The Godfather of Football

"Many people say that Tottenham is very strong, but I don't think so at all. Of course, I'm not saying they are weak, but I don't think they are as strong as Manchester United and Arsenal. They lack foundation and confidence, and these need to be accumulated."

"The reason why Tottenham gives people a strong feeling is that they are a typical team that plays with momentum."

"If we analyze carefully, it is not difficult to find that Tottenham is very good at using rhythm and momentum to play their own offense, so facing such a team, you must suppress them and cannot retreat at all, because once you retreat, they will follow and even go crazy, then you can't defend at all!"

At the press conference before visiting White Hart Lane, Avran Grant talked freely to reporters and the media, expounding his understanding and analysis of Tottenham, and his words were affirmed by almost everyone.

It is no secret that Tottenham Hotspur is playing with momentum, but the momentum here does not mean that Tottenham Hotspur's control is not strong. On the contrary, Tottenham Hotspur's control ability is very strong, so their ability to grasp momentum is excellent.

Therefore, not long ago, Ferguson said that his victory was lucky, but he also said that if he played another game, he would be more confident than ever to defeat Tottenham Hotspur, because he had found Tottenham Hotspur's Achilles' heel, and he also reminded all Premier League opponents not to retreat when facing Tottenham Hotspur, but to suppress them strongly.

"They are like a hungry beast. You must be more ferocious than them to calm him down, otherwise, he will rush up and tear you to pieces!" This is Ferguson's original words.

Grant obviously got a warning from Ferguson's words, and his series of analyses also brought confidence to himself and everyone who heard it, so many people felt that Chelsea had a great chance of winning this game.

"We will use defeating our mortal enemy to tell the world that Chelsea is back in the Premier League championship!" Grant promised confidently.

Not only Avran Grant was confident, but also Pini Zahavi, the club's new CEO, expressed his confidence in Grant when facing reporters, saying that the team had a great chance of defeating Tottenham Hotspur.

"We have reached the point where we must defend our dignity with a victory in a strong dialogue!" Pini Zahavi even used these words to mobilize the players before the game.

But what no one expected was that the course of the game was completely beyond their expectations.

Tottenham Hotspur has been resting for two weeks, and the main lineup is not too surprising. Except for Beckham's absence due to injury, Ye Qiu arranged all the main lineups to play. The goalkeeper is Cech, the back line is Vargas, Hangeland, Thiago Silva and Alves, the midfield is Modric, Mascherano and Fabregas, and the front trident is Ribery, Van Persie and Messi.

Similarly, Chelsea has not made much personnel changes. The goalkeeper is Cudicini, the back line is Ashley Cole, Carvalho, Terry and Ferreira, the midfield is Lampard, Essien and Makelele, and the front trident is Joe Cole, Kalu and Drogba.

It can be said that there is nothing surprising about the starting lineups of the two teams, but what is really surprising is everything that happened in the game, because Chelsea did not play at all what Grant said, to go head-to-head with Tottenham Hotspur, and then suppress the momentum and tactical effect of this North London rival.

Less than three minutes into the game, Tottenham Hotspur used the home advantage to suppress Chelsea. Ribery tried to break through Ferreira on the left, but failed and knocked back Modric. The Croatian midfielder made a diagonal pass, and Vargas quickly inserted the ball to the bottom line. After getting the ball, he passed a ground ball.

Van Persie inserted into the penalty area, flexibly blocked Carvalho with his body, and easily shot in front of the goal to score, 1:0!

This goal completely disrupted Chelsea's start and also showed Tottenham Hotspur's momentum, that is, suppressing Chelsea from the beginning and directly pulling down this deadly enemy who just lost the League Cup final.

If Grant was a coach with some experience, he should have signaled the team to stabilize at this time, instead of letting Tottenham Hotspur speed up the game, because Chelsea's formation was obviously messed up, and the team had just lost the League Cup final and ushered in Tottenham Hotspur again. After losing the ball after the opening, playing fast at this time would undoubtedly be a dead end.

In less than ten minutes, Messi, Alves and Fabregas cooperated continuously on the right side of Tottenham Hotspur. Essien knocked Messi down while defending and got a free kick opportunity. Van Persie took the penalty kick himself. Hangeland overpowered Terry in the penalty area and scored with a header, 2:0!

This was also the second consecutive key game in which Chelsea lost a set-piece. In the previous League Cup final, Gallas scored a header from a set-piece in the crucial overtime. This time, Hangeland scored a header shortly after the start to expand the score.

After leading by two goals, Tottenham Hotspur consciously stabilized its position. Grant and Chelsea players woke up. The two sides started a round of stalemate. Tottenham Hotspur firmly controlled the situation and patiently organized and looked for opportunities from back to front. Chelsea used their running and defense to curb Tottenham Hotspur's attack.

The first half passed in such a waste.

But in the second half, Tottenham Hotspur seemed to have recovered from the second half of the first half and launched another round of rapid attacks, constantly pressing Chelsea. In the 52nd minute, Messi dribbled the ball from the right and passed it to Ribery who was running inside from the left.

