Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock sits in his office, his brow furrowed.

He's thinking about tactics for the next game.

That is, in the eighth round of the league, this game at home to Chelsea.

In Warnock's view, although Crystal Palace's overall record is not good, it is mainly due to the chaos caused by the departure of the former manager in the opening stage.

After a winless start of four rounds and staying in the bottom 1 and second positions, Warnock finally turned the situation around.

A narrow 3-2 win over Everton in the fifth round and a 2-0 win over Leicester City in the sixth round made Crystal Palace jump out of the relegation zone all at once.

But it didn't last long, and they immediately lost 0-2 to Hull City in the seventh round.

That said, Crystal Palace's state is precarious right now.

But unlike Chelsea, Crystal Palace have a small number of internationals and the impact on them during the international break.

So it also gives Warnock plenty of time to train and adjust to the squad for the upcoming games.

And after these two weeks, Warnock's confidence has grown.

He has a strong desire to beat Chelsea!

He had countless reasons to do so.

First of all, Crystal Palace is playing at home in this round, and if they want to succeed in relegation this season, or even get better results, then the home team will have to do their best to grab points.

Secondly, Chelsea are the team at the top of the table, and if Crystal Palace can stop their opponents' progress, they will not only get an important point from relegation, but also greatly boost the morale of the team.

There's nothing more exhilarating than beating a strong team! Crystal Palace, who are in shaky form, need such a victory even more.

Thirdly, Crystal Palace and Chelsea are the same London team after all, although not as eye-catching as the north London derby, or the red-blue clash between Chelsea and Arsenal;

It's not as exciting as an M23 derby with Brighton, but it's still a London derby, and fans still value it.

If you can beat Chelsea, you can undoubtedly gain support for yourself in the fan base and make your position more secure.

After all, the news that Crystal Palace owner Parish has been looking for a new coach and has even contacted Crystal Palace legend Alain Pardew has already been spreading!

Who wants to be fired by their boss?

Again, now Chelsea and Pan Yi are gaining momentum, stealing almost all the limelight from the Premier League.

The Premier League has just voted the best of September, and Chelsea are a standout team.

In the best team of eleven, Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard, Marcos Alonso, David Luiz, N'Golo Kante and Thibaut Courtois were all selected.

In other words, out of 11, there are 6 Chelsea players, accounting for more than half!

The best player was once again won by Eden Hazard, and manager Pan Yi also won the September Manager of the Month award.

Chelsea's all-out victory was certainly appreciated, but it also made the team the target of public scrutiny.

Everyone knows that whoever can lead the team and stop Chelsea's winning streak will be famous!

Of course Warnock wanted to be such a person.

He can't be a Premier League champion, he should be someone who can beat a Premier League champion!

With fame, you can also make your future coaching path broader.

That's the way it is in this industry, otherwise why would some well-known players become coaches immediately after retiring?

It's because everyone has heard his name that I believe he can calm the dressing room and quickly apply the coaching knowledge he heard and learned as a player on the pitch.

Including some coaches are also like this, as long as they get an upset in some focus battles and the like, they will also get huge attention and become famous.

Once you're famous, it's much easier to find a job.

A simple example, in 2022, the head coach of the Saudi Arabian team is much more famous than the original after leading the team to defeat the champion Argentina, right? The Moroccan coach is the same.

Finally, it is also because Pan Yi was the target of Crystal Palace at the earliest, which has also been reported in the news for a long time.

It was only later that Parrish chose Tony Pulis, who won the title of the best coach in the Premier League, and did not hire Pan Yi to come to Crystal Palace.

It was only after Toni Pulis left Crystal Palace earlier this season that Parrish opted for Warnock.

This is equivalent to saying that Warnock is just a spare tire of a spare tire, and the boss's favorite is Pan Yi.

Can this be endured?

Therefore, Warnock can also prove to the boss by defeating Pan Yi that he is more suitable to sit in the handsome position of Crystal Palace!

As a result, Warnock has led his Palace over the past two weeks to focus on targeted tactics to contain Chelsea.

The most important thing was to study the 2-4 defeat to Chelsea at Everton in the third round.

Although Everton still lost at the time, their tenacious and ferocious style of play also allowed them to draw 2-2 with Chelsea temporarily.

It also gave Warnock some very valuable lessons to learn from, and it also gave him the possibility of restraining Chelsea.

