Chapter 559: Winning streak and top four

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Although the strength of the opponent's two main players has declined due to injury, being able to beat Juventus, who have always been known for their steady and spicy attitude, even if it is only the smallest 1-0, is enough to give the Arsenal club an excellent mood.

Even the British media believe that Llorente's lucky goal will give the Gunners a huge advantage in qualifying, because the whole football world knows how terrible Arsenal will be when they take the lead, and their counter-attack will make all teams facing the need to attack feel like they want to die and die.

At the moment, it is estimated that apart from Juventus himself, only their supporters believe that Conte and his disciples can still complete the miracle, and even the Italian media are a little pessimistic about the trip to London in two weeks. Their understanding of Li Mudi is naturally very profound, with Belotti and Immobile, whose speed advantage is not obvious, this Celestial Dynasty has successfully dismantled the hegemony of the Bianconeri in the Apennine Peninsula, and now his strikers have been replaced by more explosive players, how strong the counterattack will be, and the performance of winning the Premier League title last season speaks for itself.

The seemingly bright road to promotion from away to strong opposition has also brought a more relaxed atmosphere to Arsenal's squad, allowing them to perform at their fair level in the next two league games, extending their Premier League winning streak to eight games along the way.

On the 13th, when they challenged the relegation team and this season's promoted Aston Villa, most of the Gunners who were absent from the main team played an amazing momentum, and firmly suppressed the opponent in the half with the overall offensive tactics, which was beyond the expectations of most people. With an hour into the game, the visitors already had a three-goal lead and the suspense was almost over.

It was only Rob Holding's subsequent reckless foul that gave him a red card, and Arsenal, who played one less, had to come back to play a counterattack, but due to the disadvantage of physical fitness, they finally failed to defend their own goal and were scored by the opponent to save face.

However, the 3-1 score was enough to tie Chelsea, who had only one draw in the round, and overtook them on goal difference to move them up to fifth place in the table.

After 33 rounds, Arsenal, with 19 wins, 9 draws and 5 losses, and 66 points, is still one point behind Manchester United, but it is a little far away from Tottenham Hotspur, which is in third place, with a gap of six points, and Manchester City, the leader with 84 points, is even more invisible to the extent that it cannot even be seen.

If it weren't for Liverpool's long winning streak after the winter break, the Blues might have been able to claim the title early next weekend, and Pep Guardiola's side have been in excellent form this season, with the exception of losing to the Gunners in the Carabao Cup final, and are expected to complete a bumper harvest of honours and even a good chance of winning the treble. It is the team with the best form and situation of all the big clubs in Europe at the moment.

No, in a strong conversation on Saturday the 19th, Manchester City thrashed the Blues on their home turf, with a score of 4-0 equalling the record for the largest margin of victory in the history of the 100-year meeting between the two teams, and embarrassing Tuchel, who ended Sarri with the whip from Sarri last summer.

Faced with the end of this season almost empty-handed, I wonder if Abu, who has been out of anger, will fire the club's eighth manager in ten years early. After the two peaks of Jose Mourinho II and Antonio Conte, the club, which rose to prominence at the beginning of the new world with its golden yuan offensive and became a giant, has fallen into a trough and is still in a fog for the future.

Due to UEFA's Financial Fair Play Act restrictions, they are no longer able to replicate the big buying spree of two decades ago, and perhaps the time to get back on track will have to be delayed a little longer, as their city rivals Arsenal have shown a clear resurgence.

After a rare midweek without a game, the Gunners welcomed the north London derby on their home turf, and at this point in time they encountered a strong Tottenham Hotspur, which made Li Muddy feel helpless, because they will have to complete the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final meeting at home to Juventus next Wednesday, and face strong opponents in two consecutive games, which is not an ordinary pressure.

Relatively speaking, with the advantage of a one-goal away win in hand, Arsenal can still relax a little in European competition, but they must go all out to win in the league, because no one knows if Manchester United will drop points in the future. In the event of the worst of the worst cases, the Gunners will have to accept that they are only fifth in the Premier League and unless they can win the Champions League, they will have to return to Europa League coverage next season, which is a huge blow to the club's finances and image, and such a tragedy must be avoided as much as possible.

So in the league on March 20, Li Mudi never saved his strength for the European competition, not only sent all the main players who were in excellent form to play, but also used the new 4-4-2 formation that had been secretly linked for more than a month, that is, he had to win this three points.

However, he clearly overestimated the importance that Pochettino took this derby seriously, and although the core of Harry Kane and Ali also started, their minds were clearly more focused on the European game against Barcelona in three days' time, and the 2-0 win at home in the first leg gave them the best chance of returning to the Champions League semi-finals after 60 years, and the current third place in the league is quite secure, so naturally they will not care too much about the outcome of this game.

It's just that the derby is still a derby after all, although it came to Highbury with a somewhat indifferent attitude, but when Belasino and Wilshere, who came on as a substitute at the end of the day, scored two wonderful goals in succession, the Tottenham players still broke out with strong fighting spirit, because they could not bear to be pressed to the ground by their number one arch-rival.

As a result, the smell of gunpowder on the field began to intensify after the scramble was intensified, which further stimulated the antagonism of the tens of thousands of gun fans who watched the game, and their boos and curses converged to almost overturn the entire Emirates Stadium, which had been temporarily closed due to the rain.

The battle on the field became more and more intense, and in the 80th minute, the small threat fell to the ground because of a pair of midfielders and the opponent's midfielder Wan Yama, both of whom had a very painful expression, which frightened the home team's coaching staff and fans.

