"Diego Costa's goal efficiency, I feel like I'm going to win the Premier League Golden Boot!"

"Be optimistic, maybe you will win the European Golden Boot!"

"It's really unbelievable that someone can surpass Lin Quan in the number of goals!"

"So, the Spanish striker is really strong!"

"Indeed, who uses who knows!"

"Torres gave a thumbs up!"

After Chelsea's run of four wins in a row, Blues fans are going crazy with joy.

When they heard that the team had bought another Spanish striker and spent £50 million, they were all beating drums in their hearts.

I'm afraid of a situation like Torres!

Torres is strong but not a good fit for Chelsea, who have scored just 46 goals in three years since joining Chelsea, without a single season scoring double in the Premier League!

The Chelsea fans didn't put the word parallel goods on his head, which was already very polite to him.

"Alas, if we had Diego Costa last season, we wouldn't have missed so many chances!"

Remembering their defeats in the league and Champions League last season left Blues fans feeling a little sad.

"What are you doing with so much, making us look like resentful women, what we lost last year, can't we just get it back this year?"

"That's right, believe in Mourinho, believe in the Blues, we will definitely get back the trophy that belongs to us this year!"

Blues fans are confident they can beat Manchester City and reclaim the trophy of their own.

And after seeing Chelsea win four in a row, the outside world also began to build momentum.

BBC Sport has published a column outlining Jose Mourinho's record in his second year in charge of a team so far.

Whether it's at Porto, at Chelsea, at Inter or Real Madrid, Mourinho has had an excellent second year with a stellar record.

His team's upward momentum was evident in the second year, helping Porto stabilize the situation in the first year, sweeping all domestic honours in the second year, and even stabilizing the top of Europe in the third year!

This is the only Champions League winner in decades that is not a top five league!

At Chelsea, Jose Mourinho helped Chelsea win the title when he first arrived, and the following year he led the team to successfully defend the title, breaking Manchester United's monopoly on the Premier League trophy.

In Inter, Mourinho won two Serie A titles, and the next year he eliminated the invincible Cosmos team Barcelona in the European competition, helping Inter Milan win the second Champions League trophy in team history after 45 years!

Even in Real Madrid, when they were humiliated 5:0 by Barcelona in the first year, they successfully took revenge in the second year, leading Real Madrid to set a new La Liga record with 100 points and snatching the league championship from Barcelona!

Mourinho seems to have some kind of magic, the team he coached, the first year of recuperation, the second year of full explosion, won all kinds of honors!

However, in the third year, it began to languish, and various conflicts broke out within the team, and then they were swept away......

Of course, it's not yet the third year, and it's still the second year of the second year of Mou's second heyday, so the BBC is optimistic about Chelsea's results this year in its column.

In British football, there are still many people who agree with the BBC's view.

It is unanimously agreed that this season for Chelsea is likely to be their best and most effective year since the second phase of Chelsea.

So they will surely be the main obstacle for Manchester City to defend their title in the league!

It just so happened that in the fifth round of the Premier League, the two teams were going to have a strong showdown.

In the end, it was Manchester City who knocked Chelsea down and established their own Premier League dynasty.

Or Chelsea beat Manchester City to reclaim their glory.

After this game, everything will be clear.

However, both teams will be involved in a Champions League group stage before the fifth round of Premier League fixtures begins.

The outside world can assess the form of both teams based on their performance in the Champions League group stage.

……

September 17, 5:30 p.m., Etihad Stadium.

Manchester City are challenged by Zenit St. Petersburg, their first opponent in the Champions League group stage.

Zenit were champions of the Russian Premier League last season, while Manchester City were champions of the Premier League last season.

So before the game, a lot of Russian media hyped this match as a championship battle!

In the past few seasons, the Russian Premier League's Golden Yuan Football has been playing vigorously, and the annual investment is very large, and it can often become the target king of the European transfer period.

As a result, the competitiveness of Russian Premier League teams in the Champions League has improved a lot.

The Zenit team has also had its own glorious moments.

In the 2007-2008 season, they won the Europa League by knocking out the giants in succession.

