Football’s First Defender

The league championship depends on the stability of the team. After all, there are 19 opponents in a season, 38 home and away games. In a long season, if a team wants to win the final league championship, it needs one game after another. Winning, whether it is a strong team or a weak team, whether it is winning one goal or two goals, is actually turned into points in the end, which are reflected in the standings.

A win is 3 points, a draw is 1 point, and the accumulation of points will not be affected by the strength of the opponent or the final goal difference.

Although Chelsea won the battle against the three giants, Manchester United behind them also easily defeated the two mid-lower teams in these two rounds. With a two-point lead.

As far as Chelsea's overall schedule is concerned, the recent opponents have some strong teams.

After defeating the other three giants in succession, Chelsea will continue to encounter Manchester City and Everton, these two mid-upstream strong teams, and after Everton, Chelsea will usher in some relatively easy opponents.

The time has entered December, and because the Premier League not only does not have a winter break, but even for the broadcast ratings, as well as the Boxing Day schedule, Chelsea's entire December schedule is full.

5 Premier League games, 1 Carabao Cup quarter-final, the last round of the Champions League group stage and two games in the Club World Cup.

Not only is the schedule full, the main reason is that the Club World Cup has to fly to the United Arab Emirates to play two games. After the Club World Cup, it will be an even more brutal Premier League Boxing Day match.

Before the weekend's league game against Manchester City, Chelsea will play Blackburn in the knockout round of this season's Carabao Cup in the middle of the week.

Chelsea has reached the top 8 in the English League Cup by relying on the mixed lineup of substitutes and youth teams. In theory, they only need to play three more games, and Chelsea will have a chance to win the final championship. Ancelotti said this There is no reason to send youth team members to train at that time.

It's just that, after all, the previous game was played with the hard work of some substitutes, so like Carvalho, Alex, Belletti, Calumekel and others who contributed before, they still all appeared on the stage, but in the middle In the frontcourt, some young players of the youth team were replaced with big killers like Drogba.

However, Blackburn, who is in the middle of the league, is playing at home in the Carabao Cup knockout round this time, and has no plans to let Chelsea pass easily.

With the development of professional football to today's commercial model, for these small and medium-sized clubs, the Premier League championship and even the Champions League qualification are elusive. Therefore, if you want to win the honor of the team, you can only take advantage of the rich teams, when they don't pay attention in the domestic cup competition, take a cold breath to see if they can "steal" a championship trophy.

It is not easy for Blackburn to reach the top 8 of the English League Cup. This time the draw is still at their own home court. Blackburn, who has the advantage of home court, will play with all the main players, hoping to go further and reach the semi-finals.

However, Chelsea's strength does still have an advantage. Even though this lineup lacks a tacit understanding, in the game, they still dominate Blackburn after all.

It's just that Blackburn's game is full of resilience. In the game, not only was it right on the defensive end, but all the players ran hard. Chelsea's offensive players defended bitingly, and they were also extremely decisive on the offensive end. It wasn't too complicated. His tactic is to rely on the two full-backs to use their personal abilities to complete the cross, and the striker is responsible for fighting for the landing in the penalty area. And when there is a chance to set the ball, send more offensive points, come to the frontcourt, try to seize every opportunity, and strive to score goals.

Although the tactical play of the two sides did not form a confrontational battle in the game, the two teams finally relied on the performance of their respective forward lines and scored two goals each.

The two sides tied 2-2 in regular time and entered overtime.

Although Ancelotti sent Malouda, Anelka and Ballack on the field in the second half to strengthen the offense, Blackburn, who played at home, performed extremely well on the defensive end and held on tight. At the last moment of the second half and 30 minutes of overtime, the game was dragged into a penalty shootout.

In the penalty shootout, amidst the cheers of the Blackburn fans, the home team made all five free throws, while Chelsea made a penalty kick. Didier Drogba, who played third, shot the penalty but was conceded by the Blackburn goalkeeper. Miraculously saved, Chelsea narrowly lost in the penalty shootout, regrettably stopped in the top 8 of the Carabao Cup.