This, coupled with the fact that Crystal Palace beat Everton in the fifth round, gave Warnock more confidence.

The last positive factor is that Crystal Palace is at home and waiting for work, while Chelsea has gone through the "torture" of the international break, and the team has heard that there are also injuries, and the attrition and consumption must be relatively large.

So, this really is a great opportunity for Warnock!

The right time, place and people, all on the side of the Crystal Palace!

Thinking of this, Warnock suddenly stood up and slammed his fist on the desk:

"Pan Yi, it's time to give you strength!"

——

October 18, 2014, Selhurst Park, City of London.

Crystal Palace's home clash with Chelsea is underway.

On the court, the two sides were in full swing, and the game was very miserable.

It's now the 55th minute of the second half, and the LCD screen above the stadium stands shows the current score: 2-0.

It seems that Chelsea have won comfortably again, already leading by two goals. If some fans had just opened the elevator and seen the score, the thought might have flashed first.

But that's not the case.

According to international practice, the scoreboard shows the home team in front and the away team in the back.

In other words, this 2:0 means that Crystal Palace is two goals ahead!

And if these fans turn off the elevator and turn on the TV again and watch carefully, they will find that there are only 21 players on the field now.

There are only 10 men playing on Chelsea's side!

Yes, Chelsea have indeed sent off a man.

In this game, Crystal Palace's manager Neil Warnock obviously instructed his disciples to treat the "guests" with a tough attitude, so today they played more roughly, with a lot of fouls and small actions.

This made the Chelsea players involuntarily step up their movements.

However, today's referee, Martin Atkinson, didn't know if he came with a mission, his whistle was a little soft when the Crystal Palace players fouled, but when the Chelsea players fouled, he was aware of it and blew the whistle decisively.

He had already shown five yellow cards to his Chelsea players before the end of the first half, compared to one for Crystal Palace.

Under the care of such a "blind monk", the Chelsea players are becoming more and more angry, and their technical movements are inevitably a little deformed, and they are a little less fluid in attack.

Crystal Palace, on the other hand, were strict on their counter-attacking tactics, tearing the game apart with brutal fouls and finding opportunities to exploit the speed of their striker Zaha to breach Chelsea's defence after the break.

In the mid-30th minute of the first half, Crystal Palace's new signing Fraser Campbell made a through ball and Zaha found the right opportunity to cut into the Chelsea penalty area.

Azpilicueta behind him appeared to have a slight movement on his hands, and Zaha collapsed in the box, and the whistle sounded!

Referee Martin Atkinson didn't hesitate to point to the penalty spot and also showed Azpilicueta a yellow card.

That's fine, the problem is that Azpilicueta has already received a yellow card before, so two yellows turned into one red, and Azpilicueta was sent off immediately!

In other words, it's pretty much a red dot package!

That means Chelsea will be playing with 10 men for the next hour.

Although the Chelsea coach and players came forward to protest that Zaha had faked the fall, Martin Atkinson stood by his decision.

The penalty was taken by Zaha himself.

The king of the ball, who was still rolling on the ground in pain just now, quickly recovered fully and steadily took the penalty!

1-0, Crystal Palace leads.

After scoring this goal, Pan Yi also quickly made adjustments, replacing today's starting winger B with Ivanovic, and then adjusted the formation to a 342.

In this way, while keeping the number of people at the back the same, only Bamford and Schurrle are left in front of them to maintain the attacking power.

But it is clear that Chelsea's players on the pitch have been more affected by this red dot package and have never come to their senses.

Towards the end of the first half, Palace once again took advantage of a counter-attack and scored another goal through Fraser Campbell.

With two goals down and one man less, this is the toughest test Chelsea have faced since the start of the season!

At halftime, Pan Yi poured a bucket of cold water on the hot-headed players, sobering them up a bit and adjusting their tactics.

That is, not to press out to attack for the time being, but to first stabilize the defense, adapt to the situation of ten people fighting, and then look for opportunities.

In this way, although Chelsea have one less person than their opponents, they can still stabilize their position by relying on the advantage of overall strength, so that Crystal Palace, who want to take the opportunity to extend the score advantage, has no chance to take advantage of it.

But the problem is that Chelsea are one side behind and two goals behind.

Time is ticking and if nothing changes on the pitch, Chelsea are on the verge of losing for the first time of the season!

