Chapter 572: Is This a Game?

Since coming to England, under the premise of a full lineup, Li Mudi has performed well against Pep Guardiola, Mourinho, Pochettino and Klopp, the world's leading coaches, although the sample size is not very large, but whether it is the process of the game or the final result, the Gunners manager is the one who has the upper hand.

However, against Newcastle United, which can only be regarded as the second-rate team in the Premier League, although Arsenal can also ensure a high winning rate, the process is very difficult, and almost every time it takes all the effort to put the three points into their pockets. From this alone, it can be seen that Benitez's coaching ability, especially in terms of tactical arrangement, is indeed the best in the world, because he can always try to find the most uncomfortable way to make the opponent the most uncomfortable in the situation of weak fighting, and then drag the game into a chaotic rhythm of more uncertainty to fight for a chance to win.

Last summer, an American investment firm bought the entire stake in Newcastle United from club owner Mike Ashley, which was met with backlash from many fans. But the new owner from across the ocean is really willing to pay money, and prepared 80 million pounds of transfer funds for Bei Shuai in one go to help the Magpies carry out a series of reinforcements.

It's just that Benitez is tuning. He is really not good at coaching players, and his management of the dressing room is really terrible, which seriously affects the team's combat effectiveness. So after a lot of changes, Newcastle's results have only risen from around 10th in previous seasons to 8th now, which is a far cry from the pre-season predictions that they might have a chance to challenge Chelsea.

However, in the home game against the "Great Devil" Arsenal, Bei Shuai and his disciples suddenly ushered in a big explosion, playing a rare top level at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. In particular, Colombian striker Juan Hernandez, who has just joined the team for more than half a season, played with Icardi against the Gunners defence led by Akanji and Maguire, and helped the home team twice in the second half with a volley after a personal breakthrough and a goalmouth scramble to end the myth of the opponent's unbeaten season this season.

Arsenal supporters must have been unhappy about the result, and they are still dreaming of repeating the glory of finishing the season unbeaten once, after all, it has been a long time since that grand event 19 years ago, and many of the new generation of fans have not been able to experience the thrill for themselves. Moreover, the team won too many draws that year, resulting in a final total of only 90 points, not only failed to beat the old rival Manchester United to set a new single-season scoring record, but was surpassed by Chelsea and Manchester City later, and could only tie with Liverpool for fourth place in this ranking, which is extremely incompatible with the unbeaten aura of the season.

Although Li Mudi later led the team to tie the record of 100 points, the team still lost two games in the league that year, which was not particularly perfect. So after the Arsenal team played a performance far beyond the level of the earth this season, many people began to fantasize about being able to see a super unbeaten record at the end of the season, and if they can still maintain a clean record in all competitions, then it is really no regrets in this life.

Unfortunately, this dream woke up a little too early, and when there was still more than a third of the way to the end, this team, which was originally considered to be the strongest in the world at the moment, handed over its own blood, causing wails and sighs everywhere.

Fortunately, this defeat can also be regarded as a good thing for Arsenal's players, allowing them to relieve the huge psychological burden of fear of losing, which is conducive to the team's performance in the following games, but everyone does regret this defeat very much. That made the Gunners' next opponents, Championship side Preston North End at home in the FA Cup fourth round, unlucky for the Arsenal players to vent their frustration at not being able to hold on to their unbeaten streak, even though Lee Moody sent a group of rotations, which still resulted in an 8-0 tragedy.

Interestingly, Preston also had a glorious history, winning the English top flight twice in the first two years of the 1888-90 season, the first two years of the professional football league, and then winning the secondary, third/fourth divisions, making them one of the few teams in English football to have won the title in the first four divisions.

It is also important to note that in the history of English professional football, only two teams have achieved the feat of winning the top flight without defeat in a single season, apart from Arsenal in 2003-04 and Preston North End in 1888-89. Nicknamed the "North Pole", they had a great record of 18 wins and four draws in their first year in the English top flight, a record that no latecomer could achieve until 114 years later. And if that result is converted into a three-point system and 38 rounds, the total score will reach a staggering 100 points, which shows the dominance at the beginning.

However, more than 140 years after its founding, the former champions from the small north-west of England are long gone, having last appeared in the top flight in 1960-61 and have been up and down in the Championship, League One and League Two ever since, with no prospect of promotion to the Premier League. At the same time, the plight of Preston is a constant reminder of the brutality of professional football, and if you don't make the club's development into a good and sustainable state, no matter how good you have been before, the future may become miserable.

However, Li Mudi and his team are obviously in a peak state, and there is an unknown number of light years between them and the so-called downfall. After comfortably progressing in the FA Cup, they went on to win over Everton, AC Milan, Watford and Leicester City in quick succession to maintain a 10-plus lead in the league and maintain their excellent form in the Champions League and Carabao Cup, progressing to the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively, without making their fears of a dip in form materialised.

As the days went by, the top five leagues, including the Premier League, began to enter the latter stages of a more intense schedule, but Arsenal had to put their pace on hold in Europe and rush to Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city, on March 20 for the Club World Cup.

