Chapter 97 The new king of the Premier League, wins the championship undefeated!
The already restless St. James’ Park became even more frantic and boiling with the appearance of Newcastle’s main players!
After shaking hands with Leicester City’s interim head coach Dean Smith, Li Chen returned to his own coaching seat with a calm face.

On the way, he was even in the mood to wave to the home fans in the surrounding stands, appearing to be very relaxed.

In comparison, his opponent Dean Smith was much more nervous today.

Leicester City is currently ranked third from the bottom in the standings and has been stuck in the relegation zone for a long time, but they are only one point away from Everton, who are ranked fourth from the bottom.

So until now, the Leicester City team has not given up hope of relegation in the league.

The outcome of this round of games is also crucial to them.

If they can win against Newcastle unexpectedly, they will be able to take the initiative in the subsequent relegation battle.

At the very least, if they can get points in this game, they still have hope of successfully avoiding relegation in the final battle.

The hope of defeating Newcastle is very slim, but it is not non-existent. Leicester City players are also prepared to fight desperately.

After all, the price of failure is playing in the Championship next season.

And if they are not careful, the team may not be able to return to the Premier League for two or three consecutive seasons, which would be a very painful price to pay.

Many neutral fans watching this game are secretly cheering for Leicester City.

This is understandable. If Leicester City wins, it will greatly increase their hopes of successfully avoiding relegation.

Even if Newcastle loses this round of the league, they can still win the championship by getting points in the next round of make-up games and the last round of the league.

Football fans always enjoy seeing classic games where the David and Goliath defeat the stronger side.

However, Newcastle’s starting players today also have reasons not to lose the game.

After the players from both sides finished lining up before the game, Ramos trotted back to his own half, clapping loudly and signaling his teammates to gather around him quickly.

For him, he has experienced such scenes countless times.

There was no tension at all as he was familiar with the situation. He comforted his young teammates and then exchanged glances with several veteran teammates in the team.

Pepe put his hands easily on Grimaldo and Gvardiol’s shoulders, and Ronaldo squeezed Joelinton’s arm, signaling him to relax.

Maddison, who has World Cup winning experience, and Havertz, who has Champions League winning experience, have now adjusted their emotions.

The wealth of experience of veterans and successful players was materialized at this moment.

Some of Newcastle’s starting players, who should have been nervous for a long time, quickly cleared their heads in the positive and relaxed atmosphere within the team.

By their side, they have reliable seniors and trustworthy team members.

Li Chen was smiling and pressing his hands down on the sidelines, as if silently comforting them:

“Relax, man, this is just an ordinary league. The only thing we have to do is to defeat our opponents, win the game steadily, and perform normally…”

The comfort from teammates and head coach made these young Newcastle main players quickly put aside the unnecessary thoughts in their minds.

After the game officially started, the team’s steady tactical arrangements allowed them to successfully integrate into the rhythm of the game.

Li Chen was not in a hurry to launch a fierce attack on the weak Leicester City at the beginning of the game.

Even a rabbit knows how to bite when it is anxious. Leicester City is now in an emotional state where the whole team is holding back their energy to win the game and save themselves.

If you confront them head-on at this time, wouldn’t that be a perfect opportunity for your opponent to unite and perform at their best?
In war, the first attack is of high strength, the second is weaker, and the third is exhausted.

Our ancestors have long since clearly recorded how to deal with such opponents.

So even if hard power has an absolute advantage, Li Chen would rather spend more effort and time to wear down the Leicester City team’s fighting spirit.

The Leicester City players on the field obviously haven’t realized this at the moment.

They just felt that the pressure from Newcastle was not strong enough, so they subconsciously wanted to fight for possession of the ball.

Madison retreated to participate in the ball control, and together with Guimarães, he directed the team to shrink its formation.

As soon as Newcastle retreated to control the field, Leicester City became more eager to “pursue victory”.

But no matter how deep they penetrated into Newcastle’s half, no matter how actively they deployed their manpower to press Newcastle’s players who had the ball.

However, they are always a little short of achieving the tactical goal of stealing the ball and launching a quick counterattack.