The more than 20,000 Crystal Palace fans in the stands at Selhurst Park seemed to have seen the victory and began to celebrate in advance with singing and dancing.

Some fans even took out banners prepared in advance, which read:

"Who needs Pan Yi?"

——

Pan Yi looked at the arena with a solemn face.

He certainly won't blame Azpilicueta for this red card.

His positive defensive attitude is worthy of recognition.

And this penalty was originally unwarranted, Azpilicueta even said that he didn't touch Zaha at all when he came down!

But it's useless to say that now.

What he has to do is find a way to turn the situation on the field right now.

It's just that it's hard right now.

Due to the impact of the international break, Pan Yi put Lukaku, Hazard and others on the bench today, and the four most tired Brazilian national team players who traveled to South America and the European continent did not even enter the squad for the game.

Don't look at the Belgian striker duo without it, but for Chelsea today, the biggest impact is actually the backline.

David Luiz is absent and Gary Cahill is injured again, so Pan Yi sent a combination of one old and two new such as Terry, Ake and Zouma today.

Of course, this combination is not very problematic defensively, after all, it has been used in previous games.

But now that the score is down to strengthen the attack, David Luiz's ability to advance with the ball, including his ability to score from set-pieces, is especially important.

So Pan Yi had to think about it seriously.

He has to come up with Plan B in a short period of time to face the situation where he is now two goals behind and one less player!

"What now?" Steve Holland asked.

Scaloni didn't speak, but the eager eyes he looked at Pan Yi clearly represented his current mood.

Obviously, Pan Yi has no way to deal with it so far, and the two assistant coaches sitting on either side of him are a little anxious.

"I'll think again." Pan Yi smiled, avoiding this anxious mood from spreading in the coach's seat and bench, "Don't worry, let the bullets fly for a while." ”

Holland, Scaloni: "??? ”

——

"Haha, we're finally going to win!"

Unlike the dead silence in the visitors' coaching area, on the home side, Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock couldn't stop smiling and chatting happily with the assistant coaches.

"I knew that if they were able to win so far, it must be that the other teams were too gentle with them! Ha ha! ”

"For the past two weeks, I've been asking the players to be more physical, and I've been unreserved in training, even injuring Ward and Bolacie......

"But now it seems that it was all worth it! Our preparation in the past two weeks has not been wasted! ”

"The media has been asking, who will be the first person to beat Pan Yi in the Premier League? Didn't expect that, right? Exactly under it! Hahahaha! ”

Warnock looks like he has the chance to win, that's because now Crystal Palace has two goals in hand, and the game time is starting to enter the second half of the second half, and Chelsea have one less person to fight, and Pan Yi seems to have no moves.

Suffice it to say, Palace could almost say they grabbed the three points with one hand.

'But if it weren't for Chelsea's already sent off, I wouldn't be sure I could beat them, even if they're two goals ahead now.'

Neil Warnock suddenly sighed and said, "This Pan Yi really has two brushes. ”

"Don't look at them now, there is one less person, but they are still evenly matched with us on the field, and they can't see that they are ten against eleven at all."

"Even in terms of local possession and coordination, they still have a certain advantage."

"This shows how successful Pan Yi has been in transforming this team, and why they can maintain a winning record."

The teaching assistants on the side also nodded their heads.

They were also a little lucky.

A controversial decision allowed Palace to take the lead with a penalty and, more importantly, Cesar Azpilicueta, who was running down the wing.

This reduced the pressure on Chelsea on the flanks and gave them a chance to score another goal and keep them open on the pitch.

And now that they have played almost 70 minutes, Chelsea's 10 men can still actively compete with Crystal Palace, which shows how strong their physique, mentality and team fighting ability are.

Because of this, Crystal Palace did not think about stepping up their attack and trying to score one or two more goals.

After all, the score is enough now!

If you press it hard, you will be counterattacked by Chelsea and score, but it will be a mistake to steal chickens.

See, even if they are 11 to 10 and have a two-goal lead, they will still be afraid of Chelsea's counterattack.

It's hard to imagine what it would have been like now without that penalty and red card.

Maybe it's Chelsea who are two goals ahead now? That's the normal script.

But now the script is that Crystal Palace leads by two goals! They are about to become the first team to take out Chelsea and Pan Yi!

The thought of making the headlines of every sport newspaper in the UK tomorrow made Warnock and the assistant coaches a little excited.

