Chapter 436 The Premier League is no longer the focus of Chelsea
Chapter 436 The Premier League is no longer the focus of Chelsea
Author: Ant who loves watching football
Chapter 436 The Premier League is no longer the focus of Chelsea
In the early hours of the next day, Paris Saint-Germain's official website announced the news of head coach Blanc's dismissal.
The statement first expressed its gratitude to Blanc, and then explained that because the team's performance in the Champions League did not meet the expectations of fans and management, it was finally decided to dismiss Blanc.
At the end of the statement, Paris Saint-Germain officially announced that the team has officially launched the coaching selection process and will select an outstanding head coach to lead the team as soon as possible.
During this period, assistant coach Kamara will lead the team to participate in the game.
Although it was in the middle of the night, Paris Saint-Germain's sudden statement still caused a huge response throughout European football.
Of course, everyone knows that the trigger for Blanc's dismissal was Paris Saint-Germain's 0-3 loss to Chelsea at home.
Dismissal after a disastrous defeat is nothing new in the cruel European football world.
However, after all, Blanc led Paris Saint-Germain to win the domestic quadruple crown, and he is very hopeful of winning another quadruple crown this season. It is still a bit surprising to be dismissed midway.
The subsequent reports from major media shocked everyone even more.
According to the front page headline of "The Sun", an unnamed Paris Saint-Germain player said that Blanc was fired in the locker room less than 10 minutes after the game.
In this process, the Paris high-level officials did not give any respect to this French hero.
At the end of the newspaper report, an interview with Pan Yi was also attached.
Pan Yi expressed his anger without reservation and predicted that Paris Saint-Germain would not have a Champions League in ten years.
In response to this, many famous coaches in Europe have come forward to publicly support Blanc and Pan Yi's righteous speech.
We are all in the same group, so the so-called rabbit dies and the fox is sad, and no one hopes that he will end up with such an degrading end in the future.
Therefore, the top management of Paris Saint-Germain, especially Chairman Nasser, suddenly became the public enemy.
Then, more news that was not conducive to Paris came.
Assistant coach Kamara also announced that he could not accept the position of interim head coach and chose to resign.
This already made Nasser very passive.
Because he dared to fire Blanc on the spot, a very important reason was that he was convinced that Kamara could take over the team until the end of the season.
After all, the French Ligue 1 championship has basically been won, and the Champions League is on the verge of elimination. To be honest, there is no goal to challenge.
But now, even he has resigned.
This is not over yet.
As Kamara announced his resignation, members of Paris Saint-Germain's coaching staff also left the team one after another, including some team doctors, physical therapists, technical analysts, scouts...
This is quite troublesome.
For these people who have resigned, their business abilities are excellent, otherwise they would not be recruited to work at a club like Paris Saint-Germain;
Therefore, when they leave their jobs, they can usually find their next employer quickly. The only difference is which team they go to and whether they make more money or less.
But for Paris Saint-Germain, how can it be possible to recruit so many people in a short period of time, and it must be staff who meet their requirements?
And since it was revealed that Nasser fired Blanc in front of his face, Paris Saint-Germain's reputation in professional football circles has become bad.
Who would like to come to such a disrespectful club?
This is like a company where the boss pays high salaries but treats employees like cattle.
Employees may choose to endure it for money, for their future, or for other reasons.
But if, one day, the boss pointed at this person’s nose in front of the entire company and told him to get out, would anyone be able to endure it?
Who else is willing to work in such a company?
Even the players may not be willing to come.
Just like Thiago Motta, he has played in Paris for more than four years. For a club like this that does not have much history, he is considered a meritorious player who has stayed for a relatively long time.
But just because of one mistake, you will be booed by your own fans for a long time, which is too chilling.
And these fans will also set off fireworks and firecrackers in the early morning at the hotel where other teams are staying!
In other words, this club, from the top management down to the fans, is a bunch of young people, and it's really hard for people to have a good impression of it.
Unless "they gave too much", no one should consider Paris Saint-Germain as a priority in their career.
For Pan Yi, Paris Saint-Germain's breakup came at a very timely time!
Doesn't he need to replenish his staff?
