Chapter 417 What level do you use the same formation as me?
After the national team match day, Chelsea faced the challenge of Norwich at Stamford Bridge.
Norwich is a new team in the Premier League this season, having just been promoted from the English Championship last season. It stands to reason that there will be no suspense in their game against the leader Chelsea, and the media will not be interested.
However, due to the presence of the Norwich coach, this game still attracted widespread attention.
The current head coach of Norwich is named Alex Neil. He is a Scotsman born in 1981. He is only 34 years old this year, only five years older than Pan Yi!
In other words, this is a direct conversation between the two youngest head coaches in the Premier League!
To be honest, if Pan Yi's experience hadn't been so miraculous, Alex Neal's resume would have been worth writing about.
After all, even if we look at the entire five major leagues, there are not many who can become top league head coaches in their thirties!
He played as a midfielder during his playing days, and the first team in his coaching career was Hamilton Club in the Scottish Premiership. He was promoted to the Scottish Premiership in his first season.
Then he joined Norwich City after the winter window of last season, and then led the "Canaries" to win 17 games in 25 games, finishing third in the British Championship and entering the play-offs.
Next, Alex Neal continued to lead the team to defeat Impswich and Middlesbrough in the play-offs, and finally succeeded in reaching the Premier League!
Is this almost the same script as the protagonist of Shuangwen?
After 12 rounds of the Premier League this season, Norwich has also achieved 3 wins, 3 draws and 6 losses, ranking 15th in the standings, and is still 4 points away from the relegation zone.
For such a civilian team whose goal is to avoid relegation, the results are already very good.
Therefore, the media are also looking forward to what kind of sparks will be created between Alex Neal, the second youngest head coach in the Premier League, and Pan Yi, the youngest head coach in the Premier League.
Alex Neal also confidently stated before the game that Pan Yi is indeed the best coach in the world, but he has also studied Chelsea thoroughly and is confident to play a surprising game at Stamford Bridge.
game!
On the evening of November 21st, the competition will begin soon.
The players from the two teams walked into the stadium under the leadership of the referee. Pan Yi followed him and came to the home team's coaching bench. At this time, Norwich head coach Alex Neal walked towards him. "Let's have a good competition today!" Alex Neal proudly stretched out his hand.
Pan Yi was stunned for a moment, then smiled and shook hands with him: "I hope it will be a wonderful game."
The main reason was that Pan Yi didn't react immediately. At first, he thought it was the opponent's assistant coach coming to say hello!
This guy, isn't he only 34 years old? He looks a bit unsightly, mainly because he looks a little too anxious.
It’s basically a semi-bald hairstyle, with just a few hairs and a lot of gray hair already.
No wonder public opinion commented that he is "34 years old in age, 44 in appearance, and 54 in wisdom."
Well, it may also be because the pressure of professional coaches is too great. Even a "young talent" like him who has achieved considerable success will inevitably be destroyed like this.
Unlike Pan Yi, I have a full head of hair. Even if I don’t work as a coach, I can still earn a living by my looks...
Also, what’s wrong with Alex Neil’s arrogant look?
Do we know each other?
Pan Yi was a little dazed, and Alex Neal said another sentence: "I hope you can still laugh after the game."
Then he turned around and walked to his visiting team's coaching bench.
Pan Yi couldn't understand even more, why Alex Neal has this attitude?
Does he have any prejudice against handsome men with thick hair?
Why did you suddenly give yourself such a show of strength?
"Who wouldn't want to kill you now, let alone such a young coach." Arteta smiled on the side.
Arteta was born in 1982 and has just retired as an assistant coach.
Alex Neal is only one year older than him, but he has already led two teams to promotion successfully. One of them was promoted from the most fiercely competitive English Championship to the Premier League. He does have two skills.<
/p>
Perhaps it is precisely because of this experience that Alex Neal is still very proud.
But now the focus of the media is all on Pan Yi. After all, this person is younger and has higher achievements.
Perhaps it is precisely because of this comparison that Alex Neal still feels a little uncomfortable, so he wants to use today's direct confrontation to prove his strength.
Of course, such "proof" does not need to say that Norwich can beat Chelsea or even draw.
After all, Norwich's lineup is not at the same level as Chelsea's, and it's an away game. It's too much to ask them to score points.
But as long as Alex Neal can show his tactical level in the game and make Chelsea uncomfortable, it will be enough to embarrass Pan Yi.
If there is a draw or even a victory over Chelsea by accident, then Alex Neal will definitely become famous in one battle and attract greater attention around the world.
It is even possible to be called the "double pride" of the coaching world?
Therefore, it is understandable that he attaches great importance to this duel with Pan Yi and also throws harsh words at the same time.
Who makes Chelsea and Pan Yi stand out now?
