As the referee blew his whistle, the game began.
Sure enough, just as Pan Yi expected, Arsenal started with a ball-control style.
The four people in the middle, Rosicky, Alexander Song, Ramsey, and Arteta, lined up to keep the ball firmly under their feet.
Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott on the forward line would drop back from time to time to provide support, and then look for opportunities to rush forward.
On the back line, the two central defenders Vermaelen and Koscielny are basically only responsible for kicking back, and will not press forward too much.
The two full-backs, Gibbs and Sagna, will often move forward, looking for opportunities to cross.
This style of play is almost the one Wenger uses most often, and it is also what Arsenal is currently best at.
Control the ball, mainly make short passes, use passing and running to open up space, and finally go straight into the penalty area.
However, their routine seems to have run into a little trouble today.
Because their opponent AC Milan took the initiative from the beginning and began to press and press from a high position.
This made the game enter a high-speed rhythm from the beginning.
Once the ball moves faster, and the intensity of fighting and physical confrontation increases, Arsenal's ball control will make more mistakes.
As a result, after a period of people turning upside down on the court, Milan gradually grasped the rhythm of the game.
They began to seize the advantageous situation and launched an attack on Arsenal's position.
In desperation, Arsenal could only pull their formation back a little and began to resist Milan's waves of attacks.
……
On the away team's bench.
Wenger began to unzip his coat.
This action has been going on for several minutes.
Mainly because the current game scene made Wenger feel some problems, which resulted in him not being able to concentrate on fighting the zipper of his coat.
AC Milan's game pace is a bit too fast.
This kind of fast-paced offense and defense has never been seen in the Serie A teams that Wenger recognized, even in the fiercely competitive Premier League.
Moreover, it would be fine if both sides made more mistakes in such a fast-paced game, but now it seems to be only one-sided.
Milan players are still very skilled in running and passing, and their success rate in passing and stopping the ball is also very high.
This shows that AC Milan's players are very accustomed to playing at this pace and they have long since adapted.
But Arsenal's players are different.
They prefer to control the rhythm of the game at their own feet, and then decide whether to speed up or slow down based on the situation on the field.
But now that the opponent has brought the rhythm to a frequency that does not belong to them, Arsenal players seem a bit at a loss.
Moreover, with Milan currently attacking and Arsenal defending, it is difficult for Arsenal to mount an effective counterattack.
Because once Arsenal catches a Milan player's mistake and grabs the ball, the Milan player closest to the ball, no matter who it is, will immediately start to counterattack.
When counterattacking, it is often quick and efficient.
A group of two or three people directly surrounded and suppressed the Arsenal player holding the ball, leaving him no time to clearly see the position of his teammates and deal with them appropriately.
After Rosicky's dribbling was intercepted again, Wenger couldn't help but shook his head and let go of the zipper on his coat.
Under such intense pressure from the opponent, let alone the possession of the ball, he could not even control his own rhythm of the game.
Arsenal fell into a passive response and could only deal with the opponent's attacks one after another.
The game has been going on for ten minutes, and Arsenal didn't even have a decent shot.
If this continues, Arsenal will undoubtedly lose.
And now, Milan has launched another attack after stealing the ball.
The ball has been passed to the left.
Left back Gianluca Zambrotta dribbled the ball forward, and left winger Mane also ran towards him along the sideline, seemingly to make a connection.
The Arsenal players thought that Milan was going to start an offensive along the left, so three players also moved over here, preparing to defend.
But at this time, Zambrotta suddenly made a long diagonal pass and accurately sent the ball to the right side of the frontcourt.
This is why Milan played Zambrotta in this game.
Although he is older and not as good as the young De Sciglio in terms of physical fitness and other physical indicators, he is much better at passing the ball.
At this time, the Arsenal players there were also paying attention to the other side, and no one was going to defend right winger Salah.
Salah started sprinting after receiving the ball and soon advanced more than ten meters.
Arsenal's back line also reacted quickly, and Koscielny returned to defense in time and blocked the front of the penalty area.
At this time, Salah was still carrying the ball and approaching Koscielny step by step.
At this time, Aubameyang in the middle has also rushed over from behind to support him in the middle.
Salah turned his body sideways, as if preparing to pass the ball to Aubameyang.
Koscielny, the French international defender, had already predicted Salah's movements and stretched his legs sideways to intercept Salah's pass.
However, Salah predicted Koscielny's prediction!
He doesn't really choose to pass the ball.
Seeing that Koscielny had stretched out his foot and lost his center of gravity, Salah twisted his ankle, moved the ball forward, and accelerated sharply.
"Pa!"
Koscielny didn't know what to do for a moment. His brain told him to turn around and return to defense, but his body rejected the suggestion, so he fell in the penalty area.
At this time, Salah was close to Arsenal's small penalty area, and he was ready to shoot.
But at this time, Arsenal's other central defender, "High Priest" Vermaelen, was already in place to cover the defense.
He blocked Salah's progress and shooting angle.
Salah didn't hesitate much and directly chose to cross with his right foot!
In front of the goal, Aubameyang in the middle immediately stepped in to follow up and was about to make a tackle.
At the critical moment, Poland national goalkeeper Szczesny swooped out decisively, got ahead of Aubameyang, and reached out sideways to block the ball.
The ball flew directly out of the small penalty area, but Milan's back-row offense followed immediately.
Kanter in midfield had already rushed up and fired a volley from the penalty area line.
Szczesny's second reaction was very quick. He quickly took off from the ground, jumped up, touched the lower edge of the ball with his fingertips again, and lifted the ball over the crossbar.
Corner kick.
Milan took a corner kick and Van Dijk's header missed the far post, thus ending Milan's continuous attack.
Although he didn't score a goal, he attacked well, defended well, and played very excitingly.
Moreover, Milan's series of offensives also caused a commotion in front of Arsenal's goal, and even made the Milan fans at the San Siro Stadium enjoy watching it.
They waved red and black war flags and sang war songs in support of Milan, and everyone was excited.
The passion on the court also drives the passion of the fans!