Although they lost the chance to advance to the English League Cup, it was just a missed cup championship with low gold content. Chelsea's Premier League and Champions League double-line championship goals this season did not have much impact.

In the league weekend, Chelsea went to Manchester to challenge Manchester City. Manchester City, which has continued to recruit aggressively this season, has made a huge improvement in strength. Although it cannot further threaten the status of the four giants this season, it has also stabilized its ranking in the middle and upper reaches.

This season, Manchester City has remained unbeaten in six rounds at home, and even has a brilliant record of beating Arsenal 3-0.

Chelsea was well prepared for this game, and did not have any thought of underestimating the enemy, but during the game, the team as a whole was obviously out of shape.

Ancelotti continued to stick to the four-midfield play that has been outstanding and stable recently, but this time against Manchester City, not only did Chelsea's central defense fail to organize successfully, there were too many midfielders, and two wingers were also involved , so that the wing was completely blown out by Manchester City.

Manchester City is still a more aggressive 433 formation, with Robinho, Tevez, and Adebayor's offensive trio in the frontcourt. The striker composed of these three is definitely a world-class offensive combination.

Although in terms of midfield, Manchester City's lineup looks a little bleak, but for Manchester City's midfielder, it only needs to do the simplest forward and defensive tasks. The three forwards are all of that kind. When you get the ball, you can rely on your personal ability to try to solve the problem.

On Chelsea's side, Yang Feng's Terry's combination was very capable of defending against the three forwards alone, but when the three began to cooperate to open up space and switch positions with each other, Chelsea's defense is a bit stretched.

After all, in the midfield, Ancelotti chose to delay and assist Essien to defend Deco. His original intention was to do a better job in controlling the ball, but Deco was still unable to keep up with the Premier League on the defensive end. Rhythm. The fast pace of the Premier League is too unfriendly to Deco, who is already too old and played in a relatively relaxed environment before.

Chelsea is not without opportunities. At the beginning of the last game, Manchester City actually gave a big gift. When Chelsea had the opportunity to set the ball, Adebayor defended Yang Feng. Yang Feng's forward charge gave Adebayor The defensive pressure caused was a bit high. Adebayor, who was patronizing Yang Feng to grab the landing point, although he finally touched the football, his striker's instinct broke out. The ball that should be cleared was directly "shot by Adebayor "Enter the network.

As soon as Manchester City opened, they dug a big hole for themselves.

However, in the following games, Manchester City took advantage of the advantage of the home court to play against Chelsea. Chelsea also deliberately retreated, hoping to have space for defensive counterattacks.

Chelsea's anti-counterfeiting is impressive, and Manchester City's own offense is not bad.

There are not so many complicated tactics. Robinho, Adebayor, and Tevez are all good at areas near the penalty area, so they launch their own offenses. Relying on their personal abilities, the three take turns in various dangerous areas of Chelsea. , trying to attack personally.

At the end of the first half, Adebayor received a pass from Barry, took a step outside the penalty area, and directly hit the goal with a long shot. In the first half, the scores of the two teams were tied 1-1. A draw can be regarded as an atonement for his own goal in the opening stage.

After returning to the same starting line, when Chelsea wanted to continue to organize the attack, the team's formation was slightly improved, but this time the empty list behind them was directly used by Manchester City.

Although Yang Feng is good at defending the opponent's counterattack, the position where Robinho received the pass from his teammate happened to be the deep position in the half that Yang Feng could not cover. Although Yang Feng made up to mark Robinho, other Chelsea players The speed of returning to defense is a bit slow.

After attracting Yang Feng away, Robinho chose to knock the ball across from the left side, directly towards the penalty spot, followed by Carlos Tevez, and shot straight to the upper left of the goal Corner, scored a go-ahead goal for Manchester City.

Chelsea's defense was extremely sluggish in this game as a whole, and what Yang Feng could do alone was limited. After all, the three offensive players of Manchester City were all extremely strong, and Yang Feng could be regarded as a bit alone.

