Chapter 64: Passing and Controlling VS Counterattack

"This is Sky Sports live broadcast of Arsenal's home game against Manchester City in the 21st round of the 2016/2017 Premier League season!"

"In the past 20 rounds, Manchester City and Arsenal were ranked third and fifth in the standings respectively. The points difference between the two sides was only one point. In other words, this game will determine the ranking of both sides in the standings!"

"Whether it's Arsenal or Manchester City, no one wants to fall out of the standings and qualify for the Champions League. Especially for Manchester City and Guardiola, after a season, they must achieve some results this season!"

"Arsenal has also performed very well this season, and in this game, we can see that Arsenal's captain Kai has returned to the starting lineup. This also shows that Kai has recovered well from his injury and is already capable of high-intensity training. the match of!"

"This is extremely good news for Arsenal and the fans."

"And because of Kai's comeback, this game will definitely become extremely fierce!"

"At the same time, we can focus on Yaya Toure. This former powerful midfielder in the Premier League is 33 years old. Yaya Toure himself also said in an interview that he was already struggling when playing in the top league. Consider moving away this season or next season.”

"This is Yaya Toure's sixth year playing for Manchester City. He witnessed the historic moment when Manchester City won the Premier League trophy, and now Yaya Toure is likely to leave the Premier League because of his age!"

"For Yaya Toure, this game is also an extremely difficult battle. Opposite them, Arsenal has 'probably' the world's top defensive midfielder!"

With Andy Gray's words, the players from both sides finished taking photos before the game and choosing sides, and then came to their respective halves.

Arsenal won the ball first.

Manchester City chose the left half.

Lukaku stood in the center circle waiting for the kick-off.

Players from both sides are also ready.

Lucky moved for a while, took a few deep breaths, and adjusted his condition.

This will allow him to get into game shape faster.

After resting for a period of time, he has recovered a lot physically. Once his condition is continued, Lucky's performance in this game will inevitably receive huge expectations.

Soon, the whistle sounded.

Fierce cheers followed.

After Lukaku kicked off, Arsenal began to conduct patiently.

It didn't show any intention of sneak attack.

"Arsenal played very calmly in the opening game and they patiently poured the ball down."

"Kai's position appears on the front side of the left half. When working as a defensive midfielder, Kai can also better participate in the offense in this position. Of course, Mourinho sometimes allows Kai to mainly play defense. Work, but when the opponent is Manchester City, Arsenal should want to play more proactively.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Arsenal lost the ball.

The press they expected did not appear. Instead, they began to position themselves and coordinate defense to supplement the gaps.

Arsenal don't care about possession of the ball!

Andy Gray was slightly surprised and said: "Arsenal gave up the ball?"

In the first half of the season, when Arsenal was away from home, Lucky suppressed Manchester City's midfield.

Therefore, many people believe that Arsenal will still use this tactic to compete head-on with the opponent's midfield.

But I didn't expect Arsenal to give up the ball on their own initiative.

Seeing Arsenal's actions, Guardiola also frowned slightly.

He also wanted to take revenge on himself during the confrontation with the opponent's midfielder.

But Arsenal's choice hit him hard.

Arsenal chose to give in!

"Watch your position! Don't give the opponent any space behind you!"

"concentrate!"

"Watch the ball! Watch the ball!"

Arsenal's players are shouting, they're communicating and sharing intelligence.

In this case, Manchester City is somewhat difficult to attack.

Manchester City is also a little depressed.

They also wanted to have a good confrontation in the midfield and regain the field.

But who would have thought that Arsenal would take the initiative to give up the midfield rhythm.

"Press up!"

De Bruyne looked at Arsenal's position and gritted his teeth slightly before deciding.

Since you don't confront them in the midfield, don't blame them for pressing the ball.

Manchester City's midfield presses forward as a whole.

After they crossed half-time, Arsenal's players suddenly started to move.

And this time the action was very intense, and the players in front and behind immediately surrounded them, looking aggressive.

Even Manchester City's continuous conduct is difficult to limit this kind of pressing.

As soon as they stepped into Arsenal's half, they were quickly pushed back.

Yaya Toure took the back position and split the ball to both sides.

He could see clearly that at the moment of pressing, Arsenal's position was ready to go. Once they got the ball, Arsenal would immediately launch a counterattack.

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Arsenal's counterattack is not so easy to stop.

"be careful!"

Yaya Toure reminded me.

But after all, it doesn't have much effect. How can there be a time when playing football without losing the ball?

Under Arsenal's strong pressing, Manchester City finally conceded the ball.

Kante dunked the ball back from Sterling's feet. Sterling fell to the ground and tried to cheat, but the referee was indifferent.

Kanter looked at Lucky's position, found it was too far, and passed forward to Wilshere.

Wilshere was directly assigned to the left side and immediately started running wildly.

Lucky also quickly moved forward.

Arsenal's counterattack was so fierce that Manchester City couldn't keep up for a while.

Aubameyang passed an inverted triangle from the bottom.

Wilshere quickly stopped and rubbed his feet hard.

The ball was rubbed to the back point.

But Mane was a little slow to follow, and he didn't touch the ball until it flew out of the baseline.

The ball hung in the side net, and the crowd screamed.

Manchester City narrowly escaped this counterattack.

"Concentrate! Their counterattack is fast!"

"After being robbed, fight back immediately!"

"Don't be affected by the opponent's rhythm, stay steady!"

The Manchester City players were shouting and cheering each other on.

I have to say that this counterattack shocked them. Arsenal's counterattack was much faster than they expected.

And they were always keeping an eye on Lucky, but they didn't expect it to be Wilshere's counterattack.

Lucky also returned to his own half, waiting for the opponent to kick off.

Although this counterattack failed to score a goal, it also produced good results.

Manchester City was definitely taken aback by Arsenal's counterattack speed. Next, they did not dare to advance too casually.

This is a warning!

Two minutes later, Manchester City responded with color.

De Bruyne was holding the ball in the Arsenal half. He was located near the arc of the center circle and directly rubbed the ball with his outside instep.

The ball passed in front of Lucky.

Lucky stretched out his foot as much as possible, but failed to stop the pass.

This pass has a small arc and just bypasses Lucky.

Fortunately, Robertson cleverly appeared at the landing point and shoveled the ball out in advance.

Once Sane is allowed to hold the ball and cut inside, Arsenal will be in danger.

"Wonderful pass from De Bruyne!

This ball was passed so bravely! "Zhan Jun exclaimed.

Zhang Lu on the side also smiled and said: "You are so young and energetic! He just stared at Lucky's position and played the ball very badly. He had a small arc. In fact, Lucky's running position has already noticed it. But when he wanted to intercept, the line just went around the tip of the ball. "

In the stadium, De Bruyne also shook his head slightly.

And when he looked at Lucky, he subconsciously raised his chin as if to show off.

Lucky stood up and glanced at De Bruyne.

I have to say that he was careless this time and did not think about this arc problem.

I won’t give him a chance next time!

After Arsenal took the lead, Manchester City relied on De Bruyne's pass to regain the field.

However, the score between the two sides is still 0:0.

Ten minutes have passed at this time.

Each side has a threatening attack.

Judging from the scene, Manchester City had the initiative, but Arsenal's counterattack was sharper, and the overall situation presented a sense of balance and stalemate.

The question now is who will break this balance first.

A sharp and slightly depressing attempt to break this silence.

Fans believe that once this rhythm of the game is broken, the atmosphere between the two sides will suddenly become intense.

The feeling now is that of depression before the war.

The two sides are about to explode!