In that Europa League, Zenit bloodied Bayern 4-0 at home, which was regarded as a benchmark by their fans and regarded as a great shame by Bayern.

What makes them even more proud is that in the subsequent European Super Cup, they also defeated the Champions League champion Manchester United 2:1 and reached the top of Europe!

But that's all in the past, and Zenit's record in recent years has been far less crazy than before.

Even if they paid a high price for Brazil's main striker Hulk, they failed to make a further breakthrough.

Therefore, the British media did not buy this hype of the Russians on their part!

In their opinion, the Russians are shameless in their behavior of touching porcelain.

At the level of the Russian Premier League, dare to compare with our world's No. 1 league?

Manchester City is not only the champion of the Premier League, but also the champion of the Champions League.

You Zenit had a lot of luck last season and made it to the knockout round with 6 points, and you really think of yourself as a green onion?

Before the game, British fans were very much looking forward to seeing Manchester City teach the arrogant Russians a good lesson on their home turf and let them know that the sky is high!

Manuel Pellegrini was unfazed by the outside world and he was still preparing for the game at his normal pace.

Considering they will face league title rivals Chelsea at home in a few days' time, Zenit will not be too strong in this game.

As a result, Manuel Pellegrini used a large number of substitutes and Van Dijk was also heavily used by him to replace Demichelis, who was resting.

This is not the first time Van Dijk has started in the Champions League, having been the team's first-choice centre-back at Celtic last season.

and played all 6 group games for the Celtics, but unfortunately the Celtics had a poor record and ended up at the bottom of the group with 1 win and 5 losses.

This season, coming to the stronger defending champions, Van Dijk is full of expectations for the Champions League results in the new season.

Lin Quan thought that the other party would feel nervous on such an occasion, but after observing for a while, he found that Van Dijk not only did not feel nervous, but was also a little eager to try.

The Manchester City fans who came to the scene saw Van Dijk's killer hero appear on the field, and they also enthusiastically encouraged him.

The header at Arsenal's home stadium in the last game made many Manchester City fans remember the big tall man.

If Van Dijk can perform as well as the last one in this game, then his status in the hearts of Manchester City fans will definitely be further enhanced.

Zenit has a player in the squad who is familiar to Manchester City fans - Xavi Garcia.

He was part of Manchester City last season and has opted to move away this season in search of more playing time.

And the team he joined was Zenit St. Petersburg.

As fate would have it, his first Champions League game after joining Zenit was to return to the stadium where he had fought.

While waiting for the entry in the players' tunnel, Javi Garcia walked up to Lin Quan with some trepidation, as if he wanted to explain something:

"Lin, I'm ......"

"Come on, play hard, and try to qualify together!"

Lin Quan roughly guessed what he was going to say, so he took the initiative to give him a warm hug, patted him on the back, and encouraged.

"Well, I will!"

With Lin Quan's encouragement, Harvey Garcia felt that a big stone in his heart had landed.

As the players entered, Manchester City fans unfurled banners with slogans welcoming Xavi Garcia back to the Etihad Stadium.

This scene touched Javey Garcia very much, and he played very actively in midfield after the game started.

In the 4th minute, Javi Garcia delivered a lethal through the middle.

Hulk took advantage of a defensive mistake by Manchester City defender Mangala to dribble into the box and send the ball into the City goal with a blast.

There was an uproar at the scene!

Blue Moon fans were in disbelief that just 4 minutes into the game, Manchester City were behind?

After assisting his teammate's goal, Xavi Garcia restrained himself from celebrating.

But Hulk rushed to the camera in the corner, roaring and beating his chest, like a real Hulk.

Manuel Pellegrini was unhappy with Mangala's mistake, which was City's biggest signing of the summer.

However, judging from the opponent's performance in the past few games, it is difficult for Pellegrini to trust him enough.

Truth be told, he wasn't even as good as Virgil van Dijk, who paid a quarter of his transfer fee.

But it's not even five minutes now, and it's a little too aggressive to replace him so quickly.

Substitutions before the end of the first half represent the manager's extreme dissatisfaction with the player, which often leads to conflicts between players and coaches.

So Pellegrini decided to take another look!

