The Godfather of Football

On October 25, in the English League Cup Round of 16 knockout match, Tottenham Hotspur faced Chelsea at White Hart Lane.

Neither team played with all their main players. Although Chelsea played two first-team players, Malouda and Anelka, they still played with more substitutes and young players, including Lukaku, Kalou and Romeu. Villas-Boas' team had just been upset by Queens Park Rangers 0:1 away in the ninth round of the Premier League, and they saved their strength to play against Arsenal at the weekend.

Tottenham Hotspur also did not play with all their main players, and also played with a substitute lineup, but defeated Chelsea 2:0 at home with goals from Lucas Moura and Beckham.

In the second half of this game, the 16-year-old Belgian teenager Januzaj, as well as the English teenagers Will Hughes and Luke Shaw, played for the team for the first time, but the three players all came on as substitutes in the second half and performed generally.

At the weekend, the Premier League ushered in the tenth round of the game. Tottenham Hotspur, sitting at their home ground, defeated Queens Park Rangers 3:1 at home with Messi's double goal and midfielder Ramsey's goal, and once again extended the unbeaten record to 60 games. In addition, Tottenham Hotspur dominated the game.

By the way, Neymar, another winger who was in the starting lineup in this game, had two assists and performed very well.

During the period when Ribery was absent due to injury, Neymar and Hazard took turns to play. Both young players were eager to prove their strength, so they played very well every time they played. This is also what Ye Qiu was very satisfied with. After all, he hoped that the team would always maintain such a healthy competition.

In the same focus game of the tenth round, Chelsea was humiliated by Arsenal 3:5 at Stamford Bridge.

Judging from the result, this should be a very exciting game, with eight goals, but in fact, this game was not very exciting. It looked more like two teams with poor performances competing to see who was worse and who made more stupid mistakes.

Chelsea, led by Boas, is currently ranked sixth in the Premier League, and can be described as a bad brother to Arsenal. The Gunners are currently ranked seventh, but this is not a problem. The key to the problem is that Chelsea has lost both the sharp offense of the Ancelotti period this season and the defense and strong midfield that Chelsea was proud of in the past.

Arsenal's problem is also in defense, but relatively speaking, Arsenal's frontcourt offense performed better in this game, so they were able to equalize continuously after losing the ball, and finally achieved a reversal and a big reversal.

According to the English media, the kind-hearted Boas saved the good man Wenger.

Because this season, Wenger faced Tottenham and Manchester United, especially Tottenham, and the results of the games were quite bad. But in this game, he defeated Chelsea 5:3 away. Wenger can finally show that he can also play blood and win when facing strong teams.

Entering November, Tottenham beat Genk 5:0 away in the fourth round of the Champions League group match in the middle of the week. This is also the 16th goal scored by Tottenham in the past four Champions League group matches. What's more terrifying is that Tottenham did not lose the ball in the four Champions League group matches.

The average scoring rate of four goals per game, this offensive efficiency that is enough to shock everyone, has shocked the entire European football world, but if you add the big wins over Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool in the Premier League, Tottenham's amazing lethality in the new season makes all opponents fearful.

After the team's 5-0 away win over Genk, a 68-year-old Tottenham fan who followed the team to the away game expressed his confidence in the team very excitedly when interviewed by media reporters.

"I swear, this season's Tottenham is the strongest Tottenham I have ever seen. They are the best team in the world. Look, Messi has scored a hat trick again, Cavani is as good as ever, and our midfield, who said that after we sold Fabregas, David Silva and Yaya Toure, our midfield is not good?"

"This is a very good team, they are the best. If they can't win the Premier League this season, then I will die!" The old fan's solemn remarks appeared on the pages of major British newspapers the next day, and even became the focus of debate among all fans on the Internet.

Some people think that Tottenham's performance is indeed very eye-catching. This season, whether in the Champions League or the Premier League, they still maintain their past offensive efficiency, and they are still unbeaten. Winning the championship should be a sure thing.

But some people think that it is too early for Tottenham to win the championship, because from the current situation in the Premier League, Manchester City, ranked second, and Liverpool, ranked third, may challenge Tottenham, and Manchester United, ranked fourth, may also turn around in the second half.

There are many cases where the Red Devils turned the situation around in the second half, and there are also many cases where they performed well in the first half but collapsed in the second half.

"Looking back at the past ten Premier League rounds, Tottenham's most eye-catching performance is undoubtedly the big wins over Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool. Although they also beat Arsenal, the Gunners are no longer as strong as Tottenham. Coupled with the perfect double kill last season, the North London team has an overwhelming psychological advantage."

