On December 13, in the 16th round of the Premier League, Chelsea hosted Hull City.

With just two days to go before the match against Sporting de Portugal, this is a literal three-day, two-match schedule.

If you change teams, it can be a headache, and even if you play a football manager game, you will be racking your brains in front of a screen of players with "discontented blood bars".

But for Chelsea, the previous Champions League game was just a 'friendly' and they didn't give their best at all.

In addition, Pan Yi has already planned such a schedule, and the personnel arrangement can successfully complete the rotation.

Therefore, against Hull City, they can still face it in relatively full form.

Just four minutes into the game, Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring for Chelsea with a sweeping strike from inside the box.

Then, around 25 minutes, Romelu Lukaku burst into the box and was brought down to win a penalty, and Hazard doubled his lead to two.

Chelsea were then in control and the game was played in Hull City's half.

Hull City's strength itself is not very strong, and under Chelsea's high pressure, they can only defend hard, and they can't free up their hands to counterattack, which also makes Chelsea play more easily.

After a second-half restart, Chelsea scored again.

This time it was Kavanovic with a knife, who cut in from the back and struck a world wave into the right corner of the penalty area.

In the end, Chelsea comfortably beat Tiger City 3-0 at home, making it 16 wins in a row!

Such a record naturally sparked a discussion in world football after the game.

Because no one knows where Chelsea will end!

A day later, Chelsea chartered a banquet hall in a luxury hotel in the heart of the city and hosted a dinner.

It was a celebration and a good time to watch the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League.

In addition to CEO Ron Gurray who did not show up at the draw site, owners such as Abramovich and chairman Bruce Buck all came to the hotel to have dinner with the players and coaches.

Pan Yi also invited Valentina to participate, but was refused.

Although after more than a week of body shaping training, Valentina's physical and mental state has changed a lot, at least not as decadent as she was at the beginning;

But after all, she still has a little inferiority complex about her slightly fat figure, so she is still reluctant to come to this kind of public appearance.

Pan Yi also expressed his understanding and went with her.

Let's talk about it in a while!

In the hotel, Abramovich also made a brief speech, to the effect that he congratulated the team on their achievements and hoped that the team could continue to work hard and achieve better results in the Premier League and Champions League.

Subsequently, Abu also directly announced that this year's championship bonus, whether it is the Premier League or the Champions League, will be directly increased by 50% on the original basis!

This, of course, also caused bursts of cheers from the audience.

Pan Yi also made a speech.

He also expressed optimism about the team's prospects, but suggested that everyone should still pay attention to the schedule during the Christmas and winter breaks.

Although Chelsea are no longer tasked with the Carabao Cup, the pressure has been much lessened;

….

But why is the Christmas schedule scary every year?

It's because of the high intensity of the Premier League games alone, it is often arranged to play three or four games a week.

This is exacerbated by the fact that Premier League teams will also join the FA Cup at this stage.

In previous Premier League seasons, Arsenal often dropped the chain at this stage.

One of the reasons for this is that they are very focused on the League Cup, especially the FA Cup. "Thermos cup" is not called for nothing!

It is undoubtedly very risky to force a four-line battle under the premise that the team's lineup is not very abundant and the bench depth is average.

There is a joke that asks "Spring."

What is the sign of the coming of heaven?"

Answer: "First, the days are longer; second, the temperature is gradually warming; Thirdly, Arsenal are starting to withdraw from the title race in all competitions."

Occasionally, it's accidental, but often, it's regular.

Therefore, Pan Yi also asked everyone to pay attention to vigilance and not make the same mistakes.

In his speech, Pan Yi also said that the most important goal of the team this season is to win the Premier League and the Champions League.

The League Cup has been eliminated and the FA Cup is where it goes, and this competition is also a chance for the young players in the team to show themselves.

This is also to reduce part of the psychological burden on the players, otherwise all the games will be won, and there will always be a string in the head, which is easy to collapse.

In addition, with the team winning all the way and almost invincible, the complacency of the players also needs to be controlled.

There are a lot of young players in the team, and when they achieve such good results, they are also put in the spotlight, and the fans all over the world talk about them, and it adds a lot of fans to them.

Even commercial endorsements and activities will increase.

When outside temptations become more and more numerous, the players with a high level of professionalism will handle them well and still focus more on training and playing.

And some young players will float up directly, and then float more and more, and finally fall down and it hurts very much.

This is also an important reason for many "injured Zhongyong" type players.

Listening to Pan Yi's teachings, the players also nodded one after another. They certainly understand what is expected of them by the coach!

After Pan Yi's speech, the draw ceremony for the round of 16 of the Champions League in Nyon, Switzerland, began, and the small balls representing each team began to be taken out of the glass jar one after another.

Due to the principle of group avoidance and country avoidance, Chelsea, who finished top of the group, are unlikely to face Arsenal, Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund.

In this way, their opponents can only be produced between Atletico Madrid, Basel, Schalke 04, Paris Saint-Germain and Shakhtar Donetsk.

In fact, for the current Pan Yi and Chelsea, it doesn't matter who is drawn in the round of 16, anyway, if you want to win the championship and maintain the victory, you have to beat them all.

