At the beginning of the season, Millwall had a difficult schedule, not because the opponents were too strong, but because there were too many games.

The first two rounds of the league were better, with a week apart enough time for the team to rest, but after the second round, Millwall had a big game against Chelsea.

It was the England Community Shield.

The England Community Shield, formerly known as the Charity Shield, was founded in 1908 as the London Magistrate's (DeWaal) Shield, which was founded in 1898.

Initially the tournament was held at the end of each season, then around October each year.

In 1908, the first FA Charity Shield was played between Manchester United (English League champions) and Queens Park Rangers (Southern League champions) in the form of professional and amateur teams, with the aim of strengthening the exchange between professional and amateur football. This confrontation continued for many years and did not become a true Super Cup-like competition.

In 1974, Ted Crock, then secretary general of the FA, proposed that the 66-year-old Charity Shield be moved to the famous Wembley Stadium and that the match be a match between the league winners and the FA Cup winners.

If a team wins both events, the league champion and runner-up will play instead.

Since that year, the Charity Shield has truly become a "Super Cup" between the two best at the beginning of the season.

Due to the redevelopment of Wembley Stadium, the tournament has been played at Cardiff Millennium Stadium in Wales since 2002.

In March 2002, the UK Government stated in a report that the FA had breached the rules governing the use of funds when using proceeds from the Charity Shield. Since then, the Charity Shield has been renamed the Community Shield.

The Community Shield was the first of its kind for England at the start of the season.

Last season, Millwall won the league title and the FA Cup, and the Community Shield was played between the league title and runners-up, with Millwall facing Chelsea.

Sandwiched between two league games, Millwall's schedule suddenly became tighter, and Zhang Yang had a headache looking at the schedule, but the schedule had to be faced.

In the first and second rounds of the fixture, Millwall continued to train tactically, allowing the players to be more suited to the tactics, but the intensity of the training was much lower.

Every player needs to conserve their fitness for an intensive schedule.

The transfer market is still running in August, and the media and teams don't seem to be ready for the start of the season.

The transfer has been frequently reported in the media.

One club after another, of course, is also working hard for transfers.

The Premier League's summer transfer is still the most concerned Chelsea, who continue to wave cheques to buy the stars they want.

This summer, Abramovich got what he wanted, bought his 'hometown' from AC Milan - Ukrainian nuclear warhead Shepchenko, the deal was reached at the end of June, Chelsea and AC Milan's official websites at the same time released the news of the transfer of Ukrainian striker Shevchenko, Abramovich finally bought Shevchenko at a price that was said to set a Chelsea transfer record, and officially signed a four-year contract with the "Ukrainian nuclear warhead", the specific transfer fee was not disclosed, However, the Italian and British media have revealed that the transfer fee is between 50 million and 60 million euros, and the transfer fee will be paid entirely in cash, with no player exchange involved.

Andriy Shevchenko has officially become a member of Chelsea, and he was another addition to Roman Abramovich's summer signing.

Chelsea then continued to wave cheques, signing Feyenoord winger Kalou and Hamburg defender Bora Luz in two deals that also cost almost €26 million.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Before Shepchenko joined Chelsea, there was already big news in the transfer market: Chelsea had managed to win German captain Michael Ballack.

In the case of Real Madrid, Manchester United and other clubs, all want to get Ballack, the German captain resolutely chose to join Chelsea, the reason why he chose Chelsea is difficult to say, but the media and fans generally believe that it is the temptation of 'high salary'.

Chelsea signed Ballack to a four-year contract with a total annual salary of £25 million (after tax), which is equivalent to about $43 million. At the same time, this annual salary makes Ballack's income more than Real Madrid's six superstars, and also surpasses Vieri's $7 million salary when he joined AC Milan.

This is not good news for Bayern Munich.

Their best player, the most famous German captain, has opted to join Chelsea on a free transfer, and they will not be compensated for a transfer fee while losing a key player.