As the current interim head coach of Leicester City, Dean Smith’s personal coaching and on-the-spot dispatching levels are average.

He may be aware of the tactical problems the team is facing off the court, but it would be too difficult for him to find the right solution.

Judging from the fact that he deployed a slightly conservative counterattack formation of 532 at the beginning, he does not have much of an adventurous spirit in his bones.

If Li Chen was in his position at this moment, he would only let the two full-backs who were still defending on the wing go directly to the midfield to participate in high-pressure pressing.

It’s okay to just hide when the weak is fighting the strong under normal circumstances, but why are you still hiding now?

If they don’t take a risk, the team will be relegated and the head coach will have to resign sadly, which will be bad for no one.

Both are relegation teams. A few years ago, the fledgling Li Chen led Burnley to play much more unrestrainedly than the current Leicester City.

That year, whether playing against Arsenal or Liverpool, Li Chen’s Burnley fought hard to get points.

It is important to solidify the defense first, but you have to understand what is necessary after solidifying the defense.

In today’s football world, it is becoming increasingly difficult to win a game by defending, especially against strong teams.

Now Leicester City’s starting players want to press forward and fight for a future, but Dean Smith’s tactical strategy is contrary to their willingness to fight.

This also means that it will be difficult for Leicester City to seize the initiative of the game from Newcastle.

If the tactical thinking is wrong, the players’ efforts will seem to be in vain.

Leicester City’s increasingly disjointed midfield and backcourt formation also allowed Newcastle’s frontcourt players, who were waiting patiently, to seize the opportunity to counterattack.

In the 17th minute of the first half, Guimarães seized the opportunity and stole the ball from Soumare who had just gained possession and was trying to advance quickly. At this moment, Leicester City’s overall formation was changing from defense to offense, with the players in the front court rushing fast and the players in the back court still pressing forward as a whole.

This resulted in a number of exploitable threat areas being left open in the heart of Leicester City’s formation.

Havertz was aware of this and took the initiative to retreat to receive the ball. Guimarães did not hesitate and decisively passed the ball over.

At this moment, Ronaldo also pulled out of the penalty area, seemingly to support Havertz, and stretched Leicester City’s backcourt defense.

However, Havertz chose to push the ball to the side!
Grimaldo quickly got the ball and continued to move forward, using a very amazing pass to directly shake off Leicester City right-back Castagne who was approaching him!
The tall and strong Belgian right-back is actually not slow and his defensive awareness is also quite good.

But he never expected that Grimaldo would be so confident and determined in his decision.

He was one beat behind in defensive rhythm, and by the time he turned around and chased back it was already too late.

Grimaldo also chose to kick a cross when he was quickly approaching the edge of Leicester City’s penalty area!
The cross did not go back into the depths of Leicester City’s penalty area, but instead circled and flew to the edge of the other side of Leicester City’s penalty area.

Because Newcastle started with a 352 formation today, Maddison, who played as an attacking midfielder, had a wide range of activities in the frontcourt.

At this moment, he received the cross from his teammate at the cutting position where Trippier was supposed to appear.

Leicester City center back Evans, who was lagging behind, decisively stepped forward with his teammate Faith to double-team, fearing that he would give Madison a chance to shoot!

But before the two of them could complete the double-team, Madison made a reverse triangle pass!
Ronaldo, who had been active in the left flank space after leaving the penalty area, cut in diagonally at this time.

He made almost no unnecessary adjustments, and just volleyed the ball towards Madison’s return!
Leicester City’s starting goalkeeper Daniel Iverson reacted correctly to make the save in an instant.

However, Iverson, who was loaned out in low-level leagues for many years and only returned to Leicester City this season, is too mediocre.

Even though he predicted the direction of the save correctly, he ultimately failed to stop Ronaldo’s shot. He could only watch as the ball hit the inside of the goal post, which was only two or three centimeters away from him, and bounced into the net!
The balance of the game was broken!
However, this time Ronaldo did not run too far in excitement, but stood there and cheered!

The other Newcastle frontcourt players surrounded him and celebrated excitedly!
The Leicester City players, who were full of energy at the beginning of the game, were now confused.

