Armand's goal helped York City make it 3-1.

Sheffield United, who were two goals behind, were not willing to lose, and their manager Chris Wilder made a series of transfers, sending two strikers in succession.

In the final ten minutes of the game, they fielded a front four and launched a furious attack on the York City goal, hoping to salvage the defeat.

On the York City side, Scaloni replaced the exhausted veteran Carlström with another veteran, Gary Fletcher.

In addition, defender Ian Hart was also sent on to replace wing-back Lin Liangming.

York City then changed to a 5-3-2 formation and started to play on the counter-attack.

Due to the speed of Armand and the height of Baker, Sheffield United had to have some scruples when pressing out to attack.

And as time passed, Sheffield United could not attack for a long time and became more and more impatient.

With 90 minutes played, York City played another counter-attack against Sheffield United.

Kenhiro Tomiyasu crossed from the wing, Baker was ready to grab the point, but the Sheffield United defender made a mistake and touched the ball into his own goal, an own goal!

This also made Sheffield United completely desperate.

In the end, at Bramall Lane Stadium, York City won 4-1 away at Sheffield United, a veteran powerhouse of League One, thanks to the excellent performance of substitute Armand, and got the precious three points.

——

The match between York City and Sheffield United was the latest of the League One fixture, and after this game, the latest table standings after eight rounds of League One fixtures have been revealed.

York City continues to top the table with an unbeaten record of 7 wins, 1 draw and 22 points, while Bolton Wanderers, who lost this round, fell to third, while Scunthorpe moved up to second with 17 points from 5 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss.

The rules of League One are different from those of League Two, with only the top two teams in League One qualifying for direct qualification to the Championship, while the remaining four teams from third to sixth place will compete in a two-legged home-and-away knockout play-off for a place in the Championship next season. The teams ranked 21st to 24th in the league will be relegated to League Two next season.

In other words, if you want to be promoted, you have to try to keep the top two positions, otherwise you will fall into a miserable promotion play-off.

And at present, the promoted Madrid York City, a small team competing in the English League for the first time in history, has actually beaten a number of strong teams in English One such as Bolton, Sheffield United, Millwall, Charlton, Milton Keynes Keynes, etc., and is at the top of the list, as if it is about to snatch a promotion place directly!

This has also attracted the attention of many media outlets in English football.

Of course, York City, as an "Internet celebrity team", has actually received a lot of attention, but this time, they have attracted attention with their excellent records, not because of their "Internet celebrity boss".

A heavyweight newspaper like "The Times" usually doesn't report much on League One-related matches, but this time it still used the title of "Pan Yi Brings Youth Dark Horse to League One" to report on this League One promotion horse.

In addition to its excellent record, The Times focused on the process of forming this youth army.

"It is reported that York City's operations in the summer transfer market are all done by the owner Pan Yi."

'Of course, he has a lot of face, including three big players in the Swedish national team, as well as former Germany international Westermann, who are willing to play in the third tier of England.

Among them, Karlström and Isaksen even gave up their retirement plans for the sake of Pan Yi and came to York City to take on the role of big brother.

"It is worth mentioning the young people that Pan Yi brought from all over the world. They were almost unknown in Europe before, but Pan Yi brought them from Canada, Japan, Cameroon and Dragon Kingdom, and quickly established themselves in League One. ”

"Who is Thomas Armand? Who is Alfonso Davies? This is probably the same as the question of who Isak is and who Kulusevski is at the European Championships. ”

'But now the whole of Europe knows Isak and Kulusevski, and just as the League One teams have understood the stakes of Thomas Armand and Alphonso Davies.'

"York City is like this with the old and the new, and they conquered League One and became the top of League One."

"Are they really going to play out the myth that they will be promoted from the first league entry? If it does, it will also be the second year in a row that they have achieved an upgrade......"

It's just that League One has always been difficult to play.

A week later, York City welcomed Shetsbury at home.

