Three days after the first round of the Champions League group stage, Manchester City ushered in the fifth round of the Premier League and challenged Wigan Athletic away.
Gao Shen carried out a large-scale rotation. Except for the two central defenders and the goalkeeper, all eight other players on the field were changed.
Although Wigan Athletic was playing at home, they still adopted a defensive strategy.
In the 14th minute, Manchester City broke through Wigan Athletic's goal with a shot from outside the penalty area by Robin van Persie.
In the 44th minute, Neuer made a long pass that went over the head of Wigan Athletic's defense. Gareth Bale reversed the offside at great speed, stopped the ball and entered the left rib of the penalty area, and started with a single kick.
Shot and expanded the score for Manchester City.
Two to zero!
After changing sides in the second half, in the 70th minute, after Gareth Bale completed the steal in the frontcourt, he sent a kick straight to the left rib of the penalty area. After Robin van Persie inserted into the penalty area, he crossed the ball with his left foot to the middle, and Yaya Toure followed.
He came up and hit the extra shot, sealing the victory for Manchester City.
In the end, Manchester City defeated Wigan Athletic 3-0.
…
In the same round that Manchester City defeated Wigan Athletic 3-0 away from home, Manchester United drew 3-3 at home with Liverpool.
First, Manchester United scored two goals in a row, but Liverpool managed to equalize the score with Gerrard scoring twice in six minutes.
But Berbatov scored another victory in the 84th minute and surpassed the score again. However, at the last moment of the game, Torres received an assist from Biglia and successfully equalized the score.
In the end, Manchester City and Liverpool both shook hands.
Arsenal drew 1-1 with Sunderland away from home.
The Gunners' weakness obviously exceeded outside expectations.
You know, this is still early in the season, which should have been Arsenal's most active period.
On the contrary, Tottenham defeated Wolves 3-1 at home.
The North London team has done quite well in terms of abusing food.
Chelsea, at home, defeated Blackpool 4-0 with Malouda's brace.
This battle once again shocked the entire Premier League.
Beat West Bromwich Albion 6-0 at home, beat Wigan Athletic 6-0 away, beat Stoke City 2-0 at home, beat West Ham United 3-1 away, and now beat Blackpool 4-0 at home.
Chelsea has scored three points in five league games so far this season and has performed very well.
Both Drogba and Malouda have shown strong offensive power this season.
In the Champions League group stage in midweek, Chelsea defeated Zilina 4-1 away from home.
In six games, he scored 25 goals and only conceded two goals.
Ancelotti's team has shown super offensive power in the new season, and the team's overall performance is also quite stable.
The Blues are also the only two teams in the Premier League to maintain an unbeatable record so far.
The other team is the sophisticated Manchester City.
Interestingly, in the sixth round of the Premier League, Manchester City will face Chelsea at home.
…
In late September, Manchester City ushered in the first difficult schedule.
On the 21st, in the third round of the League Cup, Manchester City challenged West Bromwich Albion away.
On the 25th, in the sixth round of the Premier League, Manchester City faced Chelsea at home.
On the 29th, in the second round of the Champions League group stage, Manchester City challenged Schalke 04 away.
Each of the three games is crucial, especially the last two, which can be said to be the two fronts that Gao Shen attaches most importance to.
More importantly, Manchester City's signing is really unlucky.
In the third round of the League Cup, when everyone else drew teams from the English Championship or League One, Manchester City was the only one to draw a Premier League team, and it was also away from home.
After much consideration, Gao Shen and the coaching staff still chose rotation.
He chose to arrange Jerome Boateng in this game and let the two central defenders rest.
David Luiz and Kompany have both played two consecutive games.
In the midfield, Gao Shen also let local players such as Ireland and Lallana play to give them some opportunities to practice.
In the first half, Manchester City played very well. In the 19th minute, Hazard created an excellent opportunity for Manchester City's offense, assisted Giroud and scored West Bromwich Albion's goal.
But in the second half, in the 55th and 57th minutes, in just three minutes, Manchester City lost two goals in a row.
The first goal conceded was a mistake by Jerome Boateng, while the second goal conceded was a set piece and was scored directly from a free kick. Goalkeeper Given was unable to prevent the ball from entering the net.
Afterwards, Manchester City reacted and launched a fierce counterattack, but to no avail.
In the end, they lost to West Bromwich Albion 1-2 away from home.
Gao Shen's team suffered its first defeat of the new season.
But Gao Shen said he could accept this result.
At the post-match press conference, he once again took responsibility for the loss, saying that Manchester City's players actually performed very well, taking the initiative throughout the game, and overwhelming their opponents in all statistics.
"In fact, I value the process more than the results."
Gao Shen said that Boateng did a good job in defense on several occasions and Adam Lallana made some good passes, but the England midfielder still needs to further strengthen his physical fitness and running ability.
