Chapter 42: The smell of gunpowder in Derby

Playing at home, Arsenal naturally have no reservations when facing Tottenham, and they will have to give their best to guarantee a win at home. And Thierry Henry, the Gunners' banner man in this game, also came to the Emirates Stadium to watch the game, which may also be another motivation for the Gunners, who are eager to perform well in front of this senior.

goalkeeper Fabianski; From right to left in the back line, Sagna, Squeerac, Koscielny, Klichi; Back - Alexander - Song; The attacking midfield is made up of Nasri, Cesc Fabregas and Arshavin; Chamak and Xiao Qing form a double striker.

Arsenal's backline is full of French players, and although the main defender Vermaelen has been unable to return due to some repeated injuries, Arsenal look pretty good right now, at least they don't have to worry too much about the lack of availability at the back.

As for Tottenham, Galla, who came on a free transfer from Arsenal this summer, also formed a French double central defender with Caboul, Lennon returned from a hamstring injury, and Pavlyuchenko played as a single striker; Defoe, who has been recovering from an injury for two months, has finally returned to the squad and he is indeed a very good addition to Tottenham Hotspur.

Tottenham goalkeeper Angel Gomez; Hatton, Gallasla, Kabool, Héctor on the back line; midfielders Lennon, Janas, Modric, Bale, Van der Vaart; Single striker Pavlyuchenko.

In the player tunnel, the players on both sides can clearly feel the different atmosphere, Tottenham Hotspur players and Arsenal players are quite incompatible, especially the current contradiction between Nasri and Gallas has been completely exposed, which also makes the current atmosphere quite depressing.

Xiao Qing and his teammates walked into the stadium under the leadership of the referee with expressionless faces, and the game was about to start; Amidst the cheers and boos at the Emirates Stadium. When the two teams shake hands before the start of the game; All the photojournalists' lenses are probably aimed at the "intersection" of the two Frenchmen. Because the conflict between Gallas and Nasri was hyped up before the game. Now everyone wants to know how this person in focus reacts.

Sure enough, Nasri didn't shake hands with Gallas! The former Gunners captain still had a smile on his face when he greeted his old friends, but when he saw Nasri walking in front of him, his expression froze and he deliberately turned his face away, and Nasri also walked over as a French defender is air. Before the derby, the two did not shake hands. The last time this was the case between Chelsea and Manchester City, with Bridge and John Terry refusing to shake hands because of their 'friend's wife', and the two Frenchmen only had an attitude rivalry over the past that turned into mutual disgust.

And Arsenal fans don't care about this, they only see Gallas seems to have turned his head in advance, in fact, the main reason is that Gallas fans think that Gallas is Arsenal's Judas, and Gallas betrayed Arsenal and switched to Tottenham Hotspur; So at this moment, boos were everywhere, and there was not the slightest politeness to the former captain's gun fans at this time.

Seeing that Gallas was a little embarrassed, Xiao Qing was also very helpless, these two guys were really a little cautious. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that it is the media that has contributed to the situation, so that the current Gallas and Nasri have no steps to go down. So Xiao Qing and the other Tottenham players simply joined hands to understand enough, but when shaking hands with Gallas, Xiao Qing still smiled and patted Gallas's head to show his kindness.

The smell of gunpowder in the game is obvious. When the whistle just blew, the two teams started to attack each other with a wide open and closed; The two French players, who had been at odds, collided less than a minute into the game, when Nasri broke down the right and was disrupted by Gallas's falling tackle, who got up and elbowed Nasri.

Although the referee's hurried whistle prevented the conflict from breaking out, it was clear that the boos at the Emirates Stadium were a testament to the displeasure of the Gunners fans. Both Nasri and Gallas were some obvious excesses at this moment, and they even played with some obvious emotions.

In the third minute, Van der Vaart took a corner kick from the left, Bale flanked his left foot in front of the post, and Fabianski knelt to confiscate the ball. In the sixth minute, Nasri faced two defenders near the touchline on the right side and crossed diagonally into the penalty area, and Cesc Fabregas's cross from close range was met by Gomez.

Nasri was very active in this game, and he really wanted to be able to break through Tottenham Hotspur's goal, not only because he wanted to help the team win, but also because the core of Tottenham Hotspur's current defense is Nasri's most undesirable player Gallas, so the young Nasri hopes to be able to teach Gallas a lesson with a more intelligent performance in such an unusually high-profile game.