It seemed as if they were still unwilling to believe the fact that Newcastle had scored first.

Dean Smith took the tactical board handed to him by his assistant on the sidelines with a worried look on his face.

Of course, the Leicester City fans who are still relatively clear-headed at this moment do not expect their interim head coach to come up with any ideas to save the game.

They just hope that the team can hold on for the remaining few minutes of the first half.

If they can hold on, there will still be room for play in the second half, but if they can’t, the game will most likely be ruined by Newcastle.

At the critical moment, veteran Vardy stood up and called on his teammates to keep calm.

Unfortunately, in the face of the huge gap in strength between the two teams, Leicester City’s resistance and struggle seemed very powerless.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to suppress the morale of the entire Leicester City team, Newcastle decisively pressed forward after the restart and launched a high-pressure pressing on Leicester City.

After the situation reversed, Leicester City found it difficult to control the ball, which was in stark contrast to Newcastle who had previously controlled the ball leisurely.

After gaining possession of the ball, Newcastle was not in a hurry to fight.

If it were other strong teams, they might not want to engage in a positional battle with weak opponents, and they would think that suppressing and attacking would be the better option.

Unfortunately, Leicester City met the strange and strong team Newcastle today.

Newcastle is very good at positional warfare and offensive warfare, which other teams are unwilling to fight, and they play very well.

After suppressing Leicester City’s defense, Newcastle blocked Leicester City’s doorstep and launched a patient rotation attack.

After scoring a goal, Ronaldo was able to attract the attention of Leicester City’s defense whether he headed into the Leicester City penalty area or pulled out to pass the ball.

Havertz and Guimarães, who frequently made forward runs, made use of the space created by Ronaldo.

This made it difficult for Leicester City, which ranked third among the 20 Premier League teams in terms of goals conceded this season, to defend.

Evans has rich defensive experience and the ability to command the team’s back line. He is not Leicester City’s defensive weakness, but his teammates’ abilities are too average.

Firth might be better, and he can have no problem playing as a starter in a mid- to lower-level Premier League team, but Soutar is just a central defender at the Championship level.

It is completely unrealistic to expect him to perform exceptionally well against a strong team like Newcastle.

It was through the strong attack on Soutar that Newcastle finally allowed the agile Grimaldo to “penetrate” successfully.

Grimaldo received a pass from Guimarães and volleyed the ball into the goal, which undoubtedly went past Iverson’s defense!

Li Chen didn’t feel completely relieved until this goal was scored. He walked out of the coaching seat and began to cheer on the fans!
The crazy cheers soon flooded the entire St. James’ Park Stadium!
Magpies fans are now just hoping that time will pass quickly. They can’t wait to successfully lift their first league championship trophy in the Premier League era at home!

Leicester City, with its morale greatly reduced, took the initiative to shrink its formation and defended until the end of the first half.

But when the second half started, they were still thinking about getting off to a good start but they soon suffered a heavy blow.

It was Guimarães who made another bold move, disrupting Tielemans’ possession of the ball during the counterattack.

Joelinton reacted quickly and kicked the ball to Trippier on the right.

The latter made a long pass after observation, accurately finding Ronaldo who was retreating to receive the ball!
This time, Ronaldo chose not to stop the ball and passed it to Madison who was running forward with his chest.

And Madison’s decisive long shot after passing Faith was too late for Evans to defend!

A world-class goal was successfully scored!

Leicester City goalkeeper Iverson looked on in despair as the ball flew into his goal for the third time in this game!
It’s all over, there won’t be any suspense anymore!
Countless Magpies fans roared and cheered in advance at this moment!
When the referee blew the whistle to end the game one minute in advance, Ramos, who was controlling the ball in the backcourt, kicked the ball high into the stands!
All the Newcastle players on the bench rushed to the field frantically.

Ronaldo knelt on the ground and raised his arms and shouted, but he was soon dragged to the ground by Pepe and Havertz.

At this moment, Li Chen may be the only one among all the Newcastle players who still keeps a cool head.

Winning his first top league title in his career is certainly worth celebrating, but there is another important goal that needs to be achieved.

That means winning the championship undefeated!
(End of this chapter)