In the 33rd round of the league, Chelsea's home match against Millwall attracted a lot of attention.

It's not just a clash between first and second in the league, it's also a title race with only six rounds left in the late season.

Chelsea are currently five points behind Millwall.

Five points is not an absolute one, as Chelsea can beat Millwall to get three back, leaving the two sides just two points separated, with five games remaining, there is still hope of catching up.

Contrarily.

If Chelsea lose at home to Millwall, the Premier League title race would be over early, and Millwall have an eight-point advantage over the title and will not be able to hand it over again.

It's easy to imagine how attractive a league that decides the championship is.

After the end of the 32nd League, not many fans were talking about the past games, and they were all looking forward to the Chelsea and Millwall clashes.

The media also continued to publish articles reporting on the situation of the two teams.

Both teams are in good shape, Chelsea defeated Manchester City by two goals at home in the last round, Millwall beat Charlton by two goals at home, the score is the same, and the significance of a single game is not much, many media analyze the two games, and give judgments such as 'Chelsea is in good shape' and 'Millwall's state is brave'.

After that, the media analyzed the injury situation of the two teams.

Millwall have three players injured, one is left wing-back Joey Healy, and Barry Cogan and Tim Cranch are all fringe players, and the injuries have not affected the strength of Millwall's main squad.

Chelsea's injury situation is more serious, the main central defender Ricardo Carvalho, wing Robben, strikers Kezman, Kalou are all on the injury list, but many media analysts believe that the injuries of several players will basically not affect Chelsea's performance, because they have the same excellent players to supplement.

In parallel with the various analyses, the media also began to conduct interviews with the two teams.

Three days before the game, when Millwall was training openly, Zhang Yang was interviewed by reporters, and he smiled and said, "We are preparing. It wasn't easy to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but we were aiming for it and there was a lot of confidence in the whole team and I hope it will be a favourable result. ”

By the afternoon of the following day, Chelsea held a press conference, and Mourinho gave an interview saying, "Win! There can only be one result! If we fail, we don't stand a chance! We're on the verge of life and death, and we have to fight hard, but I think all sorts of factors are in our favor. I can't think of a reason to lose. ”

The game is approaching.

The media have also started to express their opinions, with the majority still favouring Chelsea.

Millwall were doing well, but even if we didn't talk about squad quality, as Mourinho said, all the factors were in Chelsea's favour, and the game was played at Stamford Bridge, so there was no reason why Chelsea could lose.

Also, will Millwall give it their all?

That's a problem.

In the last round, Millwall challenged Manchester United away, and only did one thing in the whole game - defense, they kept the goal solid, and after the game, many arguments analyzed the reasons for Millwall's doing, and also gave the corresponding conclusion: Millwall has no choice, they can't meet Manchester United at Old Trafford, and can only passively choose to stick to the goal to fight for a point.

At the time, it was reported that "one point at Millwall is a goal." Presumably, Zhang Yang hopes for a draw, because they can fully accept a draw. ”

Will it still be the case with Chelsea now?

Many media outlets have analyzed and reported that Millwall is likely to adopt the same strategy, because a draw is completely acceptable, Millwall has a five-point advantage, and after the match with Chelsea, there are only five rounds left in the league, and there are five points in five rounds, which is too big.

Chelsea is different.

They will have to win to have any chance of overtaking Millwall at the end of the season.

When the day when the game was approaching, Zhang Yang was interviewed again, and some reporters raised relevant questions.

Zhang Yang is very sure of the 'correction', "We haven't given up on any games!" Every game, our coaching staff, including all the players in the team, are 100% energetic! Your statement is regrettable......"

'Everybody knows it's hard to play against Chelsea but we're not going to give up. We've already achieved our goal for the season, but if we can get better results, why not go for it? We need to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge! ”

The flamboyant words are firm, but it is difficult to change the opinion of the media.

Millwall's points advantage is too great, they don't need to go head-to-head with Chelsea, a draw is definitely an acceptable result, many media reports still talk about 'Millwall will choose to be conservative, 'as long as it can draw, it is equivalent to expanding the advantage'.

The media is right.

