Chapter 237 Technology is the primary productive force! Winter version of the International Champions Cup! What do you think, Ferguson? [Subscribe]

Before the Christmas holiday begins, Yang Cheng still has one very important thing to do.

That’s the injury.

In the past few years, the UK has experienced severe cold weather every winter.

This year is no exception, just not as bad as previous years.

The extreme weather coincided with the most intensive period of the Premier League schedule. As you can imagine, it was a huge test for all teams, especially a team like Bayswater Chinese that was fighting on multiple fronts.

After experiencing a previous wave of injuries, Yang Cheng has increased investment in the sports science department in the past two years and has paid more and more attention to injuries.

Apart from anything else, the Chinese at Bayswater invest in the sports science department every year, allowing them to participate in exhibitions, seminars and other events around the world to exchange ideas and absorb advanced technology and experience from around the world.

If this expenditure were made public, it would definitely shock colleagues around the world.

No team has ever been willing to invest such huge amounts of money and energy in this area as Bayswater Chinese.

But the athlete’s body is amazing.

Many times, just because you put in the effort doesn’t mean you can avoid injuries.

Before the Christmas holiday, Yang Cheng held a meeting with the sports science department in Brent, mainly to discuss the Christmas and winter break schedule, as well as injury prevention issues.

There is also communication regarding the current injuries, prevention, and physical therapy of the Chinese in Bayswater.

Over the past few years, Bayswater Chinese have basically adopted the traffic light system created by sports performance analyst Thad Fawcett and fitness coach Oliver Bartlett for physical training and injury prevention.

To put it simply, players are divided into three zones: red, green and yellow based on their physical assessment.

As the name suggests, the red zone means you cannot participate in the competition, the yellow zone means you are at risk, and the green zone means you are in good health.

The traffic light system of the Chinese in Bayswater has achieved very remarkable results over the past few years.

Thad Fawcett and Oliver Bartlett have been invited by the Premier League and the Football Association to give lectures many times.

Now, almost the entire Premier League, and even lower-level leagues such as the Championship, basically use the evaluation system of the Chinese in Bayswater, and the effect is obvious.

But this system is more about evaluating the physical condition of the players.

Generally speaking, it is to assess the players’ fatigue level.

Everyone knows that fatigue is a very important cause of injuries.

But it’s just one of them.

In the eyes of the older generation of football players, there is an experience.

No matter how old a player is when he starts playing football or how many games he plays, 500 games is his limit.

The limit mentioned here does not mean that you can only play 500 games.

Rather, even those players who work very hard and train diligently will see their form decline rapidly after playing 500 games.

This is of course a theory that does not have much scientific basis and is purely accumulated through experience.

But in fact, the logic behind it is still the players’ bodies.

To some extent, everyone believes that there is a limit to the human body.

The earlier you participate in the competition and the more you play in the early stages, the more likely you are to not notice any problems when you are young. However, as long as you have a slightly serious injury or get older than a certain age, your body will be rapidly weakened like an avalanche.

Such as Sterling.

He is playing very well in his current Bayswater Chinese team, even more brilliantly than when he debuted in his previous life.

But Yang Cheng still refused to give him important positions, and instead kept letting him play as a substitute so that he could accumulate game experience.

As long as he maintains his current momentum of improvement and can be well fed, Yang Cheng will not let him participate in too many competitions.

In Yang Cheng’s previous life, Sterling’s 500 limit occurred when he was 27 years old.

I believe that fans in 2024 will all see what Sterling has become like since then.

Of course, this is not metaphysics.

Take another example, Luke Shaw.

When people mention Luke Shaw, they will definitely remember his amazing debut at Southampton. His speed, impact, physical fitness, crosses and long passes…

Manchester United really spent a lot of money to get him.

Many people believe that Luke Shaw’s decline in form is affected by his broken leg.

This is not wrong in itself, but Luke Shaw actually had problems before he broke his leg.

Luke Shaw, born in 95, played in the FA Cup for Southampton in the 11/12 season, but only played as a substitute for 13 minutes.

In the 12/13 season, he started as a substitute in the 10th round and started as a starter in the 11th round, and has since firmly established himself.

In the end, he played 25 Premier League games, 2 League Cup games and 1 FA Cup game.

