Playing against Portsmouth, it's already March.

The time has entered March, the winter war has come to an end, and the league has reached the final stage.

Good news for Manchester City to focus on the league, but bad news also came – Chelsea lost the Champions League and they lost to Rijkaard's Barcelona.

The Champions League defeat is bad news for Chelsea, but it is also bad news for Manchester City, as it means that Chelsea can focus on domestic competition, and although they also have the FA Cup to play, after all, Manchester City's bench depth is not as deep as Chelsea's, and Chelsea's support for two-front play can be said to be without pressure.

It can be said that from now on, the two teams will have to compete for the league title.

Manchester City have an advantage of four points, but with only 10 games left in the league, four points are not an absolute advantage, so Wan Sheng's emphasis on the team is, "We have to win the game so we have to win!" ”

Not making mistakes is more important than suddenly performing well.

Even if you draw or lose to your rivals, you must win against the small team, so as to fight for more points and be more powerful in the league competition, after all, the league is a points system, winning Manchester United and Chelsea is 3 points, and winning Sunderland and Wigan Athletic is also 3 points.

Therefore, Manchester City is particularly serious about this match against Portsmouth.

Wan Sheng watched a lot of Portsmouth game videos before the game, and also had a better understanding of this team, in summary, this is a team on the verge of relegation, the offensive ability is quite poor, the ability of the frontcourt players to grasp the opportunity is insufficient, and the defense is also very weak, but considering that Portsmouth is currently ranked fifth from the bottom of the league, such strength is not surprising at all.

Although it is a weak brigade. But it's not easy to win the game, after all, it's an away game, so Wansheng still told the players to be serious before the game.

But when it came time to play, the players on the field were still a little careless.

No one expected that it was Portsmouth who scored first, and in the eighth minute of the game, striker Caladas burst into the penalty line. Distin's defensive mistake went to the ground, and the starting goalkeeper Wang Xiaolei was still standing in the far corner, which was quite bad, and Caladas got a great opportunity, and he seized the opportunity to send the ball into the net with a precise low shot.

What a surprise this ball came from!

Portsmouth didn't expect the goal to come so quickly, and the Portsmouth fans were pleasantly surprised.

Wordsmouth were not carried away by the goal after the celebration, knowing that the quality of the team was not comparable to Manchester City. So they decisively strengthened their defense.

Manchester City rushed to score for a long time to no avail, but the frequent threat of attack made Portsmouth more determined to defend.

In the second half, Wan Sheng brought on Robbie Fowler in the hope that the experienced veteran would bring in the goal, but Portsmouth were still very tight defensively, and it was difficult to penetrate their dense defence by relying on the combination of the front court alone, and Manchester City had to change their strategy. Or use frequent high balls to find opportunities.

Finally, in the 71st minute of the game, the attack paid off. Morris' lob from outside the area found Darren Bent, who pinpointed the ball into Westerwell's goal.

1:1。

This is also the final ending score.

An away draw at Portsmouth was a loss for Manchester City as rivals Chelsea won against Tottenham, albeit hard-fought with a narrow 1-0 win in stoppage time. But a win is a win, with Chelsea taking all three points and Manchester City only one, leaving the two teams just two points apart.

By this time, many media outlets were starting to look out of favour on Manchester City.

Before, many people were optimistic about Manchester City. Because Manchester City are top of the league, they have a four-point advantage and have performed quite well in the league all the way, they have beaten Manchester United twice, and won against Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and other strong teams, such results surprised many.

But things are different now, because Chelsea are free from the Champions League and can concentrate on the league.

Chelsea's strength is undoubted, they are on the bench with tens of millions of pound-level stars, the lineup is incomparable to Manchester City, in front of Chelsea, Manchester City is like a small team at a glance, not to mention the depth gap between the bench, just the main lineup, Manchester City can only get Morris, Anelka, and Chelsea? Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba, Claude Makelele, Essien are almost all big stars, and what is even more terrifying is that these stars are pinched together by Mourinho, and they can be called the 'blue battleship' after Real Madrid.

There is no comparison in the squads, and the two teams are in the same league, so the match between Manchester City and Portsmouth has been interpreted as 'end-of-season weakness'.

Many small teams are like this, the early stage of the league is very vigorous, and the results are not worse than the giants at all, but at the end of the season, many external reasons have affected the results.

For example, Wigan Athletic, as a promoted horse, their results in the first half of the schedule, can compete for the Premier League top four places, but as soon as Christmas passes, injuries, lineup and opponent adaptation and other reasons, it has greatly affected the results, they have fallen all the way to three places, extremely advantageous results, and now can only barely compete for European qualifications, many analysts believe that Wigan Athletic can stay in the top ten is already good.

Manchester City have been doing well since the beginning of the season, but that doesn't mean they will be able to hold out until the end of the season, and their results are likely to slip in the final 10 rounds.

As a result, it is unlikely that they will be able to compete for the league title.

"Portsmouth are still in the relegation zone, and they probably didn't expect to get a point against Manchester City, even if they were playing at home, because Manchester City's results are a bit too good." But they did, and Chelsea owe Portsmouth a debt of gratitude."

'Manchester City drew 1-1 with Portsmouth, they were chased by Chelsea by two points, and the advantage is only two points, we can imagine that Chelsea will soon overtake and become the top of the league table, and then Manchester City will not have any more chances"

As Manchester's big media. Manchester Sport is a big fan of Manchester United, and in fact they don't like Chelsea either, but if they had to choose between Chelsea and Manchester City, they would go straight to Chelsea because Chelsea are just rivals. Manchester City is a sworn enemy for a century, so they don't say good things about Manchester City.