The team, who are only third from bottom and deep in the relegation zone, have caused York City a lot of problems.

In the end, the two sides ended up in a 1-1 draw, and York City relied on De Ligt's header to score a goal.

Although he did not win, De Ligt's performance was praised by the media and fans.

He was indeed a little frizzy when he first came to York City, but after nearly two months of training in League One, he already looked very mature.

This, of course, is inseparable from Westerman next to him.

This is the role of the hand-me-down.

The Dutch defenders have improved quickly with the German veteran, and Westermann is happy to teach De Ligt in training and games, which is a virtuous process.

It is precisely because of the improvement in defensive ability that De Ligt has the confidence to play to his attacking strengths, and he is encouraged to do so in York City's tactical system.

Therefore, in the nine rounds so far, De Ligt has scored three goals, which can be said to be a powerful scoring weapon for York City in set-piece attack!

Fans and netizens also spoke highly of De Ligt:

"Don't look at 2.5 million euros in League One seems very expensive, but expensive things naturally have their own reasons."

"Three goals in nine games is about the same as the efficiency of a lot of strikers. You should buy a defender and give a good striker, this price is not expensive, right? ”

"Pan Yi personally went to the Netherlands to buy it, I really don't understand what you are worried about."

"But I heard that Pan Yi went to the Netherlands mainly to rent Westermann at that time, and De Ligt was just an add-on."

"Take such good goods as an add-on? Is the Ajax hierarchy stupid? ”

"Hehe, if De Ligt didn't go to York City, but stayed at Ajax and didn't play, would you still think they would suffer?"

"Sell it to Chelsea for 25 million after two years of practice, it seems that only Pan Yi can save Chelsea......"

Fans mention Chelsea because the Blues have lost two in a row in the past week!

In fact, at the beginning of the season, Chelsea performed well under Arteta's leadership, with three wins and one draw.

Although it is slightly inferior to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, who have won all four games, they can at least be in second place in the standings.

Unexpectedly, in the fifth round of the league, Chelsea actually lost to Klopp's Liverpool with a score of 1:2 at their home stadium!

The defeat also ended Chelsea's unbeaten run in the league, which was also fixed at 80 games.

Chelsea's record of winning all at home was also ended.

Unbeaten in 80 games in the five major leagues!

AC Milan, on the other hand, is only unbeaten in 58 games, which shows how amazing Chelsea's record is.

Perhaps it was because of the breaking of this record that Chelsea were a little unstable, and they faced Arsenal away in the next sixth round, and they were beaten 3-0 in a solid way.

"First lose to Liverpool, then lose to Arsenal, then lose to Manchester City, Manchester City loses to Manchester United, then to Tottenham, and then no one loses."

Chelsea fans are worried about the team's future.

The main thing is that this season's BIG 6 are menacing.

After six rounds, Pep Guardiola led Manchester City to six consecutive victories and topped the table.

Then there is Tottenham, who are also unbeaten, with four wins and two draws in second place.

Next up are Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United......

Only Chelsea are down in eighth place.

Many people have suggested that if Chelsea does not make changes in time, not only will the title be lost this season, but it may even fall out of the Champions League directly!

On the premise that there are no major changes in the team's personnel, Pan Yi's unbeaten record of leading the team for so long has been broken so easily this season, which shows that the real core of the team is still Pan Yi.

Therefore, Pan Yi needs to return to Chelsea immediately to replace Arteta's position!

There are even rumours that Chelsea's hierarchy are already looking for a new manager, and Mikel Arteta is likely to be out of action in the near future!

As for such a statement, Pan Yi supported Arteta in an interview with reporters, saying that he should be given more time:

"First of all, I'm the owner of York City now, and my focus is still on York City, so I'm not going to coach any team anytime soon."

'Also, I have confidence in Arteta. He is a smart coach who knows how to learn from his failures. Don't worry about giving him time, he will surprise all the fans! ”

"Of course, I will also help him in any way I can to get my beloved Blues through this difficult situation......

