"It's terrible..." Wenger said after seeing Tottenham's continuous offensive under the command of the midfield duo of Alonso and Basturk, which overwhelmed the Arsenal players on the field. I couldn't help but feel a little thump in my heart. Only then did the professor realize that Tottenham's offensive threat was more worthy of his attention than their seemingly watertight defense!
Not to mention that Alonso and Basturk can always keenly find the loopholes in Arsenal's defense. Their scalpel-like passing and excellent overall view make it difficult for Gunners such as Xigan and Vieira to deal with it. , the frontcourt trident composed of Drogba, Robben and Ronaldo alone is enough to cause huge trouble to Arsenal's defense!
Prior to this, the reason why Tottenham was not strong enough on the offensive end was that newcomers such as Klose and Robben had just arrived and needed enough time to adapt to the rhythm of the Premier League and integrate into Tottenham's tactical system. ; On the other hand, the reason is that the record of consecutive clean sheets created by Cech is so rare that the players unconsciously put more energy into the defensive end during the game to prevent Cech from conceding a goal. The record can live on.
Now, as Cech's record of not conceding was ended by Henry taking advantage of the rules, although the morale of the Tottenham players has been hit to a certain extent, this conceding also allowed them to put down their psychological burden, allowing them to separate. Put more energy into attacking!
The main reason is that since George became the head coach of Tottenham, the reality that Tottenham has never lost a North London derby gives the players sufficient confidence. Therefore, even if the team is now behind, the players do not have any panic, because they firmly believe that under the leadership of George, the final winner of this derby must be Tottenham Hotspur!
Originally, Sigan and Kolo Toure were already struggling to defend Drogba. However, as Tottenham stepped up their offensive and increased the frequency of cross-positioning of frontcourt players, the defensive pressure on the two of them increased. Suddenly it rose exponentially!
Being attacked head-on by different types of players in the defensive zone that he is responsible for, even a central defender of Nesta's level can hardly guarantee successful defense every time, let alone Kolo Toure and Kolo Toure who have only made their debut for two years. Xigan, who has mediocre abilities, is gone.
It stands to reason that Wenger should make adjustments at this time to ask Vieira and other midfielders to strengthen the protection of the back line and reduce the frequency of direct attacks on the back line by Tottenham players. But the problem is that the professor has no knowledge of defense. They are neither very proficient nor very attentive, and have never established a complete defensive system. As a result, Arsenal relies on the players' personal abilities to complete defense in most cases. Therefore, facing Tottenham's increasingly powerful offensive after the game restarted, Arsenal's defense gradually became no longer as strong as it was at the beginning, and was repeatedly successfully broken through by Drogba and others to create murderous opportunities.
If Lehmann, who was sitting in front of the goal, was not in good condition today and successfully defused Tottenham's offensive with several decisive attacks, Arsenal's one-goal lead would have been equalized or even overtaken by Tottenham.
However, Arsenal's luck finally ran out in the 41st minute of the game. Robben, who switched to the right wing, continued to feint, and after passing the defense of Ashley Cole and Cesc Fabregas, he decisively chose to dribble the ball inward and advance all the way to the front of the penalty area, and then directly kicked out with his left foot. Shot into the far corner!
Although the current Robben has not yet mastered the unique skill of cutting in and curling the ball in his previous life, the Dutch Peter Pan at this time has already achieved a considerable degree of accomplishment in this aspect. The ball he shot cleverly bypassed Vieira and Kolo Toure who were trying to intercept halfway, and went straight to the far post of the goal!
Sudden timing, extremely fast ball speed, and tricky angles are the biggest characteristics of Robben's signature inward shot, and it is also the most threatening part. In George's previous life, even those long-established first-class goalkeepers would suffer from this move if they were not well prepared. Therefore, although what Robben is using now is only an unfinished version, it is enough to give Arsenal a drink!
At this moment, Lehmann, who had turned the tide several times before, stood up again and made an extremely stretched flying save, blocking Robben's shot just before the ball was about to fly into the goal!
However, the ball that was blocked by Lehmann did not fly very far, but bounced back into the small penalty area after hitting Kolo Toure. The most terrible thing is that the ball landed just not far in front of Drogba!
Faced with such a good opportunity, Drogba, who followed up in the middle, had no reason to let it go easily. The Cote d'Ivoire monster relied on his superhuman strength to forcefully block Sigan behind him, and before the latter could take any remedial measures, he kicked the ball into the goal that had become empty!
One to one! Before the end of the first half, Drogba's goalkeeper shot helped Tottenham tie the score, bringing the two teams back to the same starting line!
The lead that was finally obtained was successfully wiped out by the opponent before entering the halftime break. This reality caused a big psychological blow to the Arsenal players. After the restart, they seemed somewhat confused and confused on the court. There were many unnecessary mistakes.
That is to say, there are only a few minutes left in the first half, and Tottenham players need to relax their tense nerves a little after persisting in the fierce attack for more than 40 minutes, otherwise they will not wait for Bennett to announce the end of the first half. The whistle blew, and Tottenham even hoped to take the lead before the halftime break!
Ever since Arsene Wenger took over as Arsenal's coach, there has been a lot of talk about "Arsenal players not being able to withstand pressure and not being good at fighting tough battles". Especially in the 2002-03 season, Arsenal was overtaken by Manchester United when they were more than ten points ahead of the second place. The team's flagship players Henry and Pires said after being overtaken by Manchester United, "We were robbed by Manchester United." The depressing words of "taking away the initiative to compete for the championship" have brought the topic of the shooter's mental attributes to the forefront again!
With such lessons learned, this North London Derby is naturally no exception. Tottenham's oppressive offensive and Drogba's goal before the end of the first half put great psychological pressure on the Arsenal players. In addition, they had never taken advantage of the confrontation with George before. , which made Reyes, Sigan and others very frustrated, feeling that they still couldn't get a victory from Tottenham in the North London Derby this time!
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