In fact, the day after the Champions League draw results came out, Chelsea's performance on the field was unsatisfactory.
They faced the challenge of West Ham United at home.
Although West Ham United has performed well this season and was ranked sixth in the standings before this round, Chelsea still has a great advantage over it.
Chelsea has recorded 8 wins and 2 draws against West Ham in the past 10 home games. The last time West Ham beat Chelsea away was in 2002!
Moreover, Chelsea played at home, taking advantage of the right time and place, and there were more than 40,000 fans cheering for them.
However, the game was extremely difficult.
West Ham took the lead in the 17th minute!
Sakho headed the ball over, and Payette was tackled by Goretzka outside the top of the penalty area, but the unguarded Lanzini shot a curve ball from 20 yards into the upper right corner!
Chelsea equalized in half-time stoppage time when Mbappe was tripped on a breakthrough and won a free kick in front of the penalty area.
Hazard shot directly from 25 yards, and the ball went around the wall and into the upper left corner, 1:1.
However, in the 61st minute of the second half, West Ham again exceeded the score. Payet counterattacked and passed the ball through. Carroll, who had just come on as a substitute for only 1 minute, shot a rebound ball from 12 yards from the left rib of the penalty area into the near corner, 1:2.
After that, Pan Yi mobilized his troops to strengthen the attack, and Chelsea began to occupy an absolute advantage on the field.
In the 65th minute, Hazard passed a free kick from the left, and Goretzka headed the ball over from close range.
In the 67th minute, Hazard's shot from the right side of the penalty area was blocked by Ogbonna. He continued to take a corner kick, and Lukaku's header from the edge of the penalty area went over again.
In the 70th minute, Hazard's shot from the right side of the penalty area was blocked, and Mbappe, who was unguarded, shot an overhead kick from 10 yards.
Captain Terry, who started today, continued to inspire his teammates in such adversity, but Chelsea continued to waste opportunities.
In the 75th minute, Hazard took a corner kick and Terry's header from the edge of the penalty area was slightly higher.
In the 80th minute, Matic's 15-yard curve shot was blocked by Payette and missed the right post. Lukaku overpowered Carroll in the corner kick and was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper Adrian.
In the 87th minute, West Ham United got a good opportunity. Carroll scored a header from a corner kick. Courtois was helpless, but Terry made a key clearance in front of the goal line to avoid expanding the score!
Chelsea finally equalized the score in the 89th minute!
Hazard sent a through pass during the counterattack. Substitute Loftus-Cheek fell down at the edge of the penalty area under Antonio's defense. The referee sentenced him to death. Hazard calmly scored a penalty kick, 2:2!
Chelsea tried to quickly resume the game, but West Ham United goalkeeper Adrian kicked the ball away with his big foot to delay some time, but was given a yellow card.
In the last minute of injury time, Chelsea got a 30-yard free kick.
Hazard took the ball out and David Luiz kicked an erratic leaf ball past West Ham's goal!
At the last moment, Chelsea overtook the score!
Chelsea defeated the Hammers 3:2 at home with difficulty, maintaining their record of undefeated home wins.
But Pan Yi was obviously not very satisfied with this game process.
Just considering that the players never gave up when they fell behind, persisted until the last minute, and finally got three points with David Luiz's final kill, Pan Yi didn't say anything and still encouraged him. Lord.
Moreover, after this round of football is over, there will be another two weeks of international matches. The Premier League will be suspended for two weeks. It is not meaningful to criticize and educate now, so forget it for now.
In this round, Leicester City still defeated Newcastle United with an affordable score of 1:0, and the gap with Chelsea remains at 17 points.
With 8 rounds left in the league, it can be said that it is only a matter of time before Chelsea win the championship.
At the end of this round, the national players all went to the national team.
Their task at this stage is mainly to prepare for the 2016 European Cup, warm up and run in the lineup.
The qualifying stage of the 2016 European Cup has long ended. Since there are 24 teams participating in the finals of this cup, most of the traditional strong teams will attend.
For example, France, England, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Portugal...
But there is still one strong team missing, and that is the Netherlands.