The excitement made them glance at their wrists from time to time, and they wished that the hands on their watches could be turned faster and let the referee blow the final whistle quickly! ——

"Wha, Chelsea are really going to lose!"

In the live broadcast room of Sky Sports, Gary Neville was already standing up excitedly, waving the Crystal Palace towel in his hand.

Since the last time he finished the show topless and restless, Neville has been counting on Chelsea to lose every day.

So if any team is Chelsea's opponent, he's a fan of that team!

Of course, he didn't dare to bet on Gianfranco Zola, but his best hope is at Manchester United's home game against Chelsea in the ninth round.

His old club will definitely help him get back face!

But what I didn't expect was that Crystal Palace beat Chelsea down today!

At the end of the first half, Neville didn't dare to celebrate, after all, even he knew that Pan Yi had adjusted badly in the midfield.

But now the game is about to enter the final 20 minutes, and Chelsea are still two goals down.

With one less person, cheered on by more than 20,000 fans at Crystal Palace's home stadium, it is really difficult for Chelsea to turn the tables around!

"Right? What's the magic trick? That's because he didn't face any real difficulties! ”

"This time, he didn't have a move! He's not a god after all! ”

"What am I talking about? What am I talking about? Chelsea are certainly not that strong! Look at today, it wilts when it hits hard stubble! ”

Listening to Gary Neville's excitement there, the other guests were calmer.

Carragher said: "To be fair, the penalty in the first half should not have existed, so there should have been no two yellows and one red. ”

'We've seen slow-motion replays just now, and Azpilicueta's foot didn't really touch Zaha, just resting his hand lightly on his shoulder.

'If you can award penalties on that scale, we can see more than 10 penalties in every Premier League game, and football like this doesn't make sense.'

Zola said indignantly: "The actions of the Crystal Palace players are much better than this!" ”

"How many tackles in the first half, at most, were verbally warned. Chelsea, on the other hand, were booked for some normal physical confrontations. ”

'It has invisibly affected the technical performance of the Chelsea players and the mood of their game.'

"If you want me to see, since Mr. Atkinson has a problem with his eyesight, let's go to the doctor, don't insist on blowing the whistle!"

Lineker puts it in a different way: "A lot of people say that the best of the month is a curse, and it seems to be really spiritual. ”

After Pan Yi won the best in August, this curse did not occur, and he won the best in September. But now it seems that this curse is delayed......"

And this international break seems to have accelerated the onset of this curse. The absence of four Brazil internationals from Chelsea's 18-man squad today, coupled with Cahill's absence due to illness, has also made Pan Yi's squad a bit stretched. ”

"Maybe Pan Yi should consider giving up multi-front warfare? Otherwise, in the later stages, there will be more and more games, and the players will become more and more tired, and it may really collapse......"

Gary Neville looked at Gianfranco Zola and smiled at him: "Well, do you still think Chelsea will win?" ”

Zola was silent.

"Haha, where in this world, where is there a team that is always winning and undefeated? No matter how strong the team is, it will lose, let alone a team led by a young coach like Pan Yi? "Gary Neville grabbed the time to output.

In the days of the previous weeks, he was forced to defend for too long!

It's really Pan Yi who slapped him in the face too much, and today it's finally his turn to raise his eyebrows!

And Zola is still a mismatch.

At this moment, it is hard to believe that even the most hardcore "Pan Blow" can come back to life.

He just felt depressed, after all, the team started the game with seven consecutive wins, and the morale was like a rainbow, and it was the time to be full of energy, why did it suddenly collapse at the feet of a weak team like Crystal Palace now?

If you lose to teams like Arsenal and Manchester City, you think it's better to accept it......

It's just that Zola still has a doubt.

That is, he has always felt that Pan Yi is a person who will not give up so easily.

Whether in Milan or Hamburg, he had his share of difficult times, but he never gave up.

But now, why is Pan Yi still not moving?

There were no substitutions, no adjustments to tactics to launch an offensive, is this still the well-known Pan Yi?

Zola's lips moved slightly, but he wasn't responding to Gary Neville.

He was talking to himself, reading words that no one could hear:

'Don't we have stars like Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard on the Chelsea bench now?'

"They have the ability to change the game, so why not replace them?"

"Pan Yi, Pan Yi, what are you thinking? ……”

(End of chapter)