"And through careful analysis, we can see that Tottenham's performance has declined in recent rounds. They played Newcastle, Blackburn, and even Queens Park Rangers. Tottenham did not show that kind of hearty offensive football, but rather relied on their strength to score points steadily."

"So I judge that Tottenham is heading towards the bottom of the state!"

Tottenham's supporters immediately refuted the remarks of those opponents, and they also explained the reason why Tottenham is the favorite to win the championship from the schedule.

"I agree that Tottenham's form has declined. I think this is a conscious move by head coach Ye Qiu."

"In fact, in the past so many years of Premier League experience, Ye Qiu is the kind of head coach who actively adjusts the team's form according to the schedule. So we can see that in the same two seasons of devilish schedules, Tottenham was slow to warm up last season, and this season it quickly entered the state, two completely different rhythms, and the reason is the schedule!"

"No team can stay at its peak for a long time. There will definitely be ups and downs. And it must be noted that Ribery's injury has also affected Tottenham. Although Hazard and Neymar performed well, they do not have the strength of Ribery. and the tacit understanding with Messi and Cavani. "

"Ye Qiu let the team enter a trough and pursue a steady strategy of scoring points. This is the strategy that a team aiming to win the championship should formulate. If Tottenham Hotspur still pursues the strategy of chasing hard when they are in good form, they will definitely lose points. "

"From the schedule, Tottenham Hotspur is not in good form, but the next opponents are basically difficult to have an impact on Tottenham Hotspur, and the Champions League has also advanced in advance. For Tottenham Hotspur, before meeting Chelsea in December, they have no challenges, and the probability of losing points is not high, but the possibility of winning all is very high! "

The two groups of fans formed factions on the Internet and fought a war of words. Many fans took the initiative to stand on the side, some supporting and some opposing.

But everyone knows that after Tottenham Hotspur has survived the devil's schedule, the next opponents are not as strong as Tottenham Hotspur. As long as Ye Qiu and his team play every game steadily, the possibility of losing points is very low.

Even some bookmakers have set odds for all bettors to place bets on, to see how many games they think Tottenham Hotspur's winning streak can last, and so far it is exactly 60 games.

According to the odds set by bookmakers, more than half of the bettors believe that Tottenham Hotspur can at least continue its winning streak to more than 65 games, and among the remaining half, half think it will exceed 70 games, and the other half think it may exceed 75 games. Very few bettors think it will end within 65 games.

This is no longer just a topic of concern to Tottenham Hotspur fans, but with the spread of modern media, it has gradually spread to the world. How long Tottenham Hotspur's unbeaten streak can last has become a topic of concern to fans all over the world, even non-fans.

Under such circumstances, Tottenham Hotspur began to consciously isolate the news to avoid the outside media from bringing great pressure to the team. Theobald basically did not allow reporters to enter except for routine press conferences, especially the first-team training area, which was closed to the outside world.

But Tottenham Hotspur's performance on the field did not slow down the pace and pace at all.

On November 7, Tottenham Hotspur visited West London and challenged Fulham away. Messi and Cavani both passed and shot, and central defender Kompany scored, helping the team beat Fulham 3:1 away.

After two weeks of national team match days, on November 22, Tottenham Hotspur welcomed Aston Villa at home.

Although Messi failed to score in the game, his two assists helped Cavani score twice. Tottenham Hotspur defeated Aston Villa 2:0 at home and continued its unbeaten record.

In the fifth round of the Champions League group stage in the middle of the week, Tottenham Hotspur arranged a full substitute lineup to play despite having already qualified for the group first, but with goals from Raul and Pogba, they defeated Leverkusen 2:1 away. French midfielder Pogba was selected as the best player of the game and performed very well.

Back to the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur challenged West Bromwich Albion away on the afternoon of the 26th.

This game was very difficult. West Bromwich Albion took the lead after the opening, taking advantage of midfielder Pirlo's pass error and quickly counterattacked to score a goal, but soon Pirlo made up for his mistake and passed Cavani to score and equalized the score.

In the second half, the two sides changed sides and Tottenham Hotspur reversed West Bromwich Albion 3:1 with goals from Hazard and Messi.

The outside world did not give a high evaluation of Tottenham's performance in this game. Even Martin Samuel said that since the two-week national team match day in November, Tottenham's performance has declined significantly compared to before, but he believes that this has nothing to do with the team's strength, but mainly the players' physical fitness and state.

But more important is Ye Qiu's large-scale rotation.

You know, as the schedule deepens, especially after entering October, Ye Qiu's rotation range even includes core players such as Messi, Pirlo, Thiago Silva and Alves. Courtois also frequently replaces Cech in front of the goal, and Sandro, Phil Jones, Eriksson, Coutinho, Varane, Nastasic, Kyle Walker and other players have appeared in the team's rotation list and starting lineup.

