Because of the problem of housing shortage in England, Chen Ran decided to build a new stadium on the existing land.

In the new season, Crystal Palace's original home stadium Selhurst Park will become history, and the Football Association has also approved Crystal Palace's application to share Highbury Stadium with Arsenal.

Coincidentally, the traditional Community Shield match before the start of the Premier League happens to be between last season's Premier League champion Crystal Palace and last season's FA Cup champion Arsenal.

The game was held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Vieira, who had just transferred from Arsenal to Crystal Palace this summer, was also put into the Crystal Palace starting lineup by Chen Ran.

I guess Vieira himself didn't expect to face his old club so soon.

On Arsenal's side, Hleb, newly introduced in the summer, also appeared in the starting lineup.

When Louis reported to Chen Ran the transfer situation of several wealthy clubs, Chen Ran was a little puzzled.

After Arsenal let go of midfielder Vieira, they bought an attacking player named Hleb who mainly plays as an attacking midfielder and wide midfielder.

Is Wenger so confident in Arsenal's reserve of midfielders?

This Community Shield match is a good time to see what medicine Wenger is selling.

Because the new Premier League season will officially start in a week, Chen Ran also sent all the main players for this game against Arsenal to test the effectiveness of Crystal Palace's previous preparations.

center toney

Left midfielder Ronaldo, attacking midfielder Modric, right midfielder Franck Ribery

Midfielder Vieira, Midfielder Simeone

Left back Chiellini, center back Southgate, center back Vidic, right back Maicon

Cech

On Arsenal's side, Wenger also played the main role

Forward Henry, Forward Bergkamp

Left midfielder Pires, central midfielder Gilberto Silva, central midfielder Hleb, right midfielder Ljungberg

Left back Ashley Cole, center back Kolo Toure, center back Campbell, right back Lauren

Goalkeeper Lehmann

When Chen Ran saw Wenger placing Hleb in the middle, he was not only impressed by Wenger's courage.

Using such a player who is obviously strong in offense and weak in defense to play in the middle is to leave all the defensive tasks to Gilberto Silva alone.

What is Wenger trying to do?

Use offense instead of defense?

Do you think you can't find a suitable player to replace Vieira, so you just give up defense and use offense to suppress your opponent?

Haha, let’s take a look at Arsenal’s lineup, compared with Crystal Palace, who suppresses whom.

Because the nature of the Community Shield match was more like a friendly match, Chen Ran adopted Guardiola's tactics and attacked fiercely from the start.

Just as Chen Ran predicted, Wenger really wanted to use offense instead of defense.

As soon as the referee blew the whistle to start the game, Arsenal all started attacking.

This time, fans who came to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium were in for a treat.

The two teams, Crystal Palace and Arsenal, both attacked aggressively. Both teams played with great enthusiasm and were not conservative at all. The game was extremely beautiful.

But soon, the situation on the field began to tilt towards Crystal Palace.

Because Hleb, the Arsenal midfielder who is responsible for organizing the offense, obviously cannot meet Wenger's expectations and has always been difficult to overcome the Crystal Palace midfield defense line composed of Vieira and Simeone.

On the two wings, whether it is Pires plus Ashley Cole against Ribery and Maicon, or Ljungberg plus Lauren against Cristiano Ronaldo and Chiellini, Arsenal have both

Not much cheaper.

Especially on Ronaldo's side, Ljungberg and Laurent were clearly at a disadvantage and were beaten to death by Ronaldo.

Less than twenty minutes into the game, the entire Arsenal formation was forced back into their own half by Crystal Palace bit by bit.

Henry and Bergkamp, ​​who stayed in front, did not receive support from the midfield, and their power was greatly reduced.

The initiative on the court once again fell into the hands of Crystal Palace.

Seeing this situation, Chen Ran on the sidelines was completely relieved. Wenger's strategy of using offense instead of defense had no effect on Crystal Palace at least.

Thinking of this, Chen Ran glanced at Wenger on the other side and saw that the professor's face was gloomy, and he was obviously not in a good mood.

At this time, Wenger was actually not really angry.

This method of using offense instead of defense is just a helpless move on his part.

In fact, Wenger had already been mentally prepared as to how effective it would be.

This strategy is fine against weak teams, but it probably won't be effective against strong teams like Crystal Palace because there is no suppression at all.

It's not that Wenger doesn't want to buy a defensive midfielder to replace Vieira, but that good defensive midfielders are too expensive in the current transfer market.

