Chapter 383: FA Cup vs. Tottenham

Putting aside Sanchez, who likes to stir up trouble and join in the fun, the time flew to January 5th. When I was a child, I learned that "time is like an arrow, the sun and the moon are like a shuttle," and only when I grow up can I really understand its meaning.

Today is the day of the league break, but the league is temporarily closed, which does not mean that the players can rest. Today is still a feast for the fans, who come to the stadium with a few families or friends.

Today is the FA Cup game, and after being knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Chelsea, there is not much left for Arsenal to break the embarrassment of nine years without a title. In its current form, the Champions League is unlikely. Arsenal can only target the more optimistic league and the less competitive FA Cup, and as one of the two teams with the most FA Cup wins in English football history, Arsenal still have a lot of experience with this trophy.

It's just that there is a problem in front of them now, because the schedule is too dense and has led to large-scale injuries, and now there is not much energy in the league, FA Cup and Champions League, and Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea are pressing quite hard in the league.

Although Arsenal's bench thickness is good, it is still a little worse than Manchester City or other European giants, not to mention that they are still facing injuries.

Of course, these are not the problems that Li Zihan should think about, his first task now is to recover from his injuries and maintain his condition!

The first two rounds of the FA Cup were contested between teams from the lower leagues, and it was only in the third round that Premier League teams were officially inserted. Manchester United's FA Cup opponents in this round are also Premier League side Swansea City, while Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool are not strong opponents, all of whom are teams in the third tier of England, that is, teams in League One.

Arsenal's luck was worse than Manchester United's, not only did they draw a Premier League team. And it is also closed to Swansea a lot stronger, their north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

This will be the 172nd north London derby, with Arsenal beating 1-0 at home this season. The two sides have met five times in the FA Cup, with Arsenal having a slight advantage with three wins and two defeats. The last three meetings between the two sides have been at neutral ground, with the most recent meeting coming in the 20091 semi-finals more than a decade ago. Arsenal came from behind to win 2-1 at Old Trafford. Arsenal's only home win over Tottenham in the FA Cup was back in 1949.

The game was played at Arsenal's home stadium, and although the odds given by the bookmaker were optimistic about Arsenal winning, the odds between the winners and losers were not very different.

Wenger attaches great importance to this game, although the multi-front battle will make the team more tired, but he has not given up the idea of this game, not to mention that this is still facing one of the sworn enemies Tottenham Hotspur at his home stadium. However, if Tottenham is not in north London, it is estimated that it will not be Arsenal's sworn enemy, although Tottenham has been brilliant for a while, but now

Mesut Ozil, Giroud, Cazorla and Podolski have appeared in the starting eleven squad one after another, while Tottenham including Dembele, Paulinho and others are also in the starting lineup, and Lamela and Danish talented striker Eriksen are very average because of the transfer to Tottenham in the new season, so they are not the main force of Tottenham, and can only be regarded as half of the main force of rotation.

After the departure of Portuguese Boas, Shewood, the acting head coach and former assistant coach, did not trust the new Spaniard Soldado very much, but instead used Adebayo, who had been sitting on the bench almost before, and put Soldado, the main striker of the Boas era, on the bench for rotation.

And I have to say, I don't know if Shewood is such a genius or Adebayo suddenly broke out. Adebayor has repaid the trust of acting manager Shewood with his brilliant performance, and the Togolese striker, who has made four appearances so far, has scored three beautiful goals.

And if Sherwood himself wants to change from acting head coach to regular, he must show some strength to lead the team to achieve some results. Now that the Roosters have been plummeting in the league, there is little hope, so Shewood has set his sights on the FA Cup.

Shewood, on the other hand, believes Arsenal have the upper hand in the league, and winning a league title to end a nine-year title run is undoubtedly the best. Therefore, he believes that Arsenal should focus on the league and abandon other cup competitions, including the UEFA Champions League. Now Arsenal has the advantage at the top of the table, and the Champions League faced the strong defending champion Bayern Munich in the first round of the knockout round, so even he, the rescuer, knows what to choose.

But apparently, Shewood couldn't read Arsenal's starting line-up when he saw it. Although Li Zihan and Wilshere were not on it, these two little guys were sick. With key players such as Mesut Ozil, Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey, do you still want to make a difference in the league?

Rubbing his frowning brow, Shewood had to admit that he had made a mistake, and Wenger was planning to move in multiple ways.