Under such a large-scale rotation, it is indeed not easy for the team to maintain its current state and momentum.

In the League Cup quarter-finals in the middle of the week, Ye Qiu once again sent out the entire youth team lineup, but this time they lost to Liverpool 0:2 away. Ye Qiu also accepted this result, and also gave high praise and encouragement to the starting players including Lucas Moura, Nick Powell, Pogba, etc.

Liverpool is now sending all the main players to compete for the League Cup. Benitez's pragmatism tells him that he must first win a cup championship to ensure his position as coach, so Liverpool, which had encountered weak teams in the previous draws, easily entered the quarter-finals. This time Benitez is also determined to advance, so he sent all the main players to play.

Relatively speaking, Tottenham Hotspur's youth team can even be said to be the third team. It is understandable that they are not as good as others in the away game and lost two goals. If they can beat Liverpool away, it will be a real upset.

For Tottenham Hotspur's away loss to Liverpool and being eliminated from the League Cup, the outside media did not add insult to injury.

Just kidding, if you can maintain 63 unbeaten games in the league, win all five games in the Champions League, score 18 goals and concede one goal, and be criticized for losing a useless League Cup, that would be the most bizarre thing!

This time, the media, especially the British media, did not add insult to injury to Tottenham Hotspur, but took the initiative to help Tottenham Hotspur explain. Many of them think that leaving the League Cup is not a bad thing, because it allows Tottenham Hotspur to focus more on the Premier League.

As a result, Tottenham Hotspur, who had been resting, beat Bolton 5-0 at home. Messi scored a hat trick again, Cavani scored twice, and Tottenham Hotspur's entire frontcourt attack was amazing.

64 unbeaten games, Tottenham Hotspur almost used a perfect victory to declare its dominance, and at the same time, almost the entire British media shouted that the era of Tottenham Hotspur has arrived!

At present, Tottenham Hotspur is the leader in the Premier League standings with an unbeaten record of 12 wins and two draws in 14 games, while Manchester City's performance this season is also very ideal. So far, it has 11 wins, two draws and one loss in 14 games, one of which was a 0:5 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

Liverpool is currently two points behind Manchester City and ranks third in the standings, followed by Manchester United, Newcastle, West Ham United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Southampton, the newly promoted team in which Ye Qiu holds half of the shares, is currently ranked ninth in the Premier League, even ahead of Moyes' Everton. Adrianse's team has become the dark horse of this season's promotion.

In the analysis of all media, Tottenham Hotspur's ability to defeat opponents in the strong dialogue is an important reason why they can lead by three points in the current standings. If there is no victory over Manchester City, there will be no current three-point advantage.

But from Manchester City's performance, the depth of this team's bench is really outstanding. Even if they only use the substitute lineup, they are enough to challenge all the teams in the Premier League except Tottenham Hotspur. It can be seen how strong the Blue Moon is and how scary the depth of its bench is.

However, the famous Premier League analyst and former Liverpool star Lineker expressed his appreciation and optimism for Ye Qiu's team in his TV program of Daily Match. He believes that so far this season, Ye Qiu has hardly made even one decision-making mistake.

"Planning is very important for a team aiming to win the championship!"

"I can even be sure that Ye Qiu is still basically following the plan he made at the beginning of the season, at least from the overall perspective, because you can see that he adjusted the team to the best state in the strong dialogue at the beginning of the season in order to win."

"After the devilish schedule of strong dialogue, everything Tottenham Hotspur did was to get points, so he didn't need the team to be in a good or outstanding state, as long as he could get points steadily, but at the same time, he should still be preparing for the second half, especially the league in late January and the subsequent Champions League double-line battle, so he needs an effective and reasonable rotation system."

"Many people say that Tottenham's main lineup is excellent and the young players have made great progress, but I want to say that Ye Qiu has made almost no mistakes in his decision-making this season. If Tottenham can win the championship this season, the biggest contributor must be Ye Qiu, because the textbook-like championship plan he has drawn up has perfectly helped the team win the league championship!"

"I also want to remind all Tottenham's potential competitors that the most important thing for them now is how to interrupt Tottenham's rhythm, disrupt Ye Qiu's plan, and let the team deviate from its original track. This is the key issue to prevent Tottenham from winning the championship!"

Interestingly, Lineker's opinion this time is the same as Ferguson's. The latter also said that for all teams competing for the championship, the most important thing is to hold on to Tottenham and support until the moment when the team's unbeaten record ends.

"Whoever can hold on until Tottenham loses will have the opportunity to overtake and win the championship!"