As mentioned earlier, the FA Cup has always been a blessed place for Arsenal, while the League Cup is a sad place for the Gunners.

Since the tournament was launched in 1960/61, they have reached the least number of finals and won the title among the Premier League's traditional powerhouses, with eight and two respectively.

In 1968 and '69, Arsenal reached the final for two consecutive years, but twice they hated the final stage. Especially for the second time, he conceded two goals in extra time and lost to Swindon, who was in the third division at the time, causing a shocking upset.

It wasn't until 19 years later that the Gunners got their wish to reach their third final, winning their first Carabao Cup title after beating the Reds, who had won the competition four years in a row.

Just 12 months later, they were once again the target of an upset at the hands of a little-known Luton Town at the final hurdle in their quest to defend their title.

Although he made his second ascent to the top after beating Sheffield Wednesday in 1993, he still couldn't escape the tragic fate, and went on to reach the final three times as a loser. That included a defeat to Birmingham City, who were relegated to the Championship that season, in 2011, and that game became one of the most painful memories for gunners during the professor's era.

Prior to this season, Arsenal had last stepped foot in a Carabao Cup final in the same year Arsene Wenger decided to leave, and it happened to be Pep Guardiola's Manchester City. The 3-0 defeat made it a deep regret that the old man could not leave the Emirates Stadium with dignity.

Fortunately, four years later, the professor's successor, Li Mudi, fulfilled his decades-long dream for the club's supporters, which can be regarded as a small consolation, although Wenger himself has never attached the slightest importance to this title.

On this topic, the above two Gunners coaches should be able to chat for a while, and some of the melon-eating masses should have such associations. However, the professor himself did not follow the team to London a day earlier and adapt to the fact that the climate conditions in England were still colder than usual, but chose to arrive in the city on the day of the game, which somewhat disappointed those who had been looking forward to his return to the old place.

It is extremely rare to be synonymous with a century-old team in the name of one person, and if this person is still a manager, then it is even more rare in the world, as in the case of Brian Clough for Nottingham Forest and Guy Roux for Auxerre.

As for Lord Fergus, it can barely be regarded as half, because Manchester United and the equally great Sir Busby have only been forgotten by modern fans because of the long time passed, otherwise in terms of influence on the team, the two are actually inseparable.

As Ferguson's half-life enemy, the professor also has a very high historical status at Arsenal, but he also has a comparable master Herbert Chapman, so at most it can only be regarded as half of the Gunners' signature, and in this regard, he is evenly matched with the lord.

Although they wanted to do everything they could to get rid of it back then, after the passage of time, gun fans still can't help but feel infinite nostalgia for that golden age in their hearts. For the professor, all the negative emotions have disappeared with the wind, and now only reverence and gratitude remain.

And Wenger and Li Muddy's year-old friendship is also regarded by the media as a big gimmick, when some media wanted to find out from his mouth the evaluation of his successor Emery at Arsenal, but failed to do so, but after Li Muddy joined Highbury in 2020, the professor took the initiative to sing praises to the outside world, thinking that the Kroenke family finally made a satisfactory decision.

And Li Mudi has also mentioned his admiration for this senior many times, and admitted that he has learned a lot from the other party, and jokingly called himself an audit disciple of the professor, which shows that the two generations of gunner coaches do have an excellent personal relationship.

As for Paris Saint-Germain coach Zidane, the relationship with Li Muddy naturally does not need to be further introduced, in fact, he was in contact with Arsenal when he was playing. Naturally, it has nothing to do with the transfer to join, but his elegant style of play and superb skills are quite popular with Gunners fans, and there was a saying that if you want to appreciate elegant football, in addition to going to the Bernabeu to see Zizu, you are coming to Highbury to see Bergkamp. So the French legend was the only player at the time who could make Gunners fans praise without playing for Arsenal.

In addition to the above connections, the coaching staff and management of Grand Paris also have a number of staff members who have followed the professor from the Gunners' side to the past, so some media have said that this meeting between the two sides can be called an old friend meeting, which still makes some sense.

However, the warmth of the old friends only existed for a brief period before the start of the game, and when the referee blew the opening whistle, the home fans, who had previously greeted the professor's return with a standing ovation at the entrance ceremony, immediately threw a deafening boo on the visiting players who won the first wave of attacking rights. Arsenal have only one belief in the first leg of the quarter-finals, and that is to secure a win that will secure them through to the quarter-finals.

Although Paris Saint-Germain can still maintain its dominant position in Ligue 1, winning at least three rounds in advance for many consecutive seasons, the advantage in China is very obvious; And with the support of the Middle East tyrants behind him, he is not bad for money in terms of recruitment, and he can often spend huge sums of money to buy the world's top stars, making their lineup extremely luxurious, and they are majestic and famous in the entire European football world; And when Li Mudi was coaching the Torino team, the only time he led the team to the Champions League was to lose at the feet of this team in the first round of knockouts, which can be said to be inferior everywhere on the surface.

But for this encounter, in addition to some worries about Zidane's understanding of himself too well and his ineffective metaphysics, the Gunners coach really thinks that the difficulty of advancing will not be too great.

Even though the Ligue 1 giants finally reached the semi-finals for the first time last year, setting a new record in team history, they also became the third French team to reach the last four of the Champions League after Monaco and Lyon since the Champions League was restructured. But this does not prove that their true strength has reached this level, there is a lot of luck in it, which even Qi Zu has to admit.

