Chapter 545: A Seed Of Doubt!

The new week began without much time for Wigan to enjoy what they had just done.

Monday had been quiet, and the players, after the exhausting win over Brentford, had been given the day off, giving everyone a chance to recover before preparations for Arsenal began properly.

By Tuesday morning, however, the next game had already started taking shape.

For Leo, it began with a message from Dawson.

He was sitting on the couch basking in the early morning sunlight when his phone buzzed.

Leo picked it up and saw several video files waiting for him in his chat with Dawson, and beneath them was a short message: Study these before tomorrow’s session.

He stared at the files for a moment before opening the first one, and immediately, a video of Arsenal in transition appeared on his screen.

Seeing that, Leo let out a quiet laugh.

"And they say you won’t need to learn after making it as a pro."

"Learn what?"

The voice came from behind him, and Leo turned his head and found Vittoria leaning over the back of the couch, looking at his phone.

"I’ve been told to learn."

She raised an eyebrow before glancing at the screen and then looking back at Leo.

"Oh well."

Leo looked at her for a second, almost amused by how little sympathy she had shown him before pausing the video.

While he did so, Vittoria straightened up and started walking away.

"When are you back?"

She glanced over her shoulder.

"Not that long. My aunt just asked me to check something out."

Leo nodded as Vittoria continued to pick up her bag from the armchair and slipped it over her shoulder.

She walked toward the door, then stopped before looking back at Leo, who was still leaning against the couch, his attention partly on the phone and partly on her.

Vittoria walked back over, stopped in front of him and leaned down slightly before planting a small kiss on his mouth.

"See you later."

Right then, a horn sounded from somewhere outside, causing Leo to laugh as she pulled away.

"Your ride’s getting impatient."

Vittoria smirked before glancing towards the door.

"And she’s the one who’s usually late," she muttered before looking back at Leo.

"Have a nice day."

"You too," Leo replied before watching Vittoria head towards the door, and a few seconds later it closed behind him.

Whenever she went out, it felt like she took the whole mood of the apartment with her, and it was the same for Leo again.

The apartment suddenly felt noticeably quieter as he looked around without really thinking about anything in particular.

Then he got up and walked toward the kitchenette.

He grabbed a small bowl from the cupboard and reached for a box of cereal.

While doing so, he moved the video files Dawson had sent onto his laptop.

Leo opened the refrigerator and pulled out the milk before carrying everything back toward the couch.

He placed the bowl and milk beside him, then connected his laptop to the large television where the first video appeared on the screen.

Leo picked up the bowl, but then a second before he could start to watch the video, he frowned.

The sunlight he had been enjoying earlier was now making it hard for him to watch his video.

"This is annoying," he muttered, put the bowl down and got back up.

Walking over to the curtains, he pulled them across until the bright patch disappeared from the screen, sending the room into a bit more darkness as he glanced at the screen.

"Better."

He returned to the couch, sat down and pulled the bowl toward himself as the video resumed.

The whole subject of that video was Arsenal, with their shape, their movements and the way they reacted to their opponents when they had the ball in certain areas.

Leo ate as he watched.

At first, he was still treating it like breakfast, but then, somewhere around the fifth minute, he stopped paying attention to the cereal.

His spoon remained in the bowl, but it remained untouched as the footage had moved into an Arsenal defensive sequence.

This was the kind of low block that Wigan was going to play against.

Leo watched the way Arsenal’s players positioned themselves around the penalty area, and he also saw how coordinated and well-structured they looked.

How one player stepped out, but immediately, another dropped back, and aside that, how the midfield adjusted to work in tandem with the defence to squeeze the ball out of the opponents.

Leo rewound it and watched it again before it went on, showing similar patterns across games and how almost unsinkable that defensive ship looked, and as he watched, his eyes narrowed slightly.

How are we going to score against them?

That was the first thing that came to mind.

Wigan had players capable of hurting teams, but this was different.

Aside from the obvious quality in players, Arsenal had the physicality to make certain situations uncomfortable.

Jake was the obvious player who could match them physically, the target man they used to pin teams, but he was out at the moment.

Fletcher could perhaps handle some of it, but even that depended on where and how he was used.

Leo was tall himself, standing at around 184 centimetres, but height wasn’t the issue.

His physical attributes still left plenty to be desired, and against a team like Arsenal, he couldn’t simply rely on strength.

His passing, the biggest strength in his game, could only work if he got the chance to do so, but with how the Arsenal team played, it was going to be very hard to get those chances.

After going on to watch for half an hour more, Leo paused the video that had now been going on for almost an hour total.

He stared at the frozen image for several seconds before reaching for his phone, and soon enough, his thumb found Dawson’s contact.