We only played one FA Cup match because Southampton was eliminated in the third round.

In the 13/14 season, he played 35 Premier League games for Southampton and 3 FA Cup games, almost always starting and playing the full game.

He was also selected for the England national team and England U21.

He was only 18 years old at that time.

what’s the result?
In the 14/15 season, after Luke Shaw transferred to Manchester United at a high price, he suffered four injuries in a year.

Apart from the facial injury at the end of the season that kept him out for 10 days, the other three injuries, two of which were hamstring strains and one of which was an ankle injury, caused him to be sidelined for 111 days and miss 30 games.

Then came the broken leg in September 15.

It has been seen since then that Luke Shaw has completely glassed over, suffering repeated injuries every season.

Later, according to the conclusion of relevant authoritative experts, the broken leg did have an impact on Luke Shaw, but after a year of rest and recovery, his broken leg injury has basically healed.

The real problem is that the aftereffects of serious injuries cause the body’s muscles to become weak.

The injuries that have accumulated over the past career will intertwine and produce a compound effect.

The thing about football players is that they always work close to the limits of their physiological capabilities.

In simple terms, whether it is training or competition, players are required to try their best.

When working at the limit, players like Luke Shaw can easily enter the dangerous area of ​​physical overload, and the compound effect causes his body to suffer repeated injuries.

One can imagine what Manchester United’s medical level was like in those years.

Another example is that Robben was a glass man when he was at Chelsea and Real Madrid.

Even now at Manchester United, he is still a glass man.

But in Yang Cheng’s previous life, when he was in Bayern, although he was also a bit fragile, he played well and his attendance rate was still acceptable.

The key lies in the cooperation between the medical team and the coaching staff to effectively control the players’ training volume and game intensity.

At first glance, this seems simple. Isn’t it just making targeted arrangements for a certain player?
But if you are familiar with the current European football environment, or even know about top teams such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Manchester United, Arsenal, etc., you will find that basically no club can do it.

In other words, the player can do it after being injured, but not before being injured.

why?
This is the dilemma facing the field of sports science and European professional football today.

money!
Back to the original traffic light system, why did it become popular so quickly?

Because it requires low investment but has high returns.

But most importantly, it has a whole set of averages and standards.

To put it simply, it’s a one-size-fits-all approach for all players on the team!
In this way, there is no need to invest too much manpower and material resources, and at most two or three people will be hired to be responsible for evaluation and assessment.

But it has been proven time and again that every player is unique.

The same training method may be a good medicine for player A but a poison for player B.

This requires treating players as independent individuals and tailoring the program specifically for them based on their actual conditions.

But this requires more manpower, more resources and more funds.

Even long-term tracking is required.

Not to mention anything else, the most basic thing is running.

A player’s movement in a game involves many factors.

Which ones are effective, which ones are ineffective, which ones are high-load, which ones are low-load, which ones are constant-speed running, which ones are shuttle sprints…

Even just a turn can have an impact on the players.

Don’t think it’s outrageous.

According to a joint study by the Bayswater Chinese Sports Science Department, Loughborough University and Oxford University, the position most frequently injured by anterior cruciate ligaments is not the striker or midfielder, but the center back.

why?
Because central defenders often need to turn very quickly.

When a player presses his studs into the grass and twists his body, the anterior cruciate ligament supporting the foot is stretched to its limit.

This situation is especially high-risk when the players are tired or there are two games in a row in a week.

After research, the expert group proposed a solution: to exercise the quadriceps and hamstrings to stabilize the knee joint and reduce the probability of anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Then there are some balance training, flexibility and strength training and so on.

These can only be prevented and reduce the chance of injury.

For today’s European giants, they are actually not interested in investing so much money to research these things.

Instead of investing so much every year, it would be more cost-effective to accumulate the money and buy one more star.

At the very least, stars can bring more advertising benefits to the club and attract more fans.

Injuried?

Just change it!

They are interested in traffic light systems that are standardized, one-size-fits-all, require little investment, have high returns, and produce quick results.

But they are reluctant to make long-term investments and specifically “care” and “regard” individual players.

At the moment, almost all teams are like this, except for Bayswater Chinese.

Many times, the players themselves are not even aware of the gap in this area.