Privately, of course, Pan Yi will keep in touch with Arteta and give his own advice.

In fact, the day after Chelsea's defeat to Arsenal, Pan Yi travelled to London to review the two defeats with Mikel Arteta.

Where did the game go wrong?

"First, the defensive line of the team's midfield cannot be messed up, because this defensive formation is very clear, that is, the position of two chains + Kante with both vertical level and horizontal coverage width. If a winger is not aggressive, there will be a major gap in the defensive chain in the midfield at an instant, and the full-back may be sold. ”

"Second, the team can't concentrate too many people on one side, which makes this wide coverage useless."

"Look here, in the position at this time, Azpilicueta's target is not Lallana at all, but Klein on the wing, if Lallana bursts in, Azpilicueta will be embarrassed: to make up or not to make up?"

Pan Yi pointed to the video of the game on the screen and gave Arteta a "catch-up lesson".

In fact, Arteta's tactical learning of Pan Yi is very good, but the problem is also too good.

A scripted style of play is not much of a problem against some of the weaker teams, as sometimes the individual qualities of the Chelsea players can mask them to a certain extent.

But this season, both Jurgen Klopp and Arsene Wenger have studied Chelsea in more detail and have developed more targeted play.

Arteta, on the other hand, is still not flexible enough in this regard, and when facing strong opponents like Liverpool and Arsenal, it will lead to lapses in some positions and be caught and beaten by opponents, which has caused two consecutive defeats.

"Look here, Liverpool only used a simple pass to cut the combination, and it went deep into the heart of our defense, if it wasn't for Azpilicueta's timely filling, Liverpool could have formed a single knife or even a "2-on-0". ”

'Notice the position of our two defences at this point: the midfield is clearly on the right, with Nemanja Matic on the far left just a little to the left in the middle, and a slight right at the back overall. In other words, the focus and coverage of the two lines of defense are fundamentally different, and one of the two must be wrong! ”

"They're good professionals, but why could they go wrong? It was because Jurgen Klopp brought in centre-back Joel Matip from the left side, which was a new style of play for him. None of our players noticed that at this time. ”

"Pay attention to Nemanja Matic's eyes, he was staring at the ball carrier in the middle, and he didn't care about Matip on the left, to put it bluntly, the left side of midfield was not his defensive area at all. Azpilicueta, on the other hand, looked after Klein near the touchline off the screen. So there was an instant vacuum in this area, and Matip plugged it in from this line. ”

"Is there anyone in this place? Yes, but Hazard. His defense is not enough to stop the opponent's advance......"

As he spoke, Pan Yi opened another video.

So a similar situation was repeated against Arsenal and it was a direct result of conceding a goal.

On the surface, the problem of conceding the goal this time was the embarrassing performance of Azpilicueta first defending Walket and then making up for Bellerin, but in fact, it was pulled out by the Arsenal players because of the lack of defense.

When the attack was launched, Chelsea's defensive position was exactly the same as the goal that Pan Yi had just analysed.

When Walcourt stepped forward, Matic simply thought of himself as a left wing-back, and dealt with Walcott with the ball first.

However, Arsenal did not rush to attack, instead turning the ball down the left and Chelsea's midfield defence shifted to the right as a whole.

Walcoat continued to cut into the box rather sloppily, at which point Hazard came back a bit, but he couldn't keep Walcott out of his area.

Logically speaking, the only solution at this point would be for Cesar Azpilicueta to reclaim to the middle to complement Walcoat and Eden Hazard to replace Bellerin on the wing, but no one has made such a split-second decision.

By the time Iwobi got the ball into the box, Azpilicueta had no idea what to do.

Hazard did start to defend back, but at this time the defense was useless, AZP could only give up marking Walcoat and block Bellerin as much as possible, you know, even if you prevent Walcoat, Bellerin is also a single-handedly goalkeeper after receiving the ball.

