With the group stage of three European competitions coming to an end, the knockout draw was soon held at UEFA headquarters on Friday, and predictions ahead of that fixture became the subject of major media coverage across Europe, with Arsenal being one of the main topics of discussion in this season's Champions League.

Due to the principle of avoiding teams from the same country in the first knockout round, and the fact that the other three Premier League teams all qualified as group winners, and the fact that the two teams that qualified from the same group could not meet each other, the Gunners were left with only four potential opponents in the quarter-finals, including Limdoudi's former club Torino.

The Red Bulls, led by Italian coach Gasperini, have been in excellent form in the last two and a half seasons. Especially in the 2020-21 season, they once again defeated the city's rival Juventus in the league, and won the Serie A championship for the second time in three years, which can be regarded as completely breaking the status of the old woman as the king of the Apennine Peninsula and making Serie A enter the pattern of double hegemony.

Although the Torino team has yet to win another trophy in the Coppa Italia and European competitions in addition to this accolade, it is no wonder that the Italian media continue to tout such results at a time when the club is struggling financially to build a new stadium.

Most fans are also forgetful, and if the team's current results are not good, they may still miss Li Mudi's good time, but with the new coach's performance equally strong, everyone gradually forgets the fact that the Red Bulls were a mid-table team in the league five and a half years ago, and it is difficult to qualify for European competition.

And for this situation, Italian football seems to be happy to see, even if they know that the biggest contributor to the rapid rise of this team in such a short period of time is the Celestial man, but in their hearts they are unwilling to admit that the local coach is not as good as the other party, so they naturally do their best to build momentum for Gasperini, and promote him to the same coffee position as Allegri, Ancelotti and Conte.

This is not to say that the late-blooming coach is not capable enough, but in the process of building momentum, he seriously ignored the solid foundation that Li Mudi created for this team, and counted the credit for the results on the head of the coach, which was both chilling and disgusting, and was criticized by the fans of the Celestial Empire.

However, Li Mudi himself did not have any big emotions about this, the Torino team is a thing of the past for him, although he will still care about the dynamics of the Italian side in his free time, but it is just a personal feeling, and nothing else is involved. As for whether the fans will remember their contributions, what does it matter, as long as they live a wonderful life, everything else is floating clouds.

However, in the eyes of the outside world, the encounter between the Gunners coach and his old club will be a very attractive attraction, and it is natural to want to find out the relevant information from the mouth of the person concerned for the first time.

On Friday morning, Li Mudi, who was heading from his apartment to the training base, was surrounded by reporters outside Kearney's gate, but he did not choose to compromise, but after leaving a sentence without saying anything about the prediction that did not come true, he shook off the crowd with the help of security personnel and let the driver rush straight into the door.

Less than five hours later, the results of the draw were passed from Switzerland to everyone in the world who cared about the matter, and Arsenal did not meet Torino who was remembered by the outside world, but the topic was not low, because Li Muddy and Zidane, two good friends, finally met on the pitch.

Grand Paris and the Gunners, although they are both giants in European football, there seems to be little contact between the two sides, neither the field encounters nor the exchange of players are frequent, which is really rare under the premise that almost half of the team under Wenger is French players.

However, although the two teams have only met on official occasions four times in history (i.e., not counting warm-up matches), they have left a very classic grudge.

The first meeting between the two sides was in the semi-finals of the 1993/94 European Cup Winners' Cup, when the Gunners, led by the boss Graham, defeated Paris Saint-Germain with Ginola and Weah 2-1 on aggregate over two legs, and won Parma by another goal in the final to claim one of only two continental trophies in the club's history (although Arsenal's victory in the 1970 Intercity Fair Cup was not counted in the UEFA Cup and subsequent Europa League statistics). But it's barely an intercontinental honor.)

The next matchup was not reached until 23 years later, when the two teams met in the group stage of the Champions League, and both meetings ended in draws, showing a good atmosphere of river crabs. But when they both qualified for the first round of the knockout round, tragedy happened.