Just as Rakitic called Yang Cheng not long ago and talked about his situation in Liverpool, he complained that after arriving in Liverpool, he found that their training and medical facilities were still stuck in the last century.

For this purpose, he even went to tell Mancini what equipment the club should introduce and what to do…

Finally, the wealthy Liverpool team decided to expand their training base and introduce a series of equipment. After Christmas, they will go south to London to seek advice from the Chinese in Bayswater.

Therefore, in this regard, foreign-funded Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal are doing the best.

……

Yang Cheng held a meeting with the sports science department this time to emphasize his importance to them.

Also, learn about their latest developments.

Thad Fawcett told Yang Cheng that they had recently conducted a joint study with Loughborough University, mainly focusing on the players’ hamstring problems.

This type of injury accounts for about 25% of all injuries among Premier League professional players and nearly half of all muscle injuries.

A very important reason is that the pace of Premier League games is getting faster and faster, and the players’ sprint speed, distance, and the number of acceleration and deceleration have all increased significantly.

In this respect, Bayswater Chinese are also the highest.

So, relatively speaking, the Chinese players in Bayswater are also the most dangerous.

Because of this, Yang Cheng attaches great importance to this project.

As players get older, injury prevention is taken to a higher level.

Today’s research is very in-depth.

For example, studies have found that players who have strained their hamstrings have a buildup of scar tissue in their muscles.

This means that the scar tissue will not stretch in quite the same way, thus becoming a weak point in the muscle itself.

Thad Fawcett made a very vivid analogy.

“The hamstring is like a rope with a small defect. Even if we repair it, once the weight on the rope reaches a certain level, the rope will break at the defect.”

“The same goes for the hamstrings.”

Yang Cheng understood, “Then is there any way to prevent it?”

“We are still studying it, mainly the old tricks, properly controlling their load and ensuring that they can recover effectively after every training session and every game.”

Thad Fawcett paused and continued, “Next we are considering working with Loughborough University to develop a tracking and monitoring program to assess hamstring muscle strength, using the best condition as a reference, to track and monitor the players’ hamstring strength over a long period of time and understand the players’ muscle condition.”

“But this requires a lot of testing and long-term monitoring, so we are still moving forward with this project.”

For the Chinese in Bayswater, the biggest obstacle to undertaking projects of this kind is not funding or resources.

But the players.

If tedious test training is required after every training session and every game, the players will be very resistant.

Especially when they are healthy.

People are always like this. When they are not injured or sick, they don’t care about their health.

Players are human beings too, and the same is true.

Therefore, if you want the players to cooperate, you need to simplify the monitoring and evaluation methods as much as possible.

This will test the team’s scientific research level and professional ability.

But once it is done, it will not only benefit the Chinese in Bayswater.

This accounts for 25% of all injuries among professional players!

“Keep doing your best, THAAD. I have full confidence in you!” Yang Cheng could only give encouragement.

We provide them with people and money, and do our best to support them in their research.

After several years of accumulation, Bayswater Chinese has also established a reputation in the field of sports science.

Not only Loughborough University, but also Oxford University, Cambridge University and even some other famous universities have had cooperation in related fields, which also proves the strength of Bayswater Chinese in this regard.

Technology is the primary productive force!
……

According to the original plan, Yang Cheng and Xia Qing flew to Nice, France together for this year’s Christmas.

To be honest, they don’t have the habit of celebrating Christmas like Westerners do.

After they arrived at the Blue Coast Airport, they went directly to the hotel by the sea and rented a yacht to enjoy the romantic and comfortable Mediterranean world for two.

In fact, over the past few years, the parents of both sides have urged them to get married several times, but later they stopped urging them to get married and simply urged them to have children.

It is called keeping up with the times.

But both of them are busy with work, and they both enjoy their current life as a couple, so they don’t have any thoughts in this regard for the time being.

Besides, Yang Cheng is too busy.

Especially when it comes to the league, I have to spend so much time outside every year, leaving Xia Qing alone to take care of the children and work, which really makes me worried.

But she was unwilling to put her work aside for a while.

So, things just dragged on.

Anyway, they all live in Europe, far away from home, and no one can interfere.

