In the second game of the devil's schedule, Liverpool managed to win the game.

Manchester United also continued their killing spree at Old Trafford, winning 5-0 at Wigan Athletic.

Such a result made the Reds fans hate it to the core!

Wigan Athletic swore to resist Liverpool at home, and all kinds of despicable means were used, forcing Liverpool to spend Christmas happily, and just one day at Old Trafford gave Manchester United a three-point Christmas gift!

Roberto Di Matteo's Chelsea struggled after a renewed focus on their opponents, and at Stamford Bridge, they failed to beat city rivals Fulham with a 1-1 scoreline that made Christmas a difficult one for Chelsea.

Robin van Persie was on fire and Arsenal struggled to win, drawing 1-1 at the Emirates Stadium by Wolves.

Christmas champions Manchester City are sniped by West Brom in this round!

0:0！

As a result, after this round, the standings situation has changed dramatically.

Although Manchester City is still the leader, it has been equaled by Manchester United in points!

Manchester City are tied on 44 points.

Liverpool are close behind with 43 points.

Chelsea 34 points.

Arsenal 33 points.

The top three in the league are fiercely competitive.

However, Manchester City, who had a six-point lead over Manchester United a month ago, and today only have a goal difference lead, which makes Fleet Street extremely unoptimistic about Manchester City's next title prospects.

Howard, the chief football reporter of The Times, wrote an article: "Manchester City is determined by life and death in 25 days and 7 battles!" The article analyzes the impact of Manchester City's fixtures on the future of the game.

'Money can make a huge boost to a team in a short period of time, and the trajectory of Chelsea's rise is being replicated by Manchester City. Such a huge investment in recent years has catapulted the team to the top of the table in an instant, and it is true that throwing some world-class players can improve the team, but it is not enough to keep Manchester City successful, and money cannot buy a title. ”

On Christmas night ahead of this round of fixtures, Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson had this to say of their "noisy neighbours" when he spoke about the current Premier League race situation.

Just a day later, when the Red Devils blew the horn of a counter-attack 5-0, the Manchester City man actually stumbled and was stopped by West Bromwich Albion.

In a dull 0-0 victory, the Blues' advantage in the standings was gone, and they barely managed to hold on to the top spot with just five goal difference.

From leading Manchester United by six points to now being tied on points, it can be said that Mancini's side are finally feeling the pressure from a team that was beaten 6-1 at the start of the season, while defending champions Liverpool have been behind them and could overtake them at any time!

The not-so-seasoned Italian coach Roberto Mancini was still cheering for his team after the game: "Maybe it's not a bad thing for us, but we still hold them down at the top of the table because we still have a huge goal difference, and it's impossible for a team to dominate the top spot all the 38 rounds." ”

However, psychological warfare is psychological warfare, and after not being able to take all three points from West Brom in this game, it can be said that the real pressure on the Manchester City army is coming.

First up is the intense fixture schedule in January, with the Blues having at least two more Carabao Cup games to play than their rivals Manchester United, with Roberto Mancini's side set to face Liverpool in the two-legged Carabao Cup semi-finals, a competition in which the Red Devils have long since 'walked away'.

After this game, Manchester City will first visit Sunderland in a Premier League game on the evening of 1 January, and they will return to home to face defending champions Liverpool in another Premier League game two days later!

This is far from over, three days later, on the evening of January 7, a key battle for the third round of the FA Cup will be between Manchester City and Manchester United!

After the brutal defeat against Manchester United, Roberto Mancini's side will once again meet Reds Liverpool, this time in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.

After that, Manchester City will visit Wigan Athletic, face Tottenham Hotspur, and once again come to Anfield to challenge Liverpool!

In other words, between January 1 and 25, Manchester City will play seven games in a row, an average of one game in three to four days, and this also includes three meetings with Liverpool, one Manchester derby and a tough battle against Tottenham.

And if Mancini's team can't withstand the pressure, it is likely that they will be defeated in the league, FA Cup and League Cup, ending the competition for the whole season early, and even becoming the laughing stock of the whole Europe!

What is even more irritating is that at this critical moment in the busy schedule, Manchester City may also face the dilemma of key players being drawn to the Africa Cup of Nations.

"Manchester City will have two important players in the Africa Cup of Nations, Kolo Toure is an important player although he has not yet regained the main team, and Yaya Toure is simply unreplaceable for the importance of the whole Manchester City team this season. So, it will be interesting to see if City can continue their formally at the start of the season until the end of the season. ”

Jamie Redknapp is not optimistic about Manchester City's performance in the short term when commenting on the title race.

IT IS NO EXAGGERATION TO SAY THAT IT IS TIME TO TEST THE ABILITY AND MEANS OF MANCHESTER MANCINI, WHETHER HE CAN HOLD THE OVERALL SITUATION IN THE NEXT ONE MONTH, OR COMPLETELY TURN HALF A SEASON'S EFFORTS INTO USELESS WORK, IT DEPENDS ON THE Italian young coach's strategy.

Manchester City's hierarchy is discussing with Mancini about a contract extension, which is about to extend his contract with Manchester City for three and a half years, and the new contract will expire in 2015, and once Mancini officially signs this contract, then he will receive a salary of 5 million pounds a year, surpassing Ferguson, Coman and other coaches to become the highest-paid coach in the Premier League.

Is Mancini worth the price? We'll see in the next month.

In short, the total investment of 1 billion pounds after Sheikh Mansour took over Manchester City is not in vain!

Manchester City face a huge test.

Liverpool, on the other hand, have Qin Xiong facing a record tipping point that needs to be broken.

He has scored a total of 84 goals in the whole year, in the national team, in the Champions League, in the league, in the domestic cup, and he is one goal away from equalling Gerd Muller's annual scoring record, and if he can score one more goal, he will break that record!

Luckily, the Premier League's final game in the first half, Liverpool's game was scheduled for December 31, rather than January 1, as Manchester City did.

On the last day of 2011, Qin Xiong stood at the threshold of the annual goal record in football! (To be continued.) )