They didn't take any advantage against the Czech Republic, Iceland, and Turkey in the group stage, and actually lost five games in total!
In the end, they could only be ranked fourth in the group, not even qualifying for the play-offs, and were eliminated.
Therefore, in this European Cup, it seems that Van Dijk can only accompany Pan Yi to watch the game...
——
However, when the players of the national team dragged their tired bodies back to England and regrouped to challenge Aston Villa away from home, they once again performed poorly.
Although both sides have been affected by the national team competition, Aston Villa has been significantly less affected. After all, they have only a few international players, and most of them are not the main players.
Due to Chelsea's excellent performance in the past two seasons, coupled with Pan Yi's insistence on rotation strategy, most of the first-team players have the opportunity to perform, resulting in almost all of them being international players!
This gives Aston Villa an advantage in both physical fitness and condition.
In this "head-to-tail battle" between the top and bottom of the Premier League, they even suppressed Chelsea on the scene!
In the middle of the game, for a long time, Chelsea was beaten by Aston Villa and had to retreat in front of the goal!
It can be said that Chelsea played the most embarrassing game this season.
However, the shooting skills of Aston Villa players are also poor-the lowest number of goals in the Premier League is the main reason why they rank at the bottom.
Although Grealish's breakthrough created many opportunities, they were all shot away by his teammates' shots one by one.
In the end, the two sides ended in a goalless draw at Villa Park, with each side taking one point.
This is also Chelsea's sixth draw this season.
Although they still didn't lose, and although they still continued their astonishing record of 69 league unbeaten games, Pan Yi still got mad.
He turned on the hairdryer in the locker room after the game and decided to wake up these players:
"This is definitely the worst and most disappointing game of the season!"
"You have to thank the Aston Villa forwards. Let's put it this way, if they had taken even one tenth of a chance, we would have been defeated here."
"Do you hear the noise outside? The Aston Villa fans are celebrating. Why? Why celebrate after a draw? Because we are Chelsea, Chelsea number one."
"The draw with Chelsea is something worth celebrating for them. What makes them even more happy is that they were just a little bit close to beating us. After all, they are only the bottom team!"
"Yes, you have just come back from the national team, so you will be a little tired, but that is no reason. We are not going through the intensive schedule after the national team competition once or twice!"
"I also got your physical data from the team doctor and fitness coach before the game, so the players sent on the field must be players with no problem with their physical condition."
"The reason why you failed to win is that your hearts are a little wandering. Do you feel that you have already won the league championship, and even the FA Cup and Champions League championships?"
"What I want to tell you is that if you keep playing like this, you will probably get nothing! At the end of the season, there is only one League Cup. Are you happy?"
Pan Yi asked questions continuously, and the players all lowered their heads and did not dare to say a word.
They themselves understand why their performance is so poor.
With everything going smoothly on all fronts, everyone is indeed a little slack.
So facing a team like Aston Villa that is fighting for relegation, it's really a bit unspiritual.
As a result, I almost got bitten back.
Another point is that if the team's performance in the first half was unsatisfactory, and it was still a bit unadjusted after returning from the national team, and there were extenuating circumstances, then the second half was obviously very inappropriate.
Pan Yi reminded the players to pay attention to their mentality during the halftime break and adjusted the team's tactics.
Unexpectedly, in the second half, everyone continued to play as usual, with no sign of turning the situation around.
This is hard to accept.
After all, what Pan Yi dislikes the most is when players fail to strictly implement the coach's tactical instructions!
Otherwise, we wouldn't have played like this against a team that is at the bottom of the Premier League and has only won three games so far.
"In three days, we will play in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. If you still play Benfica in this state, do you think you can win?"
"Are you a little overconfident? Or do you think the team ranked first in the Portuguese Super League is easier to deal with than the team ranked last in the Premier League?"
"If this is really the case, then you don't have to kick us. Let's just admit defeat. I can't afford to be embarrassed!"
Pan Yi cursed so fiercely, which made everyone in the players feel in danger.
The main reason is that the team has been going too well recently. Pan Yi mainly encourages and praises everyone, and rarely scolds the players.
