Chapter 225: Belgian or Belgian King?
4 days later, Selhurst Park, London, England.

There are 20 minutes left in the 45th round of the Premier League, the London derby between Crystal Palace and Chelsea.

Compared to other derbies, the London derby is undoubtedly the most frequent. The reason is very simple, there are really many football teams in London.

In addition to Arsenal, Tottenham, and old giants such as Chelsea, there are also teams such as Fulham, Brentford, Queen's Park, Watford, etc. in London, including Chelsea's opponent today, Crystal Palace.

Last summer, Crystal Palace spent a high price of 1390 million euros to buy French midfielder Cabaye from Paris Saint-Germain. For a time, they were very arrogant. At the beginning of the season, they even ranked in the top eight of the standings, much better than Chelsea, which was ranked last at the time.

But then something went wrong. Before the season was even halfway through, the team's summer signing Cabaye was injured. And it wasn't just Cabaye. Today, Crystal Palace had a total of 6 injured players, the most in the Premier League (tied with Arsenal for first place).

For this poor and dilapidated team, Mourinho's tactics are very simple.

"Crush them!"

Mourinho slapped the tactical board. The huge impact force caused many magnetic buttons on the tactical board to pop out and fall to the ground, making a "pa pa pa pa" sound.

Jiang Yuan glanced at Zouma beside him and saw a smile on the French defender's face.

"Little Kurt, why do you look so happy?"

Zuma rolled his eyes at Jiang Yuan, somewhat dissatisfied with his behavior of calling him "Little Kurt". However, because Jiang Yuan said it so many times, he gradually accepted this name.

"I'm happy? Haha, of course, because we're about to win three games in a row!"

amount……

Jiang Yuan curled his lips. He had seen people opening champagne at halftime, but he had never seen anyone opening champagne before the game even started.

……

"Zhuangdianertai, Zhuangdianertai!"

"Here is the live broadcast of the 20th round of the Premier League, Crystal Palace vs Chelsea"

"The referee for this match is Kevin Friend, and the referee is already looking at his watch!"

"The game has begun. Let me introduce the starting lineups of both teams. First up is the home team, Crystal Palace. Attack from the left side of the screen to the right side!"

Crystal Palace (4-4-1-1)

Goalkeeper: Hennessey
Defenders: Ward, Dann, Delaney, Soares
Midfielders: Li Qinglong, Jedinak, McArthur, Zaha

Forwards: Ponjon, Fraser
Head coach: Alan Pardew
"Then it's Chelsea. It's the same lineup as before, but today substitute center forward Remy replaces Costa in the starting lineup."

"..."

Less than 3 minutes into the game, the director's camera turned to Abramovich in the VIP stands. The Blues' director was chatting and laughing with a woman next to him.

The woman is a wealthy businessman in London and also a shareholder of Crystal Palace. However, her fame is not as great as Abramovich's, and only local British people know her.

Seeing the camera focusing on him, Abu picked up the champagne on the table, gestured towards the camera, and then drank it all in one gulp.

"Wow!"

More than 2 home fans at Selhurst Park burst into exclamations. Abramovich's provocation was indeed obvious.

However, considering Chelsea's performance in recent games, Abramovich's behavior is understandable.

2 goals scored in 8 games and 0 goals conceded, let's ask if Crystal Palace can break Chelsea's goal today!
The 12th minute of the game!

"Go to the side, don't worry, just go to the side first!"

Mourinho was directing on the sidelines. After Fabregas got the ball, he was ready to pass it to William in the middle, but after hearing Mourinho's call, he chose to pass the ball to Jiang Yuan on the right. Jiang Yuan and William made a simple wall pass, then crossed the midfield line and ran towards the Crystal Palace half.

Now the division of labor in each position of Chelsea is very clear. Fabregas is responsible for advancing and counterattacking from the backcourt to the frontcourt, and William is responsible for the connection between the left and right sides.

Then there were Hazard and Jiang Yuan. These two guys launched dangerous attacks after receiving passes from their teammates and opened up the situation on the field.