Seeing that Chelsea spent a full 50 million euros to buy Essien, Wenger knew that given Arsenal's current financial situation, it would be better to give up this unrealistic idea.

Because of the nature of the Community Shield competition, the two coaches did not attach much importance to the outcome.

Neither Chen Ran nor Wenger made too many adjustments.

Near the end of the first half, Crystal Palace finally broke the deadlock with a header from Cristiano Ronaldo, which broke the goal guarded by Lehmann.

Crystal Palace leads Arsenal 1:0.

During the halftime break, Chen Ran used up all 5 substitutions at once.

Jan Kohler, Evra, Alves, Mascherano and Yaya Toure were all substituted.

Wenger's side was not as radical as Chen Ran, but he also changed three players.

The second half of the game was still very open, with Alves and Henry scoring a goal each.

In the end, Crystal Palace defeated Arsenal 2:1 and won the Community Shield for the first time.

"Ding, congratulations to the host for winning the first game of the new season and getting a first-level harvest card. The attendance rate of Crystal Palace's next three home games will definitely reach 100%."

"Huh? The system really does what it says. It really has something new."

Chen Ran looked at the first-level harvest card in the system curiously.

Although no money was given directly, considering that this season Crystal Palace will play at Highbury Stadium, a place they are unfamiliar with, this can be regarded as a disguised gift of money.

You must know that Arsenal's Highbury Stadium is located in North London, and most Crystal Palace fans live in South London.

If they wanted to go to Highbury Stadium to watch the game, they would have to travel through most of London from south to north.

Therefore, Chen Ran is not sure how many fans will be willing to travel long distances to Highbury Stadium to watch Crystal Palace games in the new season.

If the stadium is empty when playing home games, wouldn't it be ugly for the defending champion Crystal Palace?

Well now, with this first-level harvest card, at least the attendance of Crystal Palace's first three home games is guaranteed.

As long as we continue to get harvest cards in the following games, those Crystal Palace ticket revenue will not have to worry about this season.

You know, Highbury Stadium can accommodate more than 38,000 spectators, while Crystal Palace's original Selhurst Park stadium can only accommodate more than 26,000 spectators.

If all calculations are based on the maximum capacity, Crystal Palace's ticket revenue this season can increase by at least 50%.

At this moment, Chen Ran felt that although it was not as enjoyable as giving money directly before, the new changes in the system were not bad, and he hoped there would be more surprises in the future.

One week later, the 2005-2006 Premier League season officially started.

In the first round, Crystal Palace faced Charlton at home.

Before the game, what Chen Ran was most worried about was not Charlton as his opponent, but whether the first-level harvest card in his hand was really effective.

So much so that after the team took the bus to Highbury Stadium, Chen Ran was reluctant to enter the dressing room.

He asked Guardiola, Southgate and Simeone to take the players to the locker room to prepare for the game, while he stayed outside to observe the fans entering the stadium.

When he saw fans wearing Crystal Palace jerseys constantly appearing in the stands of Highbury Stadium, and the seats were gradually filling up, Chen Ran felt relieved.

It seems that this first-level harvest card is indeed effective.

There is nothing much to say about the game itself. Compared with Crystal Palace, Charlton's strength is very different.

From the first minute of the game, Chen Ran directed Crystal Palace to attack with all its strength.

In the first half, Toni and Vidic took advantage of the set-piece opportunity and each scored a header. In the second half, Ronaldo performed a solo breakthrough and scored a single goal.

In the end, Crystal Palace easily defeated Charlton with a score of 3:0 in the first game at Highbury Stadium.

"Ding, congratulations to the host for winning the Premier League match. The special reward for winning is 2 million euros."

"Hey, it seems that the winning bonus has not been completely cancelled. Unfortunately, the bonus has not been increased, it is still 2 million euros."

Although there were no surprises this time, Chen Ran was still very satisfied with the money.

In other games in this round, Chelsea defeated Wigan Athletic 1:0 away from home, Manchester United defeated Everton 2:0 away from home, Arsenal defeated Newcastle United 2:0 away from home, and Liverpool won 0:0 away from home.

Drawn by Middlesbrough.

After the first round of the Premier League, Crystal Palace once again ranked first in the Premier League with its goal difference advantage.

A week later, in the second round of the Premier League, there were two strong dialogue contests.
To be continued...