Not only Lallana, but also Gao Shen privately told De Bruyne that if you want to be an excellent midfield passer, you must run actively, because only by running can you not be beaten.
People are imprisoned.
In addition, Gao Shen also named Giroud.
Although he scored a goal, Giroud still missed several opportunities, which is a pity.
However, advanced teaching is more about encouragement.
The big battle against Chelsea is imminent, but Manchester City suffered a defeat in the League Cup. This makes people somewhat worried about Manchester City's performance, but Gao Shen is full of confidence in this.
"I don't think the loss in the League Cup will affect our weekend league games!"
Regarding the upcoming battle for the top spot, Gao Shen said with confidence, "Only one team can maintain a complete victory over the weekend."
"That's us Manchester City!
…
Deep faith does not come from nowhere.
After losing the League Cup, Gao Shen immediately held a meeting with the coaching staff after returning to Manchester to prepare for the weekend league.
At the meeting, Gao Shen expressed doubts about Chelsea's rapid progress this season.
"West Bromwich Albion, Wigan Athletic, Stoke City, West Ham United and Blackpool, the five Premier League teams Chelsea have faced so far this season, are all ranked in the lower reaches."
"Obviously, facing these five teams, Chelsea has an overwhelming advantage in terms of personal ability, player speed and strength, and Ancelotti's tactical system has further developed these qualities of Chelsea.
Advantage."
What are the characteristics of Fatty An?
Watching people place dishes.
If a team like Chelsea is left in the hands of Ancelotti, he will basically not cause major problems for the team. As long as Chelsea performs steadily and beats lower-ranked teams, there will be no problem at all.
That's why Gao Shen would say that Chelsea's five-game winning streak is actually really bad.
Not only Gao Shen said this, but the British media outside basically thought so.
For example, they said that this weekend's game was Chelsea's first test of the season.
What does it mean?
Even the opponents you met before were too strong.
Even the opponents in the Champions League group stage are of the same level as Zilina, which is not convincing at all.
On the other hand, Manchester City, whether it is Real Madrid, Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur, all the advanced teams have given very convincing performances. This means that although Manchester City is lagging behind in the league rankings, it is actually stronger than Chelsea.
More fierce.
Of course, at the level of Manchester City and Chelsea, whoever wins can win, so we can't be careless.
More importantly, this is not just a Premier League game, but also the second round of the Champions League group stage.
Challenging Schalke 04 away from home will also be a tough battle.
Others don't know, but Gao Shen knows it very well.
In his previous life, under the coaching of Magath, Schalke 04 reached the Champions League semi-finals this season.
More importantly, Schalke's record of 04 is not all due to luck. Needless to say, teams such as Lyon and Benfica are very strong in the group stage. In the knockout round, they defeated teams such as Valencia and Inter Milan.
, and Inter Milan reached the quarterfinals and eliminated Bayern Munich.
From this point, it is not difficult to see that Schalke 04 is also very strong.
Many Italian media are complaining about Inter Milan's zero-0 home draw with Schalke 04, but in a previous life, Schalke 04 defeated Inter Milan 5-2 away from home in the first leg of the quarter-finals.
In comparison, zero to zero is pretty good.
It is precisely because Gao Shen is very aware of the strength of Schalke 04 that he wants to spare some effort in the weekend league to prepare for the Champions League group stage next week.
In the group of death, you must go all out in every game, otherwise, you may lose points repeatedly if you are not careful.
But rotation and retention are indeed a bit risky when facing a team like Chelsea.
Especially since the team just lost to West Bromwich Albion in the rotation and was eliminated from the competition.
"space!"
Gao Shen pointed directly at Chelsea's vital points.
"The biggest change in Chelsea this season is that the players are running very actively and their ability to create space has improved. So even players like Essien seem to be good at passing and organizing, but in fact it is because they can always get space.
.”
"This is partly because of tactics, and partly because the opponent is not strong enough."
"So, against Chelsea, we must not give Chelsea's players any space. As long as there is no space, they will not be able to pass the ball like before, and our advantage will be established."
Carlo, Sarri and others all nodded.
"What about Drogba?" Sarri asked, "If we can't kill Drogba, Chelsea's offense will be difficult to contain."
Gao Shen nodded, Sarri is a future coach, and he still has a sharp vision.
Drogba is indeed the key.
The Ivorian's physical advantage is very obvious, which allows him to always suppress the opponent's center backs and defenders, creating space for his teammates, especially Lampard and others who can penetrate from behind.
"Then we will arrange for one person to go and keep an eye on Drogba!"
Target Drogba?
Is this possible?
Over the years, many Premier League teams have tried to do it, but they have all failed.
Is there really a strong man in the Manchester City team who can target Drogba?