Judging from the situation on the scene, Chelsea has now reached the third stage.

After running to the right position, Jiang Yuan and Fabregas made a quick cross run on the right, with Fabregas replacing Jiang Yuan to complete the task of going down the bottom. As for Jiang Yuan, he had already run to the middle to prepare for the response.

"Let Fabregas go to the back line. This is a very clever choice for Chelsea. Jiang Yuan and William switch positions again. Jiang Yuan is almost to the left now. What's going on?"

"William got rid of MacArthur's defense, received Fabregas' pass, and pulled back with his right foot...through the crotch! William's pull passed through MacArthur's crotch, and the ball was given to Jiang Yuan"

"Chelsea's substitution in the frontcourt was very confusing, and Crystal Palace's defenders seemed to be unable to react."

"Hazard is on the left, moving forward, can Jiang Yuan pass the ball?"

At this time, Jiang Yuan was standing outside the top of the arc, and Hazard was being watched by Ward and Li Qinglong on the left.

If it were William, he would definitely choose to pass the ball to Hazard, but Jiang Yuan did not have William's passing level after all. After thinking it over, he hung the ball to the bottom line with his left foot.

Fabregas stopped the ball and passed it back to William, who then lofted it into the penalty area.

William's 45-degree lob was a bit deep, and Crystal Palace goalkeeper Hennessey felt he had a chance to get the ball, so he simply rushed out.

At the same time, Remy in the small penalty area also jumped up, ready to complete the shot with a header, but just before Remy touched the ball, Hennessey's hand hit his ear.

"referee!"

The remaining nine Chelsea outfield players simultaneously reached out to the referee Friend.

The goalkeeper hit the attacking player's ear, it's 100% a penalty!
The damn Crystal Palace fans even wanted to come up and argue, Jiang Yuan and William pulled Dane and Delaney away respectively. You will definitely not be given a chance to explain at this time!
"Beep!"

Ferland walked to the edge of the penalty area, pointed to the penalty spot, and then gave Hennessey a yellow card.

"Penalty! It's penalty!"

“a chance for the visiting team!”

"Here is... Harzard!"

The camera focused on Hazard as the Belgian spun the ball around in his hands before carefully placing it on the penalty spot.

The referee went up to take a look and saw that the white dot on the penalty spot was completely covered, so he began to check the positions of the players from both teams.

After confirming, Flanders blew the whistle.

"call……"

Hazard exhaled, ran up and shot, the ball hit the goal post on the left side of the goal and rolled into the net. Hennessey guessed the direction correctly, but it was obviously useless.

"GOOOOO-AAAAAAAAA-LLLLLLLL!"

"Hazard scored a penalty kick. In the 15th minute of the game, the visiting team Chelsea opened the scoring!"

"Very decisive, Hazard took the penalty without any hesitation!"

The 0:0 in the upper left corner of the screen turned into 0:1 the second after Hazard scored. This was Chelsea's third shot on target in the game and also the first penalty goal.

At this time, the director's camera turned to Abramovich in the VIP stand again. Abramovich filled his glass with champagne and then toasted the directors of Crystal Palace.

The Russians are really unambiguous when it comes to provocation. When the directors of the two clubs stand together, people who don't know would think they have a good relationship.

Alan Pardew frowned, but fortunately he didn't know what had just happened in the VIP stands, otherwise, as the head coach of Crystal Palace, Pardew would definitely be sweating profusely.

The employee didn't do his job well and brought shame to the boss!

"Fuck you!"

"Oh shit!"

"..."

The home team fans closest to the Chelsea stands began to attack the visiting team players, but to be honest, this attack was completely useless.

Players in top leagues usually start being scolded by fans at the age of 16. They will definitely get angry when they hear words like "fuck", but they will not say anything.

European fans like to say fuck, which is the same as Chinese fans like to say idiot.

The game reached the 45th minute and the fourth official gave extra time for the first half.

1 minutes!