Both Nasri and Gallas are holding back their energy to prove themselves with a better performance in this matchup, which is a feud between them, and they both need to prove that they are much better than that bastard in front of everyone.

Nasri, who was unusually active and hard-working in the game, took the lead and Arsenal scored in the ninth minute; Cesc Fabregas made an accurate long pass, and Nasri from outside the box was offside and killed into the box. Although Nasri stopped the ball for the first time, Tottenham goalkeeper Gomez made a mistake in taking the ball, Gomez lost his center of gravity and missed a good opportunity to attack, Nasri shook Gomez and knocked the ball in when he lost his body balance at a zero degree angle!

1 to 0, the Emirates Stadium completely exploded! After the goal, Nasri climbed up in a flamboyant manner, and Nasri, who jumped high, roared and punched hard! He scored, his anti-offside position made Gallas's defence porous, and Nasri was the clear winner in this round of the contest, beating a disgraced Gallas to score!

To be honest, the injury to Tottenham's main defender Huddlestone is a major blow to Tottenham's midfield, although the five-man midfielder sent out, the defensive midfielder is only Janas, so Arsenal can occupy a large possession advantage in the midfield, Tottenham can only create a threat through counter-attacks.

Van der Vaart and Luka Modric are undoubtedly first-class midfielders, and Arsenal's midfield is not necessarily better than Tottenham's overall strength; However, the tacit understanding of the players in Arsenal's current squad is high enough, and Wenger's tactics that have relied on these young players to build for the team over the years are also becoming more and more mature, so the current Gunners are slowly grasping the initiative of the game.

In the thirteenth minute, Sagna tackled Bale, and referee Dowey showed the first yellow card. In the seventeenth minute, Van der Vaart, who was forced to operate at the back, violated Cesc Fabregas with a dangerous move and was verbally warned by the referee. Arsenal are getting stronger now, Tottenham Hotspur now looks powerless against Arsenal who are working harder and harder in attack, they simply can't cut off Arsenal's tidal attack; There is no full-time midfielder in midfield, so they can only see Arsenal pass and cut the ball forward again and again, and the superb cooperation of the Arsenal players makes it impossible for Tottenham Hotspur players to keep up with the flow of the ball in time in defence.

Arsenal's players are playing with more and more confidence, they are comfortable on the pitch and they are firmly at the mercy of Tottenham Hotspur. At this time, the aggrieved Tottenham players were also very anxious, and their mentality began to change somewhat.

Tottenham Hotspur asked themselves that perhaps the team is not yet the favourites to win the league like Arsenal, and they may not be able to play on both the league and the Champions League. But Tottenham are not arrogant, they do have some gaps compared with Tottenham, but they are definitely not so suppressed, dead, powerless, and not in the same level.

Tottenham's players also know that they are actually not inferior to Arsenal in the midfield position, and even in the back line, there is not necessarily any gap, because their defensive core Ledley King is also a quite reliable defender, but there are some glass attributes; Tottenham are not as good as Arsenal at the moment, perhaps because of their forward line, which is why it is difficult for Tottenham to become a real powerhouse.

Defoe, Pavlyuchenko and Crouch, these three strikers all have this very good ability, and they do have the strength to play for the giants; But in the end, these players can only be regarded as second-tier stars at best, their ability is good, but not outstanding, and their ability to finish games is still lacking. At Arsenal, Xiao Qing has the title of the first person in active service, although Messi and Ronaldo are also exceptionally good, but now Xiao Qing's performance is getting stronger and stronger, and he has also changed from a chaser at the beginning to a leader.

Xiao Qing's ability to grasp opportunities, Xiao Qing's dominance of the game is beyond the reach of Tottenham's three strikers; And a terrifying striker like Xiao Qing can not only help Arsenal score goals on the field, but more importantly, Xiao Qing's presence makes the opponent's defense very fearful; Xiao Qing was able to perform well when he was under great defensive pressure, which was definitely a huge blow to other teams, and at this time, Arsenal's other players were also able to get better opportunities.

Xiao Qing's presence has completely released the pressure on other Arsenal players, which can make Arsenal's players show their talents unscrupulously; Xiao Qing doesn't need to charge again and again now, he just needs to hold back the opponent on the field and grasp some opportunities.

The current Arsenal is like this, although Xiao Qing is not sharp, but no one dares to be careless; Although Xiao Qing doesn't seem to have any more individual performances now, Arsenal's attacking power is still strong. (To be continued......)