But if you have to choose, it is definitely better to pick Basel or Schalke 04, which are relatively weaker.

It's just that Chelsea, which is gaining momentum now, wouldn't it be too unchallenging to play Basel or something?

….

As a result, Chelsea were drawn as the strongest team in the second place.

Paris Saint-Germain!

And another eye-catching highlight of this game is that Pan Yi's two veterans in Milan, Yin Bu and Thiago Silva, are now also the backbone of Paris Saint-Germain.

The result of the draw made the Chelsea players also turn their heads to each other.

Although Pan Yi also felt that he was a little targeted, he still stood up and took the opportunity to cheer everyone up again:

"I like the result of this lottery."

"I like to gnaw hard bones to prove our strength, don't I?"

"Our goal is to win the championship, and if the opponents on the way to the championship are all unknowns, it seems too boring."

"So let's get ready, let's go and take Paris!"

The table burst into applause and cheers.

Pan Yi continued: "It's just that when we actually go to Paris, it will be two months later."

"We still have to do what is in front of us first and play the last games first."

"When we really get through this harsh Christmas schedule, we can face the challenge of Paris Saint-Germain with the best mental and competitive state! ……」

Again, this is emphasized.

Next, the draw for the other Champions League teams

It was also done quickly.

Bayern Munich vs Shakhtar Donetsk.

Porto vs Basel.

Real Madrid vs Schalke 04.

Barcelona vs Manchester City.

Juventus vs Borussia Dortmund.

Hamburg vs Atletico Madrid.

Arsenal vs Monaco.

In addition to the Chelsea vs Paris Saint-Germain match, the most popular of these matches is of course Barcelona vs Manchester City.

They're meeting again!

And they met in the last 16 of the Champions League for the second year in a row.

In addition to the grudge duel between them, Juventus vs Dortmund and Hamburg vs Atletico Madrid are also quite interesting.

In particular, Hamburg vs Atletico Madrid, Hamburg won the title last season by beating Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals.

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"Potter", this is because the local area is famous for its ceramic industry.

But it is precisely because their tactics of holding high and fighting are so famous that when people think of Stoke City now, they often think of the nickname "City in the Sky" first.

It is also a special title in the history of football for a club to be given a special title because of a style of play.

Of course, if you just say "high" or "British style of play", it's not very special.

After all, in England, there are many teams that play long passes, although it is difficult to achieve such an extreme as Stoke City, but there are still some.

And Stoke City's truly impressive, and even groundbreaking tactic that can go down in the annals of football history, is the throw-in grenade tactic!

Listen to a song sung by Stoke City fans at the time: "We only score on the touchline......

This one is talking about their Irish midfielder Rory John Delap.

The guy had a wonderful hobby of throwing things out of the window from his home at the age of two, and a javelin that he was professionally trained before joining football.

Delap, who has amazing arm strength and accurate throwing, has no outstanding football talent, and can only start his career at Carlisle United, which is the lower division of England, and later moved on to Derby County, Southampton, Sunderland and other teams.

Stoke City boss Tony Pulis, who was still in the Championship at the time, had the foresight to sign Delap on loan from Sunderland.

….

Then, the throw-in grenade tactic, which can be said to shock the world, appeared.

With an average speed of 60 km/h, a maximum throw distance of 40 metres, and the power to throw the ball directly into the opposition penalty area, Stoke City relied on this trick to try and try to finally qualify for the Premier League.

In the Premier League, this tactic is also extremely sharp, especially when dealing with some technical teams, which makes the opponent very uncomfortable.

Delap's real fame came in the 11th round of the 2008-09 Premier League season, when Stoke City played Arsenal as promoted hosts.

In the first half of the game, Delap threw a throw-in and directly assisted Fuller to score;

In the second half, Delap repeated his old trick, throwing the ball into the Arsenal team with a strong touchline, crossing Shawcross, and finally being hit by Olofenana in the box with his chest, and finally Stoke City won 2-1.

After this campaign, Stoke City scored only 13 goals in the first 11 Premier League games of the season, one of which was scored directly by Delap, and 7 goals, all of which were scored after Delap was thrown in a throw-in!

Delap's grenade throw-in tactics has almost become an inexplicable existence in the Premier League.

This defeat has made Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger haunted him, believing that the opponent is playing with "hands" rather than "feet", unlike real "foot" balls.

Even years later, Arsene Wenger, who became FIFA's technical adviser, proposed that football's throw-in rule be changed to kicking with his feet, which shows how deeply Delap "hurts" him......

Of course, Delap's throw-in is not just thrown away, and there are still a lot of supporting facilities.

Needless to say, Tony Pulis has a throw-in tactic designed specifically for Delap, and even this tactic has a proper noun called "Delap Predator".

In terms of bringing in players, Stoke City also only select 19-right, strong rugby football-type footballers to compete in the penalty area.

In order to maximize the power of Delap's throw-in, Stoke City even reduced the width of the football pitch at the Britannia Stadium to 64 metres within Premier League rules (the normal is around 68 metres), and increased the distance between the billboard and the edge of the football pitch (3 to 5 metres).