The most unlucky one was Xia Xi, who was urged to get married and have children. She always had a bitter expression on her face whenever she made a phone call.

During his stay in Nice, Yang Cheng took time to meet with Nice’s CEO Martin Harrison and football director Emmanuel Perrin.

Speaking of which, Nice’s performance in Ligue 1 this season is still very good.

After the start of the league, Nice’s situation was very bad after selling several stars including Matuidi.

There was even a period of four consecutive defeats.

In the first round, they lost 1-3 to Lyon at home, which scared everyone.

Then they lost away to Ivian.

This was followed by consecutive draws with Toulouse and Brest at home.

Everyone felt that Nice might have to avoid relegation after falling from the championship to 17th place.

There is even a high possibility of downgrade.

Fortunately, Ronald Koeman’s team withstood the pressure and adjusted quickly.

Defeated Montpellier away, beat Ajaccio at home, tied Paris Saint-Germain 2-2 away…

Nice then went on a 12-game unbeaten streak and performed very well.

In particular, the trident combination of Pelle, Aubameyang and Mahrez completely exploded with threat in the frontcourt.

The midfield consists of Strootman, Kante and Jorginho.

After the whole team had worked together, they showed amazing fighting power.

By the 18th round, they even surpassed the leader Paris Saint-Germain by 1 point.

Because at that time Nice defeated Valenciennes 4-0 at home, and Paris Saint-Germain drew 0-0 with Lille at home.

This is the first time Nice has taken the lead in the standings this season.

But unfortunately, in the 19th round, Nice drew 4-4 with Lille away, and Paris Saint-Germain narrowly won 1-0 away from home against Saint-Etienne, giving up the lead.

Now, after 19 rounds, Paris Saint-Germain has 40 points and Nice has 39 points.

Next are Montpellier with 37 points and Lille with 36 points. Lyon is in fifth place with 5 points.

This is the current situation in Ligue 1.

Due to Nice’s recovery in form, which happened to be during the Champions League group stage, and the good luck in the previous draw, Nice advanced to the round of 16 of the Champions League as the second in the group.

This is a complete success for the French Ligue 1 team.

Bayswater Chinese are first in the group. If they really meet Nice, Yang Cheng would really like to compete with Ronald Koeman’s team.

“From Ronald’s feedback, he is very satisfied with the current situation of the team.”

“Olie has basically secured the position of the main right back.”

“But surprisingly, Nastasic became the team’s main defender and performed very well.”

“Van Dijk and Koulibaly have become rotational centre-backs instead.”

After hearing this, Yang Cheng was somewhat surprised.

Nastasic is the oldest of the three central defenders.

And he’s a new player.

I didn’t expect that he would grab the main position as soon as he arrived. It seems that the title of Vidic II is not given for nothing.

“I heard that many Premier League teams are paying attention to him, saying that he is the left-foot Vidic.” Yang Cheng laughed.

Martin Harrison and Emmanuel Perrin also laughed.

There are indeed giants from the Premier League and other leagues that are in contact with Nice.

“The most surprising player in the midfield is Kante. As you said before, this kid is really outstanding and has made great progress.”

“The biggest discovery on the front line is Aubameyang, who is the team’s top scorer this season, and Pelle also performed very well.”

Overall, Nice’s current lineup is tailor-made by Yang Cheng for Ronald Koeman, and it is very consistent with Ronald Koeman’s tactical requirements.

In addition to the support and trust given to Ronald Koeman by the club management, Yang Cheng has made great efforts to establish his authority, so Ronald Koeman has also invested a lot of energy and effort in this team.

“Tell me about the business situation.”

Yang Cheng looked at Martin Harrison.

From the moment he started to build this team, especially inviting Ronald Koeman to coach, he had guessed that Nice’s results would not be bad.

At present, Paris Saint-Germain has not yet been truly formed, and there are still obvious shortcomings in many positions of the lineup.

Therefore, Nice can still continue to compete with Paris Saint-Germain.

When the Qatari consortium starts to increase its investment, Nice will be out of options.

Yang Cheng is still very clear about Nice’s positioning.

“Participating in the Champions League has greatly improved our revenue capabilities and also made us famous, but at present, the progress in commercial development in France is not very good.”

This is mainly due to the impact of the European debt crisis.

