Chapter 238: Manchester City's Collapse? Mourinho's Mind Games
On January 23rd, Manchester City hosted West Ham United and won 3-0, advancing to the League Cup final with a 9-0 aggregate score.
Lin Quan contributed with a goal and an assist, Aguero scored one goal, and De Bruyne scored with a free kick.
Manchester City's front line was on fire, with multiple players finding the back of the net.
Two days later, Manchester City beat Watford 4-2 in the FA Cup, moving to the next round.
Aguero, coming off the bench, scored a hat-trick, with two assists from De Bruyne.
De Bruyne's excellent performances in these two matches quickly made him a fan favorite among Manchester City supporters.
On January 29th, in the 23rd round of the Premier League, Manchester City triumphed over Tottenham Hotspur with a 5-1 victory at White Hart Lane, completing a double victory over Spurs with big scores in both matches.
Poor Tottenham conceded 11 goals to Manchester City in one season, setting a new club record and developing a fear of Manchester City.
In this match, many Manchester City players scored, including Lin Quan, Aguero, De Bruyne, Jovetic, and Kompany.
With the addition of two new midfield signings, Manchester City's offensive potential was further unleashed, making them even more formidable than in the first half of the season.
"23 Matches Unbeaten, Who Can Stop This Manchester City?"
"Another Arsenal? Manchester City Might Break Arsenal's Unbeaten Record!"
The current longest unbeaten record in the Premier League is Arsenal's 49-match unbeaten streak from the 2003-2005 seasons, which is also the second-longest in the history of Europe's top five leagues.
Given the fierce competition in the Premier League, Arsenal's record is highly valuable.
Because of this, few teams have been able to threaten this record.
After defeating Tottenham away, Manchester City, with their 23-match unbeaten streak, has squeezed into the top ten longest unbeaten runs in Premier League history.
Only nine teams ahead of them have longer unbeaten streaks, and with Manchester City's current form, they could likely surpass these teams and further enhance their historical ranking.
However, just when everyone thought Manchester City would continue their unbeaten run, they were upset at home.
In the 24th round of the league, Manchester City lost 0-1 to Chelsea at home, breaking both their season unbeaten record and home unbeaten record.
For this match, Pellegrini's lineup was countered by Mourinho's very targeted tactics.
Mourinho deployed an extreme defensive counter-attacking lineup, with three sweeping midfielders to pressure De Bruyne and Kroos's passing.
Chelsea's new signing from Benfica, Matic, had an outstanding performance.
His tireless running, extensive defensive coverage, and strong aggression caused De Bruyne and Kroos, both technical players, a lot of trouble.
Kroos and De Bruyne were either fouled or frequently made mistakes, failing to get the ball into Chelsea's penalty area.
Without their passes, Manchester City's attacks lost their usual fluidity.
The front players were rendered ineffective, unable to threaten the opponent's goal.
Lin Quan's breakthroughs were constantly blocked by Chelsea's solid defense, and Kroos, trying to control the game's tempo, nearly made errors under pressure.
Chelsea's counter-attacks were not only simple but highly efficient.
Seeing Mourinho calmly directing from the sidelines, people wondered if they had traveled through time to see the peak-era Blues from eight years ago!
By the end of the match, Manchester City dominated almost all statistics.
Possession was 65% to 35%, shots were 25 to 13, shots on target were 7 to 6, corners were 12 to 7, offsides were 0 to 4, and yellow cards were 2 to 4.
However, the victory belonged to Chelsea, and their clean sheet ended Manchester City's 1178-day, 61-match streak of scoring in Premier League home games.
Manchester City was just 5 matches away from breaking Manchester United's record of 66 Premier League home matches with goals.
After losing, the team's morale was very low.
Especially for De Bruyne, who was determined to perform well against his former club to prove Mourinho wrong for letting him go.
However, Mourinho's targeted defensive tactics caused De Bruyne to underperform, not only failing to help the team win but also becoming a liability.
This made De Bruyne feel very upset, even doubting himself: "Could Mourinho be right about me? Am I really not suited for the Premier League?"
"Don't be discouraged. It's just one loss; it doesn't mean anything!"
Noticing De Bruyne's low spirits, Lin Quan patted his shoulder and comforted him.
"Come on, let's go thank the fans who came to support us!"
Seeing Lin Quan's calm expression, De Bruyne nodded heavily: "Okay!"
After comforting De Bruyne, Lin Quan went to console other teammates, with captain Kompany doing the same.
Under their consolation, the players, though still not in high spirits, completed their lap of appreciation for the fans.
In the CCTV commentary box, He Wei saw Lin Quan not being affected by the team's loss and instead stepping up to comfort his teammates. He couldn't help but exclaim: "This season, Lin Quan has really grown a lot at Manchester City. He's increasingly showing leadership qualities on the field!"