Speaking about how it felt to leave Bayern, Ballack said, "I think I made the right decision, I need to go to a new environment, to meet a new challenge, of course, I have the right to choose, Bayern has no right to force me, I thank Bayern and the Bayern fans, I spent one of the best years of my career there, as for the accusations from the fans, it doesn't matter, it just proves my importance." ”

Shepchenko, Ballack, Chelsea were once again the clubs with the biggest summer transfer acquisitions, but their desire to buy stars did not end there, and after the clean-up sale of Duff, Gudjohnson, Hut and other players, they targeted Arsenal star Ashley Cole and Nigerian young talent Mikel.

These two transfers have also put Chelsea in double trouble.

First of all, Mikel.

Mikel's transfer is very interesting, he first signed an agreement with Manchester United, the transfer fee is eight million pounds, Chelsea contacted Mikel, Mikel then expressed his desire to join Chelsea, Chelsea almost 'snatched' Mikel from Manchester United, Manchester United has brought the lawsuit to FIFA, it is said that Mikel's former club also spoke for the Red Devils, I don't know what the final outcome will be, but to this point, Mikel probably has no chance with Manchester United.

Next up is Ashley Cole.

Last year, Arsenal had a lawsuit with Chelsea for Ashley Cole and Mourinho to make private contacts, and as a result, Chelsea, Mourinho and Ashley Cole himself received heavy fines, and Ashley Cole had no choice but to renew his contract with Arsenal for three years.

This year, Mourinho publicly stated that he hoped to get Ashley Cole, and the consequence was that Chelsea and Arsenal were fighting again, and if an ordinary player transferred, he would refuse to refuse, and the key is that Ashley Cole himself was bent on joining Chelsea, and continued to publicly express his stance in the media to put pressure on the club.

Arsenal are aware they can't keep Ashley Cole, but they won't let Chelsea get it easily.

The two sides have been arguing for a long time.

Arsenal dragged on not allowing Ashley Cole to transfer, and also wanted to bite a bite of fat meat on Chelsea.

Chelsea are in double trouble.

While Chelsea's transfer is in a big swing, other clubs have also made heavyweight signings, and since Manchester United was bought by the Glazer family, they have been working hard to help the Glazers pay off their debts, and the funds must have been affected, but they still wrote a cheque for 26.3 million euros to buy Carrick from Tottenham Hotspur.

In order to supplement its strength, Liverpool also began to introduce a lot of reinforcements: Paletta, Bellamy, Kuyt, Pennant, Lescott, one by one powerful players joined, which immediately enriched the Liverpool squad.

Arsenal is still very poor, and among their recruitments, there is only one Rosicki worth mentioning, and the transfer fee of 10 million euros is only 'worth mentioning', not to mention, they will probably have to sell Ashley Cole, who is worth much more than Rosicky.

Tottenham Hotspur used the money from the sale of Carrick to bring in Zim Bonda, Berbatov and Malbranke, who were considered by the outside media to be a reinforcement.

Newcastle United bought Duff and Martins, and the two transfer fees also exceeded 30 million euros.

Other clubs have more or less certain additions.

Compared with the above clubs, Millwall's introduction of players such as Quaresma and Zambrotta suddenly seemed very mediocre.

Millwall completed the transfer work early, and many media skipped it in August, and the first round win over Blackburn Rovers did not receive much attention, and the second round of the Premier League has come in a low-key public opinion atmosphere.

Millwall travelled to Manchester to take on Manchester City at the Manchester Stadium.

It's also a 'low-key' game.

However, China, which is eight hours away, has become a high-profile game, as Manchester City have Chinese player Sun Jihai and Millwall is led by Zhang Yang.

If the star of the stars can be distinguished by popularity, then Son Jihai is Manchester City's number one star, and the number of supporters he has is far from comparable to Corradi, James and even Anelka.

Sun Jihai has been in the Premier League for four years, has been recognized by coaches, teammates and fans at Manchester City, and firmly occupies the position of the main right-back, and on the eve of the new season, there are even calls for him to be the captain of Manchester City.

