Chapter 538： The real battle has just begun!

Regarding Southampton's home game and a four-to-zero victory over Arsenal, the English media were shocked and expressed normal.

Arsenal's competitiveness in the Premier League is like Wang Xiaoer's Chinese New Year, one year is not as good as one year, this is obvious.

Last season, the away game lost to Manchester United two to eight. This is no longer the score that should have appeared between the giants.

Even if the fans find more reasons and excuses for this game, they can't hide a fact.

That is, Arsenal's strength in the Premier League is no longer at the same level as Manchester United and Manchester City!

This is an indisputable fact!

But now, Southampton broke Arsenal 4-0 at home, once again sounding a wake-up call for the Gunners.

With the strong rise of the Saints and Tottenham Hotspur and other teams, if the Gunners do not change the style of the transfer market, I am afraid that it will not be long before even the top four in the league can't be kept!

For Southampton, which won nine consecutive victories for the Gunners, the English media gave overwhelming praise and praise.

In particular, Tony Cross, who was elected as the best player of the game, almost put him in the title of the world's top midfielder.

After this round, Southampton scored 42 points in the standings with 13 wins, three draws and five losses. It is 10 points behind Manchester United and three points behind Manchester City, ranking third in the Premier League standings.

Following Southampton are Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Everton, West Bromwich Albion.

Among them, the Gunners have the same points as Everton and West Bromwich Albion.

It can be said that the emergence of Southampton broke the traditional pattern of the Premier League semi-finals in one fell swoop, making almost all media professionals believe that the Saints’ Champions League qualifications are already ninety-one.

But in the face of media bluffing, the saints seem very sensible.

From the top to the bottom of the club, everyone knows the Christmas Devil's schedule. Although the team has carried out a scientific rotation, the team still consumes a lot of money. Coupled with the injury problem, Southampton dare not care.

Everyone knows that the real test for the team has not yet come!

Especially compared to other teams, Southampton also reached the League Cup semi-finals.

In January, just after the test of the Devil's schedule, Southampton played two more games than Manchester United, Manchester City and other teams. It is hard to imagine.

But give up?

Neither Yang Huan nor Bielsa could say such a thing!

It's not like the style that Southampton should have!

After playing Arsenal, the team immediately ushered in the third round of the FA Cup. The opponent is Bournemouth from the third tier. The latter ranked second in the League of Nations, and the strength is quite good. .

Southampton is playing the bench.

Sturridge played the role of center, forming the trident of the front court with Isco and Ravel Morrison.

In the midfield, Kovacic, Pogba and Matic formed three midfielders.

The back line is Alex Sandro, Nastasic, Laporte and Danilo.

The goalkeeper is Brazil's Julio Cesar.

Such a full bench lineup to play in the FA Cup is really compelling.

Because next Southampton will face Swansea in the semi-finals of the League Cup.

Laudrup's team is unambiguous at all, and it is quite competitive in the Premier League this season.

In the two League Cup semi-finals, Southampton's league opponents were Aston Villa, Everton and Manchester United.

In just two weeks, five games, each of which has to face a tough opponent, which is also a huge test for the Saints.

Therefore, Bielsa arranged for the full bench to play, somewhat of a last resort to strategically give up the idea of ​​the FA Cup.

But who could have imagined that this group of young players from the Saints performed well, relying on Lavel Morrison's assist for Sturridge's goal, a one-to-zero victory over Bournemouth and successfully advanced to the next round.

This is somewhat gratifying to the coaching staff. At the very least, this group of teenagers and substitutes in the team have shown quite good strength.

Especially young players such as Januzai and Kovacic who came on the bench are even more impressive.

You know, this group of boys are training with the first team now. Kovacic jokingly worshipped his compatriot Modric as his teacher and took the initiative to learn from him how to play. This is very helpful to the progress of young players. Big.

After returning to Southampton, the Saints went north again non-stop, to Birmingham, to challenge Aston Villa away.

Aston Villa has performed poorly in the Premier League this season and is currently ranked 17th, only one step away from the relegation zone.

But even with such a team, Southampton still played quite hard.

In the end, Ibrahimovic assisted Vidal at a critical moment and scored a valuable three-pointer for Southampton!

Although the saints won this battle, they were exhausted!

Also in this round, Manchester United defeated Liverpool two to one at home, and Manchester City won Arsenal two to zero away. The league's top three rankings and points gap did not change at all.

But in the middle of the week, ushered in the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals, Southampton challenged Swansea away.

Bielsa arranged a rotation, and the team also matched Swansea's away game.

But when the game went to the 81st minute, the midfield pass was interrupted and Swansea counterattacked. There was a melee in the Southampton penalty area. Varane was caught off guard and scored an own goal.

Because of this goal, Southampton lost to Swansea!

Varane is therefore under great pressure from the external media.

Back in the Premier League, the 23rd round will soon be ushered in.

Southampton is home to Everton.

As a result, Bielsa's team, after occupying an overwhelming advantage on the field, was drawn by Moyes with a score of zero to zero, and the league's ten-game winning streak came to an end.

Coincidentally, Manchester United also suffered a 1-1 draw away from Tottenham Hotspur in this game, while Arsenal was unlucky to gain a three-game losing streak, losing to Chelsea 1-2 in the away game.