"We still have to be careful, he is obviously going to risk his life!" Arteta cautiously reminded, "If I read correctly, his lineup is also a set of 3241?"
Today for Chelsea, Pan Yi once again used a 3241 formation without fullbacks.
The center is Abraham.
Left winger Mbappe, right winger Gnabry.
Attacking midfielder Lingard Hazard.
The double midfielder is Ake Kanter.
The three central defenders are Terry, Christensen and Zouma.
Goalkeeper Martin.
This is not because Pan Yi will make any strange moves when facing Norwich, it is mainly to eliminate the impact of the international match day on the team to the greatest extent.
Therefore, the players who have played a lot of time are still rotated and rested, and even goalkeeper Courtois is placed on the substitute list.
It just so happened that my four fullbacks were the backbone of their respective national teams, and they all felt tired after a few games, so they took a rest together.
Today, it is the young Ake who plays the "sinking midfielder" in a key position.
He was responsible for the task of David Luiz at that time. During offense, he worked with Kanter to help the front five to sort out the ball. When defending, he retreated to the defense line and changed the formation to four backs.
The only slight difference from David Luiz is that when Ake retreats, he will stand at the left back position instead of playing as a central defender like David Luiz.
It can be said that this is a reverse operation of the "tuck-in full-back".
These are also some adjustments Pan Yi made based on the different characteristics of the players on the court to better utilize the players' abilities.
Whether we are playing against a newly promoted team or at home today, Pan Yi has the confidence to do so.
But what is surprising is that Norwich has almost the same formation as Chelsea.
This young Alex Neal, you are very brave.
Dare you play such an attacking formation against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge?
"Maybe he really studied your 3241 set carefully and thought it was very useful, so he decided to try it on you." Arteta smiled.
"Really? That's great. I don't like it when my opponent shrinks." Pan Yi also said with a smile, "That's okay, then let's see what he learns from my formation!"
"But how could anyone dare to touch you with your formation?" Arteta couldn't help but cooed, "You are so confident!"
Alex Neal is indeed very confident today.
First of all, he felt that he had thoroughly studied Pan Yi. Using 3241's way of doing things and returning 3241's ways of doing things was the key to getting points at Stamford Bridge.
Secondly, Chelsea is tired of the international match day and the players are very tired, while Norwich is recharging their energy, waiting for work and having high morale.
With each decline and rise, Norwich has no chance.
In the past two rounds of games, Norwich defeated Swansea 1:0, and only lost 1:2 to Manchester City in the away game. The recent form is indeed good, and it has also given the team confidence. p>
As the saying goes, those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes. The pressure is all on Chelsea's side. Norwich can create miracles!
At the pre-game preparation meeting, Alex Neal said with confidence:
"Don't be afraid of Chelsea. After the opening, we will rush to grab the rhythm of the game and let the Blues have a taste of our power!"
After looking at Chelsea's roster tonight, he even felt that Pan Yi was playing too wildly.
Sending so many young people under the age of 20 is too disrespectful of Norwich City.
Today, he will slap Pan Yi hard in the face in front of everyone!
As soon as the game started, Chelsea took the lead.
Although Norwich was playing away from home, they still followed the coach's instructions and tried to strangle Chelsea from the very beginning.
This is actually the opening strategy adopted by many teams that do not have the right to kick off.
Because some players will be more relaxed at the beginning of the game and do not enter the game state immediately.
If you don't pay attention when the opponent kicks off at this time, and suddenly speed up, you might be able to grab the ball.
The kicking team often passes the ball back after the kick-off. If you grab the ball at this time, you are likely to directly get an excellent offensive opportunity and have a high probability of scoring a goal.
But the problem is that when the Norwich players tried to launch a sudden attack on Chelsea, they discovered that after the kick-off, Mbappe did not pass the ball back, but directly distributed it to the right and handed it to Gner.
Bree.
Almost at the same time, Abraham, Hazard and others all rushed through the center line and headed towards Norwich's backcourt, which also made the unexpected Norwich players' position a bit chaotic.
After Gnabry received the ball in the open space on the right, he took two steps towards the ribs and handed it to Lingard who ran over to meet him.
Lingard knocked back and completed a one-two with Gnabry, which also allowed Lingard to cut into the ribs.
At this time, Lingard sent a direct pass, and saw Mbappé rushing forward at high speed. After catching up with the pass, he rushed straight to the outside of the penalty area. Before the defensive player could block it, he shot straight! This shot was about twenty meters away from the goal, but the shot was very powerful and went directly to the right side of the Norwich goal!
Norwich goalkeeper Rudy hadn't even entered the match state yet when he discovered...
The ball has been scored!
He was immediately stunned.
Even the entire Stamford Bridge fans were stunned!
The Norwich players on the pitch were also stunned!
Head coach Alex Neal on the sidelines was equally confused!
