Sixth Update! ――

"Welcome to Highbury Stadium, where the 17th round of the Premier League is about to take place, and it is also a battle for the top spot, defending champions Arsenal are now the leaders, they have a record of 56 games unbeaten across the season, and now they have a glorious record waiting to be broken, all eyes of Europe are on them, can this Premier League team overturn the 58-game unbeaten record set by the Milan dynasty? While Arsenal's excellence is needless to say, second-placed Chelsea are no slouch for the defending champions as they travel north from Stamford Bridge to Highbury to challenge the defending champions, and if they can walk away from here, they will take top of the table and end Arsenal's unbeaten run!

Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho's Chelsea is impressive, there is a lot of controversy around the manager, Mourinho has been out of the limelight, and Chelsea also has an eye-catching table in the Champions League, with 4 wins and 1 draw in the first five rounds to lock the first place in the group, and in the last round, Mourinho gave his old club Porto a victory to help Porto advance to the round of 16 of the Champions League.

Arsenal have scored the most goals so far this season and have one of the best attacking prowess in Europe, while Chelsea have scored a decent number of goals but they have been significantly stronger defensively, particularly at Stamford Bridge, where they have conceded just three goals in two games. Although the number of goals conceded away from home is slightly higher. But Chelsea are still the best defensively in the Premier League. Will this be a battle of spear and shield? Enough to make us look forward to.

Arsenal's starting XI today is 4231, which is the main formation system determined by Arsene Wenger in the new season.

Goalkeeper: Lehmann.

Defenders: Lauren, Toure, Campbell, Ashley Cole.

Midfielders: Ljungberg, Vieira, Qin Xiong, Silva. Pire.

Striker: Thierry Henry.

Chelsea started 433, Jose Mourinho brought a new football philosophy to the Premier League, fans or critics who don't like him will naturally slam him for being conservative and utilitarian, but objectively speaking, he is a great tactician, and his results and consistency in Chelsea's Champions League and Premier League have shown the world his coaching style and proven that it works, and it will be interesting to see if his side will make waves in Highbury today.

Goalkeeper: Cech.

Defenders: Ferreira, Terry. Carvalho, Garras.

Midfielder: Thiago. Makelele, Frank Lampard.

Forwards: Robben, Drogba, Duff. ”

Amid the enthusiastic cheers of Arsenal and Chelsea fans, the battle for the top spot kicked off.

It was a game that declared both teams very defensively focused from the opening and set the tone for the overall trend.

Qin Xiong, as Arsenal's forward midfielder, retreated to the midfield for offensive organization, and was not in a hurry to move forward to attack, but even if he retreated, he still suffered a lot of defensive pressure.

With Frank Lampard in front and Didier Drogba behind him, both of them are very physical.

This surprised Qin Xiong.

He is playing Mourinho's side for the second time and he knows from the game against Porto that Mourinho is a great coach and his coaching style is etched in his mind.

He's fine, but it's a little different from the football philosophy that Qin Xiong yearns for, and he doesn't have the same ideas, and at this time, looking at the summer transfer decision half a year ago, he didn't join Chelsea hastily, which is a wise decision for him.

Even if the concept and style of the player and the coach are different and conflicting, the most basic reality will not change, not because Qin Xiong does not like the too utilitarian and conservative style of football, it will seem that Mourinho is incapable of coaching, in fact, Mourinho's ability to coach the team is admired by Qin Xiong.

At least the team's tactical execution ability can be called the strongest Qin Xiong has seen!

Otherwise, the striker actively works hard to defend, and the winger also takes the initiative to retreat to participate in the defense, just this ability, I am afraid that few coaches in European football can do it, not that other coaches can't think of it, but whether the players are willing to obey the coach's arrangement is another matter.

Players who like to attack, and the first standard of their job is also attacking, often don't like to do dirty work, which is a tradition.

With Chelsea's focus on counter-attacking tactics, Arsene Wenger doesn't want Arsenal to break the tempo in Highbury, otherwise the game can easily get out of control in a very fast tempo, giving Chelsea more chances.

To put it simply, if Arsenal is actively attacking, then Arsenal's three-line distance will be widened, and the distance between the front and back of the formation as a whole will become longer, on the contrary, Chelsea as a whole is closely integrated and focuses on seizing opportunities for defensive counterattacks, so Chelsea has more attacking space in the outburst.

Using a spring as a metaphor for the resilience of the team as a whole, Arsenal's front line is elongated, and the probability of three lines breaking down in a fast-paced situation is significantly higher than that of Chelsea.

Even if Arsene Wenger scoffed at Chelsea's utilitarian tactical play in front of the media, when it came to the final confrontation with Chelsea, Wenger really didn't dare to let the team use the spirit of the defending champions to try to suppress Chelsea.

That's absolutely unrealistic!

Premier League teams BIG4 between Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal.

The overall strength gap between them is not something that anyone can crush anyone, and the gap is very subtle.

Don't look at Arsenal in the standings ahead of Manchester United and Liverpool by many points, Chelsea is also ahead of both, but in key games, BIG4 will fight each other, who dares to win? Who's to say what kind of result is an underdog?

There were no upsets in the match between BIG4.

It won't come as a surprise who wins or loses, but if Liverpool, who are bottom of the BIG4 table, beat Arsenal, will it be an upset? No!

It is precisely because everyone's actual strength is not inferior to an obvious difference between high and low, so in terms of posture, the role of on-the-spot tactical restraint will play a huge role.

Arsene Wenger knows what Mourinho wants, so he can't give it to him!

The same goes for the players in the stadium.

Qin Xiong fell into the embarrassing situation of "unable to pass forward" from the beginning!

Mourinho is not alone in playing in three midfield formations.

But perhaps he's one of the few top-tier coaches who can make the defense watertight and keep offensive playmakers at a loss in static defense.

Thiago and Claude Makelele are a back-two and Lampard will of course be involved when there is no counter-attacking opportunity.

Qin Xiong has three passing points in front.

Piret on the left, Thierry Henry in the middle, Ljungberg on the right.

On the premise that he does not rashly try to break through, no matter how the first three teammates run, they will be cut off by the Chelsea defenders and Qin Xiong.

The key point is never how many players are in the defensive area, but what kind of role the defenders are playing.

Just like PSV Eindhoven has even put on 3 midfielders who participate in the defense, but their positioning will be flawed, which will allow Qin Xiong to find the passing line, even if the pass is extremely difficult, it can still allow Qin Xiong to seize the opportunity.

Today was so difficult that Qin Xiong felt a breath of despair spreading in his heart.

When Jose Mourinho stood on the sidelines from the opening kick-off and yelled at Arjen Robben and Duff, directing them to defend in central midfield with a stern expression, some fans might think that Mourinho was making a big fuss and deliberately putting on a show.

But if you think about it a little deeper, how can such a Chelsea not be strong defensively!

Pire and Ljungberg were caught in front and back, and Robben and Duff didn't need to be close to them, just standing around them and cutting off the passing lines between Qin Xiong and them, so that they could make enough defensive contributions.

If the two wide players move closer to the middle, they will find themselves in the circle of Chelsea's midfield.

Qin Xiong couldn't find the ball and passed the ball directly to Henry? That's almost impossible, unless the opponent makes a heavy mistake with a marker.

Chelsea are more confident and composed than they were when they played last season, and Qin Xiong could see that he was making formulaic passes in midfield, constantly telling himself to be patient and see if his shape would change over time.

At the same time, he also sighed in his heart: Mourinho is really a persistence that goes all the way to the black! (To be continued......)