Chapter 571: The New Season Begins

"How does it feel to be the captain? Truth be told, it's stressful. I don't know what to do to be worthy of the captaincy, that's what Pell [Medsatt] taught me."

"Can you score a hat-trick when you're under pressure? Oh, there's a saying in our hometown that turns stress into motivation, and I just turn it into a motivation. I think Pell has four good words for me to be worthy of the (captain's) armband, one is to score goals, the second is to score goals, and the third is to score a lot of goals," Li Zihan answered so cutely in the face of reporters' questions at the post-match press conference.

London Post reporter: "You were replaced at the end of the game, why did you give the captain's armband to Rosicky?" ”

Li Zihan scratched his head, wondering if the reporter was digging a hole for him, but he still answered truthfully: "I think Thomas is very suitable to be the captain, many teams are not captained by experienced veterans like him, and he is very popular in the team."

After the match against Sevilla, Arsenal returned to London with their second title of the season and were received to the highest standards by Arsenal fans. After all, Arsenal are tired of winning the FA Cup and Community Shield, and they are more interested in European competitions, albeit the European Super Cup

The UEFA Super Cup victory also gave the Arsenal players motivation and passion.

In the first round of the league at the weekend, Arsenal beat the city rival Crystal Palace 2-0, Arsenal and Crystal Palace are more knowledgeable, Arsenal and Crystal Palace have competed with Crystal Palace in the pre-season warm-up game, and Arsenal's youth midfielder Coquelin and the World Cup table Xiàn excellent Costa Rican striker Joel Campbell are on loan to each other for two seasons, so the game between the two sides has not been tentative, and they are very threatening.

But Arsenal are superior after all, and despite how much Chamak and Joel Campbell attack, they just can't knock on Arsenal's goal. The No. 2 goalkeeper, Colombian Ospina, who just transferred to the team this summer, is good, and Arsenal's midfield, which has undergone a lot of reinforcements, has not deserted.

Therefore, Crystal Palace for Arsenal, although there are some small waves, but overall it is Arsenal's suppressive victory. Lee Zihan, who made his league debut with the captain's armband in this game, became the man of the match, scoring a goal himself and assisting Alexis Sanchez.

So far, the three main tridents of Li Zihan, Sanchez and Ozil have worked well together. Although there are some small mistakes that sometimes be made, such as not being able to pass and running in place, not thinking of going together, etc., but overall it is still very sharp.

In a couple of other high-profile fixtures, Chelsea got their campaign off to a good start with a 3-1 win over promoted Burnley. At the same time, Manchester City also cleaned up Newcastle United 2-0, Liverpool won 2-1 against the Saints Southampton team who were excellent in last season's table, and Arsenal's north London rival Tottenham Hotspur visited West Ham United, also a London team, and also managed to get three points.

What is more surprising is the match between the Toffee Everton and the promoted Malicester City, the two sides played 2-2, and last season's excellent Everton was actually equalized by the Championship team that played the Premier League for the second time in the team's history (Leicester City's first Premier League was the first year of the Premier League, the first season of the Premier League), and also allowed the opponent to score two goals, which is not in line with the style of Howard, the outstanding American goalkeeper in the World Cup. What's more critical is that Everton was chased by the "fox" by two goals in a row when the basic victory was decided.

Poor Everton, the first game of the new season went so badly. Toffee fans thought that this first game was a three-point giveaway.

Of course, the most unexpected was not this game at Everton, but the game against Manchester United. The Red Devils at Old Trafford were beaten 2-1 by Swan Lake and Swansea City

The goals were scored by Swansea leading striker Ivory Coast centre-forward Bony and Swan Lake's South Korean midfielder Ji Sung-yong. It is worth mentioning that the owner of Swansea's starting goalkeeper No. 1 shirt is Arsenal's former No. 2 goalkeeper Poland No. 2 international Fabianski.

It was the debut of world coach Louis van Gaal in charge of Manchester United, but it was disrupted by Swansea. Had it not been for Angel Di Maria's first assist for Wayne Rooney's goal, the result of the game would have been even more difficult for Red Devils fans to accept.

It is worth mentioning that Swan Lake Swansea City is the last opponent to meet at home after the absolute retirement of the old man Alex Ferguson. In that game, Swansea scored the first goal and almost ruined Ferguson's retirement ceremony. Fortunately, Ferguson adjusted in time and eventually turned the game around with goals from Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie.

