super sharp

Chapter 274 A Final

"If Arsenal have a weakness, their back four and goalkeeper are the weakest link."

Before the League Cup final, in an interview with the media, Birmingham striker Roger Mu said so.

Although his original intention may be to use such remarks to provoke Arsenal and make their opponents make mistakes in impatience.

These remarks once aroused the anxiety of Birmingham fans, because they thought such words were dangerous, and they might instead arouse the fierce fighting spirit of Arsenal players, and extinguished the last possibility of their already slim chance of winning the championship.

But it turns out that such comments are too in place!
Because not long after the game started, Arsenal's defender made a fatal mistake, which made Birmingham take a one-goal lead early in the game!

Relying on a corner kick, the 700-centimeter high center forward Zikic, who had just been introduced by the Hong Kong boss with an investment of 202 million pounds this season, scored a goal and took the lead.

In this attack, Arsenal's defense was like a playful child. At this moment, they suddenly faced the threat of an "adult" and behaved so unbearably!
Mu Jianfeng looked at the conceded goal and covered his eyes helplessly, in disbelief!
In his opinion, there is really no reason for Arsenal to lose this game!

In terms of starting lineup, apart from Walcott's injury in training and unable to play in time, Arsenal's lineup is almost in the most complete state!
Even the referee, who was once criticized by Arsenal fans, was very "partial" to Arsenal in this game.

It's not just that Birmingham's players will be called fouls if they move a bit too much. Not long before the goal was conceded at this distance, Mu Jianfeng watched the referee "blow" a good ball that belonged to Birmingham!

At that time, Birmingham took advantage of an Arsenal player's mistake in midfield to steal the ball and launched a counterattack on the spot!

After their player Bowyer was knocked down by goalkeeper Szesny after dribbling the ball into the penalty area, almost all Arsenal people felt a chill at that time, and even Szesny hugged his head in disbelief and regretted it!

But although the referee blew his whistle, he didn't award a penalty kick!
He gave Arsenal a backcourt free kick on the grounds that Bowyer was offside!

But Mu Jianfeng swears that he saw his player Clichy fall to the bottom, and it was the referee who made Arsenal avoid a conceded goal!
Afterwards, Mu Jianfeng was a little sad to watch the match!

The Arsenal players who have fallen behind seem to be a little stunned by Birmingham's "three axes"!
Being one goal behind, they played more conservatively. For a while, they were pressed by Birmingham in their own half and couldn't move a bit...

As the game time slowly passed, Mu Jianfeng sat on the bench, but his legs were trembling uncontrollably.

It's not nervous or excited!
Truth be told, he's glad he's not on the court at this time.

Because he didn't know if he would not be able to control himself if he was on the field at this time, he would slap each of Arsenal's players to wake them up!

At this time, they are like a proud and arrogant rabbit who has completely lost confidence after being taught a lesson by the tortoise again and again!
It made Mu Jianfeng very annoyed!

He stole a glance at the head coach Wenger next to him:
Although Wenger was still sitting on the bench at this time, his frowning and palms that had no place to rest actually revealed his inner tension and dissatisfaction.

But facing the players on the field who seemed to have lost their souls, Wenger couldn't make any changes for a while.

This is also where he was criticized!
If it was Mourinho or Prandelli who had coached Mu Jianfeng before, I am afraid that he could no longer control himself and made personnel adjustments, right?
They don't consider the feelings of the players. As long as you don't perform well, you will be substituted, no matter when, even if it's just the beginning of the game!
But Wenger is different. Even if he is so passive, he still chooses to trust the players on the field and believe that they will make self-adjustments!

This kind of trust, the result in exchange obviously cannot satisfy Arsenal fans!
Although near the end of the first half, the Arsenal players woke up as Wenger expected.

They launched a fierce attack towards Birmingham's half!

And a good free kick was created by Van Persie.

As a result, Van Persie's powerful shot was blocked by the wall at this time, and Fabregas followed up with a shot that rubbed against the post and flew out of the side net.

The Arsenal fans at the scene sighed neatly, and then booed all over the sky to express their dissatisfaction.

Because at this time the referee blew the whistle for halftime.

Arsenal fans think that the referee did not give enough stoppage time, but in fact, a full minute has passed since stoppage time!
If the referee really favored Birmingham, Arsenal wouldn't even get one last free kick!
Of course, the result of falling behind at halftime made Arsenal's starters very frustrated, but after returning to the locker room, their emotions were not too depressed.

Encouraged by the two captains Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas, the players firmly believed that victory would belong to them!

Later, Wenger almost simply said some words to mobilize the atmosphere, making these young people scream and want to return to the stadium as soon as possible to avenge Birmingham!

Even Mu Jianfeng was affected, and his restless mood calmed down a bit.

And Wenger looked at these young people with a smile and sighed secretly:
The unstable performance of young players is their disadvantage, but it is their advantage that they are easier to coax the blood.

Just like now, he always chooses to trust these young people, so he didn't make too many adjustments to his tactics in midfield, but let the players fully rest to completely relieve the tension and anxiety in their hearts.

……

The half-time break gave Arsenal a chance to adjust and come out of their panic.

Therefore, Arsenal quickly taught Birmingham, who still underestimated them, a lesson!
Not long after the start of the second half, Arsenal won the ball with their strong midfield control ability, and Fabregas suddenly kicked a pick pass from the front of the center circle!
The ball drew an arc and fell into the penalty area. Under everyone's gaze, Van Persie appeared there strangely, and then turned his back to meet the ball and kicked away!
"Oh!"

After a muffled sound, the ball flew towards the goal like a cannonball.

Birmingham goalkeeper Foster didn't even have time to react when the ball went into the net!

One to one!

Not long after the start of the second half, Arsenal equalized the score!

This time Van Persie did not choose to celebrate, but quickly picked up the ball, then ran back to his own half with his head bowed in silence, and simply celebrated with his teammates by high-fiving.

Only then did Birmingham realize in horror that Arsenal had finally woken up!

They were like an angry lion, although they never roared in warning, they were creepy!

Afterwards, they decisively gave up the idea of ​​continuing to attack, retreated across the board to defend the tie, and strive to drag the game into overtime!

Because compared to Arsenal, which is exhausted in consecutive games, Birmingham's preparation time is undoubtedly much more sufficient!

So the longer the game lasts, the easier it is for them to take advantage of physical strength!
In the subsequent games, the two sides continued to stalemate!

Although Arsenal has a strong enough midfielder, facing the bus from Birmingham, these "talented" players do not have much room to play.

This allowed Wenger to use the first substitution quota in No. 60 minutes for the first time. He replaced the physically weak veteran Rosicky with Bendtner!
But Bendtner's appearance helped Arsenal gain some advantages, but when Birmingham's high center forward Zikic was also transferred back by the head coach to participate in defense, Bendtner disappeared again...

……

　Tomorrow morning is estimated to be later.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)