Chapter 546: Intense Final Preparation (Part I)

Arsenal won the FA Cup, ending an embarrassing nine-year winless streak. They also equalled history, with Arsenal reaching the trophy 18 times and 11 times, equalling the impressive FA Cup record for arch-rivals Manchester United, who will share the record for the most titles and finals ever since.

Despite this, the whole Arsenal team did not celebrate in a big way, they only celebrated the championship in the London hotel that night, with some fan representatives in attendance, and the players did not even drink a single alcoholic drink, such a championship celebration banquet is undoubtedly classless.

But no one cared, everyone's thoughts were no longer on the small FA Cup title. At the banquet, Arsene Wenger made it clear that the final in a few days must not be lost, especially not like today. Atletico Madrid is different from Hull City, and this season Atletico Madrid can be compared to their neighbours Real Madrid and Barcelona, so if Arsenal continue to do so, then it is dangerous.

Wenger is also more humane, although the team was unsatisfactory in today's final, when the championship was finally brought back, so Wenger still announced that the team can take a day off and take a little rest.

At this time, the holiday is not what the average coach dares to do, there are four days before the Champions League final, many coaches are eager to let the team live in a collective dormitory, which is convenient for management, so as not to let the players with poor consciousness run out by themselves to "chic", the unimportant players are okay, if the players of the starting eleven in the final go to nightclubs and drink, it will be pitted.

That night, Li Zihan, who was in a good mood, posted a Weibo: "The tomb of Wu Guan! It was accompanied by a picture of a tombstone of a cross, which also reads "Tomb of Wu Guanzhi (2005-2014)"

And the netizens who left the message shouted, Han Niang is ruining her character!

There is another interesting thing about this Weibo, foreign media do not have a strong understanding of Chinese, read Li Zihan's Weibo and thought that the person he knew died, so they asked who died, and only nine years such a short life, and some irresponsible tabloids directly typed "Arsenal won the championship, Li relatives died, great joy and great sorrow!" and other sensational titles.

The oolong was quite noisy, and when it was finally interpreted by the Chinese media, all the media blushed.

The next day, the news of Arsenal's FA Cup triumph was reported in the media across England and, of course, the news of Arsenal's day off was revealed – no secret after all.

England legend Lineker said on his Twitter about Arsenal's one-day holiday: "Arsenal is on holiday, and the happiest thing is not Arsenal's players, but Atletico Madrid"

The impact of the FA Cup is certainly not comparable to that of the Champions League, so the craze for Arsenal to win the FA Cup quickly faded, and now everyone is watching the Champions League final, which is the last football feast before this year's World Cup.

Some Spanish media broke out: "Atletico Madrid, which has just won the La Liga championship, is now at the peak of the season." However, Simeone's side have a big problem - Diego Costa was unfortunately injured in the title match against Barcelona last weekend, and the latest news is that he will be out for half a month and will most likely miss the Champions League final. ”

As soon as the news came out, it shook the entire Europa continent, and as we all know, Atletico Madrid has been able to be so magical this season because of the explosion of their leading striker Diego Costa. As Atletico's top scorer, Diego Costa's stunning performance this season has captured the attention of the entire European football world. With 27 league goals, he is second only to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in La Liga's top scorers, accounting for more than a third of the team's total goals (77).

It can be said that without Diego Costa, Atletico would not have been able to achieve league dominance. However, when he was close to another great feat, the striker collapsed, leaving the fans who were looking forward to the final with a sigh and a wail from the fans of Atletico Madrid.

In the direct dialogue with Barcelona last week, Diego Costa was indeed given special care by the other party, and he was violated many times and fell to the ground many times. Although there was a slight injury at the time, when he still played the whole game, everyone thought it was just an ordinary hard injury, and there would be no problem with a little conditioning for a day or two.

When it was reported from Spain that Diego Costa was likely to miss the final, the great immortals began to analyze the shape that Atletico Madrid faced.

Atletico Madrid's lineup this season is usually 442, and according to the authoritative Spanish media "As", Simeone specially rehearsed a 4141 lineup in the team's training on May 19 to deal with the situation that Costa is unable to play.

