Chapter 386: Blue Triple Crown Dynasty!
After Manchester City lost the 34th Premier League game against Chelsea, the string they had been tightening was broken.
While Pep Guardiola is still looking to seize the last chance to turn Chelsea around, his disciples are clearly at the end of their game after a less successful fourth-tier campaign this season.
Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur in the 35th round of the league, but the whole Manchester City team got lost in Stoke City's set-piece tactics.
Substitute Crouch sealed his throat with a sword and scored the winning header against Mangala to help Stoke City successfully reverse Manchester City 2-1 away from home!
While the whole Stoke City team was celebrating wildly, Pep Guardiola, who was sitting in the dugout at the time, was weak and tired.
They are six points behind Chelsea with a game in hand, and City have only three league games left to play.
This has basically pronounced Manchester City's death sentence.
After all, looking at Chelsea's horrific form at the end of the season, who would predict that Chelsea would lose twice in a row to Manchester City in the next league campaign?
After a shock defeat to Stoke City in the 35th round, Manchester City were left with their last head still on the cliff.
In the 36th round of the Premier League, if Chelsea continues to win and Manchester City still can't win the game, then Chelsea will win the Premier League title this season two rounds in advance!
Of course, if City continue to lose, Chelsea only need a draw to win the title early, which would be the perfect situation for Chelsea.
But just as the previous two seasons did not pin their title hopes on other teams, Chelsea still have more confidence in their own hard power.
After the win over Atletico Madrid and the return to the Premier League, Chelsea's main players have been counted one by one, and there is no discussion about the possibility of Manchester City being sniped by other Premier League teams again.
During the intense three-day preparation period, they also focused on their upcoming league opponents, Leicester City.
At present, Leicester City has a good record of 21 wins, 10 draws and 4 losses in the Premier League.
To be honest, in the case of a small investment in the summer window, the league only lost 4 games in the final stage of the whole season, and Leicester City's record is already against the sky.
The 73 points also set a record for Leicester City's league points in a single season.
With three rounds left in the league, they are even expected to break the 80 mark in league points this season.
This is enough to satisfy all Foxes fans.
Looking at Chelsea and Manchester City, who are in the top two of the league, Leicester City fans still dare not have the delusion of winning the championship.
However, if they can maintain their current position until the end of the season, then Leicester City will also appear on the Champions League stage for the first time next season.
That's the Champions League!
The dream of so many teams in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League has now been realized by Leicester City.
And the thought of being able to play in the Champions League with the team next season and show the style of the club, these Blue Fox fans are also excited.
Although the season is not really over yet, the whole city of Leicester are quite satisfied with their results this season.
In the final part of their league schedule, apart from facing Chelsea, the remaining two opponents are weak.
There is no need to worry about picking up points at the back, and with Arsenal currently five points ahead of fourth-placed Arsenal in the league, Leicester City's main players naturally don't have much fighting spirit against Chelsea.
This has nothing to do with professional ethics and professionalism.
Facing an opponent who is much stronger than himself, and it is not a life-and-death battle to fight, the league rankings have been determined, why spend a lot of physical energy to fight to the death?
Some words are hard to hear, but the truth is such a truth, people like to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and no one wants to do hard work without some benefits.
However, many British media still expect the excellent Foxes to give fans a big job at the end of the season.
Otherwise, if Chelsea won the championship ahead of schedule, wouldn't the final game of the league be too boring?
On the afternoon of April 30, under the attention of a large number of reporters and neutral fans, the whole Leicester City team arrived in London and warmed up at Stamford Bridge in advance.
Chelsea arrived at Stamford Bridge a little later, and the Chelsea players were smiling more relaxedly as they were filmed live by reporters on the scene.
In order to better prepare for the second leg of the Champions League semi-final in three days' time, Mourinho continued to use a large rotation in today's league.
The forward trident was directly replaced, Kroos was rested again, Leon and Nemanja Matic defended the midfield, and a Van Ginkel formed a midfield trio.
At the back, Gary Cahill and Kalas got another chance to start, and Bertrand was pulled directly by Mourinho as soon as he returned from injury.
Even the starting goalkeeper Oblak was given a chance to rest in this round of the league, and Begovic started in his place.
A closer look shows that only Leeon was the only player in Chelsea's starting game today, with Nemanja Matic and Harry Maguire being the main players.