Manchester City won Fulham 2-0.

As a result, the Premier League standings remains unchanged.

Southampton still ranks third with 46 points, ahead of Manchester United with 56 points and Manchester City with 51 points, Chelsea with 45 points and Tottenham with 41 points. Nam Hotspur.

As for the three-game losing streak Arsenal, it fell to sixth place, ranking still behind Everton.

The intensity of the Premier League can be seen from the past few rounds.

Even a relegation team like Aston Villa is quite strong.

In the league standings, every previous ranking represents fierce and brutal competition.

After playing the 23rd round of the Premier League, Southampton once again ushered in the League Cup semi-final opponent Swansea with a rotation.

As a result, the two sides once again fought zero to zero.

In the end, Southampton was eliminated with a total score of zero to one.

On the weekend, the fourth round of the FA Cup was ushered in, and Bielsa still played on the full bench.

This time, even players such as Kovacic and Januzai got the start.

As a result, the Saints broke the amateur team Magsfield by 4-0 away. Sturridge performed a hat trick, which was impressive and showed a pretty good competitive state.

By midweek, the 24th round of the Premier League was ushered in, and Southampton challenged Manchester United away.

The two sides fought a fierce battle at Old Trafford.

First, the Saints in the away game took the lead in Gareth Bale who broke through the goal guarded by De Gea and opened the scoring for Southampton. At this time, the game had just started three minutes.

But soon, Manchester United reversed the situation, Rooney received a pass from Shinji Kagawa and equalized the score.

In the 27th minute, it was Rooney again, receiving an assist from Evra at the crucial moment, breaking Neuer's goal again, reversing the score to two to one.

Southampton young central defender Varane has been criticized by the media and pressure from fans since he scored an own goal in the League Cup semi-finals and caused the team to be eliminated. This has also led to his poor performance in recent times.

In this battle against Manchester United, the two conceded goals have nothing to do with him!

Yang Huan sat in the stands of Old Trafford Stadium, also quite helpless.

Varane's potential and talent are unquestionable, and even his strength is quite outstanding, but he is still a young player, lacking the self-regulation ability of mature and experienced professional players.

Unfortunately, no one can help him with this kind of thing, he can only get out of the shadows by himself.

Once he comes out, he can go further, if he can't come out, maybe he will be like this in the future!

In the second half, Bielsa showed the courage and determination to win. He replaced Hazard and Isco in the midfield, stating that he wanted to strengthen the attack and must win Manchester United away.

As a result, at the beginning of the second half, there was a lot of noise in front of Manchester United.

Ferguson made a decisive move and immediately replaced the veteran Ferdinand with Smalin, who was on the left and right, and stabilized the defense.

After Southampton bombarded indiscriminately, Bielsa even replaced Drogba again with a twin tower tactic.

But no matter how Southampton attacked, the tight defensive Manchester United goal seemed to be precarious, but it was just a little bit off.

Until the 83rd minute of the game, when Southampton, who had been unable to attack for a long time, seemed a little impatient, Tony Cross passed back Harvey Martinez, who made a long pass and found it accurately. Drogba.

The Côte d’Ivoire gave a header to Ibrahimovic, the Swede made a wonderful pass, behind the Manchester United defense line diagonally, Neymar penetrated Manchester United’s defense line like a bolt of lightning, after receiving the ball, he entered the penalty area and passed. After the goalkeeper De Gea, a single hit!

Two to two!

The lore goal at the crucial moment allowed Neymar to win rave reviews and applause after the game!

It was this goal that helped Southampton retreat from away and scored a point!

The twenty-fourth round of the league is also the darkest round of the Premier League.

Out of the ten games, only two were decided, and all the others were tied.

Manchester United tied Southampton, Arsenal tied Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Everton all tied!

From this point, it is not difficult to see that after the Christmas Devil schedule and the difficulties of January, the consumption of all the Premier League teams has reached a bottleneck.

But you know, the real battle for the Premier League title has just begun.

On another battlefield, European powerhouses are also recruiting for the second half of the league.

Manchester United won the Crystal Palace’s African player Zaha for a price of 15 million pounds during the winter break and then rented Zaha to play at Crystal Palace.

Chelsea introduced Dembaba from Newcastle for £7.5 million After the latter fell out with Alan Padou, they decided to transfer during the winter break.

Arsenal is at the last moment of the transfer market, at a price of 10 million pounds, from Málaga to introduce the new Spanish international Monreal, this full-back is an important piece for Wenger to improve the team's wing.

In addition, teams like Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have also strengthened their midfield.

The former introduced Coutinho, while the latter introduced Kenyan midfielder Wanyama from the Celtics.

Tottenham Hotspur introduced Wanyama, or Daniel Levy's advice from Yang Huan's consultation. The Southampton Scouting System gave Wanyama a very high evaluation, especially on physical fitness.

Unfortunately, the Saints do not currently respect the body, Wanyama is not suitable for the Saints, so it is cheaper for Tottenham Hotspur.

In the Premier League, the elites have made some moves, either by making great efforts to sign in, or by removing redundant players from the team.

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