green knight

Chapter 388: Hurt Another General

The first half of the game ended in Aston Villa's unexpected lead. During the remaining seven or eight minutes, Arsenal's players were not focused.

Not to mention the lack of a sharp attack, it almost caused the opponent to rewrite the score to two to zero.If Szczesny's height and altitude were not high enough, Benteke's header would have almost gone in.

The commentary used the whole team to describe Arsenal at this time as sleepwalking.

Many people don't understand, how could Arsenal, a team that has seen all kinds of ups and downs, be stunned by such a small situation?
The 15-minute intermission is always short, and Arsenal on the scene were surprisingly silent.They didn't shout out their demands to Wenger, and they didn't show their anger at players who didn't perform well.

Arsenal's supporters were surprisingly calm, quietly holding coffee or beer and watching the players who had begun to warm up in the open field.

The fans of Aston Villa gathered together to discuss the content of the first half excitedly.Who has a solid defense, who has a sharp pass, which position of the opponent is the best breakthrough point, and so on.

A quarter of an hour passed under the "weird" atmosphere of Arsenal fans and the excitement and anticipation of Aston Villa fans.

In the second half, Aston Villa, which had already led by one goal, did not make adjustments.Coach Paul Lambert saw the state of Arsenal after the end of the first half and thought there was an opportunity to take advantage of it.According to their sleepwalking state, I can press the onslaught at the beginning of the second half, then take the opportunity to make another victory, and finally switch to defend to hold the advantage.

After all, he also knows that facing the current Arsenal, it would be unwise to conservatively adopt defensive substitutions when leading by one goal.What's more, there are still 45 points in the game, and Arsenal is fully capable of rewriting the score.At that time, the offense will be weak, and the defense will be cheated if the defense is not stopped, so conservative is undoubtedly digging one's own grave.

Wenger did not make substitution adjustments, and no one knew what he said to his team during the halftime break.

At the beginning of the second half, Arsenal seemed to have not recovered from the state of the first half.The collective retreated to defend, and there were only Li Zihan and Cazorla in the frontcourt.

Aston Villa took the ball, and originally wanted to pass it to the foot to control the ball, so as to avoid accidents due to the opponent's fierce pressing and losing the ball at the beginning of the game.Because the head coach specifically explained this during the intermission, the lagging Arsenal are likely to launch a fierce press as soon as they come up, and then attack aggressively, catching themselves by surprise.

But when the ball fell to the feet of central midfielder Westwood, Aston Villa suddenly found that no one from Arsenal came up to press, almost the whole team was in the backcourt, and only forwards Li Zihan and Cazorla.

As a result, the Aston Villa players remembered what the head coach told them during the half-time break. When there is a chance, they must attack decisively and try to quickly lock the score at [-]-[-].

Thinking of the Aston Villa players here, you are not welcome. Since you don't come up, I will take the initiative to go up!
Then Westwood passed the ball to the No. [-] core Weiman in the frontcourt while dribbling the ball. Weiman obviously knew the signal from the midfielder and backcourt.

He took the ball for two steps, then handed the ball to Bacuna, who was following up, and ran forward by himself.

Bakuna dribbled the ball towards Arsenal's big penalty area, but he didn't notice a figure suddenly appeared diagonally from behind him.

Flamini came up from the opponent's diagonally behind, and while the opponent was watching the frontcourt not paying attention, he suddenly crossed over and stretched his foot in front of the opponent, and then poked the ball away with his toe.

Bacuna didn't pay attention, but was tripped by Flamini.The Netherlands midfielder is also smart. After being tripped, he raised his hand and signaled to the referee that the opponent fouled.

But the referee made a gesture to continue the game, and then made a gesture to get up quickly to Bacuna who was still stubbornly refusing to get up on the ground.

Obviously, the referee clearly saw that the ball that Flamini poked first was not a foul.And although Flamini's position close to the top is somewhat suspicious of a tackle behind him, it is impossible for the 1.8-year-old veteran Flamini to be brought down so easily for a strong guy with a height of [-] meters.

Ramsey rushed up from behind and grabbed the ball before Weiman.Then he didn't give the opponent a chance to counter-rob, and sent it directly to the frontcourt.

Cazorla, who stayed in the front, unloaded the ball with his chest, and then turned around with a smooth set of movements, shaking away the defensive midfielder Ahmadi who was watching the defense directly.

At this time, it can be seen from the panoramic screen of the camera that Arsenal's players suddenly advance collectively, especially the two sides.Podolski's speed was already fast, and he soon came near the center line, and the Aston Villa players hadn't reacted yet.

