Regarding Southampton's 4-0 victory over Arsenal at home, the English media were shocked but also expressed their feelings as normal.
Arsenal's competitiveness in the Premier League is like Wang Xiaoer's Chinese New Year.
It is getting worse every year.
This is obvious.
Last season they lost to Manchester United 2-8 in an away game.
This is no longer the score that should happen between wealthy teams.
No matter how many reasons and excuses the fans find for this game, they can't hide the fact.
That is, Arsenal’s strength in the Premier League is no longer at the same level as Manchester United and Manchester City.
This is an indisputable fact But now, Southampton defeated Arsenal 4-0 at home, which once again sounded a wake-up call for the Gunners.
With the strong rise of teams such as the Saints and Tottenham Hotspur, if the Gunners do not change their style in the transfer market, I am afraid that it will not be long before they can not even keep the top four in the league.
For Southampton, who completely defeated the Gunners and won nine consecutive victories, the English media gave them overwhelming praise and praise.
In particular, Toni Kroos, who was elected the best player in the game, almost crowned him the world's top defensive midfielder.
After this round, Southampton scored 42 points in the standings with 13 wins, three draws and five losses, ten points behind Manchester United and three points behind Manchester City, ranking third in the Premier League standings.
Following Southampton are Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Everton and West Bromwich Albion.
Among them, the Gunners have the same points as Everton and West Bromwich Albion.
It can be said that Southampton's sudden emergence broke the traditional top four pattern of the Premier League in one fell swoop, making almost all media people believe that the Saints' Champions League qualification is already a certainty.
But in the face of the praise from the media, the Saints appeared to be very rational.
From top to bottom in the club, everyone is aware of the Christmas Devil schedule.
Although the team has carried out scientific rotation, the team's consumption is still quite large.
Coupled with the injury problem, Southampton does not dare to be careless.
Everyone knows that the real test for the team has not yet come.
Especially compared to other teams, Southampton also reached the League Cup semi-finals.
In January, which has just survived the test of the devil's schedule, Southampton has played two more games than other teams such as Manchester United and Manchester City.
You can imagine how difficult it is. but give up Neither Yang Huan nor Bielsa can say this.
It's not the way Southampton should behave either.
After beating Arsenal, the team immediately ushered in the third round of the FA Cup.
Their opponent was Bournemouth from the third level league.
The latter ranked second in the English League One and was quite good. .
Southampton used all their substitutes to play.
Sturridge plays the center role and forms a front three with Isco and Ravel Morrison.
The midfielder consists of Kovacic, Pogba and Matic.
The defense consists of Alex Sandro, Nastasic, Laporte and Danilo.
The goalkeeper is Brazil national goalkeeper Julio Cesar.
Such a full substitute lineup is really necessary to play in the FA Cup.
Because next, Southampton will face their League Cup semi-final opponent Swansea on the one hand.
Laudrup's team is unambiguous at all and is quite competitive in the Premier League this season.
In the two League Cup semi-finals, Southampton's league opponents were Aston Villa, Everton and Manchester United.
In just two weeks, there will be five games, each of which will face tough opponents.
This is also a huge test for the Saints.
Therefore, Bielsa arranged for a full substitute lineup to play, which somewhat forced him to strategically give up the idea of the FA Cup.
But who would have thought that this group of young players from the Saints performed well.
With Ravel Morrison assisting Sturridge's goal, they defeated Bournemouth 1-0 and successfully advanced to the next round.
This somewhat gratifies the coaching staff.
At the very least, the group of young players and substitutes in the team have shown quite good strength.
Especially the young players such as Januzaj and Kovacic who came on the bench are even more eye-catching.
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You know, these boys are now training with the first team.
Kovacic even jokingly became a disciple of compatriot Modric and took the initiative to learn how to play football from him.
This is very helpful for the progress of young players. big.
After returning to Southampton, the Saints headed north non-stop to Birmingham to challenge Aston Villa away from home.
Aston Villa has performed poorly in the Premier League this season and currently ranks 17th, just one step away from the relegation zone.
But even for such a team, Southampton still played very hard.
In the end, Ibrahimovic assisted Vidal to score at a critical moment, scoring a valuable three points for Southampton.
Although the Saints won this battle, their fatigue showed Also in this round, Manchester United defeated Liverpool 2-1 at home, and Manchester City won Arsenal 2-0 away.
The rankings and points gap between the top three in the league did not change at all.
But in mid-week, the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals ushered in, Southampton challenged Swansea away from home.
Bielsa arranged the rotation, and the team also played well with Swansea away from home.
But when the game progressed to the 81st minute, the midfield pass was intercepted, Swansea counterattacked, and there was a melee in the Southampton penalty area.
Varane was caught off guard and scored an own goal.
Just because of this goal, Southampton lost to Swansea Varane has also been under a mountain of pressure from the outside media.
Returning to the Premier League, the twenty-third round will soon come.
Southampton sits at home and welcomes Everton.
As a result, Bielsa's team, after occupying an overwhelming advantage on the field, was tied with Moyes with a score of 0-0, and the ten-game winning streak in the league came to an end.
Coincidentally, Manchester United also suffered a 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur in this game, while Arsenal was unlucky to lose three games in a row, losing 1-2 to Chelsea in the away game.