He immediately called his chairman, Jason McGill, the chairman of York City, and asked him to contact the staff who had resigned in Paris to see if he could make some money.
Although suddenly jumping from a team like Paris to a League Two team, at most it will be a future League One team, many people may not be willing to do so.
But how will you know if you don’t try?
After all, Pan Yi has the golden name here!
With his ability to make waves in world football, he may be able to play in the Premier League again in two years, and he will have greater development and have more opportunities to compete for trophies.
And even if the staff of Paris Saint-Germain really don't come, they can still contact them first and use them as a talent reserve, which will be needed one day.
After all, the more staff like scouts, the better.
——
After playing for Paris Saint-Germain and making a big splash in this incident, Pan Yi led the team back to London to prepare for the FA Cup round of 16.
Chelsea is playing at home and has an absolute advantage in historical record.
In the past 17 home games against Manchester City, Chelsea lost only one game and recorded 11 wins and 5 draws in the remaining 16 games.
Moreover, Chelsea has only lost one home game in the past 29 FA Cup games.
Manchester City's only advantage is that the two sides have faced each other in the FA Cup 5 times, Manchester City has won 4 times, while Chelsea's only victory was in 1915.
But in this confrontation, the mentality of both sides is different.
Chelsea are making great progress in the Champions League, Premier League, and League Cup, and their morale is high, and they are also determined to win the FA Cup.
As for Manchester City, they are currently only ranked fifth in the Premier League and are under great pressure to compete for fourth place.
In the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 that just passed, they faced the big gift Gent, but they played a 0:0 draw.
On these two most important fronts, Manchester City needs to make greater efforts to continue to move forward.
On February 29, they will face Chelsea again in the League Cup final, and that is their more realistic goal.
Therefore, in this game, Pellegrini, who had already decided to leave the team at the end of this season, made a decisive decision to give up the FA Cup.
However, after the opening, these young players from Manchester City still played well.
Only 3 minutes into the game, Iheanacho passed the ball, and Fuppara passed Cahill and Moses and shot hard from the right side of the penalty area, but Martin saved it at the near corner.
Chelsea almost scored in the 13th minute. Gnabry cut in and passed the ball. Lingard sent a direct pass. After receiving the ball, Gnabry shot single-handedly from 8 yards on the right side of the penalty area, but the ball hit the left post and bounced out.
Manchester City's youth team regained half-court defense, and Chelsea controlled the game and launched a siege, but it was difficult to create real scoring opportunities.
It wasn't until the 35th minute that Chelsea finally broke the deadlock.
Lingard made a direct pass, Gnabry made a pass from the left side of the penalty area, and the unguarded Abraham scored with a header from the edge of the penalty area.
But Manchester City quickly equalized the score 2 minutes later. Fuppara made a diagonal pass, and Iheanacho made a pass from the right side of the penalty area. Martin failed to intercept, and Fuppara got ahead of Cancelo and shot from close range into the empty net, 1:1.
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Then Chelsea launched another fierce attack. Gnabry made a direct pass. Lingard made a pass from the left side of the penalty area. Mbappe's ejection in front of the small penalty area was bravely saved by Caballero.
The score of 1:1 remained until the end of the first half.
After Pan Yi's lecture at halftime, Chelsea cheered up and scored 2 goals at the beginning of the second half!
In the 48th minute, Moses counterattacked with a diagonal pass. Gnabry immediately passed the ball straight after receiving the ball. Moses, who succeeded in countering offside, shot a low shot into the far corner from 8 yards on the right side of the penalty area, 2:1!
In the 53rd minute, Gnabry's cross was barely blocked by Fernando, and Cahill, who assisted, volleyed into the net from 14 yards, 3:1.
Then Chelsea continued to control the game. First, Cahill's shot from the corner kick missed the target, then Gnabry passed the ball, and Lingard's shot from outside the edge of the penalty area also missed the target.
Chelsea sealed the victory in the 67th minute.
Demichelis fouled Gnabry in front of the penalty area and was given a yellow card. Gnabry took a free kick from outside the arc of the penalty area and shot it directly into the lower right corner, 4:1!
In the 75th minute, Demichelis fouled Mbappe in the penalty area and was sentenced to death, but Mbappe's penalty kick was saved by Caballero.
