The winter break between mid-December and early January is the time for the major European leagues, but there is no winter break in the Premier League, and they play even in the cold months.

However, in the past, December 21 to January 3 of each year was the so-called "devil's schedule" of the Premier League, and each team had to play 4 games in 10 days, including the FA Cup, which was very high, even with the bench strength of giants such as Manchester United and Arsenal.

Therefore, the Football Association has made some adjustments to this year's competition, and after the teams have played one after another on the 26th and 28th, they only need to play one more FA Cup game on January 3, and the schedule is relatively relaxed, so the clubs are also more relaxed in the line-up.

Arsene Wenger was originally considering ending Descartes' suspension early after two difficult games, but he was happy when he saw the opponents in the next round, because their opponents in the FA Cup were Plymouth from League Two, this club that is only one letter apart from Pompeo's Portsmouth is not a difficult opponent, there are a total of 4 tiers in the English top flight, they belong to the team that has been mixed in the bottom layer all year round, and they have spent half of their time in the second division since their establishment 105 years ago. Half of the time is spent in the third division, which is in fact the equivalent of Italy's regional league, and is not a professional league at all.

The club, which only officially took ownership of their home stadium in 2003, ended a 100-year lease with the purchase of their hometown park course for £2.7 million. They came close to breaking into League One by finishing third in League Two in 2006 but fell short and have since continued to compete in League Two with little media attention.

To deal with such an opponent, Wenger believes that there is no need for Descartes to come forward, and his unexcused absence from training this time has a very bad impact, Wenger is ready to let him reflect for a while, so in this game, Wenger also discharged a substitute lineup dominated by young players such as Ramsey and Wilshere.

Although it is a substitute lineup. But Arsenal's substitutes are also worth much more than Plymouth's players. Arsene Wenger signed Ramsey from Cardiff City, although he did not disclose the specific transfer fee, but considering that Ramsey switched to Arsenal after rejecting Everton's transfer fee worth a total of £1 million, it is clear that Arsenal will never pay less than this price.

And in the Plymouth team. Their maximum transfer fee was set by striker Diouf (not Liverpool's former Diouf). A total value of £200,000......

Facing a giant pillar like Arsenal. The Plymouth players were no more ambitious and they actually went into this game with a sense of enjoyment, and everyone knew they couldn't possibly bring down Arsenal. No one expected anything from them, so they were very relaxed and open on the pitch, even playing against the Gunners.

The final score was 3:1, Plymouth's ease affected Arsenal, and the Gunners' backline was also very loose in this game, and the result was that a goal was scored by an opponent from League Two, in the opinion of Galla and others, this did not affect the victory, so they did not show any nervousness, but for Wenger, in the face of such a weak team, it is also necessary to concede goals, this back line has reached the point where it has to move.

Fortunately, the Premier League's winter transfer window has opened on January 1, and by the end of February 1, Arsene Wenger has already made his move.

The two faxes were sent to Ajax in the Netherlands and Lorient in France, with Arsene Wenger targeting Ajax captain Vermalu and Lorient's main centre-back Koscielny.

Lorient offered Koscielny a transfer fee of 18 million euros, a 12-fold increase from the price they paid for Koscielny a year ago, which was a huge profit, and Wenger dismissed it, insisting that Koscielny's worth was only around 10 million euros at most, so the deal was not negotiated.

However, Ajax's side made a reasonable offer.

Since the "Bosman" law came into effect, Ajax has become the most severely affected club in the world, they have declined from the Champions League "quadruple champions" comparable to Milan, Real Madrid and other giants in one fell swoop to become the current giant youth training base.

However, the club did not give up on its own and embarked on a different path of reconstruction, building more than 300 football schools around the world and recruiting young talent from all over the world, including Sneijder, Donny van der Meyde, Heitinga, Huntelaar, Stam, Ibrahimovic, Christian Eriksen...... These stars are the stars that emerged after the collapse of Louis van Gaal's 95 version of Ajax, and they held up another piece of the sky for Ajax.

Vermaelen, after a short loan spell, returned to Ajax and quickly took over the role of a first-choice centre-back, helping the team regain their long-lost Dutch Liga title in 2006 and becoming Ajax's new captain.

Ajax marked a transfer fee of 15 million euros for Vermaelen, which in good conscience was definitely a cabbage price, and later it turned out that Vermaelen was definitely more than that, but Wenger was not a generous master, and he and Ajax started a tug-of-war in negotiations, which did not end until the transfer window was about to close on February 1, and finally Arsenal got the Ajax captain for 11.8 million euros.

When haggling with Ajax, Arsenal played three more league games, they ended the matches with Bolton, Hull City and Everton 1:0 at home, 3:1 away and 1:1, and after 23 league games, they are fifth in the league with 44 points, and they are nine points behind league leaders Manchester United.

Such a record is undoubtedly disappointing. Descartes once shouted the slogan of winning the championship at the beginning of the season, and the Arsenal fans at that time were dancing with eyebrows, thinking that the team had reached a period of revival, but they did not expect that there were many troubles within the team, the main team Fabregas has not returned, and the vice-team Descartes has been riddled with scandals recently, and the weak backline has not been improved, and the future of the team has become more and more uncertain.

