Chapter 777 - 141: Cruyff Turn! The Emperor’s New Clothes! Hellish Christmas Schedule! Respect Is Not Earned by Kneeling

"Right now, this situation is absolutely detrimental to us. The longer it drags on, the worse it gets. It’ll have an increasingly negative impact on your image and authority. If this drags on until the Golden Ball Award ceremony..."

Hearing this, Blatter’s eyes widened, a trace of gloom flickering within them.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Blatter asked, looking somewhat defeated.

For the first time, this arrogant emperor of the football world felt a sense of powerlessness.

Valcke and Nichols exchanged a glance before the latter stepped forward.

"First, we need to quickly cool down public opinion. We can’t let the media frenzy continue to brew like this."

Blatter let out a sigh and leaned heavily back in his chair.

"Alright, hurry up and come up with a plan!"

As a Chinese player, Wang Shuo didn’t really care much about Christmas. Having spent a long time training and playing abroad by himself, he didn’t have much of a psychological need to spend the holiday with family. But his teammates obviously didn’t feel the same way.

The biggest difference between the Premier League and other leagues was that it didn’t have a winter break. Not only did it lack a break, but the schedule during the winter period was even more packed. Playing two matches in three days was the norm. Furthermore, teams generally didn’t get any time off around Christmas. Even on Christmas Day itself, training went on as usual. At most, they would train in the morning and have the afternoon off. But the next morning, because there were matches later in the day, the team would have to assemble again.

How could this feeling be described? It was like not being able to rest during New Year’s Eve and the Spring Festival holidays. Not only did you have to go to work every day, but the workload was exceptionally heavy and exhausting. The worst part was that there wasn’t even triple overtime pay.

Psychologically, it was incredibly hard for the players to accept. This was especially true for the Arsenal squad, where many were Premier League rookies experiencing this kind of Christmas schedule for the very first time. It was an absolute nightmare!

One visible change was that after playing Aston Villa, everyone’s morale was generally low. Even during training, it was hard to stay as focused as usual; their minds had completely wandered. The most discussed topics in the locker room were the training schedule, when they could go home, and Christmas shopping.

If a player’s family chose to come to London to spend the holidays together, the situation was relatively better. The problem was that most players’ families chose to stay in their hometowns. That made things troublesome. It was like a company demanding you stay and work overtime on New Year’s Eve without extra pay, all while expecting you to be more focused and dedicated than usual. Was that even possible?

Issues like the congested schedule and physical exhaustion could be solved through substitutions and squad rotations. But there was truly no way to fix the players’ mental states.

On Christmas Day, the team was supposed to gather at 8:00 AM, but several players ended up being late. Training was dismissed by 9:00 AM. The following morning, the team assembled once again to prepare for the afternoon match. Arsenal actually had it relatively easy, as they were hosting Wolves at home.

When scheduling the matches on the 26th, the Premier League often made some deliberate arrangements based on the principle of proximity. For example, Chelsea played Fulham, Liverpool played Blackburn, Manchester United played Wigan Athletic, and so on. Matches were generally scheduled between teams that were close to each other. Otherwise, imagine making Newcastle from the north travel down to London in the south for a match. Wouldn’t they have had to travel on Christmas night?

But even with this proximity principle, the situation remained terrible across the board.

Chelsea drew 1-1 with Fulham. Liverpool drew 1-1 with Blackburn. West Bromwich Albion drew 0-0 with Manchester City. Arsenal drew 1-1 with Wolves, with Wang Shuo assisting Hazard in scoring their only goal.

Manchester United was the sole exception, crushing Wigan Athletic 5-0 at home. How did they win? The Old Trafford advantage! In the first half, the opposing team was given a red card and had a player sent off. After that, Van Persie scored a hat-trick, helping Manchester United demolish their opponents 5-0.

After this round, the Gunners continued to lead the table with 47 points. Manchester United overtook Manchester City with 45 points, moving into second place. Manchester City sat in third with 43 points.

On December 31st, in the 19th round of the Premier League, Arsenal played an away match against Queens Park Rangers.

Although Arsenal’s form had recovered somewhat after a few days of rest, they still hadn’t managed to shake off the effects of the grueling Christmas schedule. The most obvious sign of this was the players’ overall lack of energy, leading them to continuously miss prime scoring opportunities.

Throughout the first half, Arsenal dominated with a ball possession rate of 68.9%. Wang Shuo created several excellent chances, but his teammates failed to capitalize on them. It wasn’t until the 77th minute that Alexandre Song delivered a precise through ball. Receiving the pass on the left side of the penalty box, Wang Shuo slotted a left-footed shot into the near corner.

1-0!

This would turn out to be the only goal of the entire match!

Poor form remained a widespread phenomenon across the league in this round. For example, Liverpool, despite conceding first at home, rallied back with three consecutive goals to pull off a 3-1 comeback victory over Newcastle.

Manchester United, who had won by a landslide in the previous round, lost 2-3 at home to Blackburn, despite Van Persie scoring a brace. Chelsea fared even worse. After drawing at home against Fulham in the previous round, they suffered a disastrous 1-3 comeback defeat at home against Aston Villa, despite taking an early lead. Two of those three goals were conceded in the final ten minutes. The players simply couldn’t concentrate!

A similar situation happened to Manchester City. Filled with rookies who hadn’t yet adapted to the Premier League’s relentless winter schedule, Manchester City failed to score during regular time, much like Sunderland. But in the dying moments of stoppage time, Manchester City suffered a devastating last-minute winner from their opponents.