Chapter 225 Champions League 9 goals, tying with Ronaldo, 22 league goals, aiming for Alan Shearer!
After the match against Bayern, Manchester City didn't linger in Munich but returned to Manchester overnight.
The Premier League Christmas Express is about to start, and Manchester City is about to face a tough schedule.
Three days later, they will face Arsenal in a top-of-the-table battle.
Purely looking at the two teams' form, Manchester City is slightly better.
In the Champions League, they managed to come back and draw against the mighty Bayern after conceding two goals away.
While Arsenal, with a three-point advantage, almost got eliminated by being hung up and beaten away.
However, Manchester City's performance in the previous few league matches has been shaky, which makes people doubt their form.
There isn't a significant gap in strength between the two teams, and the result of the match depends on their tactics and performance on the day.
Whoever is in better form and can capitalize on the opponent's mistakes will have a greater chance of winning.
Both coaches stayed up late watching tapes of each other's matches, trying to find weaknesses.
On the Arsenal side, after watching Manchester City's recent league matches and their performances in the Champions League, Wenger rubbed his tired forehead.
Not easy to deal with!
Since Lin Quan joined, Manchester City's attack upfront has become too strong. If they can't contain him, Arsenal might not be able to withstand their attacks.
Arsenal isn't good at playing from behind. There are too many young players in the team, and their lack of resilience, coupled with their tendency to collapse in the latter stages of games, means they struggle when facing strong teams. Once they concede a goal, they tend to concede more in succession.
The reason for this phenomenon is not complicated; it's because Arsenal hasn't found a suitable team leader since Vieira left.
Wenger had high hopes for Fabregas, but he was lured away by Barcelona, destroying Wenger's efforts over the years.
Coupled with years without trophies and Arsenal's policy of not signing players over 30 to contracts longer than a year, they can neither attract the best players nor retain the excellent players in the team.
It's a pity; if they had brought Lin Quan back to the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal might have found their team leader.
Sighing, Wenger quickly dismissed these thoughts from his mind.
Since Lin Quan has joined Manchester City, it's pointless to dwell on these things now. Instead of wasting time on this, it's better to think about how to restrict him!
After watching Manchester City's two matches against Bayern and Sunderland, West Bromwich Albion, and Southampton repeatedly, Wenger finally had some ideas.
In contrast to Wenger's worries, the players in the Arsenal team weren't afraid just because their opponents were Manchester City.
The young tiger Walcott posted on social media:
"I have a feeling I will score at the Etihad Stadium, and not just one!"
As another outstanding young player, Walcott was very unconvinced of Lin Quan.
Compared to Lin Quan, the young tiger debuted earlier and gained fame earlier.
He didn't think he was inferior to Lin Quan; after all, he came to Arsenal with the title of super talent.
Professor Wenger, who usually spends sparingly, was willing to spend £5 million on him at the age of 16, which proves his ability.
And Walcott's performance after joining Arsenal also proved the professor's vision.
However, compared to the heights Lin Quan quickly reached after joining Manchester City, Walcott has been lacking in recent years.
The young tiger attributed this to injuries. Speedy players like him are indeed prone to injuries, and once injured, it greatly affects their form.
But in the past two years, with the reduction in the number of times Walcott has been injured, his performance in the league has become increasingly outstanding.
Last season, he scored 14 goals in the league for Arsenal, becoming the team's top scorer. After Van Persie left, it can be said that the young tiger supported Arsenal's attacking system.
Because of this, he received Arsenal's highest salary - £100,000 a week.
Walcott's words quickly attracted huge attention and discussion on the internet.
Arsenal fans naturally sang praises for the young tiger and cheered him on.
"Come on, young tiger!"
"Show Manchester City how good you are!"
"Tell them who the fastest man in the Premier League is!"
Manchester City fans, however, looked down on Walcott's statement:
"Tsk tsk, what, now even Walcott dares to compare himself with Lin King!"
"Haha, Walcott? Is he even worthy of comparing himself with Lin King? Lin King scored 22 goals in less than half a season. Can the young tiger score that many in a whole season?"
"Hehe, Lin King has scored more goals in the Champions League than Walcott has in the league!"