And after the start of the game, Arsenal's ferocious attack also made this official.

The Gunners' constant passing and forward involvement tore apart Tottenham's already impenetrable defence, but Tottenham this season has been a bit evil. When their defenders "fail", French goalkeeper Lloris always shows the best of the best, turning the tide. And when their defenders came up with a brilliant watch, even a copper wall, goalkeeper Lloris was a little sleepwalking. All in all, between the goalkeeper and the backline, there is always one very reliable and the other very outrageous in every game. Neither side can be reliable at the same time, otherwise they would not be so low in the standings, and Boas would not have had to leave class early.

And this game is that the defense is not reliable, and Lloris is very reliable.

Arteta was still some distance from the top of the penalty area when the backfield suddenly got up and curled a high ball straight into the box. Olivier Giroud immediately ran up and jumped for the top, centre-back Michael Dawson fell on the jump, but Lloris burst off the goal line and got the ball off the top of his head before Giroud could finish with a header.

Giroud landed on the ground and fell to the ground in disbelief. Pressing the ball under his chest, Lloris.

Tottenham's counter-attack was weaker later, although it involved more troops. But there is nothing new and creative, it is undoubtedly to get a high ball to find the high point of Adebayo in the front court. Either Dembele comes on his own or Paulinho comes in with a long-range shot.

None of this poses a threat to Arsenal, and Medsat is not as strong as Adebayo physically, but he is not inferior to the opposition in terms of height and experience, so Adebayo does not have much chance under the watchful eye of the German defenders. Arteta is also very good at Dembele, and when defending, Ramsey withdrew from the front field to form a two-back configuration with Arteta, defending Paulinho and Brazil's long-range shot from defensive midfielder Sandro.

It is worth mentioning that whenever Adebayo takes the ball, falls to the ground, or fouls, as long as there is a move, the fans in the stadium will boo. The boos were very loud, only slightly smaller than when Nasri arrived at the Emirates Stadium.

In this way, the director's camera often gives Adebayo close-ups, in order to capture the expression on the other party's face or some small movements.

As soon as the director gave a close-up, of course it could be seen on the screen at the scene, and then the boos of the Arsenal fans were even louder.

Some neutral fans and pseudo-fans in front of the TV were stunned, and they thought that the best player in the game was Adebayo.

With Lloris's excellent performance, despite Arsenal's ferocious attack, they did not open up the situation. When the game came to the forty-third minute, everyone thought that the first half was so dull. The shape on the field suddenly changed a little.

Cazorla and Saña combined on the touchline, then carried the ball inside and moved laterally. After shaking off full-back Walker, he came to a position close to the top of the arc of the penalty area. When he was pressed by Sandro, he handed the ball to Ramsey, who followed up in the middle.

Ramsey immediately slammed his legs into a long-range shot, and Brazilian midfielder Paulinho, who knew the threat of Ramsey's long-range shots, immediately spread his legs to block.

But Ramsey rubbed the inside of his foot and removed most of the force. The ball arced and came to the feet of Ozil at the flank.

Ozil didn't look up at Giroud and Cazorla in the box, but at Podolski, a German man running on the wing. Just when the Tottenham players thought Ozil was going to pass the ball, Ozil suddenly came with a cold shot.

Because for the previous 43 minutes, Ozil had been playing the role of passing and receiving the ball in front, and had not yet shot on goal, even if the long-range shot was given to Ramsey and Arteta. Therefore, Tottenham players subconsciously thought that Ozil would not shoot and would still find teammates to cooperate, which was a strong psychological self-suggestion.

However, Ozil chose to shoot at this time, because the shot was more unexpected, Ozil himself did not carefully adjust the ball in order to convince the opponent that he would not shoot but pass.

With a kick, the ball grazed the grass and ran towards the goal. Before Belgian centre-back Vertonghen could react, the ball staggered between his feet.

Because the taller Vertonghen blocked the view, Lloris did not see Ozil's shot for the first time. By the time he saw the ball, it had already slipped under his teammate's crotch and headed straight for his goal.

Lloris pounced sideways, but the save didn't save the team. There was a refraction of the ball on the ground, and Lloris had no way of judging the path of the ball. Eventually, the ball bounced on the grass in front of him, and then, like a happy teenager coming home from school, jumped over Lloris's hands and into the goal!