I have to say that Arsenal's current main lineup is still very capable.

Although Chen Ran arranged for Crystal Palace to play defensive counterattack in his own half, the pressure exerted by Arsenal's offense was truly unmatched by other teams.

And because they have played together for a long time, the Arsenal players are very skilled in cooperating with each other, which also brings a greater threat to Crystal Palace's defense.

Due to pressure, Evra and Ribery on the two wings had to stay behind to help Chiellini and Maicon defend together.

Suddenly, the Crystal Palace fell into complete passivity.

Chen Ran didn't react yet, but the reporters in the stands became HIGH first.

"Haha, this is the true style of a strong team. Now when we meet Arsenal, Crystal Palace, this pseudo-strong team, has finally been exposed."

"That's right. Now Crystal Palace is suppressed by Arsenal and can't get past the midfield, and they can't even hit the counterattack they are good at. It seems that it will be a matter of time before Arsenal break the goal."

"Don't jump to conclusions yet, Crystal Palace's defensive capabilities are still very strong."

"It also depends on who the opponent is. In the League Cup final last season, Arsenal clearly underestimated the opponent, both as a coach and as a player. Now when we meet again, coach Wenger will not allow the same mistake to happen."

"Then let's see if Arsenal's attacking power is stronger, or if Crystal Palace's defensive ability is stronger."

...

Seeing the passive situation on the field, Chen Ran also frowned.

He knew very well that Arsenal had strong attacking power, but Crystal Palace would be very passive if they shrank defensively, and he was mentally prepared.

But he was a little surprised to be so passive now.

It seems that lack of physical fitness has had a greater impact on Crystal Palace than Chen Ran expected.

The movement of the Crystal Palace players on the field was obviously much less than usual.

Moreover, the speed of each movement is much slower than before, which obviously shows that the physical condition is not very good.

Fortunately, these team members have been working together for a long time and have developed a tacit understanding.

With each other's skillful defense changes and leakage correction, Arsenal's opening attack was finally withstood.

After the first twenty minutes of the game passed, Chen Ran breathed a sigh of relief.

The physical fitness of Arsenal players has also reached its first small bottleneck. Next, Crystal Palace can relax a little.

"not good!"

As soon as he picked up the mineral water on the sidelines and took a sip, Chen Ran exclaimed in surprise at what happened on the court.

I saw Crystal Palace captain Southgate suddenly stopped and limped without any physical confrontation.

"It's broken. It's probably a muscle strain."

This situation is very common, and Chen Ran immediately judged Southgate's possible injury.

Seeing that Southgate was already sitting on the field, the referee also stopped the game at the right time and called the team doctor on the sidelines to come in.

Although he still had to wait for the team doctor to make final confirmation, Chen Ran had already turned around and called Thiago Silva on the bench to warm up.

The house leaked and it rained all night.

Chen Ran smiled bitterly, wondering what he was afraid of.

Continuous high-intensity and high-density games are very easy for veterans like Southgate to cause injuries due to fatigue.

However, as the most experienced veteran of the Crystal Palace defense, how could Chen Ran not use it in such a crucial game?

Crystal Palace's current two backup centre-backs, Thiago Silva and Pepe, are 20 years old and 21 years old.

If there are some geniuses at the forward position who can play the main role at the age of 20, but at the center back position, no coach dares to use a 20-year-old young man as the main team.

In addition, Crystal Palace is still a team that wants to compete for the championship, which makes it even more impossible.

Although Thiago Silva and Pepe will grow into top central defenders in the future, one of them is still a little immature and the other is a little impatient.

Chen Ran was really worried about using them in a strong match against Arsenal.

There was no surprise. The team doctor on the field made a substitution gesture to Chen Ran.

"Thiago, when you go up, you are responsible for marking Bergkamp. Do your job well, you are the best!"

Chen Ran patted Thiago Silva on the back and was suddenly replaced. The young man's expression was a little stiff.

Upon hearing Chen Ran's encouragement, Thiago Silva just turned his head and grinned at him, showing an ugly smile, and rushed into the stadium without saying a word.

On the other side, seeing that Crystal Palace was forced to replace its main central defender, Pat Rice approached Wenger and said: "Boss, our opportunity has come."