How long has it been?
Half a minute, no, ten seconds?
Why did you score a goal?
Only then did the commentator react and began to explain in a hurry:
"The ball went in! The ball really went in! It was a quick goal scored by Mbappe. The time to leave the field at this time is..."
"8 seconds! Oh my God, only 8 seconds!"
"Last season, in the match between Chelsea and Swansea, Hazard scored the opponent's goal in just 95 seconds, thus setting a new record for the fastest opening goal in the Premier League."
"And just one year later, this record was refreshed again! And the person who set this record was also a Chelsea player! It was Mbappe!"
"Since Mbappé will not turn 17 in another month, he will also break many goals records after adding age attributes..."
"Forget it, forgive me for not being able to find all these records for the time being, it seems a bit too much. But in short, after Chelsea broke the Premier League unbeaten record in the last round, they are still breaking various records!" p>
"Pan Yi's Chelsea is really a team born to break records!"
The first goal at the speed of light completely stunned the Norwich team.
Isn’t this what the coach arranged?
Didn’t we say that we had a chance to attack in the opening game? How come we were the ones lagging behind?
But Chelsea didn't give them time to react and quickly pounced on them like wolves.
When the away team restarted the kick-off, they found that Chelsea launched a high-intensity high-pressure press towards them, even directly to the edge of their penalty area, forcing every Norwich player to be a little confused.
Abraham in front, Hazard and Lingard behind, and Mbappe and Gnabry on both wings, all pressed very high forward. Even Kante actively stepped in to put pressure on Norwich. p>
This made the Norwich players feel a mountain of pressure. They were so hurried that they almost made a mistake in a return pass and gave Chelsea a corner kick.
At this time, it was only two minutes into the show.
Hazard quickly took a corner kick, but the first shot was controlled by the opponent's central defender Bennett and was pushed out.
After Kanter grabbed the spot on the outside, he passed the defensive player, and after seeing the right opportunity, he made a pass from the outside of the penalty area.
I saw in the penalty area, Abraham stopped the ball with his back and turned around, passing another Norwich defender Basson. The whole action was done in one go, without giving the visiting team's defensive players any time to react.
After turning around, Abraham shot low with his left foot and sent the ball into the lower left corner of Norwich's goal again!
"gallllllllllllllllllll!
Another young player, Abraham also scored a goal!"
"In less than three minutes, Chelsea scored two goals!"
"Chelsea made a stunning start tonight."
"Norwich obviously wanted to steal the start, but failed and were caught off guard by Chelsea."
"In the first three minutes, Chelsea was already leading 2-0. Is there any better start than this?"
The answer is... yes.
That was a three-goal lead in the first five minutes.
Just two minutes after the goal, Lingard entangled the opponent's tall center back Turner on the right side of the frontcourt, successfully grabbed the ball, and passed it low to the right side of the penalty area.
After Hazard came in at high speed, he stopped the ball in front of the baseline. Under the double-teaming of two Norwich players, he picked the ball from the gap between them and passed it to the front of the small penalty area.
I saw Mbappe appear at that position in time, stop the ball with his chest, and shoot without waiting for it to land.
This shot was so close that even though goalkeeper Rudy was on the right, he still couldn't stop the ball from entering the net.
Three to zero!
In less than five minutes, three shots were taken and three goals were scored!
Crazy!
Chelsea has gone completely crazy!
Whether it was the fans in the stands, the players on the field, or the guests responsible for commentating, they were all stunned.
Even the home team fans don’t know how to celebrate the goal.
Because the goals are almost one after another!
It can be said that the fans' celebrations can be connected together. It looks like they are just celebrating a goal.
Before one wave subsides, another wave comes, and the vast sea of people is stormy!
Some fans even suspected that the scoreboard was malfunctioning because they were a little late and just found their seats and sat down when they saw the score was already 3:0!
Everyone knows that Chelsea is very capable, but no one has ever seen Chelsea launch such a stormy attack from the very beginning.
Facing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, the visiting team had almost no power to fight back.
After falling behind by three goals, Norwich also tried to launch an offensive to stabilize their position and boost their morale. However, in the 15th minute, Chelsea once again launched a threatening attack.
Lingard and Hazard formed a beautiful continuous collision with the wall on the right rib of the frontcourt. Lingard dribbled the ball into the right side of the penalty area. After attracting the attention of the defensive player, he suddenly turned back with his heel. p>
Gnabry passed behind Lingard, adjusted the ball and cut inside, and volleyed into the far corner with his left foot.
The ball rolled into the lower left corner of the visiting team's goal again.
Four to zero!
At this time, the game has only passed 15 minutes!
What kind of miraculous offensive efficiency is this!
Seeing this scene, almost everyone is convinced that a crazy massacre will occur tonight.
