under the leadership of coach Souness, Blake's players on the field did not panic, and ten minutes later, Duff chased the wind in the middle, forced the opponent's back to successfully split the ball on the left side, and was struggling to clear the siege.

Eight minutes before the end, Blackburn played a lethal counterattack, David Dunn broke through the left side of the ball with the ball in the middle, Duff got the ball and seemed to pass a shot, the ball rolled to the back of the penalty area, Benayoun met the ball and volleyed was blocked, Drogba easily headed the empty goal.

The first goal of the Ivory Coast Warcraft after joining Blackburn Rovers changed the score to 2:2.

At the end of the 90 minutes, there was no more success for the two sides, and Blackburn Rovers won two consecutive away games after two consecutive wins.

Before they could take a breather, Blackburn Rovers ushered in the fifth round of fixtures - a total of 46 rounds in League One season, and the interval between each round seemed tight.

In the fifth round of the league, Blackburn Rovers once again travelled away to challenge Sheffield Wednesday United.

After the start of the game, Sheffield Wednesday had no intention of performing in front of the home fans, playing defensive counter-attacks.

As the minutes passed, the attack and defense of the two teams reached a balance, and now it seems that it is difficult to score goals except for someone making a mistake or a miracle, the scene is extremely dull, and even at halftime, there are many fans of the home team.

The second half played out in the same way as the first, with Blackburn Rovers still having few chances and Sheffield Wednesday not wanting anything to do, and the final result was 0-0, with Blackburn Rovers claiming their third consecutive draw.

After five rounds of the new season in League One, Blackburn Rovers remained unbeaten, but the performance of two wins and three draws with 9 points was definitely not excellent, and it was only temporarily ranked 6th in the standings.

……

"Is it Graeme? Something to come in and say. Seeing what appeared to be a shadow outside the window, Arthur opened the door to his office and beckoned the coach of the team, who had been standing outside, to come in and speak.

A somewhat depressed Souness sat in the chair opposite Arthur, and it was clear that the Scottish coach had a lot on his mind.

"Graeme, I don't think you've been right since yesterday's game, what do you think?" Arthur asked.

"Alas, Arthur." After a pause, Souness said: "I know you're unhappy with the team's performance, but I want to say we've been working hard ......"

Arthur patted the other man on the shoulder to stop Souness from continuing, he understood what Soness was going to say.

Blackburn's ambitions for the new season, although only more than 3 million euros have been invested in the transfer, but if you add the construction of infrastructure such as youth training bases and other medical equipment, Blackburn's book investment in this half month has approached 10 million euros.

It is clear to all that Arthur's goal this season is definitely not to keep the team in League One in the mix. The chairman's big money and the change of the top, Souness and the players did not dare not work hard, but the record of two wins and three draws was really not good, and the results fell compared with the same period last season.

Arthur understands that this is normal, and that a lagging transfer period will inevitably lead to a period of grinding pain.

The reason for this is that, on the one hand, in addition to the fact that the players of the new team are familiar with the team's tactics and have not yet formed a tacit understanding with each other, on the other hand, because Souness is still in the stage of knowing people, the level of recognition of the players of the new team is not as good as when he joined the team halfway through last year, when Souness joined Blackburn Rovers last year, the team is experiencing frequent changes of coaches. At the beginning of the season, Souness was more "experimental" in his lineup.

A review of Blackburn's starting line-up for five games may be a clue to this, and the team has undergone a technical and tactical revolution that has not been seen for many years, and perhaps Blackburn's current embarrassment on the books is only a short "period of pain". After a brief 4-5-1 formation, Blackburn Rovers preferred a 4-1-4-1 formation in the last two rounds, a change that Blackburn had not seen in many years, abandoning the two-back tactics in favour of Carsley's one-man midfielders.

Arthur didn't choose to talk more about Souness, because as a layman, he really didn't have the ability to guide the other party.

Arthur said: "Graeme, the current situation is also a test for the players, it is worth affirming that the team has shown the will quality of a team, its cohesion and fighting spirit always come first, so don't panic, I will continue to trust you as always, and look forward to you being able to bring me a good result." ”

Clenching his fists tightly, Souness nodded deeply at Souness and turned to leave.

The big waves wash the sand, whether it is gold or not depends on your own cultivation, Arthur took a sip of coffee, and thought.