In the end, it was this somewhat one-of-a-kind defence that led to Arsenal's first goal.

'Their focus now is on Hazard's side because everyone knows that Hazard's defensive quality is relatively average.

'Of course, Eden Hazard's defensive weaknesses are well known, and there is only one reason why he doesn't move anyone: he has helped the team so much in attack.

"So, in a situation like this, we still have to make a little change."

'Otherwise, he'll be constantly forced to defend or let him get too close to the touchline, too far from goal. It's going to make his threat plummet. ”

'So, my suggestion is to change the formation to 3-4-3 and push Hazard up front to reduce that embarrassment......

This is Pan Yi's final recommendation after research.

In both games, in addition to defensively, Hazard also struggled in attack.

Chelsea were still looking for Hazard at the first time, but Hazard struggled to break through and had to return the ball to the midfield, and then the team began a series of slow-paced frontcourt organisations.

Eden Hazard is also a frequent receiver in the middle looking for penetration, but he is not a playmaker from a midfielder and it is difficult to make a decent presentation in the middle at a slow pace.

Chelsea's attack, in fact, is almost over after the tempo slows down, and in this case, Chelsea's attack can easily fall into a dilemma where it will not slow down but has to slow down.

And Pan Yi's change of formation is to give a good solution to maximize the activation of the frontcourt trio, especially Hazard's singles ability, and speed up with a 3+X offensive plan.

It's a lot like Enrique's use of MSN.

Chelsea launched a quick counter-attack after the ball broke off in midfield, with Hazard receiving the ball and having plenty of space to start the break.

It is true that by the time he burst close to the box, the opposition defence had largely returned, but it was not the touchline but the penalty line, and Hazard had enough quality to make a fuss here.

This is almost purely a simplification, the activation of Hazard's personal attack power.

In the final analysis, Pan Yi hopes to give the offensive task to the front trio to the greatest extent by changing the formation, so that they have the space to start and the room to speed up.

Defensively, it is more about relying more on the four in midfield to avoid stars like Eden Hazard falling into an offensive and defensive dilemma.

"I get it, I'll give it a try." Arteta nodded.

He also understands that in the best game of football, tactics are never set in stone.

If I use tactics to restrain you, you will come up with better tactics to restrain me, and I will have to find your weaknesses again and restrain you again with players who can match the new tactics.

In this way, the game has been moving forward in the process of rock-paper-scissors, and the tactics have been innovated step by step in the process.

It's just that Arteta is only a "trainee" who has only been practicing for a year, and he can't respond to such changes in a timely manner.

But fortunately, he also has a master named Pan Yi!

As long as Pan Yi can come out in time to make a point, Arteta will be able to grasp the mystery and then put it into practice.

In the process of such guidance and correction, a smart person like Arteta will of course apply what he has learned and draw inferences!

In the end, it may really be possible to achieve self-evolution, and you can understand how to improve your tactics without Pan Yi's guidance......

——

On October 1, in the seventh round of the Premier League, Chelsea challenged Hull City away.

Mikel Arteta made it 3-4-3 and it worked well.

With goals from Eden Hazard and Harry Kane, they ended their losing streak with a 2-0 win away from home.

In his post-match press conference, Arteta also mentioned Pan Yi's help:

"Pan Yi will always be my mentor, and he can always pull me when I am confused."

"I'm very grateful to him for helping me and now I've cleared my mind."

'I believe Chelsea can now be on the right track to defend the Premier League title that belongs to them!'

In the same period, League One played three rounds.

York City beat Gillingham 2-0 at home before drawing 2-2 away at Coventry.

This makes it easy for York City to remain at the top of League One ahead of the new international break.

For such a result, Pan Yi is of course happy.

With Chelsea halting their decline and York City continuing to lead, what else is there to dislike about?

But soon he wasn't so happy.

That's because, during the international break, another team he was more concerned about lost! (End of chapter)