“During this winter break, we will continue to go to the Middle East for winter training.”

When Martin Harrison said this, he glanced at Yang Cheng and said, “I plan to invite David Pensel and Richard Masters to visit the Middle East and Africa to investigate the market.”

“What you mean is…” Yang Cheng’s eyes lit up.

“The International Champions Cup is becoming more and more popular in North America and Asia. We went to the Middle East for winter training last year and there were a lot of fans there. Although it is not as good as North America and Asia in all aspects, I think the potential is still very great.”

“So, we think that since the International Champions Cup can be born out of summer training, a warm-up cup can also be born out of winter training.”

“The market capacity is definitely not as big as that in North America and Asia, but we can do it on a smaller scale, for example, just four teams, play a knockout round directly, and finally decide a champion, and then play two warm-up matches.”

“Bayern is also very interested in this idea. They have always had the habit of going to the Middle East for winter training.”

Yang Cheng nodded repeatedly after hearing this, “Do you think it’s feasible?” For a cup competition to be successful, the income must at least cover the costs.

“I think it is possible. There are many large stadiums in the Middle East, and governments of various countries are very welcoming to us. They are even willing to provide us with policy support in various aspects, especially Qatar and Abu Dhabi.”

Definitely.

Qatar would probably be happy to do it even if it had to pay money.

“Paris Saint-Germain also has this idea, but they don’t have the channels. I think with just the three of us and one more team, it will definitely work.”

“When we went to the Middle East for winter training last year, didn’t we have an Egyptian player named Salah?” said Martin Harrison.

Yang Cheng nodded. This player was personally selected by him.

“You know what? Many Egyptian fans flew to Abu Dhabi to watch his games, and they were generous in buying his jerseys, saying they wanted to buy them as gifts.”

There is still some distance between Egypt and Abu Dhabi.

In the past few years, the development of the football market in the Middle East and Africa has actually received very little attention.

There are indeed many African players, but in everyone’s eyes, the Middle East and Africa are just poor and backward places.

At the very least, the purchasing power is not good enough.

But as a time traveler, Yang Cheng certainly knows that even by 2024, this market is still to be developed.

It is quite big if you say it is big, and it is also quite small if you say it is small.

At least for top clubs like Bayswater Chinese, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United, it is a bit useless.

Just recently, Manchester United went to Africa and several players, including Rooney, came back sick.

Other clubs are naturally even more discouraged.

But there is still a market.

For example, Salah in Yang Cheng’s previous life, relied on fans in Egypt and surrounding areas to sell jerseys until he was exhausted.

Yang Cheng vaguely remembered that at his peak, he was almost catching up with Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi.

This proves that the Middle East and Africa have huge potential.

Not to mention, sponsors in the Middle East and Africa also have this demand.

Most importantly, there is no winter break in the Premier League.

This market is destined to be beyond the reach of Premier League teams.

Serie A does not have this ability, but the Bundesliga does. However, except for Bayern, the commercial development capabilities of other teams are quite average.

The same goes for La Liga. Except for the two giants, the others are pretty average.

Under such circumstances, it would be a good idea for Nice to use winter training to further develop the Middle East and African markets.

What’s more, Ligue 1 itself has no restrictions on African players.

“Okay, go talk to David Pencel and Richard Maestri about this. If you all agree that it has potential and they have the ability to do it, you can submit a plan.”

Martin Harrison and Emmanuel Perrin smiled at each other and looked very excited.

Winter training like this is not as easy as summer training.

A very important point is that the winter break is not fixed.

For example, summer training is scheduled in mid-to-late July and early August.

This period of time is basically fixed.

But what about the winter break?
The time is very flexible, it can be as long as two weeks, or even three weeks.

If it’s shorter, it may be only about ten days.

If the organizers want to fix the warm-up match into the winter version of the International Champions Cup, it will actually be a challenge.

Just like Bayern, they don’t go to the Middle East every year, so they certainly can’t participate in the competition regularly.

Martin Harrison wants to bring Paris Saint-Germain to the club because he has his eyes on Al Jazeera, which is behind Paris Saint-Germain, and their resources in the Middle East and Africa.

All in all, Yang Cheng did not intend to interfere in this matter, so he let Martin Harrison, David Pensel and others take charge.