Millwall have a five-point advantage and with a draw against Chelsea and only five league games remaining, the chances of winning the league title are stronger than before.

Zhang Yang also thinks the same, but the point that the media has overlooked is, how strong is Chelsea's attacking ability? Millwall can 'try their luck' at Old Trafford, but not necessarily at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea are more interested in beating Millwall than Manchester United, it is related to whether they have a chance to win the trophy, if they play Chelsea with a 'draw is a victory' mentality, it is possible to lose in the end.

So Millwall had to try to win.

Zhang Yang is also more hopeful of winning, with an away win over Chelsea reaching eight points and five games remaining, enough to declare the title early.

This hope must be earned!

The media said that Millwall might 'keep the flat' and would use this to illustrate the 'utilitarian nature of the flamboyant coaching style', but in reality, they didn't know about flamboyance.

Publicity is not utilitarian.

From the beginning of coaching to the present, Zhang Yang has never thought about what 'utilitarian' is, and the basic idea of preparing for every game is to make the team win.

In the final stages of the league, Zhang Yang asked the team to take every game seriously, and let the team defend well against Manchester United, but also in order to 'get the most points'.

This seems to be understood as 'utilitarian for the sake of performance', but Zhang Yang prefers to call it 'championism', and all his actions are to get closer to the championship.

Championship is the ultimate pursuit!

If utilitarianism can be used as a means, then be more utilitarian, and conversely, beautiful football can be used as a means, then attack more. Everything is to move forward towards the championship, and it can help get closer to the championship, and the means and methods are not important.

That's championism!

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Many media outlets are optimistic that Chelsea can beat Millwall, but the pressure on Chelsea is much greater than Millwall's, as they are five points off the league points and will not be able to catch up in one game.

A head-on win over Millwall would have lifted them up to three points but still two points off their opponents, so the game was a last-ditch game for Chelsea and they had to get a win to take advantage of the final chance to get ahead.

In the case of 'must win', the pressure can be imagined.

The whole Chelsea team is very serious about the game, and manager Jose Mourinho is feeling a lot of pressure, he never imagined that Chelsea would face such a situation: by the end of the league period, it is not Manchester United or Arsenal who have more points than Chelsea, but a promoted team this season.

This raises questions about Mourinho's coaching ability.

What is Chelsea's line-up?

Chelsea's squad is so luxurious that even Ferguson admits that it is inferior, and has been recognized as one of the most gorgeous squads in Europe, perhaps 'one' can be removed, their gorgeousness is not in the presence of any top stars, but in all fronts, including substitutes, all of whom can be said to be big-name stars, such as the controversial full-back Glenn Johnson, who can only be regarded as a substitute at Chelsea, with less than 20 appearances in a season, but Glenn Johnson was selected for the England national team.

A fringe substitute who can be selected for the England national team proves how gorgeous Chelsea as a whole are, and every position they have and a single player can be said to be a well-known star.

Other teams, such as Barcelona, they have Ronaldinho, this kind of world-class superstar, Chelsea does not have, but Barcelona's bench lineup, and even several positions in the main team, are incomparable to Chelsea.

With such a luxurious squad, it can be forgiven for not playing well in the Champions League, because the Champions League is a single-game game, and the strength of Chelsea's main squad may not be able to catch up with other top giants.

Leagues are different!

Such a luxurious lineup, the most suitable for playing is a long-term league, Chelsea's injury in a certain position, it is not a problem at all, there will be players who are not bad at all, Mourinho will have the luxury of choosing a large rotation in most games, which is definitely not something that other teams, or even giant teams, can do.

Now that Chelsea are second in the league, there are already media questions about Mourinho's managerial ability.

Of course it doesn't matter.

But there is one person who must be taken seriously, and that is Chelsea chairman Roman Abramovich.

Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and invested hundreds of millions of pounds into it, definitely hoping that Chelsea can become a top team, and the most direct proof of this is to win all competitions.

Chelsea's results last season were satisfactory, a league title plus the Champions League semi-finals, after all, it is not bad, but this season is different, Chelsea lost the Champions League in advance, and the league ranked second, and the Russians will definitely not be satisfied if they can't win both major competitions.

