Chapter 94 Mourinho's Utilitarian Football

After 28 rounds, the top three in the Premier League standings are Chelsea, Manchester City, and Arsenal.

Chelsea still leads with a large points advantage.

But Arsenal and Manchester City are also chasing after them.

This also puts great pressure on Chelsea.

Moreover, in the 28th round, after Chelsea suffered a draw with Watford at home, they ushered in a period of weakness in the second half of the schedule.

Chelsea's form has been ups and downs since being beaten by Arsenal.

This also gives Arsenal and Manchester City a chance to catch up.

However, the Premier League is ever-changing, and no one knows who will win the championship until the last moment.

Currently, these three teams are the most likely to be champions.

However, compared to the three-line battles of Chelsea and Arsenal, Manchester City only has the pressure of two-front battles in the League and FA Cup, so it is relatively easy.

Soon, Arsenal ushered in the second round of the Europa League knockout round.

Recently it has been double matches a week.

High-intensity games are also consuming Arsenal's physical fitness and energy.

Mourinho has tried his best to let the players rest after gaining an advantage, but this still cannot meet the requirements.

Now Mourinho wants to give up the FA Cup. After all, if this continues, it is very likely that he will face a third-tier defeat in one season.

However, the FA Cup has already reached the semi-finals, so it would be a pity to give up at this time.

Mourinho was confused.

But if one must be given up, the FA Cup must bear the brunt.

Arsenal faced Lyon at home in the second leg of the Europa League quarter-finals.

With the advantage of three goals away from home, Arsenal's home game is relatively easy.

The tempo of the whole field did not speed up much. They kicked slowly, on the one hand, to save some physical energy, and on the other hand, they used the rhythm change to catch the opponent off guard.

Lucky's role as a metronome has always been online. When Arsenal switches from defense to offense, Lucky is a key link.

And the effect of this metronome also made Leon a little intolerable.

It was meant to be a slow kicking ball, and everyone was walking.

But after Lucky suddenly started to speed up, the Arsenal supercar suddenly started to enter the running mode.

On the other hand, Lyon's relatively backward engine is simply unable to catch up with the opponent's speed.

This also resulted in them conceding a goal in the 43rd minute.

Aubameyang's forward volley helped Arsenal score the leading goal.

After that, Arsenal maintained a defensive posture and waited for the end of the first half.

In the second half, Arsenal used this pattern again and slowly lost ground with Lyon.

Lyon seemed to have found a way to deal with Arsenal's change of pace, but Arsenal suddenly stopped playing with them.

Everyone huddles up and defends. They are already in the lead anyway, and it is up to them to decide how to play.

Lyon's formation, which had been huddled in its own half, began to waver.

They are so angry that if you don't attack, how can we fight back?

Arsenal tactically beat the opponent to the core.

Premier League commentator Andy Gray also shook his head and said: "Genesio's on-the-spot command was not as good as Mourinho's, and he was tactically suppressed by the opponent. When the team fell behind, he wanted to rely on defensive counterattacks to make a breakthrough, but Arsenal's sudden retreat caught the opponent off guard."

"Mourinho's tactics are still so uncomfortable!"

Unlike other tacticians, Mourinho's tactics are cunning and shameless.

This is also the reason why fans criticize the opponent for only one goal and then start to set up a bus.

Football should not be too utilitarian, it should be played more comfortably, and it should be interesting to watch.

But Mourinho's tactics are too utilitarian and he will do whatever it takes to win.

This also makes many people dislike Mourinho.

But in this regard, Mourinho still goes his own way and doesn't care about these people at all.

Arsenal implemented Mourinho's instructions and they did play more easily.

Although this style of play is ugly, Arsenal also needs this style of play at this time. In an already fierce competition, they need to retain more physical fitness, so how to play without effort is what they want to deal with. key.

When the time came to 70 minutes, Mourinho made substitutions.

Lucky and Lukaku were replaced and rested.

Others continue to defend.

Even on defense, Aubameyang and Mane were in a walking state in the frontcourt, occasionally retreating to defend.

Lyon didn't know how to deal with this kind of play.

And as time passed little by little, Lyon still failed to find any breakthrough.

In the end, Arsenal easily won the game with a goal.

After two rounds of competition, Arsenal defeated Lyon 4:1 and entered the Europa League quarterfinals.

Arsenal won the game, but the French media felt that Arsenal was unable to win.

They even revived the idea that Mourinho was killing the artistry of football.

But this time, no one responded to them.

The main reason is that the Premier League media are protecting Arsenal. After all, they are a team in their own division and cannot speak for others.

Besides, why didn’t Arsenal talk about double matches a week?

In such a tight schedule, winning is not good, but tactically it is ugly.

Arsenal fans also understand this.

After all, Arsenal didn't play like this in the first half of the season.

And Arsenal dared to play like this, largely because they took advantage of Lyon's lack of offensive firepower.

If it were a Champions League team, would Arsenal dare to play like this?

So, it's still not strong enough, so Arsenal took it as points.

Faced with many similar angry attacks, the French media could only stop.

But the good news is that Monaco beat Chelsea 2:1 away and won three precious points.

Paris Saint-Germain, the No. 1 seed of Ligue 1, has been eliminated in the Champions League quarter-finals.

In this case, Monaco took up the banner of Ligue 1 and defeated Liverpool to enter the quarterfinals.

And now they beat Chelsea away.

Once they beat Chelsea, they will send the last hope of the Premier League back home.

In this way, the Ligue 1 media will be happy.

They are strong in the Europa League, but their performance in the Champions League is still good.

If Monaco beats Liverpool and Chelsea twice, it will be unbelievable news.

And according to the current development, this is not completely impossible.

Thinking of this, they were relieved.

Chelsea lost to Monaco at home, and this result was unacceptable to Chelsea fans.

They were tied by Watford at home, and now they lost to Monaco.

Before the game, they were full of confidence and ready to beat Monaco.

Head coach Conte also said that Chelsea's defense would make Monaco desperate.

But when Mbappe used his explosive power to break into Chelsea's penalty area again and again, everyone was silent.

Chelsea couldn't limit this guy at all.

Just like Liverpool, they had no idea how to defend this extremely fast French teenager.

Mbappe once again became the focus of the whole of Europe.

The local newspaper in Monaco even said proudly that Mbappe would kill all the Premier League defenses and no one could limit him.

Manchester City and Liverpool lost one after another.

Now it's Chelsea's turn.

British fans want to refute, but they can't find a reasonable reason.

Finally, some fans dug up the match between Monaco and Arsenal last season.

In that match, Lucky restricted Mbappe to death.

The caption below this video clip: ‘This is your talented boy! ’

It can be said that the current British media can only use Lucky to fight back.

After all, other teams have been beaten, and the facts have proved that they can't stop Mbappe.

However, this reason is still a bit far-fetched.

Mbappe has grown a lot this season, and Arsenal is not qualified for the Champions League.

Even if Lucky and Arsenal play well, they can't get together.

The French media doesn't care about these at all and increases the intensity of ridicule.

The British media is so angry that they can only post Lucky's video of restricting Mbappe over and over again.

This is like a picture of children quarreling, which has become the core of the quarrel between the two media.

Lucky, who is at the center of public opinion, has no comment on this.

And what the French media said is also right. Mbappe has grown very fast. Now when he meets Mbappe, Lucky will not be so relaxed.