……

Yang Cheng and Xia Qing returned to London on Christmas Day.

Because the team will face a devilish Christmas schedule the next day.

There are three games in the Premier League Christmas schedule this season.

26日和27日踢英超第18轮；30日和31日踢英超第19轮。

The 1th round of the Premier League will be played on January 2nd and 3rd.

The biggest challenge for Bayswater Chinese is that they will face Arsenal away in the 18th round on Boxing Day.

In the 19th round, we played away against Bolton.

In the 20th round, they will play Chelsea at home.

In about a month, there were two games against Chelsea.

There really is no one else like him.

And they have to play Arsenal on Boxing Day, which is a huge test for both sides.

As early as the beginning of December, the UK Meteorological Office predicted that there would be no snow on Christmas.

But the temperature is still very cold.

In this match on December 12, there was a massive draw.

Chelsea drew 1-1 with Fulham at home.

Liverpool drew 1-1 with Blackburn Rovers at home.

Manchester City drew 0-0 with West Bromwich Albion away.

In this match, Bayswater Chinese team played away to Emirates Stadium to challenge Arsenal. They made a mistake just 8 minutes into the game and Sanchez scored a goal for the Gunners.

At this time, the players of Bayswater Chinese have not yet come out of the Christmas atmosphere.

But losing the ball made them wake up completely.

From the 20th minute, the Bayswater Chinese continued to launch attacks.

In the 38th minute, Arsenal’s defense failed to create an offside, and Alexander Song dragged too far back, giving Walcott an excellent opportunity to break into the small penalty area and score with a header from close range.

1 is better than 1!

Bayswater Chinese successfully equalized the score.

Afterwards, the visiting team continued to launch attacks and both sides created some good opportunities.

Especially in the second half.

Courtois saved a one-on-one shot from Van Persie.

Lloris also blocked a sure goal from Lewandowski.

What was really controversial was the defense of a set-piece in the frontcourt in the 77th minute.

When Kompany headed the ball, Vermaelen blocked the ball with his hand on the goal line.

Yang Cheng’s players protested against the handball, but the referee ignored them and instead gave Kompany a yellow card for the protest.

In fact, from the slow-motion replay, it was an uncontested handball and should have been awarded a yellow card and a penalty.

But Arsenal escaped.

In the end, the two teams shook hands and made peace with a 1-1 draw.

Manchester United’s game was held on the 27th, where they beat Wigan Athletic 5-0 at home.

This led to a very interesting scene. Of the seven games played on the 26th, almost all were draws, except for Newcastle’s 7-2 away win over Bolton.

In fact, everyone is aware of this situation.

Or rather, everyone understands.

Playing three games in a row in just a few days, it is impossible not to rotate the players, and the head coach must make some choices.

For example, Yang Cheng, the rotation intensity in this game is quite strong.

In contrast, Arsenal pays more attention to their home ground.

Moreover, the most important thing about the game on the 26th is the psychological level of the players.

It was really tiring to get up early on Boxing Day to prepare for the game.

It’s like being called by the company to work overtime on the morning of New Year’s Day.

By the 27th, the situation was actually relatively better.

But no matter what, a draw is a relatively acceptable result for both parties.

Yang Cheng mentioned this at the post-match press conference, saying that the referee missed a penalty for Bayswater Chinese and gave them an extra yellow card.

……

After playing 18 rounds, we took a short break and immediately entered the 19th round.

In the last round, Ferguson celebrated excitedly after defeating Wigan Athletic at home.

The old Sir’s words “No one is better at playing Christmas games than me” had not completely dissipated, and Manchester United was beaten 3-2 by Blackburn at home!

Yes, the Red Devils, who are currently at the bottom of the Premier League, beat Manchester United 3-2 at Old Trafford and completely stunned the Red Devils.

What’s even more outrageous is that the match day happened to be Ferguson’s 70th birthday.

This made Ferguson feel as disgusted as if he had eaten a fly in his noodles.

At the post-match press conference, he publicly expressed his great disappointment with the result.

“We never thought we would lose like this, it feels terrible!”

But Ferguson also admitted that Blackburn defended desperately to avoid relegation and that several counterattacks were quite sharp.