Grand Paris, who won the second place in the group, won the first leg at home by four goals, and was defeated by Barcelona in the second leg, becoming the protagonist of the biggest tragedy in history; And Arsenal, who won the top spot in the group, was not much better, with two 1-5 defeats creating the largest knockout defeat in the club's European history, which directly led to the collapse of the professor's status in the hearts of fans and laid the groundwork for his subsequent departure.

Therefore, the previous encounter between the two teams was both sweet and painful for the Gunners, but I don't know what the result will be this time.

However, the media is not limited to historical results, they still prefer to start with the strength of the two sides, the former to predict who will be the winner in the end, and the latter to attract more readers.

On paper, the level of competition between the two teams should not be much different, although the reference is based on the fact that several of Arsenal's injured players have fully recovered their form in January next year. And the tactical style and ability of the coaches of the two teams are basically on the same level, and even Qi Zu's previous invincible metaphysics is likely to fail this time due to the encounter with the real heirs of the Celestial Empire, so the two defending champions of Ligue 1 and the Premier League have formed a five-five situation, which is a more reasonable judgment.

The key factor in this group matchup is widely seen as a favourable fixture for Grand Paris, so it's no surprise that bookmakers are offering odds that are slightly bullish on them.

As for the off-the-field connections, although there are not many, they are all super gimmicks. Arsene Wenger took a year's break after leaving the Emirates Stadium before being impressed by the giants of his home country and taking over as sporting director of Paris Saint-Germain to continue his unfinished revamp of the club in England.

This meeting between the two teams, regardless of whether the boss of Grand Paris will follow the whole process, at least he, the manager of the team, should be with the team to play away, it will be the first time he has returned to Highbury since leaving in 2018, and what kind of courtesy he will receive from his former club and fans is indeed worth imagining.

And the passionate collision between Qi Zu and Li Mudi is also one of the most popular topics. This pair of well-known good friends in football finally ushered in the first confrontation of their careers after experiencing cooperation, separation, and their respective peaks. Tide drama, how can this not make the fans feel happy. What about fen? (This is inexplicably a little dirty)

The Gunners boss didn't really like the draw because he didn't want to run into his former club Torino, who were too familiar with his tactical thinking, which would make the game extremely difficult and not conducive to the team's plans to win a quick game and save more fitness.

Yes, Li Mudi is not worried about the possibility of falling in the first round of the knockout round like last year, he is obviously ready to advance, if this idea is known to the outside world, it will surely set off a scolding war criticizing his arrogance.

But no matter how much attention the game gets, it's going to be February next year, so there's no need to be distracted too much now.

The Premier League's December fixture schedule is the most intense of the year, and now the winter break has not made life easier for the teams, but it has only intensified. For next year's World Cup in Qatar, the situation is especially serious this season.

From Sunday 12 December until the 26th, the last Sunday before the winter break, all Premier League teams have to play six league games in those 15 days, with an average of just over two days to play one, which is very hard. The teams that still have the task of the League Cup, although they do not have to suffer to make matters worse, will still postpone the make-up match that cannot be played until next year, which is just a change of direction and twilight, and there is no big difference in essence.

If a week-long schedule of two games can be hellish enough for the players, then it is enough to make them lose sight of where they are, because they are so tired that they don't feel much physical and mental feedback, and they are all numb.

And this is when the advantage of Arsenal is shown, several returning injured players have played very little time in the early part of the season, and the fatigue has not accumulated to a high level, just in time to be the main force in the extremely difficult time. And even though it was already full of injuries before, Li Mudi still adhered to his lineup rotation strategy, and did not hesitate to use a large number of youth team players to fight. It has come at a great cost in terms of results, but it has also given the first-team players more time to adjust than other teams, which is also a killer feature that is unique to the team managed by Li Mudi.