Neutral media also said that they are more optimistic about Chelsea, because Chelsea is stronger, and the difference between the two points is only one game, if Chelsea can catch up with or even catch up with the points, it will be difficult for Manchester City to catch up.

Manchester City's support has also voiced concern, and they have helped City analyse the reasons for the defeat.

'We should have taken the game more seriously, against Portsmouth. A lot of players are not getting into shape"

"It's a pity to concede the first goal, the Distin defense should be more careful!"

'If Anelka recovers from injury, he should be asked to pay as soon as possible and the Frenchman can bring more goals to the team.'

“”

Wan Sheng didn't care about these comments at all, and after a draw that allowed Chelsea to catch up with two points, he knew the media wouldn't say anything good. So he just asked the team to prepare seriously.

The draw with Portsmouth was a reminder to the whole team that it worked better than how much saliva was wasted on 10,000 wins. The team trained more seriously and faced the game more seriously, so in the next round against Charlton, Manchester City won 4-0 cleanly.

The game made the media shut up immediately.

Manchester City were so good that they kept Charlton at bay and made it look like they were powerless. From the beginning of the game, the situation was controlled by Manchester City, and the scoreline was the same, Manchester City scored two goals in each half, showing absolute strength and suppression.

There are more than these reasons that leave the media speechless. In the other match played at the same time, the north London derby, Chelsea lost 1-0 to bitter rivals Fulham.

It's a battle in focus, and when Chelsea lose, there is bound to be controversy, Chelsea seem to have an inherently sarcastic aura, and Mourinho can always find an excuse to lose.

After losing to Barcelona in the Champions League, coach Jose Mourinho sneered at the red card that Orno received, "they hacked us twice in two years", and the "they" in the Portuguese mouth can be understood as both Barcelona and referees.

Now losing to Fulham, Mourinho had no comment on Gallas' red card, but Drogba was blown out of a goal, so the Portuguese had something to say, "I can guarantee you, the assistant referee didn't see it clearly." I didn't see the handball on the sidelines, and neither did he because he didn't raise the flag in the first place. After the goal, the Fulham players rushed to the referee to put pressure on him, and the referee did not do so because he saw it, but because he was under pressure. ”

Mourinho cunningly avoided the point of whether Drogba was handballed or not, drawing attention to the referee.

Manchester City's strong win over Charlton Athletic extended the points advantage to five points, and the pressure on Wan Sheng plummeted, so he was also in the mood to say a few words, "The referee seems to be Chelsea's natural enemy, whenever there is a bad decision against Chelsea, a foul, a red card, or a goal is disallowed, he (Mourinho) can always be heard." But there were a lot of penalties against Manchester City, and we never said much. ”

'Maybe that's his [Jose Mourinho's] strategy, he wants people to look away from the reasons why Chelsea lost and then everything is because of the referee, it's all because of other external reasons.'

In the end, Wan Sheng quipped, "If we finally win the league title, maybe he (Mourinho) will say, 'It is the referee who decides the championship', and the British Referees Association should feel honored because they have the ability to decide the championship of the season!" ”

The Portuguese's face darkened when his words reached Mourinho's ears and he said, "He is not qualified to dictate our game. ”

"The league is far from over, it's too early for him to be happy!"

This is a reminder to Wan Sheng, of course, ironic, but Wan Sheng doesn't care, "He wants to say that Chelsea still have a chance? Then I'll let him know how Chelsea didn't have a chance! His words were sonorous and powerful, and the mood of the Manchester City media was lifted.

It's almost like a championship declaration!

So everyone focused on the 32nd round of the league, Chelsea's home game against Manchester City.

'It's Chelsea's chance, too!' "If Chelsea can win this one, they have a good chance of catching up with Manchester City, but if it is a draw or even a loss, their chances will become slim because it is difficult to expect Manchester City to miss a few games in a row"

This is also a completely different voice from before.

Before the match between Manchester City and Charlton Athletic, many media thought that Manchester City's results would decline, but now they think that Manchester City will stabilize their results, after all, the strength is there.

That's the impact of an absolute victory.

Those neutral media saw the strength of Manchester City, so they changed their tone and turned to support the more dominant Manchester City, as for how strong Chelsea is, the phrase has been said for a whole season, and the result is that the top of the table is still Manchester City?

As for this Chelsea-Manchester City match, many people are still looking forward to it.

Chelsea will definitely go all out in order to fight for the hope of winning the title, and their advantage is still obvious, because they are playing at home, but the last time the two teams met, Manchester City won 3-2, that big battle is still fresh in people's memory, and Manchester City also showed extraordinary strength, so it is difficult to say who will win and who will lose, but the excitement of the game is certainly undoubted.

Before the big game, there is also the 31st round of the league, which Chelsea play first, and unexpectedly, Birmingham City drew 0-0 with Chelsea at home.

This is quite surprising!

Many people have been saying that Manchester City will make mistakes at the end of the league for a number of reasons, such as their squad, depth of the bench, injuries or simply lack of foundation, but what no one expected was that it was Chelsea who made the mistake first, and after losing to bitter rivals Fulham in the derby, they drew away to Birmingham City and only picked up one league point.

In this game, Chelsea attacked the whole game, and it was difficult to break Birmingham's funnel defense that conceded 12 goals in the last three games.

As The Sun quipped, 'Birmingham's previous goals may have been prepared for this solid defence', of course, it was just a mockery, but Chelsea's draw was real.

Soon the game was over for Manchester City, who won 1-0 at home to Middlesbrough to take all three points again.

After this round, thanks to Chelsea's mistakes, City's lead has been extended to seven points. (To be continued.) )