Wenger smiled faintly, did not reply, and just walked from the bench to the sidelines.

At this time, Chen Ran almost focused all his attention on Thiago Silva, fearing that he would make a mistake.

It's a pity, what are you afraid of?

Maybe it’s because you haven’t adapted to the rhythm of the game just now, or maybe you’re too nervous?

Anyway, Thiago Silva had not been on the field for five minutes when he was picked up by Bergkamp in the penalty area and volleyed past the goal guarded by Cech, helplessly becoming the backdrop.

Arsenal scored first and Crystal Palace fell behind 0:1.

Chen Ran only felt that his eyesight was dark, and it was difficult to deal with it now.

Although he likes to use defensive counterattack tactics, this is only when Crystal Palace does not fall behind.

Now that Arsenal have scored one goal ahead, is there any point in continuing to defend?

Looking at Thiago Silva who looked depressed, Chen Ran sighed lightly, maybe this is the price he needs to pay for growth.

However, he had no time to care about Thiago Silva's mood now. He returned to the bench and rushed Toni, Crouch, Fabregas, Alves and other offensive players to warm up.

Chen Ran made such a big noise in the Crystal Palace, which immediately attracted Wenger's attention.

"This little guy from China seems to be about to make a move. Wenger lowered his head and glanced at his watch. There were still ten minutes before the end of the first half. "He didn't even want to wait for the halftime break. He seemed really anxious."

"He must be put under constant pressure and Crystal Palace cannot be given a chance to breathe."

Wenger murmured to himself as he walked to the sidelines and signaled the Arsenal players to continue attacking.

Fortunately, Thiago Silva was still up to par and was able to adjust his mentality immediately after losing the ball and did not make any more mistakes.

This also made Chen Ran feel relieved, and finally the worst situation did not happen.

The score of 0:1 remained until the end of the first half.

Returning to the locker room, Chen Ran immediately found Thiago Silva.

"Thiago, that goal conceded was entirely because Bergkamp was too strong and has nothing to do with you. Don't pay too much attention to it. Your performance will be very good in the subsequent games. Keep it up in the second half, do you understand?"

"I understand, thank you, boss."

Seeing that Chen Ran not only did not blame, but also came to comfort him, Thiago Silva nodded repeatedly in emotion.

"Diego, can your physical strength still hold up?"

Chen Ran looked back at Simone and asked.

"I have no problem, boss."

Simeone was wiping his sweat when he heard Chen Ran's question and made a powerful movement to show that he was full of energy.

"That's good. Guys, we were one goal behind in the first half, so in the second half we have to equalize or even overtake."

"So, in the second half, we are going to start attacking, and the team's style of play will also become a twin-tower tactic. Do you understand?"

"clear!"

The team members' answers were loud and neat. It seemed that morale was maintained well. Chen Ran nodded with satisfaction.

"Gareth, you are injured now, just stay in the locker room and rest."

Chen Ran looked at Southgate's thigh which was covered with ice packs and warned.

"Boss, I'd better go back to the bench. I can't sit still here."

"Then you should be more careful."

"I know, thank you boss."

At the beginning of the second half, Wenger saw Crystal Palace make personnel adjustments. Chen Ran replaced Yaya Toure with Tony.

"Replacing the midfielder with a forward, Crystal Palace is going to attack."

Wenger, who had already studied Crystal Palace thoroughly, immediately understood Chen Ran's intention.

However, Wenger didn't care about this and had no intention of retreating to strengthen defense.

In England, in terms of the team's attacking power, Arsenal currently has no one to fear.

With a one-goal lead, attacking with attack, Wenger was very confident.

Chen Ran's twin tower tactics this time also changed from the past.

He no longer used the combination of Toni and Crouch, but directly put Ronaldo and Toni at the front.

As soon as Crystal Palace pressed forward and attacked, the game immediately became better.

The two teams started to attack each other, which immediately made the fans and reporters excited.

"That's right. Crystal Palace's offensive power is obviously very strong, but they always like to stay behind and play defensive counterattacks, which makes the game fragmented and ugly."

"That's right. This is the level that a match between the top two teams in the Premier League should be."

"Haha, if Arsenal hadn't scored the first goal in the first half, it would have been absolutely impossible for the Chinese to take the initiative."