After that, although Chelsea continued to make adjustments on the offensive end, the effect was not much. Many Chelsea players were not in the best state in the case of continuous combat, and their offensive performance was weak.

In the end, the result of the game was maintained at 2-1. Manchester City successfully defeated Chelsea at home, allowing Chelsea to give up the top spot to Manchester United...

Some people may guess that Chelsea will suffer a defeat in December. After all, the schedule is so dense that it is impossible for players to maintain their best condition all the time.

But no one would have thought that Chelsea would be winless in two consecutive games, tying Blackburn and losing to Manchester City. It became a storm of public opinion.

After the loss to Manchester City, as the last game of the UEFA Champions League group stage followed in the middle of the week, Chelsea won the first place in the group because they had already won the group one round earlier. This time Ancelotti simply let many of the main players take turns to get more rest time , At home, An Pang just sent a rotation lineup of substitute players and youth team members to play against APOEL.

In the end, the game between the two sides was very open and closed, with a 2-2 tie score. Chelsea's winless games reached three games.

Fly to the UAE for the last Premier League game before the Club World Cup, Chelsea's home game against "Toffee" Everton.

Essien suffered a strained leg muscle during the warm-up before the game due to his long-term combat recently. Ancelotti had to send Mikel on the spot to play Essien's defensive midfielder position. . And Essien's injury seems to indicate that Chelsea will encounter disadvantages in today's game.

In the last league game, Deco's defense gave Manchester City too many opportunities, so in this game, An Pang chose to believe in Joe Cole, Joe Cole and Lampard, and Ballack can be combined into a team that is better at attacking. of

Formation, and Joe Cole's running ability is also better than Deco, which can increase Chelsea's vitality in midfield defense.

But luck is really not on Chelsea's side, even if Chelsea is sitting at their home stadium, Stamford Bridge.

In the 12th minute of the first half, Everton fired a long shot from Saha. Cech's save missed the football and the ball hit the goal crossbar directly. Down on the ground, the ball bounced back, hit Cech's back directly, and rolled into the goal. Everton took the lead with an own goal.

However, Chelsea, which controls nearly 60% of the hemisphere, continued to organize the offense steadily and converted the possession rate into enough shots.

Didier Drogba and Anelka, twice in the penalty area, succeeded in grabbing points. In the first half of the game, just 23 minutes into the game, they had already overtaken the score for Chelsea.

However, Chelsea's defensive problem has not been resolved. It may be because the opponent is too weak to arouse the fighting spirit of the Chelsea players. Chelsea, who is still a bit lazy in defense in the middle, was transferred by Saha at the end of the first half. Opportunity, scored a world wave, the two teams ended at halftime, and the battle was 2 to 2.

In the second half, Drogba continued his strong performance, with a shake of his head in the penalty area, and Chelsea regained the lead.

But on the other side, Saha continued his superb performance in this game, still under the defense of Chelsea's central defenders. After Saha received the ball, he made a fake move, shaking off Mikel's defense, and then another Spike the ball, pass Joe Cole, and get into the penalty area.

Before Yang Feng's supplementary defense came, Saha shot directly, and only 3 minutes after Drogba scored, he tied the big score to a 3-3 draw.

The three goals were all initiated by Saha from the central area, and the hidden danger of Essien's absence began to be revealed.

In the following games, although Chelsea occupied a very high ball possession rate, they were unable to form an overly effective offense. On the one hand, Everton's defense was excellent. On the other hand, Ashley Cole was obviously absent on the left. The state made Chelsea's offense lame, and the threat on the right was unable to open the situation for a while with the help of more defensive players.

The score of 3 to 3 between the two sides was maintained until the end.

Chelsea scored another draw before flying to the UAE.

Since December, Chelsea, who have not won four consecutive games, seems to have reached the limit of the physical fitness of the players. Even Manchester United took advantage of Chelsea's decline in the standings to regain the leading position.