It also makes sense for Chinese fans to pay attention to Sun Jihai.

Before the match between Millwall and Manchester City, there were also domestic media who made a call for 'Sun Jihai will make Zhang Yang very brainy', thinking that Sun Jihai would cause huge trouble to Millwall.

In the end, the media that made similar voices were disappointed.

When the 90-minute game ended, the 0-5 on the scoreboard seemed to be a mockery of all the fans who supported Manchester City, Chi Guoguo, so that they had to shut their mouths, and those domestic media who had high hopes for Sun Jihai were also disappointed.

Sun Jihai's performance can only be said to be 'passing', he is a qualified defender, but he has no outstanding performance. When defending Darren Bent, Son Jihai was twice shaken by the latter, which also proved the gap between him and world-class players.

The domestic media is still very tolerant of their own players, and they still gave Sun Jihai an 'excellent' review, and thought that it was already quite a good performance to be able to play against Darren Bent.

"There is no defender in the world who can defend Darren Bent. Sun Jihai can cause problems for Darren Bent and leave the opponent without a chance most of the time, and his performance is already quite good! ”

This is what the domestic media say.

To some extent, this statement is also true, Darren Bent is very good, and it is the wrong strategy to expect Sun Jihai to defend alone.

In fact, in Zhang Yang's view, Millwall played very ordinary.

In order to prepare for the Community Shield two days later, the team did not send all the main players, Smitchell and Pire both rested for a round, and the backline also sent new players such as Barragan and Traore, but Manchester City's performance was very poor, they did not pay attention to defense in the first place, perhaps it is also the style of Manchester City's history, they seem to be more inclined to play beautiful attacking football, rather than focus on defense.

City learned their lesson and the five goals spoke for themselves.

After the match against Manchester City, Zhang Yang gave an interview to Chinese reporters and said that he was quite satisfied with the team's performance, "We performed well, especially a few new players, who integrated into the team very quickly. There are still some problems, such as the connection between the back and the middle is not too close......"

It's mostly David Livermore's problem.

The only midfielder is still a 'lower IQ limit' figure, the defense is not bad, and the overall situation is a lot worse, but Zhang Yang didn't talk about it in depth, because he knows what the reporter cares about, "I noticed Sun Jihai's performance, he is very good, he has reached a world-class level, and he has done a good job of blocking Bent." ”

"But maybe it's Manchester City's defensive problem, they only send Sun Jihai to defend (Bent), which is a bit incomprehensible, even Manchester United and Arsenal will not let Bent play. I don't think the manager did enough to prepare for the game against Millwall. ”

Zhang Yang affirmed Sun Jihai's performance and put the blame for the poor defense on Manchester City coach Pierce.

The reporter was very happy to hear it.

Zhang Yang didn't mean to 'slap in' Sun Jihai or Chinese fans, he didn't need to do that, he just said what he thought.

Sun Jihai's performance is actually very good.

Not to mention that compared with domestic players, compared with most defenders in the Premier League, Sun Jihai is not bad, otherwise it would be impossible to become the main defender of Manchester City, get the club's initiative to renew his contract, and be reused by head coach Pierce.

City's lack of preparation for the game was evident and there was a question of how much importance Darren Bent was given in the game.

As the runner-up scorer in the Premier League last season, Darren Bent has excellent individual ability, but he can't be completely blocked by a defender, even if he plays against a top team, Darren Bent will be the opponent's key defensive target, especially in his own attack, Darren Bent has at least one person to mark, and there will be one person to help defend.

Manchester City did not pay attention to the defense of Darren Bent, and Sun Jihai was alone for most of the time.

That's the problem.

Perhaps Millwall put too much attacking pressure on Manchester United, and other players also have their own defensive tasks, but no matter how you explain it, Manchester City's lack of attention to Darren Bent is also an important reason for their big loss.