You must know that with Wilshere's glass human body, even if you run without confrontation, you are very likely to injure yourself, let alone collide with an African beast like Wan Yama. In just an instant, words such as season reimbursement and major surgery filled the minds of every Gunners supporter, and a pessimistic atmosphere began to spread across the stadium. Even the Sky Sports commentator is constantly praying for the ill-fated player, hoping that his injury is not too serious, otherwise God will be too unfair to this man.

Whether God heard this prayer or not, Li Mudi naturally did not know, but he knew with great certainty that there was nothing wrong with a small threat. The reason is naturally not the "discovery of conscience" of Jesus and his old man, but the medal effect of the FM system blessed him, directly offsetting the low-level injuries that may have been caused this time.

After on-site emergency treatment by the team doctor, the "old Gunners", who joined the Arsenal Academy in 2001, quickly relieved the severe pain caused by the hard injury, and finally signaled to the manager on the sidelines in the applause of the fans that there was no problem with him and there was no need to make substitutions. The returning team doctor later brought similar reports, but Li Mudi replaced the small threat with Aaron Ramsey three minutes later who had scored a goal less than 20 minutes into the game.

There were no major problems this time, in addition to the external guard, luck is also an important factor, but next time I don't know what the result will be, in order to avoid unnecessary attrition, the Gunners boss still made what he thought was the most suitable adjustment. At the same time, he also sent down the court to reduce the tempo of the game, and used the passing and over-playing style to kill the little time left, and a 2-0 victory was enough.

With the deliberate restraint of the home team's players, the game finally returned to a relatively calm atmosphere, and there were no further surprises until the final whistle sounded.

After avenging their first-half defeat at their opponents, Arsenal continue to chase Manchester United in front of them in the league table, with a point down with four games remaining.

In the next three days, London's sports media were dominated by news about the Champions League, either introducing Tottenham's preparations for Barcelona, or sneering at Juventus's delusional attempt to complete the reversal of Juventus' early arrival in the English capital, and occasionally interspersed with speculation about who would win the promotion between Manchester City and Liverpool, the two Premier League teams in the same room.

However, the atmosphere inside and outside A.T. Kearney's training base remained as low-key and mysterious as ever, and Li Mudi, who was training behind closed doors again, did not let the paparazzi get much valuable news, but he did not expect to completely confuse the experienced Juventus. The new 4-4-2 formation that has been used in the league against Tottenham Hotspur is no longer a secret weapon, although the time between them is very short, but with the old woman's rich background, Arsenal must have been studied very thoroughly, and it is obviously impossible to play any surprise to win.

Before the game, some Italian media claimed that Milinkovic Savic might make an urgent early comeback, but after the 18-man squad was submitted and announced, no one immediately ignored it.

And Ronaldo's start did not escape the outside world's predictions, and Juventus must score away from home, and the ability to attack the positional battle is particularly crucial. Compared with the youngster Keane, although the president has no advantage in terms of physical fitness, but his unparalleled experience and ability to seize opportunities at the door is still worthy of recognition, even if his current bounce power is not as above everyone as two or three years ago, but it can still make the header ability of the world's top defenders headaches, Conte has little choice in terms of tactics, can only choose to believe that the king of the previous era can create miracles.

To this end, he sent Bernardeschi and Italian winger Riccardo Orsolini, who has better crossing ability, in the left and right winger positions, and put Douglas Gesta on the bench, just to be able to feed Ronaldo with a sufficient number of high-quality shells.

Li Mudi has been prepared for this style of play, his 4-4-2 formation is the most tightly defended position on the wing, the wingers on both sides can interfere with the away team's wide players, Juve even 45-degree crosses away from the penalty area can rarely get a chance to calmly get up, and the landing point is not guaranteed, so that the president who was caught by Harry Maguire and Llorente has no choice, and makes dissatisfied movements and expressions again and again.

And when Conte signals the three midfielders to press forward to strike Arsenal's midfield, the home team will use the speed of the two strikers to directly attack the Juventus defence and even behind them, 25-year-old Moussa Dembele has 17 speed and 18 explosiveness, plus the assistance of Belasino, who is fully skilled and can play in multiple positions in the front, Rugani and Lingard and others feel no less dangerous than the Gunners defenders who seem to be under siege for most of the time.

This is the old saying in football: Arsenal who are leading cannot afford to mess with them. Because they are the best at counter-attacking, they can easily kill the game with one or two simple and quick attacks when you are attacking at full strength, and without the help of the midfield, perhaps only a handful of central defenders with top speed and defensive ability can cope with it, and others can only count on their poor form or their own goalkeeper to hang up.

Unfortunately, today's Gunners were still very smooth from the performance on the field, and Juve goalkeeper Perrin could not wear his underwear outside, and was still broken by Dembele's counter-attacking low shot early in the second half.

Faced with the desperate situation of having to score twice in a row and not conceding again, the Old Lady was unable to pull off a miracle, with the absence of Icardi and Savic powerless to change the reality of the lack of creativity and pressure up front, and finally lost to Arsenal by a narrow goal again, ending in the quarter-finals of this season's Champions League with a score of 0-2 over two legs.

In his second appearance in the world's most influential club competition, Li Mudi reached the semi-finals and created a new milestone. This is also the third time in the history of the Gunners to qualify for the last four of the Champions League, the 2008-09 semi-final by old rivals Manchester United will not be very good, and the 2005-06 final defeat to Barcelona is an eternal pain for the club.

However, when the name of the next opponent appeared in front of everyone, gun fans couldn't help but feel that fate was wrong, because they encountered the best club of the last century, the defending champion - Real Madrid!