"Now that the two teams are attacking each other, we can see who is the most powerful attacking team in England. What do you think? Are you interested in taking a bet?"

"I beat Arsenal."

"I also beat Arsenal."

"Arsenal."

"Hey, hey, are you going too far? Isn't there anyone trying to suppress the Crystal Palace?"

"You."

"Fxxxk!"

...

Due to Southgate's injury, Crystal Palace was forced to use one substitution.

So now Chen Ran only has one last chance to make substitutions. In order to prevent the team from getting injured again, this makes him dare not make substitution adjustments easily.

But Tony's appearance was not very effective.

Because Arsenal's current central defender is Campbell who is at his peak.

Normal center backs would have a hard time defending Toni, but this black iron tower did not fall behind at all.

Fortunately, Arsenal's other central defender Kolo Toure was firmly suppressed by Ronaldo.

Cristiano Ronaldo is 187cm tall, while Kolo Toure is 183cm tall. Although Kolo Toure has a strong jumping ability, Ronaldo's jumping ability is stronger.

Chen Ran discovered this and immediately asked Evra and Ribery from the two wings to pass the ball to Ronaldo's head.

One, two... When Ronaldo grabbed consecutive headers, Wenger couldn't sit still.

"This Ronaldo is becoming more and more threatening now. We must find a way to contain him, otherwise problems may arise."

Wenger immediately sounded the alarm in his mind. Should he replace him with a tall defender to strengthen his defense?

For a moment, Wenger hesitated.

Arsenal does not have tall defenders. For example, Xigan and Senderos are both 192cm tall.

But both guys have their own problems. Sigan is thirty years old this year, while Senderos is only nineteen.

One is a bit old, and Wenger is worried that he cannot keep up with Ronaldo's speed; the other is too young, and has not played a few official games, and Wenger is worried that he will be fooled by Ronaldo.

This is also an important reason why Kolo Toure, who is not outstanding in height, can become Arsenal's main central defender.

Just when Wenger hesitated, Crystal Palace ushered in a turning point.

Evra dribbled the ball along the left wing and broke through. He tried to get past Arsenal's right back Lauren but failed. He had to pass the ball across to Cristiano Ronaldo who ran out of the Arsenal penalty area to receive the ball.

After Ronaldo received the ball, he passed the ball back to Modric who was following in the middle, and then immediately turned forward and moved forward.

Modric understood the idea and without any pause, he straightened up an arc and passed the ball into Arsenal's penalty area.

At this time, Kolo Toure, who followed Ronaldo out of the penalty area, was already left behind by Ronaldo, who turned back and entered the penalty area again.

Modric's pass was extremely heavy, as if it was tailor-made for Cristiano Ronaldo, it landed one meter in front of Cristiano Ronaldo and rebounded.

Ronaldo didn't need to make any adjustments, he just volleyed.

"boom!"

There was a loud noise, and the ball hit the lower edge of the crossbar of Arsenal's goal with great force.

Lehmann was also unlucky. When he saw Ronaldo throwing away Kolo Toure, he knew something was wrong and immediately moved over.

As soon as Ronaldo made a move to shoot, he had already made a save.

Lehmann's save was not untimely, but the ball was perfect in terms of power, speed and angle, but he was still a beat late.

When Lehmann pounced, the ball had bounced off the lower edge of the crossbar and hit him on the back of the head.

The ball that might have bounced out was blocked by the back of Lehmann's head and into the Arsenal goal.

"Goal..."

With Lehmann's help, Crystal Palace finally got a goal back, and the score became 1:1.

On the sidelines, Chen Ran and the Crystal Palace substitutes jumped up excitedly when they saw this scene.

This is really pie in the sky.

There was dead silence on Arsenal's bench.

No one spoke because they didn't know whether to be angry or funny.

Wenger covered his forehead with his hands, which was so measurable that people were speechless.

In the stands, the reporters also burst into laughter.

"OMG, how could this happen?"

"Oh, I can't do it anymore, my stomach hurts from laughing."

"This is probably the funniest goal of the season."

"Damn it, God is really helping that Chinese guy."

"This time, the score is back to a tie. It's hard to say who will win in the next game."
Chapter completed!