Southampton won the Club World Cup with two almost easy victories, which earned them unanimous praise from the English media. After all, the Premier League team had participated in the Club World Cup four times before and failed three times.
This makes the British sports reporters who have been clamoring that the Premier League is the world's number one league a little embarrassed.
And now, Southampton's victory can be regarded as a shame for them.
The Southampton club also held a grand celebration ceremony. Tens of thousands of Southampton fans saw the Club World Cup championship trophy at St. Mary's Stadium, and Suarez won the Club World Cup Best Player and
The trophy for the top scorer, the whole atmosphere was quite warm.
In the following league games, their performance was also quite good.
In the first game after Christmas, Southampton challenged Crystal Palace away from home. Because they were participating in the Club World Cup, this game was scheduled to be played at the end of this round, and all previous games had already been played.
Chelsea defeated West Ham United 2-0 at home. After playing two more rounds, they are already 11 points ahead of Southampton. The Manchester duo have not been idle during this period. After Manchester City's consecutive wins, their points reached
With 42 points, eight points ahead of Southampton, Manchester United also has 35 points, one point ahead of Southampton...
Of course, they all played two more games.
But this is already a lot of pressure on Southampton.
They used to be second, but now they have fallen to fourth. Although they have two games less, it does not mean that they will definitely be able to get six points in these two games.
Otherwise, there are still twenty rounds in the league, will they definitely get 60 points?
It is possible to get the points, and the points have already been obtained, which are two different things.
Moreover, they have just won the Club World Cup, and their current condition and physical fitness are not at their best. Under such circumstances, if they challenge Crystal Palace away from home, which is fighting for relegation, capsizing in the gutter is a high probability event...
It is also surprising that the media who had just praised them for bringing glory to the Premier League in the Club World Cup immediately began to look down on Southampton's performance in the league.
Ji Ya sent out a mixed lineup in this game. Among the main players, only Mane, Vardy, Coutinho, Casemiro, Otamendi, Cancelo and Gulacchi continued to play. The others
The positions were rotated with Dembélé, Prowse, Rudiger and Peters, but their performance on the court still suppressed the opponent.
Although Prowse's organization in the midfield is still worse than De Bruyne, when facing Crystal Palace, his passing was quite good, while Dembele relied on his speed to constantly create opportunities.
Vardy, who has not played in the two games of the Club World Cup, is in good physical fitness and condition, and is extremely eager to compete!
Only eight minutes into the game, Mane received a wide-range ball transfer from Dembele and broke into the penalty area, then passed the ball to the center. Vardy occupied the front position and met the ball with a kick!
The ball flew into the gate so fast that Crystal Palace goalkeeper Speroni couldn't even make a save. He could only turn his head and watch helplessly as the ball flew into the gate!
Vardy waved his fist. He had not scored in two consecutive rounds. In addition, he did not play in the two games of the Club World Cup, so the last time he scored was in the fourteenth round in early December.
After scoring this goal, Vardy's slightly depressed mood got the best comfort!
Before the end of the first half, Southampton played a beautiful collaboration in the frontcourt. Vardy retreated to get the ball, and then passed the ball to Coutinho. Coutinho sent a beautiful diagonal pass and moved forward from the left.
After receiving the assist, Alonso broke into the penalty area and decisively shot from a small angle!
The ball flew to the far corner of the goal, and the opponent's goalkeeper couldn't save it. Alonso scored his first goal in more than a year after joining Southampton!
Although he is an assist-oriented full-back, he doesn't take many shots. Alonso was very excited to score this time.
Southampton, which led by two goals in the first half, scored another goal shortly after the start of the second half. De Bruyne took a corner kick, and Otamendi, who advanced to assist, nodded in front of the goal and scored the goal.
The third goal of the game.
This game, which was exaggerated by the media as "Southampton is likely to capsize in the gutter", was won by Southampton without any suspense. Although Crystal Palace recovered one point in the following time, Southampton still had three points.
Biyi won this game, surpassing Manchester United and returning to the third position. The points gap behind Chelsea returned to eight points, and they had one game less.
Two days later, on December 28, Southampton will welcome Chelsea at home.
This is a good opportunity for Southampton to narrow the points gap, and it is also a good opportunity for Chelsea to leave their opponents behind.
After all, if they can defeat Southampton and expand their lead to 11 points again, it will be very difficult for Southampton to catch up.
Regardless of the fact that there is still half the league time, if Chelsea can defeat Southampton, then their results in the first half of the season can be said to be quite brilliant. They will maintain an unbeaten record against strong teams.
The only defeat was a capsize in the gutter against Newcastle, but a good record against strong teams and a stable ability to grab points against weak teams are enough for Chelsea to become the league champion this season.
"We are ready. We have to work hard to win against Chelsea...Chelsea's performance this season is very good, but we are very happy to be the first team to defeat Chelsea." Noriya said in an interview.
Mourinho also seemed very impressive: "Want to beat Chelsea? This is indeed a difficult thing. Chelsea has reached a perfect state under my leadership this season. No one can stop us.
Moving forward, Southampton has performed very well in the past two seasons, but this season, it is time to decline. We have a very strong team and we will definitely let Southampton know what Chelsea's offense is.
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The head coaches of both teams made harsh remarks to the media, which also made many reporters look forward to this game.
Two of the top head coaches now finally begin a head-to-head confrontation, which is certainly something to look forward to.
Needless to say, Mourinho has always been a head coach with personality, while Noriya is a young coach who has emerged in the past two years. Although he seemed to be very humble before, in recent years, Noriya has also begun to show his sharpness.
Although this is not the first time the two have fought against each other, it seems to be the first time they have fought against each other under such circumstances.
I’m really looking forward to this game. Will they fight?