The main reason why Grand Paris has fallen into a vicious circle of being favored every year but disappointed every year in the European competition is that they have encountered too few challenges and grinds in the domestic league, and they often can win the championship by playing casually, which seems to save a lot of energy for the Champions League, but it cannot make them adjust their mental state to the best before the big game starts.

It's like a professional F1 driver in the usual training is to let a group of new drivers who have just come out of driving school as a sparring partner, although you can abuse the other party to want to live and die, but it is also useless for your own improvement, once the real race comes, what can you expect him to play?

In addition, the current problems of this team are not only this, Zidane's team building habits and time in charge have also had a great impact on the strength of Grand Paris. The Frenchman, who immediately became the world's top football coach after leading Real Madrid to three consecutive Champions League titles as a rookie coach a few years ago, is too keen to maintain the stability of the squad, and in his two-and-a-half-year tenure at Real Madrid, he has only made three signings in five transfer windows, and none of them have been his main ones, with Alvaro Morata being bought back by the club after seeing a strong performance at Juventus, and Theo and Dani Ceballos as the team's younger operation.

Although it is rare to say that he has achieved great things with just a long-lasting line-up, it was also because of this problem that he left the Bernabeu, and the world once again saw his very stubborn side.

After taking charge of Paris Saint-Germain two years ago, Zizou's habits in this area have not changed, except for the replacement of Di Maria, who is really unusable due to age problems with Jamaican winger Leon Bailey, the rest of the new club's adjustments are basically based on minor repairs, almost retaining the entire main squad of the former Tuchel, making the team's transfer style and the previous image of a local tyrant who spent a lot of money to complete a 180-degree turn.

Fortunately, his ability to adjust the atmosphere in the dressing room, his ability to encourage players to perform their duties on the pitch, his tactical style is not varied but solid, and the prestige he has accumulated during his playing days and short tenure as a coach can help him take control of the whole team as soon as possible, so that Paris, which has not been able to make a breakthrough in the Champions League, has reached another level.

However, in 2022, the problem of the team's core squad being too old is very prominent, although Neymar, Verratti, Marquinhos, Kurzawa and Bernat are still in the prime of 28 or 9 years old, but the rest of the positions are showing a small situation of old and young.

In particular, Cavani, who still dominates half of the playing time in the center forward position, is about to turn 35 years old, and his physical fitness can no longer keep up with the rhythm of too high intensity. And Jean-Kevin Augustin, his own academy striker who was recovered from RB Leipzig, was too up and down in form, sometimes shining, sometimes sleepwalking, completely unreassuring, seriously affecting the team's offensive stability.

In addition, the goalkeeper is also one of the team's big goals, and he went to great lengths to recruit Buffon in the hope that he could have a positive effect on Areola's development, but it turned out to be unfinished. The goalkeeping styles of the two are too different, so that the latter not only did not learn much from the legendary predecessors, but lost a lot of playing time, which is more than worth the loss.

The Filipino-descendant goalkeeper, who had high hopes from the club, failed to live up to expectations and is now only competing for playing time with former Real Madrid star Keylor Navas, who was originally used as the second goalkeeper and brought in by the team in the summer of 2019, and with the latter trusted by Zinedine Zidane, Areola is clearly having a rough time.

However, whoever can start in these two knockout games is well aware of their weaknesses, with the Frenchman being tall and good at concentration, but not good at kicking the ball and often having problems judging long-range shots; As for the Costa Rican international, they are experienced in blocking shots from near and long distance, but they are too short, and due to age, their bounce and reflexes have declined from their peak, and the holes are still obvious.

Therefore, against this French giant, which looks very strong but has fatal flaws at both offensive and defensive ends, Li Mudi will be very calm and think that his side's winning side will be far higher than predicted by the outside world, and his emotions will naturally relax.

The Gunners boss did not expect the result, although the away game of Paris had a clear advantage in terms of the value of the starters, and the team also had the superstar Neymar who could be ranked in the top 10 of world football today, but due to careful tactical choices and the shortcomings of the players at both ends of the pitch, they were unable to take advantage of the Emirates Stadium.

Cavani, who started the game, was marked by Llorente and Maguire, the two central defenders, and failed to play the effect that Zizou expected, while Augustin, who came off the bench, was in poor form, not only often making mistakes with his teammates, but also wasting a brilliant through ball from Neymar before the final period, kicking the ball directly into the stands, becoming the worst of all the players on both sides in this game.

He was joined by goalkeeper Areola, who kept out a powerful header from Harry Maguire but also made two low-level mistakes to get off the ball, one of which led to a goal behind him. In the 57th minute of the second half, Chuma's goalkeeper knocked on the door he guarded for the second time.

In the end, Arsenal defeated Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 at home in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, putting a heavy weight on the balance of promotion.

Two weeks later, Li Mudi led the team to play a resolute defensive counterattack at the Parc des Princes, causing nearly 50,000 French fans to boo for more than 90 minutes. However, a narrow 2-1 defeat ensured they reached the second round of the Champions League for the first time since 2009/10.

With the blessings of Qi Zu and the professor, Li Mudi and his team embarked on a journey where the situation became more and more severe, and what awaited them was naturally one powerful opponent after another.