"Indeed, you can see from the way he plays that Lin Quan isn't pursuing extreme personal statistics but is giving many opportunities to his teammates!"
"Yes, he's really a team player!"
After defeating Manchester City, Mourinho was elated and declared to the media:
"I think, after this match, there should be no doubt about who the best team is, right?"
Since drawing with Arsenal away, Chelsea has won seven consecutive league matches in the past month.
Taking advantage of the busy winter schedule, they overtook Tottenham, Everton, and Liverpool, moving up to third place on the standings with 53 points, returning to the title race.
They are currently only 2 points behind second-placed Arsenal and 10 points behind league leaders Manchester City.
With 14 rounds remaining, catching up to Manchester City is not impossible.
Especially under the intense pressure from Chelsea, the two teams ahead may buckle and collapse.
Mourinho knew this well and increased his psychological pressure on Arsenal and Manchester City:
"Wenger is a good coach, but Arsenal's owner isn't a good owner. He hasn't given him enough support. His team always struggles with depth in the squad, and it's easy for them to collapse during the busy schedule. This year will be no exception!"
Compared to the wealthy Manchester City, Arsenal's weakness is more obvious - their financial constraint!
Or in other words - stinginess!
During the winter break, Wenger bid 40 million and 1 pound for Suarez from Liverpool, which Liverpool saw as an insult.
The Reds not only rejected Arsenal's offer but also stated they would never sell Suarez to the Gunners, completely blocking the transfer possibility.
Originally, if Arsenal had offered a bit more money, the transfer could have been possible, but their stinginess ruined it.
Unable to leave Liverpool during the winter break and still without Champions League football in the second half of the season, Suarez was greatly affected. His form declined significantly in recent matches, and Liverpool's performance also dropped, allowing Chelsea to overtake them.
Similarly, without Suarez to bolster their frontline, Arsenal's offensive firepower remained insufficient.
This outcome was a loss for both teams!
With March approaching, the traditional period for Arsenal to stumble, Mourinho was eager to sit back and watch.
He confidently predicted that Wenger's Arsenal would stumble again this year.
As for the wealthy Manchester City, Mourinho adopted another approach: "Manchester City made too many signings during the winter break, causing their squad to become overcrowded. I think Pellegrini must be having headaches on how to manage the emotions of those veteran players now?"
Mourinho's words were not unfounded. After missing the starting lineup in two consecutive matches, Fernandinho expressed his dissatisfaction with Pellegrini in an interview:
"I can help the team; I'm not worse than the players on the pitch. As for why I'm not playing, I think it's the coach's bias."
Fernandinho was a major midfield signing for Manchester City last summer, costing a hefty 40 million euros from Shakhtar Donetsk. Players with such a price tag are usually considered key midfielders in other teams.
However, at Manchester City, he has been continuously benched and hasn't even secured regular playing time.
With the World Cup approaching, if he continues to warm the bench, Brazil's coach Scolari might drop him from the squad.
This made Fernandinho feel the pressure, as if he wanted to use this method to put pressure on the club and Pellegrini to get him back into the starting lineup.
However, the Brazilian's plan clearly backfired.
Pellegrini could not tolerate players challenging his authority as head coach, so he imposed a very harsh punishment on Fernandinho – a 10-match internal ban.
For the next two months, he wouldn't need to think about playing at all!
Seeing his instigation was effective, Mourinho continued to stir the pot: "Manchester City will collapse just like Arsenal. Without Fernandinho, their midfield defense will be problematic. Neither De Bruyne nor Kroos can replace him. It's a pity that Pellegrini doesn't seem to know how to use him!"
Mourinho's comments won Fernandinho's appreciation, and Fernandinho praised Mourinho as a wise coach.
This led to rumors that the Brazilian wanted to join Mourinho.
Previously, Pellegrini rarely responded directly to Mourinho's remarks.
He knew that Mourinho was good at mind games and trash-talking, and since he wasn't skilled in this area, he didn't want to fall into his trap.
But now, he couldn't bear it any longer.
Even a good man has his temper! "Mourinho should shut his mouth, his team is 10 points behind us!"
Mourinho, instead of getting angry at Pellegrini's counterattack, was delighted.
As long as Pellegrini reacted, it meant he had fallen into the trap!
"10 points isn't much. Maybe by the end of March, my team will have caught up with Manchester City!"
It's unclear whether Pellegrini fell into Mourinho's trap or wanted to prove himself.
In the 25th round of the league, away against Norwich, Pellegrini used the same lineup as in the previous match against Chelsea.
However, in this game, City's midfield was again targeted by the opponents.
Without midfield support, City's top-tier attack in the Premier League was silenced, ending in a 0-0 draw away.
