Chapter 566: The Horror of Arsenal and the Change of Manchester City

Pogba, who scored the goal, and his friend Li Zihan, who assisted in his pass, hugged each other tightly, and everyone knew the relationship between the two of them.

Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez also came up to help score, and Mesut Ozil and Li Zihan have been working together for a season, and he certainly knows Li Zihan. The moment Li Zihan passed the ball, he knew that the ball was not for himself, so he missed the ball and achieved a stroke of genius this time!

As for Sanchez, he did so entirely according to the tactics arranged by Arsene Wenger.

Although the team scored, Arsene Wenger did not rest on his laurels. He first came to the sidelines and clapped his hands to encourage the team, and at the same time made a gesture - the fingers of his left and right hands were clasped tightly in front of his chest.

"What does Arsene Wenger mean by that? Shrink the line of defense? ”

Everyone doesn't know the meaning of Wenger's gesture, because Wenger has never done this gesture before, and Zhan Jun, who is "Pepsi in the Premier League", immediately checked the discipline.

But in the following games, Arsenal's on-field changes completely interpreted the meaning of Wenger's gesture, and they began to control the ball.

Pogba, Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil's possession-possession midfield trio put Arsenal's midfield in order, while Russ Bender dropped back into a full-time defensive midfielder.

The four-man diamond-shaped midfielder stretched the line wide open, and at the same time, the four-man technique was also very good, and the football was firmly controlled at their feet. At the same time, Li Zihan and Sanchez are constantly moving around their penalty area, and at the slightest chance Ozil, Pogba, Ramsey and even Rass Bender will pass through the box, and the two will rush into the box to form a shot.

Arsenal's strikerless formation has become a two-striker configuration at this time, with Li Zihan and Sanchez playing as two forwards in a slightly split position in the middle, leaving the midfield to control the ball and also giving space for Ozil and Pogba to insert.

Such a change for Arsenal made Manchester City very uncomfortable, because Arsenal were not in a hurry to attack after taking the lead. Although the ball is at their feet and they are pushing forward layer by layer, they will never give in the last pass when they don't have the chance.

Resolute not to lose possession has become the norm for Arsenal right now.

Manchester City is out of a backward situation, and when the championship is decided in such a game, Manchester City can only find a way to equalize, but the ball keeps circling at the feet of the opponent, let alone scoring, and even the ball may not be grabbed.

It's also funny to say that Manchester City's powerful muscular midfield's interception and pressing ability can't catch the ball

But Manchester City did not dare to press out and press all over the field, because Li Zihan and Sanchez were in the heart of their hinterland, and if they pressed out, Ozil and Pogba and others would send the last pass, and then players like Li Zihan and Sanchez who would never miss the opportunity would give Manchester City a fatal blow.

So Manchester City can only suppress like this, and the pressing in the front court can only rely on Aguero, David Silva and others, but how much can such an attacking player steal?

The two sides were at a stalemate, and Arsene Wenger was so pleased with his team's ability to execute his tactics that he clapped his hands on the sidelines.

Manchester City boss Chilean engineer Manuel Pellegrini frowned on the sidelines, knowing that Arsenal would be very difficult to deal with this season after a strong recruitment. In particular, Wenger's reinforcements are targeted, completely making up for Arsenal's shortcomings over the years.

But he never imagined that in such a hurry and time shortage, as well as the extended vacation absence of many core players, Wenger would be able to combine this Arsenal team that is completely different from last season, and the tactical execution is so strong and the cooperation is so tacit.

Pellegniri didn't think of a solution for a moment, he glanced at the bench and eventually shook his head.

The stalemate between the two sides ended in the first half, and Arsenal had a terrifying 70 per cent possession in the first half.

"Look at this number, who can tell that Manchester City is the Premier League champion and Arsenal is the FA Cup winner." John Mortenson quipped.

And his partner Marco Laurenson humorously said: "This number is not a lie, because Arsenal are the European champions"

Morteson laughed.

At the start of the second half, City made a change.

Spanish winger Keylor Navas, who had been almost inactive in the first half, was replaced by veteran England midfielder James Milner.

Although Milner is not as fast as Keylor Navas in terms of speed, he is also older than the opponent. But in the front court, he threw the opponent several streets. And Milner is not only pressing in front, he is tireless in his running throughout the court, and the 45 minutes in the second half are just enough to meet the physical fitness of the veteran, and the current situation is indeed suitable for Milner to play.

