Chapter 173: Slow Death (Part II)
Meunier faced Walket again in the second half The tension eased slightly, he lowered his center of gravity and looked at the pace of the opponent, but the defensive position was different from before, Hydward's latest instructions are very clear, against this tiger, prevent sudden passes, prevent inside and outside!
How so? You just can't let him break through easily, but you can let him pass the ball, just prevent the inside line when he breaks through, and let him go to the outside line and cross the bottom and bottom. Previously, Meunier had adopted the usual strategy of dealing with speedy wide players, pressing closely, not allowing him to start, and compressing his starting space, but the effect was almost zero.
When Walcoat saw that the inside line was blocked, he didn't try to cut inside, nor did he slow down, and went straight to the baseline.
Meunier followed behind.
There was cheering in the stands at the Emirates Stadium as eagle-eyed fans noticed the middle and Van Persie nimbly ran out of an absolute gap, leaving everyone behind.
"Biography!" Andy Gray couldn't help but cry out when he saw this scene.
As soon as the words fell, Walcoat did not adjust the cross and sent it into the middle, and the ball whistled like a cannonball on top of Van Persie's head.
But apparently the ball was not well mastered, and the ball deflected 108,000 miles towards the back post where no one was around, and then it was cleared out of the touchline by the arriving Portsmouth player.
Van Persie clapped his teammates in encouragement, while the tiger looked at his thick thighs in silence.
Half a minute later, Arsenal made a comeback, still on the right side of Portsmouth, still down a straight line, "Good ball, pass... Yes! Andy Gray hesitated for half a second and shouted.
The ball swept the fallen leaves like a strong wind, like a palm trick falling from the sky. Van Persie was entangled with Mustafi, and he had a very hidden action in his hand to pull the opponent, so he jumped half a second earlier than Mustafi, and he was bound to win the ball!
The commentator shouted, "This ball has ...... Is it? β
Arsene Wenger leaned forward on the sidelines, ready to cheer at any moment.
But the next second he sat down in his seat in frustration, the general did not reach this naughty football, Walcott this time the footwork was right, but the ball was too high, resulting in no one reaching at all, and the second penalty fell on Portsmouth's side, and cleared the sideline.
Van Persie: "......"
After another three or four minutes, Arsenal made a comeback, still on the right, Walcourt glanced at Meunier, who looked relaxed, pushed up 5 gears, released the clutch and stepped on the accelerator, and went down again. This time, the Belgians defended better than the last two times, and did not give him too much time to observe.
Andy Gray on the commentary bench calmed down a lot, "Walcott, cross!" β
Van Persie didn't have any movement in the penalty area, and watched the ball go headlong like an angry bird, with the big word "0" floating in the sky.
Aiming at the biography, it is all that ghost, not to mention that this time the quadruple lens was dismantled.
The general looked in the direction of his teammates and pointed to his legs, meaning: to the feet, OK?
In the 65th minute, Rosicky fell to the ground in pain after a confrontation with N'Golo Kante, and taking advantage of the dead ball, Wenger walked up to the little tiger and made a fish turn with his right hand to make him cut inside in a different way to establish contact with his teammate.
Hydward also walked to Meunier's side and explained, "Good job, keep up this defense" and then rolled up his sleeves to look at the time, and said, "The continuous sprint won't last too long, and that's when it will be our turning point!" β
The Belgian nodded yes, apparently regaining his confidence in the short minutes of ten minutes.
β¦β¦β¦β¦
Mendy on the side ran over and patted his teammate on the shoulder and asked, "Is that brother's nickname Little Tiger?" β
Meunier nodded and said, "yes, what's wrong?" England international No. 7, known in the media as Arsenal's new Thierry Henry. β
"Henry?" Mendy smiled, "Did you find that this cargo is sparsely parked, the cross is basically a plane, the ball is basically straight, little tiger?" Oh, I think it's better to call the tiger to stop the ball, the tiger plane, or the tiger straight line. β
Tiger Straight Line ???!!!
"Poof," Meunier squirted out of his mouth without holding back.
Mendy glanced at Walket and said, "Don't lose to him!" You can try to break the ball the moment he stops, I'm running on the other side, you take the ball and move to my side. β
Meunier bumped his teammate on the shoulder, said, "Don't worry," and ran back to his position.
Rosicky limped two steps to show that he had nothing, and the game was interrupted for two minutes and restarted, but this time Arsenal's control in midfield began to decline to varying degrees.
The collapse started from Walcott's side, and Hydward was right, the speed of the Tigers, who continued to sprint for most of the game, did slow down, especially at the moment when the man and the ball were connected, when he wanted to lead the ball past Meunier, who had been quiet for a whole game, suddenly stretched out his long legs and tackled it directly.
Walcoat rolled twice on the turf, but the referee signalled it was a clean tackle and Arsene Wenger roared from the sidelines.
Some players play recklessly and like to play physically against opponents from time to time, and Hydward accepts all of them, but it seems that Arsène doesn't like it, and his eyes are full of emotions called: Don't move my players.
Portsmouth had fallen below 30% possession at this time, Meunier didn't wait for Walcoat to get up and make a 45Β° diagonal long pass to Mendy, Benjamin stopped the ball on his chest, half-turned and shook off Gervinha who came to press, took two steps and no player around him came to press again, Mendy adjusted his pace and played a long pass behind the Arsenal defence.
The ball flew over 40 metres and was intercepted by Gibbs, who had played at centre-back, and he slowly began to look for attacking opportunities, completely oblivious to Jamie Vardy's onboarding.
No one has done a better job as a defensive striker, and if there is a heat map at this moment, you will find that Jamie Vardy's runs across the entire opposition half, making it difficult for Arsenal's backline to press too hard.
"Be careful," Koscielny shouted anxiously, wishing to be at the scene of the incident at this moment.
At the critical moment, Gibbs, who did not perform well in this game, made the old mistake of lack of concentration again, and the ball at his feet was tackled at the moment when the two staggered. The Arsenal defender's relaxed nerves were completely tensed, and a drop of cold sweat crossed the corners of his mustache, waking up like a dream!
Jamie Vardy had the best chance of the game and it was a one-on-one shot against the goalkeeper!
Szczesny dropped the ball and Jamie Vardy deftly picked it over the goalkeeper's head before rolling into the Arsenal goal.
"Vardy, Jamie. Vardy! 71 minutes, incredible, brilliant performance, Portsmouth's first shot of the second half broke through the Gunners' goal! β
Jamie, who broke the goal, slid and knelt on the turf of the Emirates Stadium to celebrate, two marks under his knees were clearly visible, and he turned around and roared angrily at the sky, and the chief at this moment was silent.
"The win belongs to the more industrious side," Andy Gray began to sum up the goal.
On the pitchside, Edward waved his fist to express his excitement, as if his side had advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.
Arsene Wenger's side are once again quietly dying in silence, or to put it another way, it doesn't matter how they play ugly against Arsenal, it's how they force a set of 18 palms into a military box.