This was City's second consecutive game without scoring, while in another match, Mourinho's Chelsea easily beat Newcastle 3-0, securing an eight-game winning streak and reducing the gap between the two teams to 8 points.
After this game, even those who initially doubted Mourinho's prediction about City started to question City's form.
Two consecutive games without scoring, losing 5 points to Chelsea in such a short time – were they really going to collapse as Mourinho predicted?
After the game, Mourinho smugly told reporters: "Now no one should doubt my words, right? Last time it was 10 points, now it's 8 points. Maybe next time it will be 6 or even 5 points!"
"City shouldn't have benched Fernandinho. If Pellegrini doesn't correct this mistake, his team will continue to drop points!"
Journalists enjoyed this kind of narrative where a big lead was overturned. The last time something similar happened was in the 1995-1996 season with Newcastle.
Back then, Newcastle had a 12-point lead but were eventually overtaken by Ferguson's Manchester United due to psychological tactics, resulting in a dramatic reversal.
The current situation was almost identical.
City's lead over Chelsea was even larger than Newcastle's over United back then.
If Mourinho could lead Chelsea to overtake City and win the title, even those journalists who had criticized or attacked him would have to applaud him!
While City's potential collapse was uncertain, Arsenal, who were in second place, genuinely did collapse.
At Anfield, Wenger's team was hammered 5-1 by Liverpool!
Even though Suarez was in a slump and didn't score in this match.
But Liverpool's Skrtel and Sterling stepped up, scoring a hat-trick and a brace respectively, to secure a big win for Liverpool.
After this heavy defeat, Wenger's team dropped to third, overtaken by Chelsea by one point, temporarily ranking third in the standings.
Meanwhile, Liverpool and Tottenham were closely behind them.
Arsenal might need to give up their title dreams and start preparing for the battle to secure a top-four finish.
City didn't have time to sympathize with Arsenal because the 26th round of the league was about to begin.
To solve the team's attacking problems, Pellegrini made adjustments to the midfield lineup.
He had Yaya Toure play as a defensive midfielder, acting as a shield in front of Kroos to reduce his defensive pressure.
City's recent defeats were mainly due to midfield issues.
Mourinho might have been right. Without Fernandinho's defensive strength, City's midfield seemed a bit weak.
Kroos and De Bruyne weren't physically strong, defensive players.
Having them do such tasks was somewhat out of their expertise.
So, they needed a defensively strong, active, physically robust midfielder to protect them.
The most suitable candidate within the City squad was Fernandinho, but he was banned by Pellegrini.
If the Chilean didn't want to contradict himself, he certainly wouldn't lift the ban on the Brazilian before the 10 matches were up.
Therefore, he had to convert Yaya Toure, a box-to-box midfielder, into a defensive midfielder, having him focus on defense. This way, he could roughly achieve his desired effect.
Additionally, in the front-line attack, Pellegrini specifically designed some tactics to suit Lin Quan's characteristics to solve the team's attacking problems.
Amidst widespread doubts, the 26th round of the Premier League kicked off.
City hosted Sunderland!
In the first half, Yaya Toure's interceptions in midfield thwarted multiple attacks, and with midfield control, City's passers repeatedly provided opportunities for the forwards.
In the 2nd minute, Lin Quan scored from De Bruyne's assist to open the scoring.
In the 32nd minute, Aguero scored another goal from Lin Quan's pass, giving City a 2-0 lead over Sunderland.
Based on the first half, Pellegrini's adjustments seemed successful.
City fans at the stadium breathed a sigh of relief as the team's two-match winless streak had worried them.
It seemed they didn't need to worry – City was still City, their strength remained!
By the 75th minute of the second half, City still dominated.
Though they didn't extend the lead due to the opponent's defensive approach, a 2-goal advantage against a weak attacking team reassured the City fans.
Pellegrini waited until the 80th minute to start making substitutions, taking off Lin Quan, Kroos, and David Silva to prepare for the upcoming Champions League knockout match.
But right after the substitutions, the situation on the pitch changed dramatically.
Sunderland's number 10, Wickham, performed brilliantly, scoring twice in the 85th and 89th minutes, almost single-handedly forcing a draw with City.
When the referee blew the final whistle, City fans were in disbelief.
They couldn't believe their team had been held to a draw like this! Including this game, City hadn't won in three consecutive Premier League matches.
But the good news was, Mourinho's team also slipped.
In another match that ended at the same time, Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw away by West Brom.
Like City, Chelsea had led the whole game but were equalized in the 89th minute.
After this round, the gap between City and Chelsea remained at 8 points.
However, City's three-match winless streak worried everyone.
With 12 rounds left, could they really maintain their 8-point lead until the end?
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.