Defeating Hannover 96 and entering the last sixteen of the Europa League has greatly increased the morale of Southampton. After all, during a continuous downturn, a timely victory can bring a lot of benefits.
However, in the next league game, Southampton continued to encounter trouble in attack. They played 0-0 with Stoke City. Fortunately, Tottenham were beaten 5-0 by the rising Arsenal.
Second, Southampton returned to third position with a goal difference advantage.
However, only one point has been scored in the last two rounds, which once again gave Southampton no hope of winning the championship. Manchester City now has 63 points, and Manchester United also has 61 points. Southampton and their
The gap has widened.
At the same time, Arsenal in fifth place and Chelsea in sixth place have both reached 46 points, and the gap between them has begun to narrow.
So when it comes to the situation, Southampton is still quite serious.
"We have some bad luck, but luck will always come back. If there is no problem with our tactics, then there will be no problem." Noriya said at the post-match press conference.
This is true. In this game, Southampton still had the advantage, but they just couldn't score. This cannot be solved casually. Before the forwards can find the feeling of shooting, they have to wait a while.
But the problem is not big. There are still twelve rounds left in the league. Southampton's seven-point advantage is not small. Anyway, no one expects them to win the Premier League championship and complete the Miracle of Nottingham Forest in their first season back in the Premier League...
…
The Germans talk about the Kaiserslautern Miracle, but the English only talk about Nottingham Forest.
Even if Southampton can be ranked in the top four at the end of this season, it is already a great thing!
For a long time, the top four in the Premier League have been monopolized by Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. Then the rise of Manchester City and Tottenham in the past two years has harmed the interests of Liverpool and Arsenal...
But anyway, the last time a team outside the Big 6 entered the top four and grabbed a spot in the Champions League, it had to be traced back to Everton in the 2004-05 season.
The reason why Moyes has such a great reputation now and is considered a top head coach is that he led Everton to the Champions League and later led Everton to fifth consecutive places. This is a very important factor.
score.
If Southampton can achieve this result right from the start, Ji Ya will be famous enough!
After all, everyone knows that the competition in the Premier League is the most fierce now.
It's just that teams like Southampton have never happened before, but they often start to fall behind in the second half. They rank at the top at the beginning, but in the end they fail to make it to the European competition. It's not uncommon.
This is often a matter of experience, and the reason for the previous results is that the opponents are not familiar with their playing style. Therefore, in the later sprint stage, the dark horses are more likely to lose strength, while those traditional strong teams know how to exert their strength in the later stage.
.
Southampton's current performance is ups and downs, much like those dark horses in the past.
But then they had a good chance. Their opponent in the next round was Wigan Athletic. Although this team drew with Southampton in the first round, their performance in the following round was very poor.
After four wins, eight draws and fourteen losses, we only got 20 points and were at the bottom of the table.
Of course, the battle for relegation in the Premier League this season is also quite fierce. Starting from the 16th place, one has 22 points, two have 21 points, and two have 20 points. The three relegated teams this season are mostly from these five teams.
The team was born.
Although the relegation team is not easy to beat, Wigan Athletic does have limited strength, otherwise it would not have scored only 23 goals all the way, the fewest goals in the Premier League, and conceded 50 goals, which is also the third in the Premier League.
Many.
The data doesn't lie. Compared with Southampton, Wigan Athletic's offense and defense are simply a notch behind.
Especially since their offense is weak, Southampton doesn't have to worry about the opponent's sharp counterattack.
Sure enough, in the next round of games, Southampton successfully defeated their opponents with two goals in the away game. They controlled the situation throughout the game, and then they finally scored two goals after 18 shots - the efficiency did appear to be relatively high.
low……
The goals were scored by full-back Klein and forward Giroud.
"We have to look at the positive side... Our defense has not conceded a goal in three consecutive games." Noriya said at the post-match press conference.
Southampton reporters couldn't help but boo him - is that a positive?
However, everyone understands that Ji Ya wants to cheer up the team, and after all, they won the game and stabilized the decline of two rounds without a win, which is also a good result.
In the next game, Southampton drew with Standard Liege 0-0 in the away game. Although this did not seem to be a happy thing, at least it was a draw in the away game. After returning to home, I hope it will be natural.
It will be much larger.
It's just that no one is optimistic that Southampton can keep a clean sheet in the future - their opponent in the next round is the current leader Manchester City. Manchester City has no reason to let Southampton go. Although they are the leader now and have as many points.
Sixty-six points, but they are only two points ahead of second place Manchester United. It is terrible for Manchester United to catch up behind them. Just think about Newcastle back then...
Keegan was almost collapsed due to Ferguson's continuous pursuit.
Mancini's mentality is much tougher, but although his team is obviously very strong, he is still being chased by Manchester United. This kind of thing is indeed a bit too stressful.
Manchester City has now won four consecutive games. After losing to Everton and being narrowed by Manchester United in the points gap, they are in good form and have won consecutive games. Now they are going to challenge Southampton away from home, and of course they have to use all their strength.
And what about Southampton's recent form? It's a bit poor.
Although Manchester City's two main central defenders Kompany and Lescott are unable to play, this does not have a great impact on them. Their overall lineup is too strong, and they even have the luxury of constant rotation in the forward line.
And Southampton's losses are not small. Klose, Vidal and Blind's three main players were either injured or suspended and were unable to play. In comparison, Southampton's losses were even greater.
Manchester City deployed a 433 formation in the away game. Dzeko has fallen out of favor recently, and Aguero has a slight injury, so he sent Balotelli as the center, with Nasri and David Schier on the wings.
Wa, midfielder Barry, De Jong, Yaya Toure, the two full-backs are Richards and Clichy, the center back is Savic and Kolo Toure, an old and a young partner, the goalkeeper is still
Joe Hart.
Noriya used Luke Shaw as the left back, Mkhitaryan in the midfield, and Giroud as the striker. However, he also hid James Rodriguez and allowed the two wingers Nolito and Willian to play.
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Isn't it just to save bullets to give the opponent the final blow? Mancini can do it, he can too.