"Chelsea's ball possession rate was very high, 60%! Well, this ball possession rate is really good, because Crystal Palace is not a particularly weak team in the Premier League after all, and it is very good for Chelsea to play like this."

"But apart from Hazard's penalty, Chelsea didn't seem to find any suitable opportunities."

"Like we said at the beginning of the game, Crystal Palace used 442 today, basically determined to play a defensive counterattack."

"Hey, speaking of defensive counterattacks, Jiang Yuan made a mistake while dribbling the ball on the right, and failed to get the ball back."

"Soare made a long pass to the right and Li Qinglong got the ball!"

"The situation was not good. Captain Terry was signaling the players to return to defense. Li Qinglong attacked Chelsea's defense from the right. He did not choose to pass the ball but passed it directly to Jedinak."

"William and Mikel rushed forward together, making a wonderful block, and Jedinak's ball possession was destroyed!"

Seeing this scene, Chelsea fans in front of the screen all breathed a sigh of relief. Chelsea's passing and controlling style of play still makes fans feel more at ease, but the most terrifying thing is when the opponent counterattacks.

Speed/long pass + shooting, as long as the weak team is good at these two aspects, it can deal a fatal blow to the strong team.

Fortunately, the Crystal Palace players had relatively rough skills and missed all the opportunities that came to them.

In the VIP stand, 20 minutes ago, Fraser, a female shareholder of Crystal Palace, asked the servant to pour wine into her goblet, but she hasn't had the chance to drink it yet.

"Beep!"

The first half of the game is over and it is now halftime.

In the visiting team's locker room at the stadium, Chelsea's players entered the locker room one after another. The last one to come in was Abramovich, who came down from the VIP stand. Abramovich walked in with his arms open and looked in a good mood.

"Children, I'm here to see you!"

Unexpectedly, Mourinho pulled the wooden door of the locker room and closed it slowly:

"Mr. Roman, it's game time now. Please do not enter the locker room if you have no connection with me."

Abramovich spread his hands and said: "Please, I'm here to cheer for the players, why don't you let me in?"

“Our players’ morale is high”

"oh~"

Abramovich curled his lips. Mourinho seemed to still be angry about the winter transfer budget issue.

As Mourinho said, professionals should do professional things, and the amateur Abramovich should have no chance to enter Chelsea's locker room today.

After walking out of the locker room, Abramovich went to the bathroom to wash his face. He wanted to laugh, but couldn't.

Mourinho is the first coach who dares to reject the chairman outside the locker room. He is so tough after the winning streak!
……

The second half of the game begins, 61st minute!

At Pardew's urging, Jedinak passed the ball to MacArthur on the left, who then passed it to the left. Zaha, Crystal Palace's left winger, now had the ball, and his best skill was speed!

"Snapped!"

Zaha stopped and passed, and the sudden acceleration made Jiang Yuan unable to react.

Nima!

Jiang Yuan ran back immediately. At other times, he might not have returned to defend, but Zaha used his speed to force his way past him, which was too disrespectful to Jiang Yuan.

"Zaha from Crystal Palace is very fast! Jiang Yuan started a little slow, but he is actively catching up"

"Fabregas moves forward, trying to block Zaha's forward route, and MacArthur asks for the ball in the middle"

"Zaha looked back and didn't choose to pass the ball...he wanted to break through himself!"

Judging from the scene, Jiang Yuan, who returned to defense at a very fast speed, did not close the distance between him and Zaha.

The reason is simple. Jiang Yuan's starting speed is very fast, but if you compare the maximum speed, the gap between him and Zaha is actually not that big. In the case of a weak position, if Zaha does not make a mistake with the ball, it is still difficult for Jiang Yuan to catch up.

Fortunately, Fabregas was blocking the way in front, so Zaha had no choice but to dribble the ball by himself instead of passing the ball.

It can also be seen from this behavior that the Ivorian winger's football IQ is not high.

Jiang Yuan originally had no chance, so isn't this putting the opportunity directly into Jiang Yuan's mouth?
Jiang Yuan came in from the side and decisively fell to the ground to tackle the ball.

