Although Arsenal won a landslide victory over Middlesbrough last season, it does not mean that Arsenal can easily win every time they face Middlesbrough.

Winning the Premier League title for two consecutive seasons, Arsenal has become the target of public criticism in England, all teams are studying and targeting Arsenal, whether it is beating or drawing Arsenal, it can bring huge attention to the team, stimulate the fan market and team morale, which makes Arsenal a thorn in the side of the opponent, doing everything possible to contain Arsenal's attack.

Qin Xiong takes every game very seriously, no matter how strong or weak his opponent is, this is not only a reflection of his professionalism, but also one of the reasons why he has become stronger.

The reason is simple, these seemingly ordinary opponents are an important training stage for him to consolidate and hone his skills and improve himself.

You can't start in League Two, beat the best team in League Two today, and look forward to beating League One tomorrow and then going to the Championship the day after tomorrow.

Strong dialogue is a hurdle, but it does not mean that you can become a team or player of the same level as a strong team after beating a strong team, and before facing the next challenge of a stronger opponent, you must turn the accumulated new experience into strength, and constantly consolidate, hone and sublimate.

Therefore, Qin Xiong takes every game very seriously, no matter whether the opponent is strong or weak, the strong team is a challenge, and the weak team is a necessary process to maintain his condition and integrate and strengthen what he has learned.

In this match with Middlesbrough, the opponent's targeted deployment caused Qin Xiong to encounter some difficulties, but it was these difficulties. It made Qin Xiong even more excited.

In the 29th minute of the game, Reyes successfully broke through Quijedro on the right and crossed the ball, and the ball was cleared by Southgate's header. Boateng turned and swept the ball to the left of the pitch as soon as he stopped the ball on the perimeter.

England homegrown debutant Downing, who started playing for Middlesbrough at the age of 17, is a 21-year-old who dribbles down the flanks with a strong impact.

There is a scorching flame burning in his heart, which symbolizes his fighting spirit, maybe a game will not change anything, it will not impress the outside world, but he is stubborn to prove that he is no worse than Arsenal's young talents!

Instead of attacking Eboue's defence, he went straight to the side and took the ball from 45 degrees to find Hasselbaink at the back post in the box.

The ball he passed was quick and fast. Unfortunately, Hasselbaink ran over the head and Senderos calmly cleared the ball with a header.

However, the ball he cleared was on the right side of the box, where Mendieta, once the leader of one of the world's strongest midfield pairs, stopped the ball on the right side of the box.

After experiencing the journey from Spain to the world. After a sky-high transfer to Serie A but a failure, Mendieta's mentality has become vicissitudes, and it seems that the memory of how good he once was has been mottled, and he just wants to do better. Better than your self yesterday. Slowly recovering, I dare not say that it will become as dazzling as before, at least to make a name for itself, and no longer be ridiculed by the outside world as much as he wants.

This mentality has caused him to lose his aura and his self-confidence has naturally decreased, and now, he is just doing the job of a full-back: crosses!

The superb footwork is still there, and the perceptive vision of the big picture will not disappear in a vacuum. Once one of Spain's best midfielders, Mendieta delivered a well-placed cross!

The football fell in the area between Senderos and Toure. Yakub scrambled in diagonally from Toure and swept the ball towards goal with his foot before the ball could hit the ground!

No more than 12 yards from goal, Lehmann didn't move ahead of time at such close range, and when he saw the ball fly towards the bottom right corner of the goal, he couldn't make another save!

Yakubu excitedly rushed to the sidelines after scoring the goal to receive the cheers from the Middlesbrough fans at the riverside stadium!

Every Middlesbrough player, both offensive and defensive, celebrates passionately at this moment!

They scored against defending champions Arsenal!

"Yakub breaks the door! Assist from Mendieta! Yakubu, who moved to the Riverside Stadium in the summer with a £7.5 million transfer to the team, scored the Arsenal goal! It was a remarkable goal, the reward of Middlesbrough's unwavering execution of their tactics, their aerial bombardment was extremely effective, the continuous aerial bombardment disrupted Arsenal's defensive system, Downing's cross may not have been so threatening, but it caused Arsenal's defence to be disorganized in a short period of time, and before they could adjust in time, Mendieta launched a second attack on the perimeter, and this time Middlesbrough was done! ”

The Arsenal players saw the Middlesbrough crowd celebrate with extraordinary enthusiasm and could understand how special it was to be treated as a powerhouse.

Qin Xiong walked back to the half and came to Cesc Fabregas's side.

Cesc Fabregas is the player who has been very consistent so far in this game, his pass success rate, Qin Xiong's visual estimate should be 100%, and there has been no passing error, Qin Xiong's pass success rate should be less than 70%, because his threatening ball delivery is not successful.

Qin Xiong said to Fabregas: "Sesk, attack it, there's no point in you staying behind." ”

If you play most other teams, Fabregas may have a defensive effect in the back, but in today's game, it is obvious that Middlesbrough is playing a wide cross tactic, and does not penetrate into the defensive area of the central midfielder at all.

Now the attacking side of the team needs an unexpected attacking point to break down Middlesbrough's planned defense, so looking at Arsenal's attacking and defensive system, this point must be Cesc Fabregas, and the full-backs will not take risks lightly because they have to take care of the defense in the big picture.

Cesc Fabregas was feeling good and he was playing very solidly.

But Qin Xiong's words woke up the dreamer, and he thought about it carefully: the two midfielders in the middle of Middlesbrough did not step forward to participate in the attack at all, the threat of Downing cutting the middle was relatively small, and Mendieta cut inside, he would encounter Silva, so most of them played crosses, and the crosses tested the defender's air defense ability, and the midfielders simply did not have time to retreat into the penalty area and form a defense against high-altitude balls.

Fabregas nodded at Qin Xiong and said, "I understand, and then I will take the initiative to step forward to participate in the attack according to the situation." ”

Qin Xiong patted him on the shoulder, turned around and faced Middlesbrough's half, there is still time in the game, conceding the first goal cannot affect the mentality of the Arsenal generals at all, whether the team is experiencing the most difficult squad period in the past decade, at least the mentality of the strong, they still can't be shaken. (To be continued......)