After Cazorla took the ball, he didn't give it to Li Zihan in front of him immediately.Instead, he dribbled the ball towards the opponent's half court quickly. Li Zihan didn't take the initiative to raise his hand to ask for the ball, but looked for a neutral position to run.

Because of Aston Villa's offense, the midfielders pressed forward more.Bacuna and Westwood are both in the frontcourt, and Ahmadi, the only defensive midfielder, has been left behind by Cazorla when he is fighting for the ball.

There is no way, relying on Cazorla's nearest left back to choose to step forward to intercept.

Cazorla didn't stick to the ball too much, and when the opponent's full-back came up, he decisively passed the ball to Li Zihan who was diagonally in front of him.

Li Zihan took the ball with his back facing the attacking direction, and did not choose to forcefully turn around and confront the opponent's central defender head-on after taking the ball.Instead, following the inertia of the ball rolling, with a flick, he simply handed the ball to the left side and told Podolski who came in.

After Li Zihan passed the ball, he gestured directly, hoping that Podolski could pass the ball behind the two central defenders, so that he could directly pass between the two of them and hit an anti-offside behind the ball.

Podolski also understood, but he was still a little slow.He had the idea of ​​passing the ball just now, but was directly and fiercely tackled by the rushing right back Lowton.

Podolski couldn't dodge in time and was brought down to the ground.

The referee, who followed Arsenal's offensive rhythm all the way, saw it clearly, immediately stopped the game, and then rushed to the "scene where the incident occurred" without hesitation, gave Lowton a yellow card, and then pointed to this location , indicating Arsenal's free kick in the frontcourt.

Lowton obviously knew that he had fouled, and he also had self-knowledge. Without explaining, he trotted back directly, and was going to discuss the order of the wall with his teammates.

When Podolski was brought down, the hearts of all Arsenal players and fans thumped, and Wenger felt a little guilty, and rushed to the sidelines unconsciously. If the rules did not allow it, he would have thought He rushed directly to Podolski to see the situation.

There is no way, hesitating the attack of injuries, the current Arsenal is already like a frightened bird, and when they see their teammates falling to the ground, they always have no idea.

Soon the players on the field rushed up and surrounded Podolski to see the injuries of their teammates.

Seeing Polti's painful face, Li Zihan knew that the problem was not small, and immediately communicated with the referee, who immediately waved for Arsenal's team doctor to come on the pitch.

Before the team doctor came on the field, Wenger grabbed the team doctor and gave some instructions.Signal the team doctor, if it doesn't work, don't force it.Even if the injury is not serious, if there is something unsuitable, immediately tell yourself to replace it.

Obviously, Wenger doesn't want to add another member to his wounded battalion even if he doesn't want these three points.I'd rather make a substitution than let Podolski's injury worsen. Walcott and Ozil are both injured. Wilshere has just recovered, but whether he can return to the starting lineup is still a question mark. .If Podolski is seriously injured at this time, Arsenal will have almost no rotation, which means that at least in the next month, it will be nine or 10 minutes for these few to play all games.

In this way, players will not get rest under the tight schedule, and the chance of injury will increase.Then there are even fewer players who can play, this is an endless loop!

Soon, the team doctor made a judgment on Podolski's injury, and then followed Wenger's meaning, making a substitution gesture to the coach's bench on the sidelines.

Seeing this gesture, Arsenal, who had been calm for a long time, and didn't even have much emotional reaction after conceding the ball, let out a cry of mourning.

Some fans even had tears streaming down their faces in disbelief, and some fans covered their eyes with their hands. It wasn't that the picture was too beautiful to dare to look at it, but the picture was too miserable to dare to look at it.
Wenger immediately called back the warm-up Chamberlain, and then asked the teenager to prepare to replace the injured Podolski.

Chamberlain and Wilshere warmed up in the warm-up zone after the start of the second half, which was much more convenient. At least they didn't have to worry about not being able to open their bodies or increase the chance of injury if they didn't warm up.

It's not that Wenger knew that someone would be injured, but that Wenger already had a strategic plan in mind.Chamberlain's fast assault can draw a lot of the opponent's defensive attention, and he can completely replace this position when Walcott is gone.And Chamberlain is much more threatening than Walcott in terms of consciousness and passing, but he is slightly lacking in shooting.

As for Wilshere, it is entirely because doing so is more conducive to his recovery and finding his status.Moreover, Wenger also intends to let Wilshere play for 10 minutes in the second half if he has the opportunity to find his status.

But I didn't expect to be wrong