In fact, the head coach has always been like brothers to them, very polite, and can joke with them, so the atmosphere in the locker room is so harmonious.
After all, we are all of the same age, so there is no generation gap at all.
But now, Pan Yi seems really angry.
This made the players a little uncomfortable and a little scared.
But they all knew in their hearts that the head coach was right to scold him.
They must cheer up, otherwise if they really end up with nothing, it will not be of any benefit to the team or their own career development!
They will only feel more uncomfortable by then!
——
"Are you scolding me a little too harshly?"
Pan Yi walked out of the locker room, and Arteta immediately ran over and asked nervously.
It's not common for players to see Pan Yi get angry, and neither is Arteta!
So his current mood is similar to that of the players, both of them are a little uneasy.
"These brats are really annoying. If you don't give them a good scolding, you might not even remember your last name." Pan Yi shook his head and said with a bitter smile.
"It deserves to be scolded. It deserves to be scolded." Arteta nodded. "Being beaten like this by a team at the bottom of the table really deserves to be scolded. It's just that you scolded a bit harshly. I'm afraid there will be some backlash from the players."
Seeing Arteta's serious look, Pan Yi suddenly felt like laughing.
Is this a harsh scolding?
Brother Tazi, you don’t know that when you become the head coach, you will be much more fierce than me!
In Pan Yi's previous life, he had watched the Arsenal documentary.
It was the 2021-2022 season, and the background was that Arsenal was competing with North London rivals Tottenham for fourth place.
In the 36th round, Tottenham defeated Burnley in the first game and moved to fourth place with a 2-point advantage.
And if Arsenal beat Newcastle United away from home on May 17, they will regain 4th place by 1 point.
As a result, Arsenal lost 0:2 in this decisive game at St. James Park and lost the initiative to compete for the top four.
After the game, Arsenal coach Arteta exploded in the away dressing room.
He called the players who were changing clothes together and cursed wildly.
First of all, Arteta yelled "Shut up" at the players as soon as he came in, and kicked water bottles and other objects on the locker room floor - almost the most intense performance in the FM game.
Arteta then said to the players:
"We were so fucked with the ball, we had no organization, we had nothing. Nothing. Nothing!"
"So, now, shut your mouths and swallow the result!"
"We could have been given eight goals! If you look back at their chances, you'll cry. You'll cry at the way we played!"
"No, you can't say that. We are not on the same level as them at all. Newcastle is 10,000 times better than our team. Everything we do here is so embarrassing!"
"This is really embarrassing! What happened today is completely unacceptable. If you can accept such a game, it means you and I live in different worlds."
"A completely different world."
After saying that, Arteta slammed the door and walked out, leaving only the players who looked like criminals, staring at the locker room floor with their heads down.
In this "speech", Arteta's "F" language exceeded the standard. Almost every sentence was filled with swear words, and he vented his dissatisfaction without reservation.
Now, your Tazi brother is still asking Pan Yi, "Are you scolding me a little too harshly?"
Ha ha ha ha……
This fully illustrates that one should not persuade others to do good without suffering others' suffering. If you suffer from me, you may not be good to me.
However, at this time, Arteta felt a little embarrassed when he saw Pan Yi's smile.
He didn't understand what he said just now. What was so funny?
"Actually, I don't think Benfica is that difficult to beat." Pan Yi explained his motivations to Arteta. "But what about after passing Benfica? Real Madrid, Bayern, Barcelona, or Manchester City, which one is better? So, Well, I must do this..."
Arteta nodded slightly and began to listen carefully to Pan Yi's teachings.
He knows that being a good head coach is definitely not just about having the training and tactics in place.
Understanding the psychology of players, motivating players when they are down, and reviving players when they are slack are all very important business abilities.
Especially when they are advancing all the way, young players will involuntarily lack concentration on the court. Many times, the players themselves are not aware of this situation.
Therefore, at this time, we should put some pressure on them appropriately to stimulate them to continue to maintain their condition.
In this regard, Pan Yi is still very experienced.
Is there any coach in the world who has won longer than Pan Yi?
Behind his superb tactical deployment and on-the-spot command, it is also the result of Pan Yi paying attention to the players' psychological state day after day.