For the first time in history, the 2022-23 Club World Cup has been rescheduled to March due to the disruption of the World Cup in Qatar. Fortunately, all seven participating teams have adjusted their schedules early on, so that this tournament can run normally.

Arsenal, seeded champions of the Champions League, will be able to progress directly to the semi-finals, and the first opponent will not be very strong, which will allow them to adapt to the local environment and prepare for the final.

The result was not to everyone's surprise, and the Gunners easily advanced to the final stage with a 4-0 disparity over the host team, last year's African Champions Cup winners, Sunset. Four days later, Li Mudi sent a mixed line-up of half main force and half rotation, and defeated Uruguay's Peñarol by three goals, bringing home the first world-class club championship trophy in the team's history.

They also became only the second English team to win the tournament after Manchester United in 2008. And this is the 10th consecutive time that a European team has won the Club World Cup, and the South American powers that were able to wrestle with them before can no longer compete with the European giants, let alone the underdeveloped regions of Asia and Africa. The pattern of world football has finally presented a situation of Europa dominance, almost all the best coaches and players are concentrated in this area, and the competition is unimaginable.

And it is in such a difficult environment that Li Mudi can still play a very stable and considerable result under the leadership of this group of Arsenal players, which has to be admired.

The Gunners, who returned to London with the Club World Cup trophy, had no time to celebrate, and immediately threw themselves into the packed schedule. Fortunately, the squad is deep enough, they are not dragged down by the dense schedule and back and forth, and continue to be able to use their superior strength to continuously reap victories.

When it came May Day, Arsenal still maintained their lead in the league at 11 points, and their record of 30 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat is undoubtedly a new record for its own period, as long as they can make history by picking up at least eight points in the next four games. Considering that the remaining opponents have no strong opponents other than Tottenham, the outside world is still very optimistic about the birth of a new record.

But what is even more exciting is not the Gunners' success in the Premier League, but their performance on multiple fronts.

On the evening of May 1, Li Mudi led the team to defeat the city rival Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 in the League Cup final, and won the third championship trophy this season after the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup, and Arsenal also broke into the semi-finals in the Champions League, and the FA Cup reached the final, plus the Premier League, they have the opportunity to complete an unprecedented six crowns, how can this not make a sensation in Britain and even the entire European football world!

Barcelona are considered a strong contender for the best football club in the world of the 21st century, not only because of their impressive results, but also because of the huge impact of their "six crowns" in 2009.

It's just that strictly speaking, the Catalan giants' Grand Slam is still a bit flawed, because the three titles, including the Spanish Super Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup, are actually attributed to the 2009-10 season, which can only be regarded as six consecutive titles in a calendar year, and cannot be counted as a season gain. However, at that time, considering that this was also the first time in the world, the outside world would publicize it so fiercely, causing many misunderstandings among people who did not know the inside story.

And if Arsenal can really win the above six titles, it can really be said that there is no question worth questioning, because all the honors belong to this season, which is naturally more rare. The only regret is that because they only finished in the Premier League last season and were out of the semi-finals of the FA Cup, they were not able to qualify for the Community Shield. It's really inexplicable to think about it. Fen.

In this regard, many fans who are also video game lovers have shown themselves online, and this kind of extreme situation may only appear in various football games, let alone seven or six crowns, and even the treble in a single season is unattainable in reality, otherwise the entire European football world would not have given birth to seven teams that have accomplished such feats until now.

However, Arsenal, which has always had the title of "Fighting for the Four" and "the most pseudo-giant", has a chance to create a history close to the limit this season, which is indeed something that many people did not think of last summer or even a month or two ago, even if they reached the top of Europe last year, but at that time, more people still believed that the Gunners had a lot of luck in winning the Champions League, and no one would be optimistic that they would step on the throne of world hegemony since then.

However, even the most hardcore Arsenal fans, after seeing their performances against the world's top giants such as Manchester City, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Tottenham, have to admit that the current Gunners are indeed qualified to compete for the best team in history. This team has shown super competitiveness in every position, and although they don't have a Ballon d'Or winner or recognized as the top superstar, they are able to take down every opponent who stands in their way through super teamwork and the explosion of the whole team.

The strength of the main team is not inferior to other giants, and there is at least one other player who meets the first-class standard in each position to rotate, and their manager is like the most sophisticated machine, always able to put the best players in the team on the field, so the Gunners basically have someone to step up to help the team solve problems in every game, which is something that no other manager has ever and almost impossible to do, and it is also a key reason why Arsenal are now considered unstoppable.

In the latest update patch of the famous video game FM2023, Li Moody has surpassed Pep Guardiola and Zinedine Zidane in overall stats to become the most capable manager today. It's just that the approval of the game designer is not enough, and the Celestial Empire needs to show more convincing performance in reality in order to make the proud Europeans hold their heads high and admit that the yellow race can also succeed in the sport of football and even sit on the throne.