After Real Madrid's transfer style developed in the direction of localization and youth, Manchester City and Paris have become the only two local tycoons in European football who can spend a lot of money for a top star.

The Middle Eastern royal family or oil tycoons behind them are really powerful, and if they take out one or two hundred million funds without even blinking an eye, they can be called inhumane.

Fortunately, UEFA is now very strict in the inspection scale and punishment of the financial balance policy, forcing these local tyrant clubs to maintain a balance of payments while having major reinforcements, otherwise it is really unimaginable how luxurious their squad will be after such a year-on-year accumulation.

Even so, City's squad this season is impressive enough to see that Pep Guardiola's side don't need to make any big moves, as no less than one in seven of the world's 50 best players are in their squad, and there won't be much backlash to say it's the most expensive and powerful team in Premier League history.

And other things that can be compared to it, in the scope of English football, there is only the blue moon itself in previous years, and even Manchester United during the treble and Arsenal are unbeaten in the season.

De Bruyne and Sane are in the top five of their respective positions, and with the rapid growth of Stones, Ederson, Jesus, Laporte and others in the past two years, this team can definitely be called a star-studded team. And the most frightening thing for competitors is that with the rise of a new generation of players born around 2000 such as Deligot, Brahimi Diaz and Phil Foden, Manchester City's future will remain infinitely bright, even if it is a decade-long dynasty.

So even if the team hasn't shown the same reign of terror as Juventus before them, they have become the public enemy of other Premier League teams aiming to win the title, allowing them to burst out with more fighting spirit against Manchester City to make up for the slight gap in quality.

Even today's Arsenal, the negative emotions that were originally due to the end of Chelsea's unbeaten golden body were swept away in time under the deliberate adjustment of the manager and the stimulation of the next biggest opponent.

At the Emirates Stadium, which is the most watched by fans around the world, the much-anticipated battle for the top spot kicked off on Tuesday night with the whistle blowing of Michael Oliver, an iconic figure in England's refereeing scene.

Manchester City did not seem to be at all restrained by playing away from home, and came up with a 4-3-3 formation up front and launched an attack on the Gunners' penalty area.

The front trident Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane, supported by De Bruyne and Gundogan, as well as Walker and Mendy on both sides, have basically trampled the home team's hinterland as if it were their own back garden. The team's attacking mix is almost a perfect combination of speed and technique, and apart from the fact that there is still a lot of lack in heading, and a group of talented people who have problems with coordination when they are happy, it is really difficult for opponents to defend.

However, relying on the numerical advantage of the bus tactics can often create some trouble for Manchester City, which does not have a strong center forward, but it depends on whether the opposing coach is willing to pull down his face to be this "shrinking turtle".

Under normal circumstances, the teams in the middle and lower reaches of the standings have no psychological pressure on this, and it is natural to admit cowardice when the gap in strength is obviously too large. But for those strong teams, this is a psychological hurdle that is not easy to pass, except for Mourinho, whose tactical style has always been more defensive, the rest of the people like Pochenoti, Maurizio Sarri and Klopp will choose more to attack against Pep Guardiola for various reasons, and at worst, they will resolutely invest a lot of troops in counterattacks. The result was, of course, more losses and fewer wins, but at least the courage was commendable.

The only exception was Arsenal in the previous two years, with Unai Emery meeting Manchester City five times in the league and FA Cup in the 2018-20 season, using defensive-oriented tactics at home and away, and by the end he had largely abandoned the idea of attacking actively. But the final result was only a pitiful 1 draw and 4 losses, and the media and fans scolded him for being bloody, which can be said to be stripped of his face and thrown home in shame.

In the pre-match analysis, it was widely believed that Li would learn from his predecessor's experience and try to strengthen the attacking threat in order to contain City's investment up front and avoid excessive pressure on their defence, which is not too good in any case.

However, what they never expected was that the Gunners coach not only did not increase the attack as expected, but set up an iron bucket formation with his own side outside the penalty area after the start of the game, and the three central midfielders and wingbacks on both sides all retreated very deeply, which was simply a 40.3-meter by 16.5-meter rectangular area in front of the goal.

Coupled with the three centre-backs waiting in the penalty area, the visitors' short pass penetration attempts were completely unlikely to have the desired effect, and the space was compressed too small, so their advantage in speed was also impossible, so the crowd saw De Bruyne and others in the first ten minutes of the opening four attempts from the outside of the long shot, but none of them posed any threat to the goal guarded by Leno. Either he was disturbed and kicked off, or he was desperately blocked by the players of the home team.

In terms of possession, Manchester City has a crushing advantage with more than 80% of the proportion, and it is almost a practice match of half-time positional battles. The supporters of the home team at the scene constantly expressed their dissatisfaction with boos, and even the commentators of the broadcaster repeatedly suggested that this strategy of swinging the bus was really not a clever choice, and I am afraid that it would not be able to persist for a long time.

Li Mudi is naturally very aware of this situation, blindly passive defense is too much physical consumption for the players, and the pressure encountered in the mental aspect is unimaginable to ordinary people, and the combination of the two makes it difficult for a team to do it without making a mistake on the defensive end for a full 90 minutes. In the face of a strong opponent like Manchester City, even a momentary negligence can be fatal, so it is obviously unrealistic to carry out the bus tactics to the end.

What's more, even if they can really rely on this strategy to force the opponent to draw, the Gunners fans who have always pursued gorgeous football will not be very satisfied, and they will be criticized if they don't get it, which is also unacceptable for Li Mudi, who hopes to completely control the team.