And this time, Louis van Gaal's first game in charge of Manchester United, and his first home game, were against Swansea. Only this time Swansea managed to be a spoiler, and he pulled Louis van Gaal off the horse.

It seems that there is a providence in the dark.

Facing the team's first game of the new season or a home game loss, although the fans are a little disappointed, but overall they are still relatively optimistic. Although Van Gaal is a world-class coach, it still takes time. can give Moyes close to a season's market, why can't Van Gaal be given more time.

It's just that everyone thinks of Moyes at this time and thinks that the Scots is the backstabber, because Moyes's lineup at Manchester United is not as good as Van Gaal's now, but the table on the field and the result of the game are similar

The only controversial thing is Louis van Gaal's tactics, the back three he used at Manchester United, also known as the 352 formation. Three centre-backs drag behind, two full-backs go up to form a wing-back or all-round attacking full-back, then three midfielders and two strikers

And Swansea scored two goals by taking advantage of the loopholes of Manchester United's three central defenders, and the cooperation between the three central defenders was not tacit, and the full-backs were too slow to form a back five when they retreated to help the defense, so Swansea seized the opportunity.

Van Gaal was not the first to use three centre-backs in the Premier League, but the teams that played the three-centre-back combination in front of him did not end well, and in the end either the manager took the initiative to change tactics or the manager was forced to step down.

Therefore, everyone thinks that the Premier League is not suitable for the three-centre-back system

After the game, many "bricks and beasts" were reviewing Van Gaal's tactics and believed that the biggest failure was that the three central defenders were not tacit enough.

Argentine centre-back Marcos Rojo has not been good enough to join the team, Smalling and Evans are not experienced enough, and they are still out of the time period to pay their tuition, but the key for Manchester United now is that they don't have time to pay their tuition.

Manchester United has missed the Champions League this season, and the loss to the club has been great, so this season is determined to enter the top four and enter the Champions League next season, otherwise there will be no Champions League for two consecutive seasons, which is no longer a loss for Manchester United.

United's only reliable centre-back is Phil Jones, and although the young centre-back is often reckless on the pitch, his defensive attitude and ability are enough to reassure Red Devils fans.

Arsenal don't have time to care about Manchester United's game for the time being, and the only thing they care about now is Manchester United youngster Welbeck.

When Giroud was seriously injured, Arsenal wanted to ask for it. The news of the purchase of Manchester United's young England striker Welbeck is no secret.

After a tug-of-war between the two sides, Manchester United bit the price at 18 million pounds, while Arsenal only wanted to come up with 13 million to 5 million pounds. There are still differences between the two sides, and the price cannot be negotiated together.

And now Welbeck is indeed out of place at Manchester United, and the player himself wants to "escape" from Old Trafford, and even Little Pea Hernandez has been loaned to Real Madrid.

So the only problem now is the price negotiation between Arsenal and Manchester United, although Arsenal and Manchester United are mortal enemies, but Manchester United are also happy to give Welbeck a pit and sell it to Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger sent staff to the office to tell Wenger that United had given a final reserve price. Welbeck belongs to Arsenal for £16 million, and for less than £16 million, there will be no emails or phone calls about Welbeck this summer.

"Sixteen million pounds, almost twenty-one million euros," Wenger pondered.

Truth be told, the price Wenger is still acceptable, after all, it is only a million pounds more than his bottom line. The current Arsenal is not the Arsenal of the past, and the extra price of a million pounds is still affordable.

Mainly thinking about giving this money to Manchester United, Wenger was uncomfortable, and Van Persie was only 24 million pounds when he was at his peak. Now a substitute striker, who is not ranked in the Premier League in terms of goal efficiency and on-field ability, Manchester United is asking for 16 million pounds

Wenger, who bowed his head and pondered, suddenly saw a document on the desk, there were a lot of materials on his desk, most of them were strikers' information, because Arsenal's more urgent thing during this time was to bring in a replacement for Giroud, because the transfer period was only half a month, and there was still a run-in after the player came.

If Li Zihan has any injuries during this time, Arsenal will have no striker available. Arsenal are reluctant to do so, but everything has to be prepared for the worst and the worst.

At that time, Arsenal only had one French centre-forward left for Sarnogo, who joined the team on a free basis last summer, but Sanogo's current form and fit with the team

Arsene Wenger would rather vacate the centre-forward position and use him as an attacking midfielder such as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Cazorla, especially in the early stages of the season.

So now Arsene Wenger's desk is full of information about the strikers.