The French scarred man, who is far ahead of the league scorer this season, became more and more confident. After receiving Messi's cross pass, he suddenly stopped and changed direction to get rid of Ferreira who was defending him. After pulling out a position to the left, he suddenly shot with his left foot and the ball went into the net, 3:0!

After scoring, Tottenham Hotspur launched a round of bombardment against Chelsea, not being polite to Chelsea at all. They pressed forward directly, using their own advantages in ball control and passing to mobilize Chelsea, constantly pulling their defense line, and launching attacks again and again.

Cudicini performed very well in this game. He saved a sure-shot chance in the first half. This time, Van Persie pulled to the left and received a wide diagonal pass from Alves. He stopped the ball and made a lob pass. Ribery volleyed the ball less than eight meters in front of the goal in the penalty area, but he saved the sure-shot goal as if assisted by God.

Immediately afterwards, Tottenham Hotspur launched another attack. Fabregas made a precise surgical through ball in the midfield and passed it to Van Persie in a very comfortable position. After getting the ball, the Dutch center got rid of Terry and made a beautiful stop and pass. Then he volleyed the ball near the penalty spot in the penalty area. Cudicini still bravely hit the ball with one hand.

Then Carvalho quickly followed up with a powerful clearance, defusing Chelsea's crisis.

Tottenham's successive offensives made the fans at White Hart Lane very interested, and also made Abramovich and Pini Zahavi, who followed the team to the away game, look depressed, and made Chelsea fans tremble with fear, and Grant on the sidelines began to lose his temper.

The first substitution was to replace Joe Cole with Alex, which was obviously another substitution to strengthen the team's defense. This substitution immediately made the Israeli welcome boos from all the fans in the stadium.

Tottenham fans booed him because he was too conservative. Many Tottenham fans even put up slogans and banners, mocking and ridiculing Grant, asking him, "Aren't you going to suppress us? Aren't you going to fight hard?"

"Can you be more idiotic?"

The Blues fans booed him because he did not show the wisdom that a head coach should have, and the ability to help the team out of trouble. If the situation is passive, you can make substitutions and strengthen defense. Everyone can do this. Why do you want to be the head coach?

It can be said that from many strong dialogues this season, Grant's boastful words, but his poor on-the-spot command and deployment of troops have been exposed. He does not even have the ability to become a qualified Premier League head coach.

What is even more funny is that when the game reached the 70th minute, perhaps seeing that Tottenham's offensive was slack, Grant wanted to strengthen the team's offense, so he asked Wright Phillips to warm up, and then pulled Wright Phillips to chat on the sidelines for a few minutes, obviously asking him to play and strengthen the offense.

But at this time, Van Persie took the ball at the front of the penalty area and turned to pass it directly into the penalty area. Ribery followed up and shot 13 meters in front of the goal, scoring twice, helping Tottenham to expand the score to 4:0.

This wave of Tottenham's offensive obviously scared Grant. He immediately asked Wright Phillips to sit back and replaced him with Ballack, wanting to strengthen the team's midfield defense, and the one who was replaced was Kalou.

By now, Chelsea's formation immediately changed to 541, with only Drogba left in the frontcourt, and even gave up two wingers.

Seeing this situation, Andy Gray couldn't help but sneer, "We can all see that Avran Grant has been completely frightened by Tottenham's attack. He may just be thinking about how to keep the score of 4:0 instead of trying to score a goal to save face."

"Don't forget, it's only the 71st minute!"

Abramovich and Pini Zahavi couldn't stand it anymore and left the field early, and many Chelsea fans were also very dissatisfied, dissatisfied with the management, dissatisfied with the head coach, and even dissatisfied with the players.

The game ended with a score of 4:0. Grant did strengthen the team's offense in the end. He replaced Ferreira with Shevchenko in the 91st minute, intending to strengthen the team's offense, but the Ukrainian didn't even have a chance to touch the ball after he came on the court, and the game was over.

This incident once again led to Grant being criticized and ridiculed, and also laid a mine for Shevchenko's anger after the game.

Tottenham Hotspur beat their city rivals Chelsea 4-0 at home, which immediately made the North London team the focus of fans all over the world. In another game in the same round, Manchester United beat Newcastle 5-1 away. Both teams are in excellent form recently.

Relatively speaking, Arsenal's continuous battle was obviously affected, and they tied Birmingham 2-2 away.

But there are gains and losses. Tottenham Hotspur's victory over Chelsea not only widened the points gap between the two teams, but also played its own momentum, but it also made itself encounter a big upset in the first round of the Champions League knockout round away game, that is, a 0-0 draw with Olympiacos away.

As the first place in the Champions League group stage, Tottenham Hotspur can get the advantage of playing away first and then at home in the knockout round of 16. The team performed well against Chelsea. Ye Qiu made appropriate rotations when playing away against Olympiacos, but ultimately failed to defeat the opponent.

For this draw, Ye Qiu did not show much dissatisfaction. In his opinion, Olympiacos' experience in the Champions League is even richer than Tottenham Hotspur. A draw away from home is already very ideal. The only regret is that there is no away goal, but this is not a problem for Ye Qiu.