In addition, at Stoke City's home stadium, there are large towels specially made for Delap to wipe the football on the sidelines, including in the hands of the ball boys, to minimize the friction caused by the slippery ball.

All this is so that Delap's throw-in can be thrown farther and more accurate!

It's just that now Chelsea meet Stoke City again, but they don't need to worry about being hit by a grenade.

Because at the end of 2013, the "Popeye" has been retired.

And it is precisely because of his departure that this classic tactic of Stoke City has also disappeared.

After all, this tactic relies too much on this special skill, and looking at world football, someone who can throw a fast, far and accurate throw-in like Delap may really never find a second person.

After Delap's departure, the power of Stoke City's high-altitude bombing tactics also declined, and later Tony Pulis also left, which led to the story of his later move to Crystal Palace.

….

The current manager of Stoke City is former Manchester City manager Mark Hughes.

He is a person who advocates technical football, but he also knows that the transformation of Stoke City cannot be rushed, after all, the players in the team are still a group of senior players, and they can't be allowed to embroider overnight.

As a result, Stoke City now is a combination of backfield pushing and long passing.

The forward line is still two tall men, 20 Crouch and 19 Arnautovic, but behind them is the not tall but delicate Bojan.

The talent, who came through the La Masia academy and swept almost all of Barcelona's youth teams' scoring records, has not developed as expected in adulthood, but coming to a team like Stoke City is really a technical poverty alleviation.

And Mark Hughes's revamp of the team was clearly a success.

They have been in the middle of the table this season, and the 3-2 home win over Arsenal and the 6-1 sweep of Liverpool also made everyone realize that the new Stoke City team is on the rise and has become the finisher of the big teams!

Therefore, their home game against Chelsea also has high expectations.

-----------------

When the referee blew the final whistle, more than 20,000 Stoke City fans in Britannia Stadium cheered and celebrated.

But they didn't win.

The reason why they are so excited is because they didn't lose either!

The score on the scoreboard is 0:0.

Stoke City draw with Chelsea!

This is a very great achievement for a team that is committed to relegation.

After all, Chelsea this season is an invincible and powerful team!

And this draw also means that Chelsea's winning streak in the Premier League has also stopped in the 16th game.

This made Stoke City manager Mark Hughes excited, waving his fists into the fan stands in celebration.

Pan Yi stood in front of the away team's coach's seat and didn't say a word.

It is certainly impossible to say that he did not feel depressed.

The team didn't win, how could he be happy as a manager?

It's just that today is really a bit of an evil sect.

The first is that in the cold weather in the north-west of England, Chelsea's players seem to be less able to play football all of a sudden.

Passing errors are starting to mount, especially with Stoke City's five-man midfield pressing and pressing and struggling to organise an effective attack.

At halftime, Pan Yi immediately made adjustments and brought N'Golo Kante on as a substitute for Loftus-Cheek to strengthen the defense and protection of the midfield.

It also cemented Chelsea's position and started to play an effective attack.

It's just that Stoke City's goalkeeper Begovic also opened up today, making eight effective saves in the game, and Lukaku also missed a number of scoring opportunities in a row.

In the end, Chelsea had to draw a clean sheet and end their winning streak.

At the post-match press conference, the reporter asked:

'It's Christmas Eve the day after this game, is there a bit of a sense of absent-mindedness among the young players at Chelsea? And is that what keeps Chelsea from winning?"

….

Pan Yi said that he is willing to take all the responsibilities:

"My players have done what they can and I know they did their best. The responsibility for not winning today is on me, because I was a little unprepared for the Christmas schedule."

In fact, Pan Yi also understands that the instability of Chelsea players does have a lot to do with the game played the day before Christmas.

Why is the Christmas schedule hard to play?

In addition to the perverted schedule of three races in five days and two races in three days, "Christmas" itself is also a very important factor.

In this most important holiday for Westerners, in most leagues, everyone should also go home for the holidays, and then spend time with family, girlfriends, wives and children.

As a result, in the Premier League, and still playing during such a holiday season, it is inevitably difficult to mention the spirit of 100 per cent.

Therefore, in such a game, it is often a matter of which player can concentrate more and put more energy into the game.

Clearly, Stoke City are doing a bit better with that.

But Pan Yi will not blame the players for this.

It's human nature.

In all fairness, if you are still asked to work overtime in Chinese New Year's Eve, even if you are paid overtime, you will not be as positive as you normally go to work......

The journalist added: "Actually, the 16-game winning streak is quite remarkable, and you don't have to be too upset about this draw."

Pan Yi also smiled, "Thank you for your comfort. In fact, I wasn't so upset."

"In the world of football, there is no team that wins forever, and even an undefeated team cannot remain undefeated forever."

"So this draw, in my opinion, is not even a slump for our players, but just an accident and an inevitability of the laws of football."

"And I even think today's draw is a good thing for us."

"We've already broken the record and if we keep thinking about how to extend it, it makes the players too nervous on the pitch. This draw will allow us to go into the next games more relaxed."

"After all, it's the championship that counts."

"So, let's have my first Christmas in England happy. Then, we'll think about the next games, including the upcoming transfer window in the winter window."

"Merry Christmas!"

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