In the 81st minute, Gnabry cut into the right side of the penalty area and passed back. Goretzka's shovel shot from the small penalty area hit the left post and rebounded.
In the 89th minute, Gnabry made a pass from the left, Mbappe made a light lob, and the ball was lobbed into the far corner, 5:1!
In the end, Chelsea defeated Manchester City with a score of 5:1 at home and successfully entered the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.
In another eye-catching match between Premier League teams, Tottenham Hotspur lost 0-1 at home to Crystal Palace.
In half-time stoppage time, Zaha made a diagonal pass and Kelly shot from a small angle into the near corner from 8 yards on the right side of the penalty area to help the team win.
West Ham also beat Blackburn 5-1 away from home.
In other games, Manchester United defeated Shrewsbury 3:0 away from home, Everton defeated Bournemouth 2:0, Watford defeated Leeds United 1:0, and Reading defeated West Bromwich Albion 3:1.
Mwich.
These teams also entered the quarter-finals of this season's FA Cup.
Arsenal was held to a 0-0 draw by Hull City at home, and they will play a make-up match to determine the last place in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
The draw results for the FA Cup quarter-finals came out soon. Chelsea will challenge Everton away from home on March 13.
——
Although Chelsea defeated only a youth version of Manchester City, the media still praised Pan Yi's adjustments to the team.
After all, they are currently fighting on the fourth front, but they can still maintain a good condition through personnel deployment and "work-rest balance" in training.
Compared with Manchester City, which can be said to have voluntarily given up the FA Cup, they can only sacrifice their troops to protect their coaches and strive to achieve results on the main front.
However, Pan Yi mentioned some future challenges to the players during the recovery training the next morning.
The next game is an away game against Southampton on February 27, and the League Cup final against Manchester City is on February 29, and then two days later, there is another away game against Norwich on March 2.
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A normal Premier League team's schedule would not be so intensive, but since Chelsea plays one more League Cup game, it will be more difficult.
Why did Manchester City give up the FA Cup? It's because if they still compete with Chelsea, their physical reserves and bench depth will not be enough.
Therefore, Pan Yi must also remind the players not to relax their vigilance.
For Pan Yi and his Chelsea, the League Cup final is the top priority, so he decided to insist on stability in the away game against Southampton, even if it is a draw, it doesn't matter.
This is mainly because Southampton is actually not easy to play this season.
They are even in the race for fourth place, only 1 point away from Manchester United in front.
If you fight against them in a bloody battle, the risk is too great, the players will be easily injured, and the benefits will not be worthwhile.
Instead of doing this, it is better to save some effort.
After all, after 26 rounds of the Premier League, with 22 wins, 4 draws and 70 points, there is still a gap of nearly 20 points between Leicester City, which is in second place with 53 points, and it can be "squandered"!——
On February 27, in the 27th round of the Premier League, Chelsea played Southampton away.
Facing Southampton, who was led by Ronald Koeman and used all their main players, Chelsea indeed encountered a lot of difficulties.
The temperature in Southampton tonight will not be very low, but due to the high humidity and the rain, everyone feels a bit cold.
This made the Chelsea players feel a little uncomfortable. They even had a cold and fever in seat B before the game. Pan Yi had to ask Lingard to replace him.
During the game, the St. Mary's Stadium, Southampton's home stadium, was extremely slippery, which caused great difficulties for Chelsea's passing and possession style.
In the seventh minute, Southampton took advantage of Chelsea's unsteady footing and forward Sean Long scored a beautiful long shot to open the scoring for the home team.
Until the 30th minute of the first half, Lingard got a chance in the opponent's penalty area and shot hard to equalize the score.
The first half was a one-on-one draw, but after the start of the second half, Southampton continued to exert force, and Chelsea was once forced into the embarrassing situation of having to retreat to the 30-meter area.
Overall, Chelsea was at a rare disadvantage in today's game, being overwhelmed by Southampton.
However, in such relatively bad weather and venue conditions, both sides failed to score again in the second half of the game.
The final score was one to one, and both sides shook hands and made a draw.
——
At the post-match press conference, Pan Yi admitted that his team encountered difficulties in the away game and did not perform well.