“They were the better team the entire game.”

Regarding Manchester United’s performance, Ferguson believed the problem lay with the field.

It has been raining in England over the past week, and it has been wet, cold and the pitches are slippery.

Another round of league was played on the 26th, resulting in the field conditions at Old Trafford not being very good, a bit like a swamp.

Moreover, Manchester United did make rotations and even had to arrange Phil Jones and David Luiz to play as central defenders, but they were directly defeated by Blackburn’s counterattack.

Ferguson accepted the loss, and as for his coaching, he said he had no thoughts of retiring for the time being.

“I think I can do this for another three years!”

In this round, Liverpool reversed Newcastle 3-1 after conceding a goal at home.

Arsenal beat Queens Park Rangers 1-0 at home thanks to a goal from Robin van Persie.

But after Chelsea took the lead through Drogba’s penalty in the first half, they conceded three goals in a row and lost 3-1 to Aston Villa.

Among them, Villa’s equalizing goal came five minutes after Chelsea scored a penalty.

The remaining two goals were all concentrated in the final stages of the game.

It was obvious that Chelsea’s players were careless.

Manchester City had a tough battle against Sunderland away from home, and it was not until the 93rd minute that Kaka scored the winning goal.

1-0, Blue Moon defeated the Bobcats.

Yang Cheng’s team is still playing away in this round.

In the 22nd minute of the first half, Marcelo received an assist from Pogba and scored the first goal for the team.

After the change of sides in the second half, the Chinese players in Bayswater launched a wave of attacks.

In the 49th minute, Giroud scored a goal with an assist from Di Maria.

In the end, Bayswater Chinese beat Bolton 2-0 away.

……

March 1st afternoon, Wembley Stadium, London.

In the 20th round of the Premier League, Bayswater Chinese played against Chelsea at home.

After losing 1-3 to Aston Villa at home in the last round, Chelsea have not won for five rounds.

What does that mean?

Since the disastrous home defeat to Bayswater Chinese at the end of November, they have only beaten Newcastle away from home.

In all subsequent Premier League games, the Blues either drew or lost.

But they performed well in the Europa League.

Now, meeting the Chinese from Bayswater again, the Blues were clearly demoralised.

Especially considering that there were only two days between the 19th and 20th rounds.

The players’ rest time is seriously insufficient.

To make matters worse for Chelsea, on the first day of 2012, Drogba, Kalou, Mikel, Essien, Eto’o and Benatia were all called up to participate in the African Cup.

Anelka was banned due to a falling out with Villas-Boas and left the team on a free transfer on January 1 to go to the Chinese Super League.

Under such circumstances, Chelsea simply could not put together a competitive lineup to face the Bayswater Chinese.

Just 19 seconds into the game, Bosingwa, who had played two games in a row, made a mistake under the pressure of Gareth Bale.

The ball was stopped too far.

After Gareth Bale intercepted the ball, he passed it back to the left side of the arc at the front of the penalty area.

Toni Kroos came from the back row, stopped the ball with his right foot and pulled it sideways, barely avoiding Ivanovic.

The German player chased after him and kicked a curved ball with his right foot, which went straight into the upper right corner of the goal.

Cech was powerless to do anything about it.

1 is better than 0!

Shortly afterwards, the Bayswater Chinese had another great opportunity.

Lewandowski received a straight pass from Modric and went straight to Cech.

But in his haste, he failed to stop the ball and missed a great opportunity.

Although he dribbled past Cech, his shot was cleared by Terry in front of the goal line.

But in the 32nd minute, Di Maria dribbled the ball on the right and created a free kick opportunity in the frontcourt.

After Modric took the penalty, Pepe scored with a header in the penalty area.

2 is better than 0!

The tension between the two sides began to grow stronger.

The anger and dissatisfaction from Chelsea players can be clearly felt.

Especially in recent times, with consecutive defeats, all the players are under a lot of pressure.

Yang Cheng also reminded the players on the field, especially Toni Kroos and Modric, in moderation, hoping that they could slow down their offensive appropriately to avoid fierce conflicts with Chelsea.

It’s good enough to win the games on the Christmas schedule.

Better not to get hurt.

Unable to even start a fight, the Chelsea players were becoming more and more frustrated.