"Fuck!"

Zaha cursed loudly, and his right foot was caught by Jiang Yuan's calf, and he fell directly to the ground.

"Beep!"

Flanders hurried over and showed Jiang Yuan a yellow card.

Because Zaha had broken through a bit deep and Crystal Palace was counterattacking, it was not a loss for Jiang Yuan to get the yellow card.

Some fans of the visiting team were unable to tell whether Jiang Yuan's behavior was right or wrong, so they simply looked at the bench.

Mourinho was applauding on the sidelines.

This is undoubtedly a beautiful defense!

"Crystal Palace's set piece came out, Zouma got the first point and headed the ball to Fabregas"

"Crystal Palace's set piece turned into a corner kick for Chelsea!"

"..."

"Remy passes the ball back to Hazard, who shoots it straight at the far end!"

"The ball goes in! In the 66th minute of the game, Hazard scored twice!"

“Wow, oh my god, haha!”

“What a beautiful shot!”

The on-site director also understood the program effects very well. After the goal replay, he immediately turned the camera to Abramovich in the VIP stands.

This was the third glass of wine Abramovich drank during today's game, and the second glass of wine he toasted to Fraser.

"Your team still needs to practice."

Abu gently placed the wine glass back on the coffee table with a smile on his face.

Fraser was speechless after being scolded by Abramovich and could only smile on the side.

10 goals in three games, it has to be said that Chelsea's recent form is a bit outrageous.

[Abu is pretending like this? I'm going to have a drink with him, and I'll make him drunk! ]

[? ? Fuck you, they are drinking Louis Roederer champagne and you are drinking 3 dollar Snowflake]

[It hurts my heart]

[Chelsea fans have been having a great time these days, just like they were celebrating a holiday. They haven’t lost a single game]

[You guys are just generally happy. My neighbor's college classmate's kid's friend goes to the same school as Jiang Yuan, and he even got Xiao Jiang's autograph at the New Year's Eve party!]

【6666666】

[My King of Balls, you are finally back, woooo. I have been waiting so long! ]

[Hazard is already the last version, this version depends on Jiang Yuan. Let me ask you, if Xiao Jiang hadn't lost the ball just now, would Chelsea have had a chance to counterattack? ]

[My friend above, are you obsessed with Jiang Yuan and want to praise him everywhere? ]

[Objective analysis: Jiang Yuan's breakthroughs are sharp, but the problem of always losing the ball is really uncomfortable. Can Mourinho train him? I feel that if Jiang Yuan's problem of losing the ball can be solved, Chelsea's ball possession rate will increase by at least 5%! ]

[Fake fans are still analyzing Chelsea, while real fans are already analyzing the National Olympic Team. This Wei Shihao is also an overseas player. Is there anyone who knows how good he is? ]

……

After Hazard scored twice, Chelsea took back control of the game.

In the 73rd minute, Crystal Palace made a substitution, striker Shamah replaced Jedinak. It can be seen that Pardew is still quite ambitious when playing at home.

At the same time as the substitution, Crystal Palace's on-field formation changed to 433. Compared with the previous purely defensive 4411, the 433 formation is obviously more offensively dangerous.

Mourinho did not show any weakness and replaced William with Oscar in the 78th minute, a positional substitution at the attacking midfielder position.

Obviously, Mourinho is not afraid of Crystal Palace's counterattack at all.

Time passed by, and since Crystal Palace made a substitution in the 73rd minute, Chelsea's possession rate has dropped significantly. The reason is simple: more Crystal Palace players are involved in the frontcourt press.

Chelsea has three forwards, Hazard, Remy and Jiang Yuan. Except for Hazard, the other two have poor ball control ability.

If you let Jiang Yuan break through, there will be no problem; but if you want him to control the ball and protect it, it will be a bit difficult.

However, the advantages of the players' personal abilities still brought opportunities to Chelsea. In the 79th minute, the next minute after Mourinho completed the substitution, Courtois hugged the ball in the corner defense. The Belgian goalkeeper ran out with the ball without any hesitation and threw the ball to Fabregas in front with a strong hand throw.