"The humidity in Southampton is too deadly, and it happened to rain again, which had a great impact on our tactical deployment."
Pan Yi bluntly said that his players are seriously uncomfortable here.
But he still affirmed his team's performance in the away game, thinking that everyone still played with style and level...
After all, the goal before the game was to achieve a tie and the task would be completed, but we just couldn't tell it to the media.
Southampton's head coach and Pan Yi's old friend, Ronald Koeman, was delighted.
"We played really well!"
The former Barcelona slugger said his team performed better at home and nearly scored against Chelsea again on several occasions.
"I think in the past two seasons, no team has been able to put Chelsea into such a dilemma, right?"
Ronald Koeman is proud of his team's performance.
In this regard, Pan Yi could only let his opponent get his way.
They are all friends anyway, so it doesn't matter if you give them away.
And his team has a more important task - that is the League Cup final!
——
After returning to London from Southampton, Chelsea did not have time to rest and recuperate.
While other teams are preparing for the 28th round of the Premier League, Chelsea will play the League Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium in London.
The game received worldwide attention.
In the past 27th round of the Premier League, Manchester City was tied again by Newcastle United on the road.
As a result, they were slightly further away from the top four teams, and it became more difficult to compete for the top four.
Manchester City coach Pellegrini has decided to leave the team after this season. The league championship is no longer possible and the FA Cup has been eliminated. Can he win another championship for Manchester City before leaving?
The previous FA Cup clash between the two teams ended with Manchester City voluntarily giving up. So both sides are determined to win this League Cup final. What kind of sparks will the two teams create?
After winning the European Super Cup, Community Shield, and Club World Cup, this will be Chelsea's fourth final this season. Can they win this fourth championship and take another step towards the goal of seven crowns?
?
There are many questions, which makes the showdown between the two teams full of gimmicks.
Before Manchester City left for the south, Pellegrini was interviewed by media reporters at the training base and publicly stated that he would never be afraid when facing Chelsea.
"We will stick to our own tactics to really defeat Chelsea and win the League Cup."
"Southampton's draw with Chelsea showed that Chelsea are not invincible and they also have weaknesses."
"What we have to do is find their weaknesses during the game, then exploit them, and ultimately win."
"Am I leaving at the end of the season? It won't have any impact on this game."
"We are all professional coaches and professional players. We know how to perform at our best in the game, rather than thinking about what will happen a few months later."
"Of course, I am still very happy to be able to reach an amicable agreement with the top management of Manchester City and part ways happily and peacefully."
"Unlike some teams, they don't even give you any time to react and just fire you. This is really embarrassing..."
Paris Saint-Germain said: You play well in the League Cup final, cue me?
Pan Yi reiterated his determination to win the seventh crown.
"I said that Chelsea has only one goal this season, and that is to win seven crowns!"
"Any opponent who stands in front of us will only get one result, and that is losing!"
"In our current strategic goals, the League Cup and the FA Cup have even higher priority than the Premier League."
"This is because we have scored enough points in the Premier League and established a great advantage. Even if we occasionally lose points, it is not a big problem;"
"But the cup does not allow us to make any mistakes, so we will work hard to defeat our opponents!"
To be honest, Pan Yi's words obviously have a bit of Versailles flavor.
Everyone is fighting for the Premier League and fighting for various seats, but the focus of Chelsea is no longer here?
Of course, Pan Yi also spoke highly of Pellegrini's coaching at Manchester City and believed that he would be successful even after leaving Manchester City.
But this League Cup champion cannot be given to Pegong as a leaving gift!
When reporters asked about the player in Manchester City's squad who is most likely to threaten Chelsea, Pan Yi did not name the player specifically.
"Manchester City is a strong team with many world-class stars."
"It can be said that each of their players has the ability to change the game, whether it is De Bruyne, David Silva, Yaya Toure, Aguero."
"Therefore, we must remain cautious during the game and seriously deal with every position and every player."
"What tactics will we use in the game? I guess Mr. Pellegrini will use their best offensive tactics in the final, so we will not show weakness."
"I hope fans can see a wonderful game at Wembley Stadium tomorrow!"