The 19th round of the Premier League is halfway through the season, and Liverpool welcomes the league's weakest opponent, Derby County, while the other top three opponents are not weak, especially Arsenal, who are at the top of the table, will be challenged by Portsmouth, which is a good time for Liverpool to return to the top of the table. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Portsmouth have an impressive record, although they were beaten by Liverpool in their last game, but it will not have much impact on their quality, and Arsenal will have to be wary of them venting their anger.

Chelsea's opponent is Aston Villa, who are currently ranked 7th, and with Chelsea's form, even at home, it will not be easy to win against Aston Villa.

Manchester United's opponent Sunderland is relatively weak, but even Sunderland's ranking and record are many times better than Derby County, and it must be much more difficult for Manchester United to win than Liverpool.

The day after Christmas began with a thrilling clash between Chelsea and Aston Villa, with eight goals scored and three sent off, Chelsea took the lead in the 90th minute, but Aston Villa equalised for the fourth time in the 92nd minute and the final score of 4-4 denied Chelsea the chance to move further up the rankings.

Manchester United and Sunderland, Liverpool and Derby County played at the same time, although Manchester United's opponents were stronger, but Manchester United was in good shape, leading by two goals in the opening 20 minutes, and leading by three goals at half-time to seal the win, while Liverpool faced the league vice-captain but played a 1-1 draw with the opponent at half-time.

In the second half, Manchester United won the game 4-0 without any suspense, while Liverpool struggled to prevent a super upset from being born by Chen Yu with a free kick in the 90th minute.

The most crucial game will be Arsenal's clash with Portsmouth in the evening, which will decide the Premier League halfway title.

Arsenal attaches great importance to this game, Arsenal is the youngest team in the Premier League with an average age, they are characterized by fearlessness, indomitable, and the shortcomings are also obvious, the emotions are serious, they can play downwind but not against the wind, once they lose, there is a possibility of consecutive defeats, so Wenger must ensure that the team continues to win.

Portsmouth were swept by Liverpool by four goals in their last game, and if they are to finish in the top four, they can't afford to lose this game against Arsenal at least, otherwise the gap between them and the top four will widen.

Portsmouth, who played at home, also took an active and ferocious press at the beginning, trying to open the door to Arsenal first, but Arsenal used gorgeous ball control and foot skills to teach Portsmouth a lesson, in front of Arsenal's extremely fast pass, Portsmouth could not grab the ball at all, but was counterattacked by Arsenal repeatedly, if it were not for Arsenal's striker's ability to grasp the opportunity was not enough, Portsmouth would have conceded at least two goals in the first ten minutes.

Soon Redknapp and Portsmouth recognized the reality, and Arsenal is more dangerous than Liverpool, although Liverpool is also good at long passes and counterattacks, but Liverpool's passing speed and quality are not as good as Arsenal, but Liverpool's Chen Yu is too demonic, and his ability to seize opportunities is far beyond ordinary people, otherwise Liverpool's counterattack is not as good as Arsenal's.

Since he can't play against the attack, if he wants to win, he can only play defensive counterattack, Redknapp is a coach with a lot of personality, since he decided to defend, he simply withdrew all the players to his own half, leaving only one Kanu as a bridgehead in front.

Arsenal's attack is very strong, but in the face of the opponent's extreme ten-to-one stubborn formation, no matter how smooth and delicate the short pass penetration is, it is difficult to penetrate, but Portsmouth's counterattack has brought a lot of trouble to Arsenal from time to time.

Arsenal were in complete control of the situation in the first half, although there were not many chances to shoot, but Portsmouth had even less, not to mention that the ball was still on Arsenal's side, and after the first half, the vast majority of people thought that Arsenal's goal was only a matter of time.

But the second half of the game is almost a copy of the first half, Arsenal has more than 70% possession, but the chance to score is not even as good as the first half, and Portsmouth's counterattack is few, but every time there is a threat, especially in the 80th minute of the game, Portsmouth goalkeeper Muwaruvari counterattacked and shook off all the defenders of Arsenal, and the ball passed Arsenal goalkeeper Almunia, when he was about to hit the empty goal, the ball was shoveled out of the bottom line by Klich who quickly returned to defense, Spoiled Portsmouth's best chance to score.

Portsmouth's counter-attack frightened Arsenal, coupled with the fact that the game time was 80 minutes, the players' fitness declined, and the attacking enthusiasm and risk-taking spirit of both sides were greatly weakened, and finally had to accept a 0-0 result.