After the second half, Lewandowski dribbled into the penalty area in the 54th minute and got a corner kick opportunity.

Modric took a corner kick, Terry got the first point, headed the ball away, and it went out of the penalty area.

But Matic, who was lying in ambush on the periphery, caught up, stopped the ball in the penalty area, and shot directly.

With both Mikel and Essien absent, Chelsea even had to arrange former Barcelona youngster Romeu to start in the defensive midfielder position.

The ball went into the net again.

3 is better than 0!

For the rest of the time, the Chinese in Bayswater basically controlled the ball consciously, but slowed down their attack.

Because Chelsea is on the brink of collapse out of anger and shame.

In the end, Bayswater Chinese beat Chelsea 3-0 at home.

……

After the 20th round of the Premier League, Arsenal defeated Fulham 1-0 away.

Manchester City beat Liverpool 2-1 at home.

The reason why it was a narrow victory was that Manchester City scored two goals in the first half, but Gareth Barry’s red card in the second half put Manchester City in a passive situation, and in the end they survived by relying on strict defense.

The most surprising thing in this round was that Manchester United, who lost 2-3 to Blackburn at home in the previous round, lost 0-3 to Newcastle away in this round.

Among them, Phil Jones scored an own goal.

This did not allow Ferguson’s bold words after the defeat of Wigan Athletic to ferment before they were slapped in the face.

Many media outlets that don’t agree with Ferguson have been mocking him in every way possible.

“If this is considered the best way to play the Christmas schedule, then what do you think of Bayswater Chinese, who have 2 wins, 1 draw and played two strong games?”

“Manchester City, our city rivals, also had 2 wins and 1 tie, so what do you say?”

After 20 rounds of matches, Bayswater Chinese have 17 wins and 3 draws and 54 points, continuing to lead the standings.

So far this season, since the first round, Bayswater Chinese have been leading the way.

Although there were many pursuers behind them, they were never able to overtake the Bayswater Chinese.

In second place in the standings is Manchester City with 52 points.

Blue Moon was also chasing closely all the way, always about 2 points behind Bayswater Chinese.

Sometimes we even catch up to the same score.

The biggest feature of Ancelotti’s team this season is that the team has basically been integrated and is performing very stably.

Especially with the recent Christmas schedule.

Yang Cheng racked his brains to arrange team rotations, player substitutes, and configure the team’s lineup to achieve maximum combat effectiveness.

But what about Manchester City?

Need not!

The depth of the bench is ridiculous.

According to The Sun, Manchester City’s current lineup can be divided into two teams to play in the Premier League, and both teams are expected to make it into the top four.

It’s so outrageous!

Another team with a deep bench is Arsenal.

Wenger’s team is now wealthy and has plenty of money, and the depth of the squad is also quite impressive.

Even as a substitute, players like Arteta are the main players of upper-middle teams, but he can only be a substitute at Arsenal.

The Gunners now have 51 points and are in third place.

By the way, the Gunners played the league match that was postponed because of the Club World Cup before Christmas, and Arsenal got 3 points.

Manchester United has suffered two consecutive defeats recently, but still has 47 points and ranks fourth.

Liverpool is in fifth place with 46 points.

Among all the strong teams, Chelsea played the worst.

In the devilish Christmas schedule, the Blues only got 1 draw and 2 losses. With 28 points, they have even dropped to 9th place.

This is unacceptable to Chelsea in any way.

Especially after losing to Bayswater Chinese away from home, many Chelsea fans who came with the team to the away game were shouting and demanding that Villas-Boas be sacked.

Everyone saw it clearly.

With six international players participating in the African Cup, Chelsea’s strength has been greatly affected. Now the situation is so bad and the team’s morale is low. If they don’t change the coach, is it really going to decline further?

Everyone knows very well that even with the Blues’ strength, complete lineup and high morale, they may not be able to defeat the five strong teams ahead.

What’s more, now that six main players have gone to the African Cup, what can Chelsea use to compete?
And this is precisely not a problem for head coach Villas-Boas.

The media and fans believe that Chelsea’s management should also be held responsible for the team’s mistakes.

But now, the most important thing is how to overcome the current crisis.

Chelsea is not the only team in crisis.

(End of this chapter)