Fabregas made a slight adjustment and used the arch of his foot to knock the ball in front of Jiang Yuan.

Chelsea’s first rule of counterattack, find Jiang Yuan!

"Jiang Yuan pulled the ball and accelerated towards the bottom line of Crystal Palace"

"..."

"Remy's long-range shot was saved, Crystal Palace successfully defended... Hennessey's penalty saved fell to Jiang Yuan's feet"

"Adjust a little bit and see if you can shoot. Well, Jiang Yuan chose to dribble the ball in the middle."

"Delaney has no intention of letting Jiang Yuan go. Jiang Yuan has no choice but to choose. This position is good now. We can pass the ball to Remi in the middle. Wow! Fried meatballs!"

"Beautiful! Jiang Yuan's fried meatballs successfully passed Delaney."

"He fell down! Jiang Yuan fell down! Let's see what happened!"

The commentator of CCTV5 shouted it out, and the next second, the director gave a replay.

At the edge of the penalty area, Jiang Yuan passed the ball from his right foot to his left foot, and then from his left foot to his right foot, moving to the right. When Jiang Yuan was about to pass through Delaney's left side, Delaney stretched out his legs and his thigh caught Jiang Yuan's knee.

No doubt about it, a definite penalty!

Sure enough, before the players of the two teams could clash in the penalty area, Ferland, who had rushed over, pointed to the penalty spot.

Delaney's foul did not result in a yellow card, but it gave Chelsea a very crucial penalty.

The live broadcast room gave Hazard's penalty success rate this season. The Belgian's penalty success rate so far this season is still 100%!

"Hazard is standing on the penalty spot. He already has two goals. Let's see if Hazard can complete a hat trick today."

"This is the closest Hazard has come to a hat trick this season...it goes in!"

"Oh my God, in the 82nd minute of the game, Hazard scored a penalty kick"

"Hat trick! Hat trick from Hazard!"

"Wowhuu~!!!"

After scoring the penalty, Hazard was very decisive. He ran to the left and started his third sliding celebration in this game.

Chelsea's fight song won't help Hazard at Selhurst Park, but don't forget, Hazard is a man with his own background music!

The fragrance of pear blossoms, lingering on the corners of clothes, sweeps through the crowds~

Quietly enter the red curtain deep tent~
Listen to the oriole singing on the tree branches and the breeze flowing around your fingers...

"Come!"

After sliding to his knees, Hazard quickly turned around and hugged Jiang Yuan who was running over to him: "Good buddy, come here!"

Hazard turned around and motioned Jiang Yuan to jump on his back.

Immediately afterwards, the Belgian superstar carried Jiang Yuan on his back and turned twice on the left.

When drinking water, one should remember the person who dug the well. After scoring a hat trick, of course one should not forget the teammates who created the point for him!

In the stands, Abramovich raised the glass in his hand. This was the third glass of Princess Louis he toasted to Fraser today.

The score on the field at this time is 0:3!

After 4 minutes of stoppage time, Vlad blew the whistle to end the game.

In the end, Chelsea, playing away, defeated Crystal Palace 3:0 and successfully won today's London derby.

After winning this game, the attention of the Blues fans will shift to the transfer window. Many media reported that Chelsea had asked for Ibrahimovic's price before, but it was also strange that before the transfer window opened, a bunch of newspaper reporters vowed that Ibrahimovic would transfer to Chelsea after the winter transfer window opened.

As a result, now that the winter transfer window has been open for almost a week, the British and French media, which had been making a lot of noise, have fallen silent again.

In response to this, The Sun implicated several British newspapers including The Guardian and The Times in its latest issue, arguing that the news published by these newspapers was not authentic and was suspected of misleading fans.

Mourinho personally came out to interview after the game.

"Hi Jose, I'm Elisa from ESPN and I want to ask you about Zlatan. Will you bring him to London?"

Mourinho shrugged and smiled.

“We’ll find out soon enough.”

……

(End of this chapter)