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Chapter 297 The first battle of the new season

The competitions that Chelsea can participate in in the 01-02 season include Premier League, UEFA Cup, English League Cup and FA Cup. Of course, winning the Premier League championship is definitely the number one goal, and several other competitions also need to strive for at least one championship.

According to the latest competition system, Chelsea will play at home in the first round of the Premier League on August 8, against West Ham United.

After intense preparations, Chelsea's main lineup gradually surfaced.

In the position of goalkeeper, La Nieli chose Cudicini, a fellow Italian. Cudicini is fast, quick-responsive, quick-moving, and good at saving penalties.

However, in front of Chelsea's strong defense, Cudicini was lucky.

The combination of central defenders is Desailly and Southgate, left back Candela, right back Xavier, midfielder Nick, left midfielder Malouda, right midfielder Stanich, front midfielder Hleb, and striker combination Hasselbaink and Iliyer.

And when the first match day of the Premier League came, the Stamford Bridge stadium was full, and because of Nick's arrival, all Chelsea's package tickets were sold out, which made Chelsea's executive CEO Rolla overjoyed.

Before the game, Chelsea coach La Nieli also released bold words to score three points on the 'Hammers'.

West Ham United is known as the "star factory" of the Premier League. This team has many outstanding players such as Di Canio, Joe Cole, Defoe, Canoute, etc., and its strength is in the middle of the Premier League.

On August 8, at 19:18 local time in England, the game officially started.

When the Chelsea players stepped into the field, there was a burst of applause at Stamford Bridge, especially the 'Mud Team', who went from Germany to England and continued to cheer for Nick.

This moved Nick very much. These fans have no regrets and have always supported themselves, which is really admirable.

After picking sides, Chelsea kicked off first.

Iliyer knocked the ball to Haselbaink, who passed it back, and captain Nick got the ball.

Facing Di Canio, who was up for grabs, Nick decisively put on his crotch and passed Di Canio. Applause immediately erupted from the stands of the Stamford Bridge Stadium. In Abramovich's exclusive box, Abramovich said with a smile: "Nick's performance is really fascinating. I think our plan will be successful this time."

Laura also smiled and said, "My boss, of course you can rest assured that Nick is unique on this earth, and he will bring us championships and honors."

The commentator of Sky TV, George Bore (the book friends Yuzhi and Prajna appeared in friendship) was also very excited to explain the performance: "Oh, Maika, Nick actually passed Paul Di Canio with a crotch piercing.

After Nick passed Di Canio, he immediately signaled his teammates to press forward, and he rushed up with the ball himself. As the first game in Chelsea, Nick hoped to put his mark on the game from the beginning.

Malouda advanced quickly, and Nick's pass came immediately. This pass directly penetrated the entire defense line of West Ham United on the right.

Hasselbaink grabbed the ball, but unfortunately his shot went wide of the post. If Hasselbaink missed the ball, it would have been more perfect, because Ilye also ran in place, and there was a bigger shot in front of him.

Although there was no goal, there was still applause at Stamford Bridge. Nick's instigation of the attack was simply too accurate, and the passing strength was in place, which can only be achieved by a world-class midfielder.

The initiative in the subsequent games was always on Chelsea's side. West Ham United used the players' bodies to restrict Hleb, Illie and others, so there were more fouls. Some referees called it, while others did not.

The deadlock was broken in the 28th minute when Hleb dribbled past the West Ham penalty area and was violated by the opponent. Chelsea won a free kick facing the goal.

Nick stood in front of the ball without hesitation, and the fans in the audience held their breath.

Facing the wall of people from West Ham United, Nick rubbed his feet lightly. The ball bypassed the wall with a strong rotation, and hit the left post of the goal and bounced into the net.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! The goal has been scored! Nick's free kick really lived up to his reputation. In Chelsea's first league game, he broke through the opponent's goal. Mr. 8800 million seems to have started." George roared excitedly. As an intern at Sky TV, George hoped to win this job with wonderful commentary, and now he found that he had fallen in love with this job.

And Abramovich immediately jumped up excitedly when he saw the ball hanging on the net. At this time, he was no longer under pressure. Whether the 8800 million was worth the money can now explain the problem.

"Great! Nick, you never disappoint."

Nick, who scored the goal, immediately rushed to the sidelines to celebrate, and the fans roared wildly. The team's number one star scored a goal, which showed that the club's money was well spent, and the fans were full of expectations.