Leicester City is now third in the Premier League, and if Chelsea really don't take advantage of the opportunity to overturn and lose, then Mourinho can imagine how much pressure of public opinion will be under.
But a madman is a madman, and he himself must have known the drawbacks of such an arrangement, but he still made a very bold decision.
After returning to the dressing room after the warm-up, the Foxes were somewhat surprised to receive information about Chelsea's starting eleven.
In order to preserve his strength and earn points more consistently in the last two rounds of the league, Ranieri actually arranged a rotation today.
However, Leicester's rotation has only rested half of the main players, and compared to Chelsea's "boldness", their rotation today is a bit childish.
With a bit of mixed feelings, Leicester's starters eventually followed in the footsteps of the referee at Stamford Bridge.
They may already be considering a change in tactics to try and break Chelsea's unbeaten home run this season while the vast majority of Chelsea's key players are rested.
But in the absence of Ranieri, these Leicester starters can only honestly put on a defensive posture first.
After receiving a return pass from a teammate at the beginning of the game, Li Ang, who won the kick-off, also actively thought about the direction of attack while observing Leicester's defensive position.
Although he appeared in the starting position of the midfielder today, he still dropped back many times to comb the ball and also organized the team's opening attack in an orderly manner.
After seeing that N'Golo Kante was still starting, Leon decisively abandoned the style of play of advancing from the middle and splitting the ball, and instead strengthened the passing link with the two wings.
With the experience of playing N'Golo Kante in the first half of the league, Chelsea's midfielders are now playing smarter against the famous N'Golo Kante.
There's no shame in not being able to get past N'Golo Kante, because there are too many Premier League stars who have been stolen by N'Golo Kante this season.
Mourinho also stressed many times before the game that he should try to avoid Leicester City's heavy defensive midfield in attack.
Chelsea's attacking system is not only the routine of Leon inserting in the middle of the pitch, but also playing wide attacks is Chelsea's strength.
And when Leon concentrated on combing the attack in the middle and taking the ball to the side many times, Kante could not run anymore, and it was impossible for him to take care of the defense of both wings at the same time.
Chelsea's wide attack was underpinned by this clever choice to attack the weak and avoid the strong.
It just so happens that Mohamed Salah is attacking on the left side of Leicester's slightly weaker defence.
Riyad Mahrez's defensive strength and defensive commitment are still slightly weaker than other Leicester attacking players.
Playing one-on-one with the ball on this side against Fox, who is already in his thirties, Salah has a strong confidence in breaking through.
No matter how experienced Fuchs is defensively and his defensive options are mature, his relative weakness in speed has already doomed him to face Salah alone.
In the 20th minute of the first half, Fuchs had to call in his teammates frequently to help defend.
His defense on this side was not directly blown out by Salah, but at the moment it is an indisputable fact that Leicester's left side has become the weak side of the defense.
N'Golo Kante began to tilt his defensive focus more on the left flank, while Leicester's defensive imbalance was even more visible to Leon.
In the 24th minute of the first half, Callas blocked Mahrez's ball-handling advance with a one-on-one tackle on the right flank.
The Czech defender, who had recovered the ball, got up and swept the ball down the middle.
Nemanja Matic, who stepped forward to get the ball, didn't stick to the ball too much, and soon went diagonally to the ball and handed the ball to the feet of Leang, who was running.
At this time, Leon's position was more inclined to his own right, and Salah also took advantage of the situation to run forward along the touchline, and at the same time raised his hand to signal that Leon could boldly send the ball behind him.
N'Golo Kante gave up on his intention of returning to defend with Drinkwater, and he lunged forward to get the ball on Leon in the hope of disrupting the passing link that Leon was about to form with Salah.
But Leon's next passing choice was beyond the expectations of all Leicester defenders!
I saw that he adjusted slightly, and sent a fast long pass to his left front before Kante intercepted!
Gnabry, who had been a little silent and didn't look very active, rushed forward like a cheetah at this moment!
It only took him a second or two to get rid of Leicester right-back Danny Simpson's marking!
Gnabry, who has not yet turned 21, made the 29-year-old Simpson deeply feel the ruthlessness of the passage of time.
It's still a crushing speed and no skill to speak of, just a dash!
Gnabry, who successfully hit the back of Leicester's defense, did not hesitate too much after successfully unloading the ball, and directly observed the ball and hoisted the ball into the middle of Leicester City's penalty area!
