[Epoch Times News on January 3, 2022](Epoch Times reporter Li Rongshi comprehensive report) January 1-2, local time, the 21st round of the 2021-2022 English Premier League, played in the top four teams in the standings Catch and fight. “Leader” Manchester City in stoppage time in the away game fluke 2:1 to reverse fourth-placed Arsenal. Second place Chelsea shook hands with third place Liverpool 2:2 at home. After this round, Manchester City has expanded its lead to ten, and the Premier League championship situation has also changed from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to a dominant situation.
Manchester City are lucky to get three points and 11 consecutive victories to lead
“Leader” Manchester City this turn to challenge the “Gunner” Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. This season, Arsenal’s performance has gradually improved after losing three games in a row and the ranking has risen to fourth place; however, their record in the face of strong teams is not satisfactory-they have lost every game. Arsenal did not dare to neglect this round against “Blue Moon”, who had already scored ten consecutive victories, especially since they also hope to end their previous embarrassing record of nine consecutive defeats against Manchester City.
The game process can be described as ups and downs. In the first half, Manchester City still focused on passing and controlling football, while Arsenal focused on counterattacks. In the 31st minute, Arsenal played a smooth ground attack, Tierney sent a diagonal stop in the front field, and the 20-year-old Sakar outflanked a low shot in front of the goal, helping the “Gunner” to open the record. Throughout the first half, Manchester City had an absolute advantage in ball possession and passing, but in terms of shooting and shooting, the “Gunner” performed better, and the “Blue Moon” did not take a shot.
The situation changed suddenly in the second half. In the 57th minute, Xhaka defended Bernardo Silva in the penalty area when he pulled a foul. The referee did not give a signal for the first time, but after VAR reminded, the referee watched the video playback and gave Manchester City a penalty. This naturally caused the dissatisfaction of the Arsenal players. The central defender Gabriel made an uncomfortable move. He deliberately stepped on the penalty spot and interfered with the opponent’s penalty kick. As a result, he received a yellow card from him. The game laid the groundwork for it.
Subsequently, Mahrez scored a penalty kick to tie the score 1:1 for Manchester City. But only two minutes later, Gabriel blocked the opponent’s foul in the midfield, received a second yellow card, two yellows and one red were sent off, and the “Gunner” suffered a fatal blow. This is Arsenal’s 100th red card in the Premier League, and they have also become the most “red” team in the history of the Premier League.
Arsenal’s tactical deployment was completely disrupted in only 2 minutes from being equalized to Gabriel’s “red”. After that, for almost half an hour, Manchester City, who was fighting with one more man, launched a siege on the “Gunner”. In the 3rd minute of stoppage time, De Bruyne passed the ball from the right into the penalty area. Laporte took a low shot and was blocked.
In the end, Manchester City beat Arsenal 2:1 in an away game, winning 11 consecutive Premier League victories. Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola commented on the game after the game: “Arsenal’s performance is better, but football is sometimes like this. They have rested for nearly a week, and we only rested for two days, two consecutive away games, the team Not everyone can play. We don’t have much energy anymore. At this stage, it is really not easy to create 11 consecutive victories.”
And the last time Arsenal beat Manchester City in the league, it dates back to December 22, 2015, when Arsenal won 2:1 at home, when Arsenal’s coach was Wenger. Since then, Arsenal have played 13 consecutive Premier League games against Manchester City, with 2 draws and 11 losses, without a win.
After this round, Arsenal played in 20 rounds, accumulating 35 points and still ranked fourth; West Ham United beat Crystal Palace 3:2 away with 34 points, ranking fifth, one point away from the top four. Relying on Sun Xingmin assists Sanchez in the 96th minute to stage a “lore”, Tottenham beat Watford 1-0 in the away game. Since taking over Tottenham, Conte has led the team with 5 wins and 3 draws, and 18 points. They currently have two games less than Arsenal, accumulating 33 points, and temporarily ranking sixth.
The red and blue wars are unresolved and the point difference is widened
Fortunately, Manchester City got a three-pointer and watched Chelsea and Liverpool’s battle the next day. Both teams are short of major generals, so they can only send out remnants to fight. Almost all of Chelsea’s forwards were unable to play, to the point where no one was available; for Liverpool, Alisson, Firmino, and Matip were out of the epidemic, and coach Klopp was also unable to take command because of a positive test.
Before the game, Chelsea’s internal conflicts were also exposed. Lukaku, who had only transferred from Inter Milan for 115 million euros before the start of the season, publicly stated in an interview that he was not satisfied with Chelsea and hoped to return to Inter Milan. His remarks made the club and the “Blue Army” fans very dissatisfied. Coach Tuchel publicly criticized the Belgian center for improper behavior and imposed internal punishment on him. He was not called to the squad for the game.
After the start of the game, Liverpool took the lead. In the 9th minute, Mane opened the scoring for the “Red Army”; in the 26th minute, the Egyptian striker Salah succeeded in a small angle shot to expand the lead. This is Salah’s 200th goal for the “Red Army” and his first goal at Stamford Bridge.
The start was not good, Chelsea did not surrender, and then they sounded the clarion call for counterattack. In the 41st minute, Kovacic took a volley from the top of the arc and hit a world wave. The ball drew out of the arc and hit the right post into the net to get Chelsea back a goal. In the 1st minute of stoppage time in the first half, Pulisic moved forward and rushed into the penalty area with a single shot, helping Chelsea to tie the score 2:2.
In the second half, the two teams continued to strengthen their offensive, but they were unable to score again. In the end, the two sides shook hands with 2:2 and each scored 1 point. This result makes it difficult for fans on both sides to be satisfied, because the point difference between them and the top of the table has been further widened.
Competition for the crown, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms becomes a dominant one
This season, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United have all invested more than 100 million in the transfer market. Coupled with the strong performance of Liverpool in recent seasons, many fans believe that there will be a semi-finals competition this season. However, Manchester United, which owns Ronaldo, has performed poorly and withdrew from the title race early; it has become the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” of Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool. Chelsea took the first place in the 5th round. Although they were immediately overtaken by Liverpool, they became the “leaders” again in the 7th round and occupied the top eight consecutive rounds.
In the fifteenth round, Manchester City began to control the top position and expanded its advantage, winning the Christmas championship and the Premier League half-time championship successively. After this round, defending champion Manchester City, accumulated 53 points, leading the strong; Chelsea ranked second with 43 points; Liverpool had one round less and accumulated 42 points, ranking third.
At present, the “leader” Manchester City’s lead has reached 10 points. In the fiercely competitive Premier League, this advantage can be described as huge. This also means that the Premier League championship has completely changed. The three-nation competition has become a dominance. Successfully defending the title has been difficult to stop; Liverpool and Chelsea have basically retreated from the championship to the “fourth.”
Next, the Premier League will have a rare two-week trim time. Back to the game, Chelsea will go to the away game to challenge Manchester City, which has won 11 consecutive games. If they lose, the “Blues” hopes for the championship this season will be completely shattered.
Editor in charge: Zheng Huang
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