In the eyes of Manchester City players, these two are not even in the same league. The young tiger is just trying to cash in on Lin King's success, so they didn't hesitate to fire back at him.
Walcott has been playing for Arsenal for many years, and he has accumulated quite a few fans.
Seeing their own star player being criticized, they naturally couldn't sit still and started to fight back, arguing with Manchester City fans.
Some journalists, eager for a scoop, went to Manchester City's training ground to interview Lin Quan about this matter.
"Lin, how do you feel about Theo's statement?" the reporter asked.
The question made Lin Quan pause for a moment, and he instinctively asked, "Who is Theo?"
This question was simply Lin Quan's normal curiosity because he didn't even know that was Walcott's name.
However, the fans who were eager for excitement didn't care about these details, especially the Manchester City fans.
In their eyes, this was their star responding to Arsenal's star's challenge, and they loved this response!
So, these four words quickly became a hot topic on the internet that day, and Manchester City fans flocked to Walcott's Twitter, copying and pasting this sentence in rows.
"Who is Theo?"
"Lin: Sorry, I don't know who Theo is!"
"Oh oh oh, someone failed at trying to cash in!"
"Haha, serves him right. Clearly not on the same level, yet trying to cash in and got slapped in the face?"
Seeing Manchester City fans lining up to provoke the other side on someone else's Twitter, Lin Quan thought about sending out a tweet to explain?
After careful consideration, he rejected this idea.
Explaining at this time might be seen as showing weakness, which could affect Manchester City's morale.
Besides, Walcott took the initiative to provoke first, so he shouldn't blame others for fighting back!
On Arsenal's side, Walcott was furious with Lin Quan's response and the taunting from Manchester City fans!
He swore that he would fiercely slap the other side's face at the Etihad Stadium!
Seeing Walcott, who was lively and completely inspired on the training ground, Wenger on the sidelines was both surprised and delighted. His confidence in this match increased significantly!
...
On December 14th, the 16th round of the Premier League officially kicked off.
As the focus of this round of matches, the top-of-the-table battle between Manchester City and Arsenal was scheduled for noon on the 14th.
The intention behind this arrangement was very clear - the Premier League wanted to cater to audiences in Asia and the Americas.
Especially in Asia, the match would start at 9 p.m. Beijing time, which is prime time.
This season, due to Lin Quan's joining and the Premier League's vigorous promotion efforts, the Premier League's viewership in Asia has increased significantly.
After signing a broadcasting contract with CCTV, the Premier League's attention and popularity in China have greatly increased.
Many fans who didn't watch the Premier League before have started to follow the matches broadcasted by CCTV this season.
Of course, the most watched matches are obviously those of Manchester City.
"As Lin King charges forward, I am your fan!"
"Little Blackie, showing your feet, huh? Real fans wouldn't call Lin Brother Lin King!"
"Even black fans are still fans. As they criticize more, they start to develop feelings!"
"Speaking of which, Lin King's current form is really hot, with 22 goals in the league and 9 goals in the Champions League group stage!"
"Hehe, scoring in every match of the group stage, directly breaking the Champions League record, it's really exaggerated!"
"Haha, those who said Lin King's goals were not as good as Messi and Ronaldo's, aren't they getting slapped in the face now?"
"Hehe, he doesn't play poorly in difficult situations!"
In the first four rounds of the Champions League, Lin Quan only scored 5 goals, which attracted criticism, especially from Messi and Ronaldo fans.
But in the last two rounds, Lin Quan scored 4 goals, catching up in the Champions League goalscorer ranking, tying with Ronaldo, jointly topping the Champions League goalscorer list.
"It's a pity that Ronaldo also scored, otherwise Lin King would have been the sole leader in the goalscorer list!"
Some fans still felt a bit regretful. In the last round of the group stage, Real Madrid won again, and Ronaldo scored a goal, raising his total goals to 9.
"It doesn't matter; with Lin King's current form, he will eventually surpass him. Messi and Ibrahimovic, who were ahead of him before, are now both overtaken by him, right?"
Fans are full of confidence in Lin Quan. Just looking at his superhuman performance of scoring in every match, there's no reason not to believe in him.
