In the 22nd round of the league, a key match was contested at the Emirates Stadium, and Arsenal lost 1-2 at home to Manchester United.

Valencia broke the deadlock for United in first-half stoppage time, with Arsenal captain Robin van Persie equalising in the 71st minute and rising star Welbeck beating Arsenal in the 81st minute.

Arsene Wenger commented on the game after the game: "We played hard in the first half, we were a little nervous because we had lost two in a row so we played under a lot of pressure today. We had chances to win the game in the second half but we made a mistake in defence and conceded the second goal, but we played well in the second half and at 1-1 it looked like we could win the game. ”

Arsene Wenger said that Arsenal had suffered three consecutive defeats in the Premier League and were five points clear of fourth-placed Chelsea: "We were in a very difficult position after this game because we could not afford to lose any longer. But we can also see a lot of positives from this game. The way we responded in the second half was quite positive. ”

Arsene Wenger added: "I feel like the referees are generally fair. We played at our level in the second half but unfortunately we didn't get the points in return. But we need to keep that spirit and keep playing hard. ”

The highlight of Arsenal's game was the 18-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain who assisted Van Persie to equalize in the 71st minute, but only 3 minutes later Wenger replaced the outstanding Oxlade-Chamberlain with Arshavin, Wenger's strange substitution caused 60,000 Arsenal fans in the stands of the Emirates Stadium to boo, and even many Arsenal fans chanted "You don't know what you're doing" against Wenger, captain Van Persie also showed dissatisfaction and blurted out a "No", This kind of treatment is rare for the much-loved Arsene Wenger.

On the substitution, Arsene Wenger explained: "Oxlade-Chamberlain's calf is starting to overdraw, he was sick this week. He's given a lot and he's not used to that intensity yet. ”

On the reaction of the fans, Arsene Wenger said: "I don't need you to endorse the decision, but you should be able to understand it. I've made thousands of substitutions over the years and the fans don't always approve of my substitutions. I make decisions, and I stand by my decisions. ”

Arsene Wenger added: 'One is an 18-year-old who is making his first Premier League start, and the other is the captain of his home country's national team, and they question that? Let's get serious. People pay for tickets, they have the right to express their emotions and we have to deal with that, we can't dictate to the fans, but that doesn't mean the fans are right. We just lost the game, but I stood by my decision to make a substitution. I've been a coach for 30 years, I've made 50,000 substitutions, and I have to justify every substitution to you? I defend my decision. I don't have to explain it to you every time I make a substitution. ”

As for the calls of many Arsenal fans to invest money in the winter, Wenger said: "Spending money is not the goal, buying good players is the real goal. We need our players to come back from injury. People didn't realise that we had 10 players missing. You can see that we created good chances in the second half of this game when those injured players were unavailable and it was important to bring those injured players back. ”

Arsenal, who were not in the Champions League this season, were also in poor form in the UEFA Cup, knocking out of the group stage, and the team's extensive injury was a big reason for the Gunners' progress, but fans could not understand the club's reluctance to spend a lot of money on the introduction of stars.

When interviewed Gunners fans on the streets of The Sun, many people said that Wenger is no longer suitable for the Gunners, and Wenger's coaching strategy and team building model are no longer in line with the survival rules of the top clubs in European football.

"Since winning the Champions League in 2006, we felt that Wenger didn't know what he was doing, selling Qin Xiong was a watershed, and before that, in fact, there were already signs, Vieira's departure was the beginning of all disasters, and now we don't know how long it will take for Arsenal to return to the title race, before the start of each season, we are still willing to blindly trust Wenger, but after two or three months, we found out that we were deceived, Wenger's rhetoric has not been realized at all, Then we go through a season in tangles and pain. ”

The voices of Arsenal fans may sound poignant, but for the rest of the Premier League's title contenders, the Gunners' downfall is always a good thing, with one less title rival.

After 22 rounds, the polarization of the top group in the standings is even worse.

Manchester City have 51 points, one goal difference ahead of Liverpool.

Liverpool 51 points.

Manchester United 50 points.

Chelsea 41 points.

Arsenal 36 points.

For other teams it is possible to take a break for a while, but not Liverpool!

Over the next 10 days, the Reds will play two home cup matches.

Manchester City visited Anfield on 25 January.

The second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals arrived as scheduled.

With a 2-0 lead at the Etihad Stadium in the last leg and Liverpool facing Manchester United in the FA Cup four days later, Koeman has done everything he can to adapt his squad and push forward on all fronts to keep his team from overloading.

In the second leg at Anfield, Koeman's line-up was dominated by steel.

At Anfield, Roberto Mancini was a little distracted when he saw Liverpool's starting line-up.

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Goalkeeper: Reina.

Defenders: Carragher, Skrtel, Thiago Silva, Aag.

Midfielders: Tiot, Mascherano, Cabaye, Lucas.

Forwards: Kuyt, Suarez.

With Luis Suarez and Kuyt dropping back to defend up front, Liverpool disrupted the game at home with a frantic sweeping, muscular rush.

Manchester City, on the other hand, were completely ill-prepared, or rather they were not running smoothly in their own squad without Yaya Toure.

In the 90 minutes of fierce scramble, Liverpool stopped Manchester City's offensive with a steel defence, and played a simple and crude attack in several fast attacks and counterattacks, and Suarez scored two goals to beat Manchester City again at home 2-0.

In the League Cup semi-finals, Liverpool beat Manchester City twice!

The aggregate score is 4:0 to advance to the League Cup final!

Cardiff City beat Crystal Palace 1-0 at home in the other semi-final, and Cardiff City beat Crystal Palace in extra time after the game went into extra time and will meet Liverpool in this season's League Cup final!

Looking ahead to the Carabao Cup final in a month's time, Fleet Street wrote: "Liverpool are on track to win the trophy in February! (To be continued.) )