Llorente overpowered Leicester City central defender Morgan, and completed the head-shaking attack with the ferocious momentum of rushing forward!
But Schmeichel Jr. also had a predetermined flight like a god this time, and single-handedly blocked Llorente's powerful header back to the limit!
At the last moment, Li Ang, who stepped forward in place, was stunned to rely on his long legs to snatch the ball that bounced over Drinkwater.
But just as several Leicester City defenders around him came to him, he knocked the football to the right side of the Leicester City penalty area in time!
Salah, who had been waiting for a long time, did not waste the opportunity that Leon snatched, he adjusted his pace to meet the ball and shoot directly into the far corner of the goal!
This kick shot can be described as a very tricky angle, the ball speed is not too fast, but the arc is very large!
Schmeichel Jr., who had just contributed to the miracle pounce, gritted his teeth and kicked the ground again, but this time Lady Luck stopped favoring him.
The ball eventually went around his fingertips and plunged headlong into the net in the top left corner of the goal behind him!
The scene at Stamford Bridge suddenly thundered with joy, and the strong cheers swept across the stadium and reverberated all around!
Salah, who scored the goal, pointed his finger at Leon and smiled.
Leon also rubbed Salah's fluffy hair again, and ran shoulder to shoulder with him to the corner flag area to celebrate passionately!
It was a goal that completely stirred up tens of thousands of Chelsea fans in the field.
They roared passionately in the stands, hugged each other, and then hooked shoulders and sang "We're going to win three times in a row!" "The self-composed song is coming!
Jose Mourinho was equally excited, but he was still making a gesture to the Chelsea players on the pitch to keep their heads cool.
By the time the festivities were over, the Chelsea starters who had returned to their own half were almost always alerted and encouraged by Leon.
Under the double reminder of their coach and captain, these Chelsea players quickly suppressed their agitated emotions and began to calmly retreat.
Ranieri was a little hesitant at first, whether to take advantage of Chelsea's main rotation to carry out a sneak attack.
But now that Chelsea have scored first, there is no thought left in his head.
The tinkerer's hesitation in making adjustments on the spot is also an old problem, and the Foxes players on the field are in urgent need of adjustments from their own coaching staff, but Ranieri has done nothing.
Leicester City's morale has been greatly affected, and the players have lost interest in shopping with Chelsea when they see this.
As a result, the half-time battle expected by the Chelsea players did not take place, and Leicester City seemed to have fully accepted the situation of falling behind first.
This situation also continued until the start of the second half, Leicester City's will to counterattack was not strong, and Mourinho saw this, so he signaled that his disciples could suspend the attack.
It wasn't until the 67th minute of the second half, when Vardy came on as a substitute, that Leicester City set off another wave of attacking climax.
However, Chelsea seized the opportunity of Leicester's big attack and beat Leicester City several times on the counter-attack.
Finally, in the 76th minute of the second half, substitute Suarez received a long diagonal pass from Leon and volleyed in the Leicester City penalty area!
After the score was changed to 2-0, Chelsea began to defend at full strength, and Leicester City's players quickly lost their appetite for attack.
In the end, the score was settled at 2-0 and Chelsea achieved their pre-match goal without adding trouble to their title journey.
After the game, almost all the Chelsea players did not bother to celebrate at home first, but all ran to the dugout to ask assistant coach Holland how the game was going on the other side of Manchester City at this time.
Holland was still refreshing the real-time news page on his mobile phone, and it was about half a minute before he jumped up from the coach's seat with wide eyes and cheers!
'Southampton drew 2-2 at home to Manchester City! It's over! We won the championship early!! ”
Before he could finish speaking, the Chelsea players around him screamed excitedly, and then rushed onto the pitch together and began to celebrate wantonly!
The Chelsea fans in the stands, who had not yet received definite news at this time, saw the passionate gestures of their own players in the stadium, and why did they not understand that they had won the championship ahead of schedule?!
The strong and jagged cheers erupted again!
Jose Mourinho, Ruiz and Holland hugged each other tightly on the sidelines.
Leon and Nemanja Matic ended their hug hard, and Hazard, who rushed onto the pitch, jumped directly on his shoulder and shouted passionately in his ear:
"Boss! We did it! We've won three times in a row! ”
Leon laughed and slapped Hazard's buttocks with his backhand, and then proudly raised his arms and shouted to the fan stands!
Yes, they did, they have built a blue dynasty in the Premier League!
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(End of chapter)