"Isn't Alan Shearer's record for most goals in a Premier League season 34? Can Lin King break this record?"
"Isn't it just a matter of time? Lin King's current goal efficiency is averaging 1.47 goals per game. There are still 23 rounds in the Premier League. If he scores every two rounds from now on, he can break the record!"
"Wow, isn't Lin King's goal efficiency terrifying? Can he score over fifty or sixty goals this season?"
"In the league, he'll get 40+, in the Champions League 10+, and as for the cup matches, it depends on the draws of the FA Cup and the League Cup. If he can make it to the final..."
"entering 10 goals is not a big problem!"
"If you count the goals scored for the national team, isn't Lin King's data expected to catch up with Messi?"
"Messi's is already surpassed, catching up with Ronaldo is a bit difficult. Ronaldo's total goals this year have reached 68!"
"Isn't that terrifying? Is Ronaldo so fierce this year?"
"Hehe, otherwise, why are they called the twin peaks? As for Messi, after scoring 91 goals last year, his form has declined a lot this year. He has only scored 45 goals now, not even half of last year's!"
In the past, some people said that Lin Quan was on the same level as Messi, but many people were still skeptical.
However, when fans visually compared the data of the three players this season, those who didn't understand Lin Quan and still had doubts were surprised to find that Lin Quan had already grown to this extent.
"Hehe, looking at it this way, Walcott is really trying to cash in. He can't even score 30 goals in a season. He scored a maximum of 14 goals in the league. What does he have to challenge Lin King with!"
"These two are indeed not players of the same level. Walcott is inferior to Lin Quan in dribbling, dribbling, organizing, passing, and positioning. His shooting skills are several levels lower!"
"But the little tiger is not useless. At least his speed is faster than Lin Quan's!"
"Hehe, if Lin King had Walcott's speed, it would be really terrifying!"
...
Because this game is related to the situation of winning the Premier League this season, it is important for teams aiming to win the championship.
Therefore, before the game started, besides sending a large number of reporters to cover the game, the Premier League giants also sent people to the scene to watch the game.
Liverpool's head coach Rodgers, who is about to face Manchester City, even came to the scene. He wanted to see how much Arsenal could bring out against Manchester City in this game.
If Arsenal can defeat Manchester City, then the Reds can also learn from them and use their tactics to deal with Manchester City.
Of course, it's difficult to play at Manchester City's home ground, and Liverpool doesn't have much hope for their victory.
However, with Arsenal's strength, they should be able to expose some weaknesses of the opponent.
If both teams' tactics are not conservative, maybe this will be a goal-scoring battle.
Rodgers guessed right. Both Manchester City and Arsenal chose offensive tactics.
After the previous few rounds of matches, Pellegrini realized that Manchester City's defense indeed had problems.
If they don't want to expose this weakness to their opponents, they need to increase the threat on the offensive end, put more pressure on the opponents, make them tired of defending, and unable to threaten Manchester City's goal.
In this way, Manchester City's hidden danger can be maximally eliminated.
Wenger and Pellegrini had the same idea!
Arsenal is also not the kind of team with very strong defense. Without iron-blooded leaders like Vieira, their midfield has never been tough.
Players like Cazorla, Ozil, and Arteta do not have defensive abilities like Vieira's, let alone his leadership qualities.
And Manchester City is a team with super strong attacking power. If they passively defend, they will probably be broken through.
So, Wenger learned from the experiences of other teams before and planned to use offensive tactics to confront Manchester City.
With the strength of Arsenal's players, it is not difficult to break through Manchester City's goal.
Moreover, Arsenal's players are good at playing with the wind. As long as they take the lead, their morale will be greatly boosted.
By then, the second and third goals may come one after another.
In that case, Arsenal can not only defeat the powerful Manchester City, but also have the possibility of creating a big victory!
Arsenal just lost to Napoli in the Champions League arena, unexpectedly losing the first place in the group after leading for five rounds.
This makes their subsequent Champions League knockout matches very difficult. Wenger's team urgently needs a big victory to boost morale and regain confidence for the players, so that when they encounter other teams in the knockout matches, they will have a chance!
(End of this chapter)
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