But in order to avoid the opponent's possible outburst after the opening, he had to instruct the players in advance to prepare for a full retreat and withstand a wave of difficult times, because the balance of strength between the two sides is there, and it is difficult to say what the result of choosing to go to the hard game will be, but theoretically speaking, I am afraid that Arsenal is more likely to be beaten.

Fortunately, the opponent's physical condition was also a little poor, unable to release all the energy at once, and from the twelfth minute, Manchester City's offensive finally weakened, allowing the Gunners to get a breather and at the same time to be able to test the stability of the opponent's defense while controlling the ball.

It's just that in the case of a complete formation, the defensive line composed of Kyle Walker, Laporte, Stones, Mendy and goalkeeper Ederson became the best in the Premier League and even the entire five major leagues last season. The result of conceding only 11 goals in the first 16 league games of this season cannot be said to be the best in history, but it is also a very rare level.

After five or six minutes of trying, the discerning man could almost immediately conclude that it would be difficult to cause problems for City's goal in a positional battle with Arsenal's current attacking power and attacking methods. Due to the ability to prevent the opponent's equally strong counter-attack, the two wing-backs did not dare to step forward too much to assist, resulting in the home team's attack direction mostly concentrated in the middle area.

Even if De Bruyne and Gundogan are not very good defensively, with the help of these two, Bakayoko can effectively block most of the routes that have the opportunity to pass to the home team's two strikers, so that his own central defenders, who will not fall behind even in one-on-one confrontations, will not be exposed to too much impact from opponents.

Seeing that his own attack could not have any effect, and Jesus and Sane frequently put on a posture in the midfield that they would immediately move forward at high speed, Li Mudi immediately issued a new order, allowing the two strikers to take turns to pull to the side to open up the space of the opponent's defense, and at the same time immediately after conceding the ball, they had to carry out a resolute counter-attack, which could not make Manchester City play a counterattack comfortably.

Unfortunately, although this change has increased the width of the field for the team to pass the ball, due to the reduction of the front contact point, it is more difficult to easily send the ball into the dangerous area of Manchester City, and at most it only recovers some of the disadvantage in possession.

Less than 10 minutes later, the visitors came back to press, and the Arsenal players were back in the box.

After that, until the end of the first half, the broadcaster's camera basically did not show the away team a few half-time shots, which was somewhat confusing. Because even if the vice-president of the Premier League faces Manchester City at his home stadium, he will not say that he has been in a passive situation all the time, how can he play a few decent counterattacks. But today's Gunners are very strange, their sharp team counter-attacking tactics in the past have not been used once, or even if they have tried, it is not a mistake in coordination between passing and running, or someone is not resolute in the forward insertion, in short, it is chaos.

And this also gives everyone the illusion that Arsenal are not in good form in attack today, and I am afraid that they will have to continue to shift their focus to the defensive end in order to seek a draw.

A cautious manager like Pep Guardiola failed to find any pitfalls in the analysis of the half-time situation and the opposition's only two unreliable attacks. Even though he had the willpower to set back the time for launching the general attack by another ten minutes, he still fell into Li Mudi's calculations.

When Manchester City's right full-back Walker pressed forward to the winger's position to tear up the team's attacking space, and the left-back Mendy also crossed the midfield line to assist the players, the home team's defense, which was still relying on the player's position to prevent the opponent from forming a passing match, suddenly played a wave of resolute and powerful crazy sieges, which directly disrupted the rhythm of Manchester City.

Eventually, Gundogan's cross was tackled by Torreira, and Mkhitaryan immediately took the ball forward, followed by Ndidi and the newly rising Uruguayan midfielder, and in front of them, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Golovin, the two strikers had already pulled from the middle to the sides, and then immediately went away like wild horses on the reins. City's two centre-backs had to retreat in two ways, and the dribblers had to hope that Tiemoue Bakayoko and his team-mates would be able to get rid of them in time.

However, the French midfielder disappointed his manager and his teammates, and in order to create enough time for the rest of the team to defend, he did not intercept Mkhitaryan in the first place, and kept retreating in the opponent's path. Although this waited for Gundogan and others to chase back, it also allowed Ndidi and Torreira to rush to the dangerous area outside the penalty area.

The ball found its way to the right side of the City penalty area through a neat cross-and-through combination before Golovin's return helped Andreas Torreira get an unblocked chance from the spot. The ball flew into the top left corner of the net at breakneck speed, giving the Gunners a one-goal lead when they hit the woodwork for the first time of the game so far.

As soon as this goal was scored, Li Mudi knew that the victory was basically secure, and in the face of the situation of falling behind in the score, Guardiola would definitely order more energy to be put into the offensive end, which would leave more and better counterattack opportunities for the Arsenal attacking combination that had been freed up. And in this duel where it is ultimately a contest to see who can score the next goal earlier, no matter how you look at it, it should be more advantageous for your own side.

And reality did go as he had predicted, although City had been attacking Arsenal's goal until the final whistle and had come back from the penalty spot in the 85th minute through substitute Sergio Aguero.

But before that, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had already set up the Gunners' second goal of the day with a counter-attack, and with the home side's late defensive efforts, the scoreline was still 2-1 on the scoreboard.

In this strong matchup, Arsenal, who played at home, ended with an ugly victory, which caused a lot of controversy in the outside world. However, Li Mudi ignored it completely, he only knew that his team had won this crucial battle, and the difference between them and their number one opponent had increased to 7 points again, which was enough for everyone to celebrate.

As for Tottenham, who returned to second place in the club after winning this round, they really haven't entered the eyes of the Gunners manager, because the city rivals are about to have an extremely difficult schedule and it is difficult to have any outstanding performances in terms of results.

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is:. Nine Heavenly God Emperor mobile version reading website: