Chapter 602: The Pressure Brought by Manchester United
"It has to be said that in addition to his excellent coaching ability, Dick also has quite a lot of luck...... Before he took charge of Manchester City, even if the League Cup games were not taken seriously, the FA Cup games were still quite valued, including those top teams, and the result? After he began to coach Manchester City, this season's FA Cup is a lot of upsets, and the strong teams that may beat them have been eliminated, and now in the entire top four, only Manchester City is a strong team, Portsmouth is a mid-table team in the Premier League, and Barnsley and West Bromwich Albion are only Championship teams...... Manchester City did not meet Portsmouth in the semi-finals, and their opponents were Barnsley, who unexpectedly eliminated Chelsea. ”
Now is the time when the knockout stage of the Champions League is in full swing, in the just concluded Champions League round of 16 knockout round, the four teams of the Premier League performed very well, Manchester United eliminated Lyon, Chelsea eliminated Olympiacos, and Liverpool and Arsenal eliminated the Milan duo of Serie A respectively, and achieved brilliant results in the Champions Cup, covering half of this season's Champions Cup - such an outstanding performance made England fans overjoyed, but for these four giants, But now they have bitterness and cannot speak.
Reaching the quarterfinals of the Champions Cup is naturally a good thing, but it means that they will invest more in the Champions Cup, after all, in the quarterfinals, their opponents are also very strong, Manchester United is against Roma, Chelsea is against Fenerbahce, Arsenal and Liverpool are going to fight against each other, in this case, of course, they can't concentrate on the league, and in the league, their biggest opponent, Manchester City, is a good opponent who only needs to play in the league......
Dick is not in such a good situation, as the report said, his luck is indeed quite good, at least this season, he has encountered a very good situation......
On March 16, in the thirtieth round of the league, Manchester City hosted Tottenham.
In the face of this opponent who had beaten him, Manchester City showed excellent form at home, in the first half of the two sides played 0-0, Manchester City did not have a trace of impatience, and in the 54th minute relied on a set-piece opportunity, the two central defenders formed a beautiful combination, Samuel nodded the ball in front of the ferry, Kompany first stabbed the goal in the chaos, for Manchester City to open the scoring!
After breaking the deadlock, City's second goal soon came, Di Natale received Torres's split and stabbed a shot in the box to extend City's lead, although Tottenham's Dimitar Berbatov pulled back a point before the end, but could not save Tottenham's defeat, 2-1, Manchester City won the longest six consecutive wins of the season and continued to secure their first place in the table!
In this round of the league, Arsenal suffered three draws in a row and have been left behind by Manchester City by as many as eight points, and they really began to show their weakness at this time in March, while Manchester United are in form, beating Derby County in this round and continuing to chase after Manchester City by four points.
"I believe that this season's Champions Cup will be won by the Premier League teams...... Well, I think the most likely winner of the Champions Cup is Manchester United, a great manager like Sir Alex Ferguson, it's not enough to have one Champions Cup, at least two to be worthy of Sir Alex Ferguson's status. ”
Dick said seriously in an interview that his shameless words made Manchester United fans want to scold and laugh - everyone knows what his idea is, if Manchester United wins the Champions Cup, at least it has to reach the Champions Cup final, and then the league will definitely be greatly affected, and Manchester United is now the closest team to Manchester City, and Manchester City's biggest rival......
Ferguson also replied humorously: "How can a Champions Cup champion be worthy of my status, at least it should be a double champion...... There's no chance of winning the treble, and the double is okay. ”
The two managers are not hurtful and angry, and the bickering has become a landscape in the recent Premier League, and everyone thinks that these two coaches are worthy of being fox-level demons - you must know that Ferguson's eloquence has always been very good, and he is also good at psychological warfare, and Dick has been known for his poisonous tongue and arrogance since his debut, but these two people have been so angry in the league for the first time, it is obvious that both sides are smart people, and they know that there is no need to fight too hard for others to see the joke.
For Ferguson, he does value the league, he has never denied this, but he also pays the same attention to the Champions Cup, in 99 he led the team to win the miraculous treble, but for Ferguson, who is already young, only one Champions Cup is not enough, at least two are needed, he retires to be able to have more regrets, this season is also a good opportunity, Roma was their defeat last season, if they play a little better next, It is not uncommon to win the Champions Cup, at least the probability is very high, whether it is Rooney or Ronaldo this season, they are in very good shape, these two people are his trump cards for winning the Champions Cup.
So even if he knew what Dick was thinking, he had to focus more on the Champions Cup, although Manchester City lacked experience in winning the championship, but not every team that lacked the experience of winning the championship will necessarily drop the chain at the last moment of the league, when Kaiserslautern created the miracle of promotion horses, they also lacked experience, but their head coach is Rehhagel, he is not lacking in experience, and the main striker Marshall is not lacking in championship experience, so they have the last laugh, This principle can also be applied to Manchester City, Dick's league championship experience can be described as the world's top, and there are few managers who can compare him with the number of league titles, plus Torres, Yaya Toure and Di Natale such veterans who have followed Dick's league championships, as well as experienced players like Samuel, Manchester City's so-called lack of experience is actually not so exaggerated, with these people, who can say that Manchester City lacks experience?
What's more, Manchester United now has no chance to face Manchester City, after passing Tottenham, Manchester City in the remaining eight league opponents only Chelsea and Liverpool are strong teams, the rest are middle and lower teams, not even relegation teams, in this case, Manchester City is considered the favorite to win the league, there is really no doubt.
From the point of view of the schedule, Manchester City is also very advantageous, their next two league opponents are Bolton Wanderers and Birmingham, which are teams with little hope of entering the European arena and no danger of relegation, Manchester City is not too difficult to beat them, after playing these two opponents, they will meet the strong team Chelsea, but the game against Chelsea is on April 5, around this round of the league, just when Chelsea plays the Champions Cup quarterfinals and two knockout rounds - Chelsea is not affected then it is called a ghost, After Chelsea, the next game will be really good......
Dick knows that, so he has a lot of confidence in winning the league and he knows he has been lucky lately, with Manchester United and Chelsea being knocked out of the FA Cup, which is also a good chance for him to win the treble in domestic competition – something that has never been done before by a team!
There are teams that have won the league and FA Cup double, and there are teams that have won the FA Cup and League Cup double, but they have won all three domestic competitions at the same time, which is something that the treble winner Manchester United and the five-time winner Liverpool have not been able to do, if Dick has won the Premier League as soon as he arrives...... Dick was very happy to think about this.
He's always been able to do things that no one else can't, and that has given him enough status and glory, and now there's something he's got to do that no one has ever done before, which makes Dick full of fighting spirit, and likewise, it's full of fighting spirit for the Manchester City players.
A week later, on the road, City won again with a brace from their attacking partners and the icing on the cake from Franck Franck Ribery, as City's trident scored five goals that allowed them to sweep Bolton Wanderers 5-1 away from home, losing 4-2 at home in the first round and losing even worse at home......
Manchester United also showed strong form, they swept Liverpool 3-0 at home to continue to chase closely on four points, which made Dick warn his players after returning to Manchester not to think that a four-point lead is a big advantage, a team like Manchester United will not give up easily, and Ferguson's response was not just a joke, but his heart......
However, Manchester City played a game of one week during this period, which was relatively easy, and Dick did not play much rotation at this time, and after a week's rest, Manchester City ushered in a second consecutive away game, away to Birmingham.
Birmingham are also a standard mid-table team, they have nothing to pursue and they perform well at home, after all, Dick has only only come to the Premier League, and has not yet established his prestige and status, unlike the last season at Inter Milan, many opponents of mid-stream and lower teams almost did not play a game and thought they were going to lose, and they lost the game with a few casual resistances on the field, Dick was able to win the treble in his last season, and a lot of factors include this......
However, Dick knows one thing that such prestige is not for nothing, nor does it fall from the sky, but is accumulated by winning one victory after another, and the more victories, the opponent will naturally not dare to fight against you, even if Dick was too famous before, he didn't win more games in the Premier League, and it was impossible to surrender without a fight.
So in this game, Dick commanded his team to win another victory, the last game was the collective outbreak of the forward trident, this game was the turn of the midfielders' excellent performance, Yaya Toure, Parker, and the back Barton, the three midfielders each scored a goal, helping Manchester City win 3-0 away to Everton, and Manchester United's state was also completely stimulated, they beat Aston Villa 4-0 at home, with such a big victory in the demonstration against Manchester City!
With a 3-0 win over Liverpool and a 4-0 win over Villa, Manchester United also showed their top form, which made Manchester City's two consecutive victories look a little bleak, although they are still four points ahead, but Manchester United's recent performances have proved that no matter what the circumstances, they will not easily admit defeat, let alone let Manchester City win the league title so easily - even if Manchester City's advantage is so big now!