Because even after taking a four-goal lead, Chelsea still had no intention of giving up when things were good, but continued to press and press Norwich.
Norwich head coach Alex Neal no longer felt as complacent as before on the sidelines, replaced by a loss of composure and even loss of control.
His legs were even shaking uncontrollably.
As a widely praised young marshal, he has never seen such a scene!
He steeled himself, stood on the sidelines and shouted loudly to the players, asking them to stay calm and hold their ground.
But at this moment, how can Norwich's players remain stable?
My mentality is a bit broken!
Even if they want stability, Chelsea won't allow it!
No, less than five minutes have passed since the fourth goal, and Chelsea scored another goal!
This time it was Abraham who assisted Mbappe to score, 5-0!
Mbappe also completed a hat trick!
Alex Neal's feet suddenly softened and he sat down on the ground.
He broke his defense!
"5 goals in 20 minutes, 5 goals in 20 minutes! This is the team with the most goals in the opening game in the history of the Premier League!"
"Pan Yi's Chelsea have set a new record! They are really a team from another planet!"
"Alex Neal was so arrogant today that he actually wanted to play against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge?"
"Facts have proved that if Pan Yi's team plays its own form and starts the offensive mode, looking at the five major European leagues, there are really not many teams that can resist it."
"Now, it only took Pan Yi 20 minutes to give Alex Neal a meeting gift. This means that he wants to force a relationship with me? No way!"
At this time, the camera turned to the home team's coaching bench, and Pan Yi looked very calm.
5 goals in 20 minutes?
Not bad.
Although a new record has been set now, in Pan Yi's previous life, this was not the fastest.
In 2019, when Manchester City played against Watford at home in the 6th round of the Premier League, they scored 5 goals in 17 minutes and ended up beating their opponent 8:0.
In 2023, Newcastle United also defeated Tottenham at home, scoring 5 goals in 20 minutes, and the final score was 6:1.
This game even broke the mentality of Tottenham's captain and goalkeeper Lori, and he changed the goalkeeper directly in the second half.
"Are we going a little too far?" Arteta suddenly came over, "Don't you often teach us that other people's wives and children are watching..."
"Did I say that?" Pan Yi turned his head and thought, "Then go a little further! I have to break some records today to feel good."
Then he looked at the young head coach next door who was on the verge of collapse and said with a smile: "I hope he can still laugh after the game."
But Pan Yi said in his heart at this time: "Haha, what level are you, using the same formation as me? Go back and change quickly!"
Before this game, no one would have believed that Norwich, which has been in good form recently, would suddenly collapse.
It's like, when Alex Neal got the Chelsea lineup, he was sure that Pan Yi was playing too rough.
But such a "horror incident" really happened.
At the end of the first half, Mbappe's breakthrough caused a foul in the penalty area, and Chelsea got a penalty kick.
Hazard scored in one stroke, expanding the score to 6-0.
In the second half, after changing sides and fighting again, Chelsea had no intention of stopping, but launched a more fierce attack.
Alex Neal changed three players at halftime.
These players are all defensive players! There are also two full-backs.
He also changed the formation from 3241 to 4411. This is because he is afraid of being beaten and needs to strengthen his defense!
But it's no longer useful at this time, and the Norwich players are already a little at a loss on the court.
In the second half, Zouma scored with a header in the 55th minute from a corner kick, 7-0!
In the 65th minute, Mbappe scored again, 8-0! He completed his fourth victory!
In the 74th minute, Goretzka, who came on as a substitute, also scored with a shocking long-range shot, 9-0!
In the stands, the visiting team's stands were already completely empty.
Norwich fans were already leaving early, obviously they couldn't stand such a disastrous defeat.
Although they had psychological expectations for losing to Chelsea in the away game, no one expected to lose so much!
After all, they only lost one goal against Manchester City away from home!
The 9:0 score has actually tied the record for the largest point difference in the history of the Premier League.
Before that, this record belonged to Manchester United.
On March 4, 1995, Manchester United defeated Ipswich Albion 9-0.
This record has not been broken until now - including Pan Yi's previous life.
In several subsequent games, scores of 9:0 were also achieved, namely:
October 25, 2019 Southampton 09 Leicester City;
February 2, 2021 Manchester United 90 Southampton;
August 27, 2022 Liverpool 90 Bournemouth.
As if everyone had agreed, after scoring 9 goals, the 10th goal could not be scored.
But today, Chelsea broke through the limit of "9"!
Near the end of the game, Norwich gave Chelsea a corner kick opportunity.
Hazard took the corner kick and Ake headed the ball over. Lukaku, who came on as a substitute, seized the opportunity in the crowd and hit the goal with a header from close range.
10:0!
This means that the record for the largest score in the Premier League, which has been in the dust for 20 years, was broken by Chelsea again today!