Since the draw to Olympiacos, he has focused on playing against Chelsea when drawing up the schedule, and the Champions League knockout round is to concentrate on the second round of home games. He is very confident in his team at White Hart Lane.

Back in the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur welcomed Birmingham. Tottenham Hotspur, which has been in a hot state recently, successfully defeated Steve Bruce's team 4:1 away, further pushing the team acquired by Hong Kong people into the relegation zone, which has also become some topics in this round.

Back to the second round of the Champions League knockouts, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Olympiacos 3:0 at home and successfully advanced to the Champions League quarterfinals with a total score of 3:0. Ye Qiu's team has been able to go so far, which is considered to have exceeded the task of this season's Champions League.

This is not only Tottenham Hotspur's Champions League performance this season, but also Tottenham Hotspur's best Champions League performance since the Champions League reform. This also makes Tottenham Hotspur fans ecstatic, because they have seen that the team's performance in the past two years has been better year by year, last year's League Cup and League Cup, this year's Premier League has maintained its combat effectiveness, and the Champions League has reached the quarterfinals. Such progress makes them very satisfied.

Ye Qiu also said that the team will try its best to play well in the Champions League while ensuring that the league results continue to improve steadily.

This was also interpreted by the media and fans as Tottenham Hotspur's strategy of first securing the league and then taking into account the Champions League.

The day after the Champions League round of 16 knockouts, UEFA held a draw ceremony for the quarter-finals and semi-finals at the headquarters in Nyon. Tottenham Hotspur drew the defending champion of the Champions League, AC Milan, from Serie A.

Chelsea faced Liverpool, Roma faced Manchester United, and Barcelona faced Schalke 04. Four Premier League teams entered the quarter-finals, but in the end, they did not meet the Premier League fans' expectations. The four teams faced different opponents, but fought against each other in the quarter-finals. If they entered the semi-finals, it would still be a Premier League showdown.

Tottenham Hotspur, AC Milan, Chelsea and Liverpool were divided into the upper half, while Manchester United, Roma, Barcelona and Schalke 04 were divided into the lower half.

Tottenham Hotspur's first game in the Champions League quarterfinals is at the San Siro Stadium. The schedule is still away first and then home, which is a very good schedule.

In the FA Cup quarterfinals, Tottenham Hotspur beat West Bromwich Albion from the Championship League 5:1 at home.

Although the Knickers are ranked fourth in the Championship League this season and have a good chance of hitting the Premier League, they still lack fighting power even when facing Tottenham Hotspur composed of substitutes and youth teams, because even young players like Aaron Ramsey, if they are still in Cardiff, will definitely be the main force of the team.

The advantage of the Premier League is reflected here. The overall quality and strength of the stars are obviously overwhelmed by the Championship and even the League One. Coupled with the fighting power condensed by the team's overall tactics, this is even more unmatched and unmatched by the Championship and League One teams.

After the FA Cup, the 29th round of the league was ushered in in the middle of the week. Tottenham Hotspur once again defeated West Ham United 4:0 at home. The Hammers were depressed because they shouted before the game that they would take revenge on Tottenham Hotspur for snatching their new home, but they didn't expect that in the end they would be foolishly sticking out their necks to be chopped.

Three days later, in the 30th round of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur reversed Manchester City 2:1 away from home.

Manchester City scored first in the first half, but in the second half, Tottenham Hotspur reversed Manchester City 2:1 with goals from Fabregas and Vargas, and got three points with difficulty.

At the same time, Manchester United also won Derby County 1:0 away, Chelsea also won 1:0 against Sunderland, and Liverpool defeated Reading 2:1. The traditional strong teams in the Premier League all won, except Arsenal.

The unlucky Gunners once again exposed their most serious problems. They drew four consecutive rounds in the 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th rounds of the league, which made Arsenal lose eight points in the past four rounds, which is simply unbelievable.

Tottenham Hotspur climbed steadily. In the 30th round, the team won 70 points with an excellent record of 22 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses, successfully reversed Arsenal, which only got 67 points, and ranked second in the league.

Not only that, Tottenham Hotspur is now only two points away from Manchester United, the first in the league.

In other words, as long as Manchester United loses two more points, Tottenham Hotspur will successfully reverse Manchester United and take the lead in the Premier League for the first time, because their goal difference is the largest among all Premier League teams.

Up to now, the situation has been completely unbelievable. No one thought that Arsenal would have four consecutive draws after entering March, and no one thought that in the 30th round, the closest to Manchester United, the Red Devils' number one championship competitor would be Tottenham Hotspur.

After learning about the changes in the standings, Ferguson smiled and said that he was very confident about winning the championship.

"We have defeated Tottenham twice this season, so we are all full of confidence in this team!"

But Ye Qiu said, "It is precisely because we lost to Manchester United twice this season that we are all very dissatisfied. We are eager to reverse Manchester United, so we hope to complete the reversal of Manchester United to win the championship, because we want everyone in Manchester United to taste the taste of losing and losing the championship."

At the same time, Ye Qiu also jokingly asked Ferguson for his previous gift.

"We gave Manchester United a championship last season, now it's time for you to repay us!"