Make a high profile when it's time to be high-profile to arouse the players' fighting spirit;
Keep a low profile when it's time to keep a low profile to avoid player bloat.
This "World's First Religion" is really not a lie!
——
At the press conference before the home game against Benfica two days later, Pan Yi used the "low-key" trick.
The main reason is that Chelsea's performance in the last two rounds of Premier League games is indeed not very good, and everyone has seen this.
This also caused a lot of discussion in the outside media.
Many people believe that Chelsea is far ahead in the Premier League and is about to win the championship. In addition, they are lucky to have drawn Benfica in the quarter-finals. The players may have become slack because of this.
Later, news came out that Pan Yi was furious in the locker room.
This also makes Chelsea supporters worry that such a reprimand will arouse resentment among the players and make the team's morale even lower, which will be detrimental to the upcoming Champions League knockout rounds.
Therefore, when facing reporters' questions, Pan Yi calmly stated that he hopes the players can pay attention to Benfica, the leader of the Portuguese Super League, and play to their true level in the game.
"This is a duel between two teams in the top eight of the Champions League, and it is also a duel between the number one team in the Premier League and the number one team in the Portuguese Super League, so the outcome is unpredictable."
"Not to mention anything else, we bought Cancelo and B Seat from Benfica as a package. How are they now? But at the beginning they were only substitutes for the first team at Benfica."
"So, their strength is very strong. If our players cannot pay attention to tomorrow's opponents, we will probably get a bitter result."
This is to keep a low profile and at the same time support your opponents.
It would be even better if you can keep your own mentality calm and at the same time make your opponent float.
After that locker room training, Pan Yi actually found many players for one-on-one communication.
The main purpose of this is to try to ease the players' emotions and avoid any real stress phenomena while ensuring the effectiveness of the training.
After all, the team is still dominated by young players, and sometimes there are still things that children can't think of for a while. It would be bad if it affects training and games.
But it turned out that Pan Yi's worries were unfounded.
The mental attributes of this group of Chelsea players are top notch!
Former Arsenal players Gnabry and Martin said, "Boss, what are you scolding?"
Arsene Wenger scolds people and doesn't bring anything the same for an hour. There aren't many places in the dressing room that are complete!
Former Manchester United player Lingard even told Pan Yi vividly about the "Beckham flying boot scandal" incident he heard about...
But in short, Pan Yi still treated this change with caution, and the effect now seems to be pretty good.
Of course, the real effect depends on the actual performance of the players on the field! ——
As Pan Yi said to Arteta, Benfica's strength is actually only average.
The head coach's name is Vittoria, is he famous? No.
The captain is Brazilian Luison and the vice-captain is Argentinian Gaitan. They are also the core players of the team. Are they famous? nor.
The person Pan Yi is most familiar with in this team is the former Brazil national goalkeeper and Inter Milan's Triple Crown goalkeeper, Cesar.
But he was born in September 1979. He is 36 years old this year and is at the end of his career. Otherwise, he would not have come to Benfica.
They were ranked second behind Atletico Madrid in the group stage and qualified as second in the group.
In this group, the third and fourth places are Turkey's Galatasaray and Kazakhstan's Astana respectively, both of which are mediocre.
After qualifying, Benfica drew Zenit, the weakest player in the group, and then double-killed their opponents to pass and break into the quarterfinals.
Therefore, part of their ability to reach the quarterfinals was due to their good performance, but part of it was good luck and they did not encounter any truly strong enemies along the way.
Therefore, Pan Yi asked players to be cautious in the locker room and kept a low profile at the press conference, which does not mean that he will hold back during the game.
After all, today is a home game, and the overall strength is stronger than the opponent, how can you not attack the opponent?
And he started attacking from the first minute of the game, taking advantage of his ball control advantage to firmly control the game in his own hands, and strive to end the battle in the first round!
This is Pan Yi's strategy in this game.
After Pan Yi's beating, Chelsea's morale improved a lot, and the players became more active.
They also said that in today's game, they must show their true level and not be as bad as the previous two games!
(End of chapter)