While the rest of the Premier League teams have more or less some form and even injury problems due to the dense schedule, the only Gunners giants can cope with the ensuing game with relative ease, which also makes their league results have a significant improvement before the winter break, and they are infinitely close to reaching the Champions League zone, which is a small counterattack.

On the 12th, with the high momentum of winning the right to qualify in the Champions League, Arsenal, who visited the new White Hart Lane Stadium, and Tottenham, the rival of the same city who temporarily ranked second in the Premier League standings, completed a wonderful derby battle.

It wasn't until the visitors, who had missed a day off due to the Champions League schedule, changed their tactics to defensive counter-attacks due to fitness problems, that the trend of the game returned to the rhythm of one attack and one defense predicted by the outside world.

The final result of the matchup was 2-2, Harry Kane's volley in the 87th minute helped Tottenham escape from death, and also made Li Muddy and his disciples return to Highbury with deep unwillingness.

The absence of Diego Llorente and the rapid ageing of Koscielny have left Arsenal unable to maintain the standard of defending at one of Europe's top levels in the second half of last season. The likes of Mustafi and Holding are not yet capable of being at the heart of the defence, so before the Spain international recovers from injury and returns to ten, Lee will have to continue his attacking style of play, and perhaps find a new solution in the upcoming winter transfer window.

The Gunners continued to maintain their mental and competitive form over the following week, beating Southampton and Crystal Palace by clear home and away scores, only to end a 1-1 draw with Chelsea in the final meeting at Stamford Bridge, ending their record of at least two goals in 13 consecutive games.

However, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Gunners coach has made a lot of reservations in this London derby, Balco and Torreira Torreira are the two main players who left the game early, and now the team's top scorer Belasino and the main right wingback Bellerin have not even entered the squad, just to play as best as possible in the League Cup semi-final against Liverpool in three days' time.

Sure enough, in the crucial battle for a place in the final of the competition, Arsenal, who were in better physical condition, took the initiative in the final fifteen minutes with the two sides almost in equal quality, and Velasino created the winning penalty.

When Balko used a feint to trick Alisson into a safe penalty, Li Mudi on the sidelines could finally breathe a sigh of relief. After suffering a major injury and losing hope of defending the league title early, he made the exact opposite decision from last season, which was to focus on a few cup competitions and just finish in the top four.

So far, this strategy should have been implemented extremely effectively, and the Carabao Cup has reached the final of the competition, although against a strong Manchester City, but given their results against Pep Guardiola, it is really difficult to determine who will be the winner.

And the Champions League also reached the knockout stage without danger, and this field has the most variables, so the future results are also the most difficult to judge. However, due to the tight schedules of the major leagues this season, this is bound to have a great impact on several multi-front giants, and in this regard, teams that are good at rotating their lineups will enjoy a lot of advantages, and Li Mudi is the best coach among them. So from this point of view, Arsenal still has a certain advantage in the competition.

As for the FA Cup, which will only start after the winter break, it is the Gunners boss who is the least concerned for the time being, because of this year's special reasons, the round of the top eight teams in the Premier League to join the competition has been temporarily postponed, resulting in a delay in the start date, which is good news. However, due to the early development of the Champions League knockout round, coupled with the league schedule in some weeks, the task of the three months of February, March and April is very heavy, and perhaps some kind of trade-off will have to be made at that time, which depends on the specific situation.

In this way, after firmly establishing the overall policy for the rest of the season, Arsenal finally ushered in the final game before the winter break, at home to promoted Middlesbrough. This matchup, which was originally a huge disparity in strength, was made different by the kick-off on the day after Christmas and Diego Llorente's return start after a gap of more than five months.

And Li Moodi and his players did not disappoint the fans who braved the cold wind to watch the game, and bid farewell to the mixed glory and suffering of 2021 with a big victory, laying a good foundation for the team's strong rebound in the second half of the momentum.

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