Chelsea have such a gorgeous squad and can't match up with a promoted team in the league?

This promoted team is not special, and at the beginning of the season, the media still thought that they had 'locked up the relegation place in advance', which shows how poor the squad is.

In terms of squad strength, Chelsea and Millwall are two extremes, the two teams collide together, and Mourinho knows he must lead the team to victory, and losing the league title early will shake his managerial position.

Maybe this can be regarded as a 'battle for the throne'?

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The game is about to begin.

Millwall's bus drove into Stamford Bridge.

It wasn't the first time Zhang Yang had been to Stamford Bridge, but the last time he was an intern at the BBC, the aim was to broadcast the game live and attract more fans, and I remember that there were many Chelsea fans who gave him positive comments after the game.

It's different now.

He became Millwall manager and came as an opponent, so probably the Chelsea fans wouldn't be welcome, right?

The bus pulled into the stadium parking room.

The parking room is an open area, next to the press area, which is convenient for reporters to take pictures, and if you are lucky, you can also do a one-sentence interview.

After Zhang Yang got out of the car, he glanced at the group of reporters.

That's already dozens of people.

That's not too much, but this game has attracted the attention of the whole of English football, including other countries that pay attention to the Premier League, and there are also sent reporters, the number will definitely be very large, this is just the area near the parking room, the area where journalists can move around freely, the number of reporters in the mixed area must be more, in addition, there are also reporters who have entered the stadium to shoot, and waiting at the press conference, all together, the number may exceed five hundred, or even reach thousands, right?

Just thinking about the number of journalists is a little exciting.

It's really the 'final of the league'!

The outside world seems to see it that way, and Zhang Yang also wants to turn the game into a final, as long as Millwall can beat Chelsea, the league title can be decided in advance.

Otherwise, there is still suspense.

For the game to be a final, Millwall will have to win.

At the pre-match press conference, Zhang Yang said in a low-key manner that the team would strive for victory, and nothing else was said again, and when the game was about to start, there was no point in saying anything.

The same goes for Jose Mourinho.

The low profile of the managers of both sides made the pre-match smell of gunpowder a little less, but everyone knows that the game is going to be very intense because the game is extremely important for both sides.

Zhang Yang returned to the locker room.

At the last moment of the game, the players warmed up, and Zhang Yang stood in the middle of the room, scanning everyone and doing the final guidance.

"I've said everything that needs to be said, and I think you'll know what to do when you're on the field. But now I want to emphasize one more point. Zhang Yang's tone became very serious, "In this game, my requirements are, whether it is counterattacking or advancing, the speed must be fast, even if there is no chance, don't drag, just pass forward quickly, we don't need to fight for the ball, and don't give them any chance!" ”

Zhang Yang talked about the word 'fast'.

There is a big gap between Millwall and Chelsea's squad strength, if you try to pass and control the ball, it is equivalent to fighting with the opponent, which is a very dangerous way, as long as the attack can be fast, even if you lose the ball in the frontcourt, the opponent will not have too good opportunities to maintain the formation.

"In addition, defensively, we all have to be stable, the formation is stable, the running is stable, and we have to pay attention to every position, so that we are invincible!"

"We don't need to take risks, it's more important to keep the goal!"

Zhang Yang emphasized the rapid attack and steady defense, there seems to be a contradiction between the two, but the offense and defense are originally two extremes, but in fact, they can coexist, especially in Millwall's tactics, focusing on the individual performance of the players, and the midfielders can achieve the purpose of fast offense and stable defense by running quickly.

It was also the coaching staff who discussed it a lot and decided on the tactical style of play against Chelsea.

In fact, the tactics are still conservative.

The fast offensive is also to reduce the team's dangerous mistakes, even if the ball is at the opponent's feet, as long as the team does not make mistakes, the problem will not be big, but the attack with a slower pace will become very serious.

Zhang Yang believes that with this style of play, there is hope to beat Chelsea.

It's not easy to win at Stamford Bridge, it's much better to have hope than to have little hope, and what the players on the pitch have to do is to get the hope of winning.