The only good thing is that they have progressed to the next round of Champions League and FA Cup competitions, and United's lead is not unshakable, which at least guarantees them any hope of winning the title on all three fronts.

After the match with Everton. Descartes also finally ended his month-long ban on the team. This time Wenger was ruthless, Descartes had already affected the game state because of similar scandals, Wenger began to be dissatisfied with his increasingly unruly off-field life, and he thought that he had to stop Descartes' mind. In Arsene Wenger's mind. Descartes was not only an important member of the team. Still the future leader of the team, he can't watch him ruined by a lace scandal off the field.

Descartes had a sense of hunger and thirst after his return, and he was unstoppable in the subsequent match against West Ham United. He scored his second hat-trick in the Premier League, overtaking Fernando Torres, who had previously overtaken him in the scorers' charts, to regain the top spot in the league scorer charts and close the gap between Arsenal and Manchester United to seven points.

Descartes was not satisfied with a big win, and he scored twice in the league on 8 February to help his side win the north London derby 3-1.

It is worth mentioning that in this game, the new signing Vermaelen came on and showed good form, he quickly adapted to the Premier League and proved Wenger's vision with a perfect game.

With five goals in two games, Descartes was no slouch behind last year's radiant Cristiano Ronaldo, and just when everyone thought his form was waning, he scored a hat-trick to help the Gunners beat Cardiff City 4-0 in the FA Cup.

scored 8 goals in 3 games, and the whole of Europe was shaken, and many people thought that Descartes would be like last season, going low in the scandal, but he didn't expect that this time he vented all his frustration on the court, and responded to the media's doubts about him with the craziest performance.

Even Wenger didn't expect Descartes to be so wild after being suspended, in Wenger's understanding, Descartes is a playmaker forward, but in these three games he showed his bloodthirsty side, he seems to want to vent all the unhappiness and frustration accumulated during this period of time in the opponent's goal, he changed the style of passing first in the past, and launched a crazy assault on the opponent's goal, until this time people realized that although Descartes's breakthrough was not conspicuous, but when he wanted to break through, There are still very few people who can stop him.

Maybe that's the characteristic of a so-called key player: they don't always dangle in front of you and try to play tricks to get past you, but when they do need to get past you, you'll be horrified to find that they can't stop you.

Arsene Wenger's insane momentum also makes Wenger overjoyed, as they will host the Black Cats Sunderland in the league and Champions League opponents Roma away in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.

Sunderland's manager this season is none other than Alex Ferguson's former favorite player, Arsenal's former bitter master, Irishman Roy. Keane.

Roy. Keane has injected his personality into this Sunderland team, and although the team has not been able to bring in high-quality players due to financial constraints, they have inherited Keane's relentless fighting spirit and ferocious pressing, and have become a headache for everyone in the Premier League this season.

However, Keane had a bad year, with Sunderland performing well at the start of the season under his leadership, at one point sitting fifth in the league table, but his rigorous training and temperament took the Black Cats a crumbling spell and the dressing room became confrontational, and he was sacked in January, with assistant Sbragia taking over the reins of Sunderland on an interim basis.

Although Sbragia led the team to beat West Bromwich Albion 4-0 in their first game, the Black Cats then fell into a slump, and they lost back-to-back games and were not far from relegation by late February.

Arsene Wenger had originally considered that most of the main players would be rested for the Champions League quarter-final in four days' time, but Descartes rejected the suggestion to rest, and he is now holding back a fire in his heart, and he is not happy if he does not vent.

In response to Descartes' recent hot form, Sunderland's interim coach Sbragia has also made a careful deployment, and at least two players in his backline are keeping an eye on Descartes' movements at all times, and no matter where Descartes runs, there are at least three Black Cats players surrounding him in the middle.

However, it would be naïve for Sbragia to think that this would trap Descartes, who was in a state of rage, and Descartes scored a "hat-trick" again in this game, but it was a hat-trick of assists.

Taking advantage of Sunderland's jealousy of him, he attracted most of the attention of the Sunderland backline, and then commanded Rosicky, Walket and others to take turns to plug in, several Arsenal midfielders beat the back line that Sbragia had painstakingly arranged into a sieve, and a big score of 5:0 made the black cats temporary coach so bitter that he could squeeze out the water, and he said to the media after the game: "A Descartes who can switch from siege mode to transport ship mode at any time is not something that earthlings can resist." ”

The media used this to compare Descartes to Ronaldo, because the title of "Alien" also came from a head coach - Bobby, the old coach who was in charge of Barcelona at the time. Robson exclaimed after the game: "I don't think Ronaldo belongs on our planet, he's incredible!" ”

However, most of the media still disagree with this view, because although Descartes' recent performances have been impressive, he has a fatal flaw, he has not won any honors, and a mere World Junior Championship title has not been taken seriously by the media.

He still has a long way to go to become an "alien". (To be continued......)