The most notable change to the new formation from the usual tactics is the addition of a defensive midfielder in front of the back four, a role that Simeone opted for Mario Suarez.

According to the analysis of the newspaper "As", in the absence of Diego Costa this season, 4141 is Simeone's favorite formation, which has been used and verified by him several times. It is foreseeable that this formation will remain Simeone's first choice for the Champions League final against Arsenal, provided that Diego Costa is unavailable, of course.

In addition to midfielder Din-Suarez, the other four in Simeone's five-man midfield are Koke, Thiago, Gabi and Alain Turan, who is in the midst of a recovering career. Of the four, Koke is the 'signal transmitter' for the team's attack, Thiago and Gabi are tasked with assisting Suarez in defending midfield, and Turan, whose role is to create a killing force on the wing. The midfielders will pair up with each other to form a solid midfield line. Surprisingly, Atletico captain Raul Garcia did not appear in the starting line-up, perhaps Simeone hoped that the in-form Spanish midfielder could be a "miracle move" for the team to defeat the enemy.

Due to Diego Costa's elusive injury, Simeone may be more steady, using the individual qualities of the likes of Koke and Villa to tear apart Arsenal's defence on the basis of solid defence

In the multimedia conference room of the training base, what appeared on the screen were these "bricks, beasts" and the analysis of Atletico Madrid by major European media.

Arsene Wenger's coaching staff was watching the analysis, combined with the observations sent back by the team in Spain.

Assistant coach Steve Boulder commented after looking at the materials in his hand: "It seems that the horrible monster is really injured, and the whole of Europe is talking about it. Everyone said that there were noses and eyes, and even the media got interviews with doctors at the Madrid hospital, and our scouts in Madrid said that they hadn't seen Diego Costa in the team's daily training for three days. ”

Everyone knows who Boulder is talking about about Warcraft, that is, the terrifying striker of Atletico Madrid. However, after learning that Diego Costa would miss the final due to injury, the Arsenal coaches were clearly much more relaxed.

Wenger frowned, in everyone's impression, the professor's brow has not been loosened in recent years.

"It is not ruled out that it is a conspiracy, and the news of the Ass newspaper is very likely to be smoke. The credibility of their local media is not high," Wenger thought for a moment and said: "Anyway, we have to prepare for two things, one is the situation where Diego Costa plays, and the other is that he can't play. When Diego Costa plays, he's the key to Atletico Madrid, he's like our Lee. So you have to look at him, and at the same time, their midfielder 'signal transmitter' that the number six Koke must also pay attention to the fact that 65% of Atletico Madrid's attack is launched from him, and André Turan, this Turk has a lot of impact ability, he is a technical impact winger, to a bit like our Cazorla, and he is also a difficult opponent."

It doesn't matter if Simeone is putting smoke on it or not. Arsene Wenger's Arsenal have already made two preparations, namely the 442 with Diego Costa and the 4141 without Diego Costa.

In fact, Arsenal is no stranger to these two formations, most of the Premier League teams with a little strength like to play four-four-two, but the difference between the four in the midfield and the middle is two central midfielders or a central midfielder and a forward or a back midfielder. And for 4141, the defending champion Bayern Munich, which Arsenal eliminated this season, used this formation, so Arsenal is relatively easy to defend.

Just when Arsenal's Champions League preparations were in full swing, news came from Spain again, this time it was "World Sports": "Our reporter took a photo of Diego Costa appearing in Seville at Seville Airport, according to reliable sources, Diego Costa made a special trip to seek help from the "goddess doctor" Kovacevic who is good at treating muscle injuries, and although she let the injured take the treatment of horse placenta, although it is a bit weird, it has successfully cured the injuries of stars such as Lampard, Glenn Johnson, and Benayoun, Very trusted by players. So it's still a question whether Diego Costa can be in the Champions League final, but as it stands, it's still quite enough, after all, they all came to Kovacevic for help."

The news from Le Monde Sport confirms Diego Costa's injury, which Arsenal would love to see.