With Liverpool's away win, Arsenal, who had just reached the top of the table, had to hand back the halfway title to Liverpool.

Arsene Wenger was furious at the result, and in his post-match press conference, Wenger was a little annoyed, "I must say that Portsmouth wasn't playing in the second half, they didn't press out at all, they were just defending. It's surprising enough to be able to put ten people in the backfield. They have a lot of experience in defence and the defenders are focused on the defence, putting a kanu up front. You can't play like that every week, last week we played Liverpool and we were conceded four goals, so after they couldn't play against us in this game, they just cared about defending. ”

Annoyed to annoyed, Redknapp wanted to play like this, what can Wenger do, in the final analysis, he still blames his team for not having the strength to break their goal, Wenger finally said something that did not make the home team angry, he said: "I can't be disappointed with Harry's operation, this is his freedom, we don't have a superstar like Chen Yu, we have to find a way to solve the problem of scoring." ”

Liverpool's return to the halfway title is of great significance to Liverpool, starting with the 03-04 season, three consecutive seasons of Premier League titles were won by the team that finished top of the table after the Christmas schedule, expanding the statistical range to 8 times in the 15 seasons since the birth of the Premier League, a total of eight times after the Christmas schedule to lead the end of the season to win. It was only last season that this pattern was broken by Liverpool's miraculous performances, which meant that after winning the halfway title, Liverpool had more than 50 per cent hope of defending their title.

In addition, although Liverpool and Arsenal are only the same number of points, Arsenal's Champions League opponents are stronger, and there are Africa Cup of Nations games in between, the departure of Toure and Eboue will inevitably weaken Arsenal, Senderos and Toure are not at the same level at all, once they meet a physically strong striker, the Swiss will have a psychological shadow, and the seemingly strong Senderos is always injured and almost becomes a glass man. Toure will not be able to return until February at the latest, and if he is injured again, Wenger will have to make cameo appearances at centre-back for Gilberto or Song, who are clearly worse than Sendros.

And Liverpool is almost not affected by the Africa Cup of Nations, so although Liverpool is now only relying on the advantage of goals to beat Arsenal, but in fact it is very difficult for Arsenal not to be left behind by Liverpool, because Chelsea is too far behind, it is not easy to ensure the position of the top four, and the most threatening threat to Liverpool is actually the Red Devils Manchester United.

Historically, United were more sprinting in the second half of the season. United have won five times in the title race, the most formidable being eight points in a row against Newcastle in the 9596 season, and Ferguson led his team to a successful comeback to win the title.

Looking at the fixtures, Manchester United and Liverpool exited the Carabao Cup early, with both of them having at least two and a maximum of three more breaks than Arsenal and Chelsea, which will be invaluable in the second half of the season. In addition, Manchester United's league opponents before the Champions League knockout round, like Liverpool, are gradually increasing from weak to strong, which is conducive to the team's best form.

And from the perspective of staffing, Chelsea is in turmoil, Arsenal is young, only Manchester United's staffing is similar to Liverpool's, the age mix is reasonable, and there are superstars, because after Arsenal's setback in this round, the media believes that it is Manchester United that can pose a real threat to Liverpool.

Round 20 is a good opportunity for United to catch up with Liverpool and Arsenal, both of whom are challenged by strong opponents and their relatively weak opponents, and if they can win against West Ham United in this round, while Liverpool and Arsenal are held off by Everton and Manchester City, United will be able to equalise or overtake them in one fell swoop.

The media also believes that the 20th round is the key battle of the Christmas devil schedule, this is the third game of the devil's schedule, because it is basically a three-day game, the players are very tired physically and mentally, and they are already very tired at this time, at this time the decision of the game is not purely technical, but more depends on whether the players have an iron will, at this level, the giants are not much stronger than ordinary teams, that is, the probability of an upset for the weak team is not small.

Manchester United were the first in the semi-finals, and the day of the game coincided with the birthday of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, Manchester United's players wanted to present Sir Alex Ferguson with a hearty victory, but also hoped to put pressure on Liverpool and Arsenal with the victory. Ronaldo used his individual ability to open the scoring, but then he missed the spot-winning penalty, giving West Ham the confidence to equalise.

West Ham United held on for 76 minutes and did not let Manchester United score a second goal, after which West Ham United launched a ferocious counterattack, and Manchester United was not prepared for West Ham United's counterattack, and their physical fitness could not keep up at this time, and West Ham United scored two goals in the 77th and 82nd minutes to reverse the score, and then Manchester United fought back, but was never able to knock on the door of West Ham United again, and was finally defeated by West Ham United away from home.