If his performance hasn't improved, it's not too late to replace him at half-time.

However, Mangala soon proved with his actions that Pellegrini's decision was wrong!

In the 22nd minute, Mangala made another fatal mistake when he rose to the top of the box and leaked the ball to the opposition midfielder Witsel.

The latter seized the opportunity and swept the ball into the back of the net with a sweeping shot.

There was nothing Navas could do about the goal, and the opponent was too close to the goal when he shot at goal.

If the first goal was conceded, the City fans just felt that something was not quite right with the team's form, and they didn't feel much worry or panic.

Then with them conceding a second goal in the first half, the Manchester City fans really started to panic.

The team's backline is like tofu scum, and the guy in the number 15 shirt feels like an undercover agent sent by the opponent.

How can you win such a tofu scum defense line?

The goal came at an ill-timed time, as City laid siege to Zenit's goal and came close to equalising.

However, after conceding the second goal, City's offensive momentum stalled and the team's morale was severely damaged.

Zenit, on the other hand, went into a frenzy after they scored their second goal.

We actually scored 2 goals at the home of the defending champions!

We're going to beat the defending champions!

On the sidelines, Pellegrini's face turned pale.

He called Demichelis up and, after admonishing him, prepared to replace him.

In the 25th minute, Manchester City made a personnel change.

Demichelis came on to replace the in-form Mangala.

The latter was clearly in a very bad mood when he came off the pitch, ignoring Pellegrini who was standing on the long side.

This scene was caught by the reporters at the scene!

The reporters' eyes lit up, and they made up hundreds of words of small essays in their minds, trying to analyze the incompatibility of Manchester City's generals and the huge contradictions in the dressing room.

With Demichelis on the pitch, City's backline was solid.

Zenit's offense didn't work as well as it did before!

In this game, although Mangala performed poorly, Van Dijk's performance was remarkable.

If it weren't for his solid performance in defence, Manchester City would have conceded more than 2 goals!

After the back line was solidified, Manchester City's attack finally improved.

In the 38th minute of the first half, Lin Quanlian burst through, seized the holes in the opponent's defense, and hit the top left corner of the goal with a long-range shot from outside the penalty area to help Manchester City recover a goal.

At half-time, Manuel Pellegrini returned to the dressing room in a rage.

I was going to have a good conversation with Mangala, but it turned out that the other party was not in the locker room at all.

This made his anger soar all at once, and his blood pressure suddenly increased!

This guy doesn't seem to be able to deal with it!

In the second half, City continued to make substitutions.

David Silva came on to replace Milner.

The substitution had an immediate effect, taking advantage of David Silva's advantage this time around, and City launched a series of attacks from the left.

In the 58th minute, David Silva sent a cross from the left, and Aguero, who was outflanked in front of goal, missed the first point, and the opposing goalkeeper also misjudged and failed to touch the ball after attacking.

Lin Quan at the back point picked up a leak, easily stretched out his foot, and put the ball into the goal.

The score became 2-2 and City equalised.

After equalizing, Lin Quan did not waste time to celebrate, but immediately turned over, rushed into the goal to scoop the ball out, and returned to the center circle with the football to prepare for a restart.

The Zenit players looked very frustrated as they watched their wins fly away.

Xavi Garcia couldn't help but sigh, with Lin here, Manchester City is still so difficult to defeat!

Seeing that the situation was not good, the head coach of Zenit immediately made gestures to let the team retreat and hold on to a draw.

You can't get 3 points, and you can't lose this 1 point!

However, it will not be so easy to secure a draw after Manchester City have risen completely.

After Zenit shrank back to defend with all his might, City's attack became more intense.

In the 78th minute of the second half, Kroos turned the score around with a long-range shot.

Five minutes later, Kevin De Bruyne scored from a free-kick to make it 4-2.

Manchester City finally got the Champions League off to a good start on their home turf.

However, the win was not what many had hoped for, especially with Chelsea next door beating Schalke 04 4-0.

This difficult victory for Manchester City was completely compared!

So, before the big battle between Manchester City and Chelsea, the wind changed in the outside world.

Optimistic about Chelsea's voices, it has become more!

(End of chapter)