The fans in the Premier League are closer, which is completely different from the Bundesliga. Players and fans can interact at close range, and sometimes you can even see the tears of excitement in the eyes of the fans. Nick is also very happy to see the excitement of the fans.

Of course, the quality of this free kick is indeed very high. Nick's penalty is the opponent's dead corner, and the opponent basically has nothing to do.

The teammates ran over and gave Nick a high-five to celebrate. The Premier League's first goal came so soon, and it seemed that everything was so beautiful.

"Captain, good job, I think we will rise soon."

"A good shot, captain, your free kick technique is simply amazing."

"Wow, the goal hit the post and the line calculation is accurate, it can be called a textbook."

Facing the flattery of his teammates, Nick laughed and said, "Look at what you said, isn't it just a goal? It needs to be so nasty? Everyone, keep working hard and beat the Hammer Gang!"

"That's right, beat them down and turn the hammer into shavings!"

The advantage of a ball can't be converted into a victory at all. Nick's words still make everyone agree.

After the game restarted, West Ham United also began to strengthen their offense. Kanoute used his height in the frontcourt to start playing for his teammates.

Kanoute is tall but not stupid, and his feet are good. This makes Desailly, who is marking him, quite a headache. After all, Kanoute is much younger than him.

In the 34th minute, Kanoute headed the ball and then turned sideways, blocking Desailly behind him. Facing Defoe who was plugging in, Kanoute immediately kicked out and the ball was about to pass.

But at this time, Nick's supplementary defense also arrived. He had been observing Kanoute and found that Desailly really had a hard time restricting the Mali striker. This time he focused on it and destroyed Kanoute's pass.

"Thank you, Nick." Desailly said sincerely.

"It's nothing, Marcel, your game experience is very rich, I think you will soon figure out how to deal with him." Nick said.

The game continued, and Chelsea quickly expanded the score.

In the 38th minute, Nick made a direct pass from the middle, and Hleb hit his heel directly. The ball passed through the middle of West Ham United's defense line. Iliyer volleyed decisively from the penalty area line, and the ball went straight to the dead corner, 2:0.
Such a creative pass is not the same as the general Premier League rhythm, so West Ham United did not prevent the opponent from playing the ball like this, and it is reasonable to lose the ball.

After leading by two goals, West Ham United became a little anxious. They began to speed up the pace of passing the ball, and Di Canio took the ball frequently.

But this also happened to enter the rhythm of Chelsea's counterattack. In the 44th minute, after Di Canio and Canoute made a two-for-one cooperation, the ball was poked by Desailly and the ball rolled to Nick's feet.

Nick turned around and dribbled the ball and rushed up at high speed. It was too late for West Ham's defense to close the door. After Nick broke through the defense, a 3-on-2 situation had formed in the frontcourt.

Nick rushed up and saw that no one was coming forward, and immediately adjusted the ball to the point of his left foot. A burst shot was shot from the penalty area line, and the ball went directly to the net, 3:0.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! It's Nick again. He scored twice and widened the score gap to 3 goals. He was like no one in the middle. This kind of counterattack was too sharp. West Ham United had no time to react. It seems that other opponents in the Premier League have to study hard and study how to limit Nick's counterattack." George analyzed very professionally.

Nick's goal also declared the end of the game early, with 3 goals scored at halftime, who dares to predict the score now?
Before the game, many forecasters thought that it would be difficult for Chelsea, a temporarily formed team, to score more goals, but now they are dumbfounded when they see this situation. Chelsea’s offensive is sharp, completely defeating West Ham United’s defense.

The score in the first half was 3:0. At the beginning of the second half, La Nieli replaced Stanich with Duff, and Chelsea changed to 4-3-3. Obviously, La Nieli wanted to adjust the formation through the game and find the team's best team.

After the team change, the two sides entered a stage of confrontation. West Ham United scored a goal in the 67th minute through Joe Cole's wing breakthrough. Joe Cole broke through Xavier from the wing and made a cross.
But soon Duff retaliated. In the 70th minute, Duff made a quick break from the left and then cut inside and hit the goal. The ball hit the net and it was 4:1.

Ranieri then replaced Hasselbaink with Glenshire. In the final moments, Chelsea's two sides almost overwhelmed West Ham United. Unfortunately, Elijah and Hleb, who were outflanking the center, missed opportunities repeatedly. Until 1 minute before the end of the game, Glenciel broke through from the right.

Chelsea's first game of the new season is perfect.

(End of this chapter)