No. 637: Outbreak of Hardship!
Many fans thought it was Nerbatov's best game for Manchester United, but Gerrard was still impressive.
The "Double Red Club" ended with a narrow victory for Manchester United, and Liverpool have only won one game since the start of the new season, which is completely inconsistent with their status as a giant.
Turning the attention to the other two giants, can the London duo maintain their winning streak?
Now that we have ushered in a double game a week, even the giants have to rotate, and in this case it is the easiest to cause upsets.
At half past seven in the evening, Arsenal's away match against Sunderland was played at the Stadium of Light.
Arsene Wenger rested most of the players in the Champions League, including captain Robin van Persie, but Chen Fan and Cesc Fabregas continued to start.
It can be seen that he attaches great importance to this game.
If they can get out of the Stadium of Light, they are only five games away from breaking their 49-game unbeaten run in the Premier League.
After the start of the game, Sunderland used the home advantage to launch a fierce attack on Arsenal, and for a while Arsenal roared in front of the goal.
Obviously, the Arsenal players are not in form at all, Cesc Fabregas seems to have lost his former brilliance, and Chen Fan is surrounded by opposing defenders.
Whenever he was about to break through, the Sunderland defenders immediately used foul tactics decisively, not giving him a chance to run at all.
Arsenal's attack is in a quandary.
The two sides exchanged blanks in the first half, and after the start of the second half, Wenger immediately made changes to the lineup, making two substitutions in a row, the out-of-form Cesc Fabregas was substituted, and Robin van Persie came on as a substitute.
Arsene Wenger's intentions are very clear, hoping to tear apart the opposition defence with the tacit understanding of the Dutch duo.
The substitutions had an effect, and Arsenal's attack slowly picked up, but before Arsenal could score, Sunderland broke the deadlock.
In the thirteenth minute of the second half, Sunderland midfielder Riberos made a through pass near the center circle, and the continuous Arsenal central defender Koscielny made a mistake. Bent completes the steal.
Single Knife!
Darren. Bent took the football to the Arsenal penalty area, and then pushed the shot, and the football went into the net!
1 to 0!
Sunderland break the ice!
For some reason, the Manchester City reporter on the sidelines breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that this was the first goal conceded by the Gunners since the start of the new season.
The Gunners have been very solid in defence over the last five matches, not conceding a single goal, and even the usually weak set-piece defence has not had problems.
Arsenal's defence could well be described as "rock solid".
You must know that their first round game is at Anfield, and it will be quite difficult to keep a clean sheet at home to the Reds.
Now it seems that the Gunners' defence is not rock solid and their defenders can make fatal mistakes.
Koscielny looked ashamed, he made a mistake at a critical moment.
After the game restarted, Sunderland took it as soon as it was good, put most of their forces in defence, and focused on the Dutch twins.
Arsenal's players have developed a habit of relying on the Dutch duo, and all they have to do in the game is to defend well and pass the ball to the Dutch duo.
As for the rest, I'll leave it to the two of them.
With the Dutch twin in the way, they suddenly didn't know how to attack.
Arsenal's attack became disorganized, and no matter how many defenders Chen Fan and Robin van Persie had around them, they took the ball and tried to get the ball to them.
Obviously, the result was that many of the balls were tackled by Sunderland in advance.
Chen Fan did not blame his teammates, this is a trust in the two of them, he made a change, took the initiative to retreat his position, to the midfield to receive the pass from his teammates.
The effect of this change is striking.
In the twenty-ninth minute of the second half, Chen Fan received Song's cross.
Being too far from goal, Sunderland did not use a containment approach, and Chen Fan easily got rid of the defenders in front of him and advanced into the hinterland.
Chen Fan didn't dribble the ball fast, as if he was looking for a teammate who could cooperate, which made the Sunderland defenders let their guard down.
So they continued not to use the method of containment.
Between Gu Pan, Chen Fan had already killed the other party's hinterland!
Just when the Sunderland defenders were vigilant, Chen Fan suddenly accelerated the tempo, passed straight to Van Persie in front of the penalty area, and then quickly cut diagonally!
Straight pass oblique pass two over one!
Van Persie, who had his back to the Sunderland goal, didn't know where he leaned on the opponent's central defender and crossed!
At this moment, the Sunderland players realized the danger, damn it, Chen was too "insidious"......
Chen Fanfei stepped forward and stretched out his right foot to control the football under his feet, and accelerated to the Sunderland penalty area again!
The Sunderland centre-backs and left-backs are in a left-right attack, and they want to stifle the wonderful and tacit combination of the Dutch duo!
"Smack! ……”
What people didn't expect was that Chen Fan forcibly shot hard with his feet in the middle of the two, and the football flew towards the right side of the goal like a cannonball!
Sunderland goalkeeper Milosat. Knight leaps and pounces towards the football!
Between the flashes of lightning, the football flew half a meter in front of his palm and hit the goal!
The ball is in!
The score becomes 1 to 1!
Arsenal equalised with difficulty!
Chen Fan, who scored the goal, did not raise his arms and cheer, quickly picked up the football from the net, and ran towards the middle circle with the football in his arms.
His meaning was very clear, he was not satisfied with a draw.
The pro-Arsenal media reporters on the sidelines nodded in their hearts, Chen is still the player with a strong sense of victory, and only such a player can be high-spirited and not slack off on the field!
The Manchester City reporter frowned, and a huge wave was set off in his heart, damn it, this is this guy's third professional season, why is his ball quotient so high?
If it was Rooney, without Ferguson's command, he would never have thought of taking the initiative to pull back the ball.
Sunderland stepped up significantly after the restart, wanting to hold on to a one-goal lead until the end of the game, but now the two sides are back on the same page.
Arsenal showed their true colors as giants and fought against each other at the Stadium of Light!
The last thing the Gunners are afraid of in the past two seasons is attack!
The corners of Wenger's mouth are slightly upturned, if you continue the previous tactics, it is difficult to say whether this game will be won or lost, attack?
It must be Arsenal who wins!
The tempo of the pitch was very fast, and the side had just finished shooting, and less than a minute later, the opposition had advanced to the front of the penalty area.
In the fortieth minute of the second half, Sunderland striker Darren Darren. Bent shoots a shot from the edge of the box and the ball goes over the crossbar.
"Boom! ……”
There was a loud cry of regret at the Stadium of Light, and before the sound of regret had dissipated over the Stadium of Light, Arsenal immediately launched an attack, and goalkeeper Almunia kicked the football forward with a big foot.
Van Persie jumped high and a header was ferried, directing the ball to Chen Fan on the left.
Chen Fan didn't wait for the ball to land, knocked it back to Song directly, and then quickly stepped forward!
Song didn't hesitate, and made a direct pass, Chen Fan surpassed the Sunderland fullback, and led the football to the penalty area with the outside of his right foot!