Arsenal have done the same, but Wilshere, Cazorla and youngster Bellerin have started to warm up.

At the start of the second half, City stepped up their pressing. Milner, in particular, was almost on the pitch, and Arsenal's possession tactics were disrupted by the England veteran's full-pitch pressing.

Originally, Arsenal's passing had a certain idea, but Milner's pressing made Arsenal's passers have no time to think about the route of the pass, especially Ramsey, who has a poor ability to read the game, and Pogba has been trained by a master like Pirlo for a long time, so he is naturally better.

With 60 minutes to play, Milner's pressing caused a gap in the pass between Pogba and Ramsey. The cooperation between the two was supposed to be okay, but the problem of too short a cooperation time was exposed by Milner.

Forced by Milner, Ramsey was worried about losing the ball, so he planned to pass the ball to Pogba, but Pogba's position ran a little too far, and he and Ramsey didn't think of going together for the football passing route, so Ramsey's pass went behind Pogba.

And because Russ Bend is far behind, the spot is almost empty.

A top midfielder like Yaya Toure saw the hole at once, and he took two steps to the landing point of the football, and directly picked up a kick to make a long pass to the front of the field.

Sergio Aguero cut in and raced past Lars Bender to receive the ball behind him. Although Lars Bender tried hard to chase back, the shortcomings of his slow speed as a German defensive midfielder were completely exposed at this time.

After Aguero got the ball, he took it in stride, because he received the ball in the middle on the left, which is to the right of Arsenal, so he did not intend to go directly into the middle, but took the ball with the trend.

Chambers stepped forward to press, but the inexperienced youngster was deceived by Sergio Aguero's feints, and the Argentine striker easily slipped past his defence.

After an hour of competition, Aguero already knew the ability of Arsenal's two central defenders, so he planned to play to his strengths and avoid weaknesses, not to go to the middle, but to cut into the ribs of the penalty area, and did not wait for Merdessaart to come to help the defense and shoot directly on goal.

The shot came as a surprise to Medsatt, but Szczesny didn't slip away and jumped up to catch the ball in his arms.

Aguero shook his head regretfully.

"Although he didn't score, Pellegrini really made an immediate difference to the team. Thanks to Milner's tireless pressing of the whole game, City had a chance to counter-attack. They were targeting Arsenal's weakest link in defence - Chambers! ”

"Pellegrini's reputation as an engineer is not in vain, and a single substitution completely activates the whole team and brings back the disadvantage."

Spurred on by this counter-attack, Milner and Manchester City were more aggressive in pressing, which fueled their passion.

Thus it is a little big in action.

In a 70-minute scramble, Milner brought down Lee. But the referee didn't say it, maybe he just thought it was a normal physical contact confrontation, and he could only blame Li Zihan's body for not being as strong as the opponent.

Arsene Wenger stood on the sidelines and expressed his displeasure to the fourth official, but he did not make any unusual moves, he just thought that City's action was getting bigger and bigger, and the referee's inaction on foul play would increase the risk of injury to the player, and these risks were not necessary.

However, three minutes later, Milner brought down Lee Zihan with the ball in a joint defence with Yaya Toure.

This time Clattenburg didn't let Milner go, showing a yellow card to the England veteran and awarding Arsenal a direct free-kick in a good position up front.

Milner didn't care and began to prepare the wall with his teammates, but Pellegrini stood on the sidelines and felt that something was wrong, but he didn't remember exactly what it was.

When Manchester City got the wall ready, Arsenal finished the set-up.

When Li Zihan fiddled with the football in front of the human wall, Pellegrini finally realized that something was wrong, and he wanted to remind his players, but it was too late.

Li Zihan and Pogba stood in front of the ball, and Li Zihan was behind Pogba. When referee Clattenburg blew the whistle, Pogba started to run, followed by Li Zihan.

The positions of Pogba and Li Zihan overlapped, and the Manchester City players in front of the ball couldn't see Li Zihan behind him because of the block of the tall Pogba's body.

And the two of them are running fast, they don't have a chance to think.

Pogba, who came to the ball, picked up a kick and slammed it towards the football, and when he saw that the opponent seemed to be about to shoot hard, Manchester City's tall human wall defense line did not dare to be careless, and immediately jumped.