Chapter 30: A Crazy Streak

The number of professional players who play in the Premier League is probably the most games in the top five leagues.

The Premier League is already packed with fixtures, and there is no winter break yet.

In the cup competition, England also has two more cup competitions.

FA Cup and League Cup.

The FA Cup is an older competition than the English professional league, and it still has a certain status in England.

The League Cup is a cup match between the English professional league and the FA, and only teams from the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two can participate.

Premier League teams join from the third round.

Manchester United's league clash with Southampton was followed by a Carabao Cup tie against Championship side Ipswich Town in midweek.

To Ancelotti's annoyance, England's fixture schedule really made him quite angry.

The League Cup is on the 24th, while Manchester United's next league opponent is Sunderland, the game is on the 26th, and the two games are just two days apart, with only one day off in between!

Iboševich is not a weak team, they are old fritters in the Championship.

There may be a lot of debate about the best top-flight league in the world, but the Championship is definitely the best second-tier league.

The gap between the strength of the Championship teams and the relegation teams in the Premier League is very small, especially for teams like Ipsevic who are on the top of the Championship.

The two games were so close that Ancelotti had to focus on one game.

It is said that Manchester United has won six consecutive league games, and the league schedule is still quite long, so it is nothing to put a proper round of league games. But Carlo Ancelotti would never think so.

He has already seen the crisis in the last round of the league, that is, Manchester United's bench strength is not enough!

He has already started to think about bringing in a couple of substitutes in the winter window.

Therefore, he will definitely not relax in the league.

Comparatively speaking, the Carabao Cup is much more difficult for Manchester United. It's only the third round and if it's a semi-final or something, maybe Carlo Ancelotti will take it seriously.

And this third round can only be used as a run-in of the bench lineup and training young players.

On paper, United's bench looks okay as well.

With the exception of goalkeeper David De Gea and midfielder Michael Carrick, all the players who started the last league game were rested.

At the back, the left-back is Luke Shaw who has returned from injury, the centre-back combination is Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo, and right-back Rafael.

Carlo Ancelotti used a 433 stance this time.

The midfield trio is captain Wayne Rooney, who plays in midfield, as well as veteran Carrick and youngster Fusemence. Up front, this is Pea Hernandes, Nani, and Marcus Rashford, a young player who has been promoted from the youth team.

This line-up looks good at first glance, but considering that United have not played 433 this season, these players have not had many opportunities to play, so it will be known until the game.

Ipševich also doesn't seem to have any ambitions for the Carabao Cup, they also have a Championship game to play at the weekend, and for Ipsevic the Carabao Cup is completely more chicken - the probability of them winning the title is too low anyway, it is better to send a substitute squad to run in and work out the young players by the way.

Ipushevic came to Old Trafford with the mentality that he would play wherever he went, and almost no one of their main players made the squad for the game.

It was a contest between the substitutes of the two teams.

Manchester United, playing at home, won 3-0 cleanly and advanced to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

Youngster Marcus Rashford scored twice on his senior debut.

In the 14th minute of the game, Rashford received Nani's cross from the right and slotted home.

Five minutes later, Rashford, who had been full of confidence, received a through ball from Carrick and fired past the centre-back.

In the second half, Wayne Rooney scored again from a direct free-kick.

Carlo Ancelotti was relieved at the end of the game. After all, nothing went wrong with the big rotation.

Two days later, in the seventh round of the Premier League, Manchester United hosted the Black Cats Sunderland.

Sunderland are currently bottom of the league and have lost four of their previous six league games, drawing just two.

This time against Manchester United, who have won six consecutive league games, the result seems to be no suspense.

For Sunderland, their chances of picking up points at Old Trafford are slim to the point, especially with Manchester United in such hot form.

Sunderland boss Advocaat certainly understands that. He pinned his hopes of picking up points on his two centre-backs.

Manchester United's most important attacker is, of course, Li Qingshan, and Advocaat believes that Li Qingshan relies on his physical fitness the most. And if it is a competition for physical confrontation ability, Advocaat believes that his two central defenders should at least have a fight.

The first is No. 22 Coates, he is one hundred and ninety-six centimeters tall, and this height alone is even taller than Li Qingshan, and he should be able to interfere with Li Qingshan in his header.

The other centre-back is Manchester United veteran O'Shea, the 34-year-old has a lot of experience in the centre-back position, and he is also more than 190 centimeters tall, and he also has a good ability to fight.

Advocaat feels that as long as the two centre-backs can limit Li Qingshan's play, it is not impossible for Sunderland to get a point away from home.

As it turned out, Advocaat really overthought it.

In the 26th minute, Sunderland's efforts came to an end.

Li Qingshan jumped high, fought for a header and passed the ball to Di Maria, who had regained his starting XI after recovering from injury. The Argentine winger won the ball and faked a real shot, crossed the baseline, and grazed Mata in the box to push the empty goal.

United's three attackers made a very efficient connection to break down Sandro's defence.

Before the end of the first half, Li Qingshan tried an ultra-long-distance direct free kick in the area 30 meters away from the goal. Sunderland goalkeeper Pantilimon, who is 200 and 3 centimeters tall, could not do anything about the goal.

Manchester United have free kick players like Juan Mata and Di Maria with outstanding footwork, and Li Qingshan will hardly compete for the right to take free kicks. And this time he saw that the distance was so far away, and the position was quite right, so he stepped forward and tried it.

There was no skill in his free-kick, it was just a powerful attempt at long-range shot. The so-called miracle of force, in the face of such a speed of the ball, as long as there is a slight angle, the goalkeeper is very difficult.

United rode back in the second half when Kramer scored his first goal from a corner.

In the end, Manchester United defeated Sunderland 3-0 at home and won seven consecutive league games!