Manchester City defeated Fulham 2-0.
As a result, there is no change in the Premier League standings.
Southampton still ranks third with 46 points, followed by Manchester United with 56 points and Manchester City with 51 points, followed by Chelsea with 45 points and Todt with 41 points.
Naham Hotspur.
As for Arsenal, which has lost three consecutive games, it fell to sixth place, still behind Everton in the rankings.
The intensity of the Premier League is evident from the past few rounds.
Even a relegation team like Aston Villa is quite strong.
And in the league standings, every position ahead represents extremely cruel competition.
After playing the 23rd round of the Premier League, Southampton once again used a rotating lineup to face their League Cup semi-final opponent Swansea.
As a result, the two sides once again fought to a score of zero to zero.
In the end, Southampton was eliminated with a total score of 0-1.
At the weekend, the fourth round of the FA Cup came, and Bielsa still played with a full substitute lineup.
This time, even players such as Kovacic and Januzaj got the starting spot.
As a result, the Saints defeated amateur team Macclesfield 4-0 in an away game.
Sturridge scored a hat-trick, which was impressive and showed a very good competitive state.
In the middle of the week, the twenty-fourth round of the Premier League ushered in, Southampton challenged Manchester United away.
The two sides launched a fierce life-and-death battle at Old Trafford.
First, the Saints played away from home.
Gareth Bale broke through the goal guarded by De Gea and opened the scoring for Southampton.
At this time, the game had only started three minutes.
But soon, Manchester United turned the situation around.
Rooney received a pass from Shinji Kagawa and equalized the score.
In the 27th minute, it was Rooney again, receiving an assist from Evra at the critical moment, and once again scored Neuer's goal, reversing the score to 2-1.
Southampton's young central defender Varane has been criticized by the media and pressured by fans since he scored an own goal in the League Cup semi-finals, causing the team to be eliminated.
This has also led to his poor performance in recent times.
In this game against Manchester United, both goals conceded were inseparable from him.
Yang Huan was sitting in the stands at Old Trafford, feeling quite helpless.
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Varane's potential and talent are undoubted, and his strength is even quite outstanding, but after all, he is still a young player and lacks the self-regulation ability of a mature and experienced professional player.
However, no one can help him with this kind of thing, he can only get out of the shadows on his own.
If he comes out, he can take a step further.
If he can't come out, maybe he will be like this in the future.
In the second half, Bielsa showed his courage and determination to win.
He replaced Hazard and Isco in the midfield, making it clear that he wanted to strengthen the offense and win Manchester United away from home.
As a result, at the beginning of the second half, there was a sudden commotion in front of Manchester United's goal.
Ferguson made a prompt decision and immediately replaced Smallin, who was struggling on the left and right, with veteran Ferdinand to stabilize the defense.
Afterwards, Southampton bombed wildly.
Bielsa even replaced Drogba again and adopted a twin-tower tactic.
But no matter how Southampton attacks, Manchester United's goal, which is tight in defense, seems to be in danger, but it is just a little bit off.
Until the 83rd minute of the game, when Southampton, which had been unable to attack for a long time, seemed impatient, Toni Kroos passed back to Xavi Martinez, who made a long pass and accurately found Drog. bar.
The Ivorian headed the ball to Ibrahimovic.
The Swede made a wonderful pass and passed it diagonally behind the Manchester United defense.
Neymar penetrated the Manchester United defense like a bolt of lightning.
After receiving the ball, he entered the penalty area and passed by.
After beating goalkeeper De Gea, he hit with a single shot. two to two The winning goal at the critical moment earned Neymar a wave of praise and applause after the game.
It was also this goal that helped Southampton retreat from the away game and get a point.
The twenty-fourth round of the league can also be called the darkest round for the Premier League teams.
Of the ten games, only two were decided, and all the others were draws.
Manchester United tied with Southampton, Arsenal tied with Liverpool, and Manchester City, Chelsea, and Everton all tied.
It is not difficult to see from this that after surviving the devilish Christmas schedule and experiencing the difficulties in January, the consumption of all Premier League teams has reached a bottleneck.
But you know, the real battle for the Premier League title has just begun.
On another battlefield, European giants are also recruiting troops for the second half of the league.
During the winter break transfer, Manchester United acquired the African player Zaha from Crystal Palace for 15 million pounds, and then loaned Zaha to Crystal Palace.
Chelsea brought in Demba Ba from Newcastle for £7.5 million.
After the latter fell out with Alan Pardew, he decided to transfer during the winter break.
At the last moment of the transfer market, Arsenal introduced Spain's new international Monreal from Malaga for a price of 10 million pounds.
This full-back is an important piece for Wenger to improve the team's wings.
In addition, teams such as Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have also strengthened their midfielders.
The former introduced Coutinho, while the latter introduced Kenyan midfielder Wanyama from Celtic.
Tottenham Hotspur's introduction of Wanyama was based on Daniel Levy's advice from Yang Huan.
The Southampton scouting system has a very high evaluation of Wanyama, especially his physical fitness.
It's a pity that the Saints currently do not respect the body, and Wanyama is not suitable for the Saints, so Tottenham Hotspur is cheap.
The top players in the Premier League are taking action one after another, either making great efforts to recruit players or clearing out redundant players in the team
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