Chapter Sixty-Three: The Disappointing Contenders

Just in the domestic media, there is a lot of discussion about Li Qingshan being able to surpass his predecessors in such a short period of time and rank second on the national team's all-time scorer list, and there are even media investigation questions that make fans predict how long it will take for Li Qingshan to surpass Hao Dong to become the national team's all-time top scorer.

Now Li Qingshan is only twenty-two years old, according to his goal trend, maybe when he retires, the record he created will become an existence that future generations look up to.

Now, that's just the beginning.

Just when the topic was hot in China, Li Qingshan had already flown back to Manchester.

Manchester City, who had a draw at Old Trafford, were not happy for long, dropping points in the 12th round of the league when they were held to a draw away from Aston Villa.

Manchester City has been hoping that Manchester United will drop points, and then Manchester City will have a chance to catch up, but now they have dropped points first, and now the gap between the two teams has come to eight points, not so much to chase Manchester United, but to say that they have to guard against the pursuit of Arsenal behind them - now Arsenal is only one point behind Manchester City, and Leicester City is in third place, Ranieri's team has climbed to third place in the table with three consecutive wins, and it looks like this dark horse team is going to be black.

Manchester United are now firmly positioned at the top of the table, with 11 wins and 1 draw after 12 league games and 34 points, which is already the best start to the first 12 rounds of the Premier League era for Manchester United.

The team's results are good, the only thing that bothers Carlo Ancelotti is the team's injury problems.

After returning from a national team break, United have three more players on their injury list.

Wayne Rooney returned to Manchester after playing for the England squad and was replaced by the flu. In order to avoid contagion, Rooney has not even come to the training base to report these days.

In addition to Wayne Rooney, Marouane Fellaini also suffered a thigh and leg strain during training with the Belgian national team, and Manchester United's medical team is expected to miss at least four weeks of league games after an initial check-up.

In the warm-up match between the German team and the French team, it is very regrettable that when the German team was playing a friendly match with the French team in Paris, the French capital Paris was attacked by gunfire and bombings in many places, and more than 100 people were killed.

Compared to such an unfortunate incident, Hummels' injury seems to be insignificant. Regardless, United's main centre-back is expected to be out for five weeks before returning to action.

Combined with Juan Mata, who is still recovering from injury, there are as many as four injuries to United's main players.

Injuries are the deadliest condition that can hit a team. Fortunately, now Ancelotti is making up for it and can come up with a starting lineup that can reassure him.

..........

On November 21, 2015, the thirteenth round of the Premier League this season began with Manchester United's away game against Watford.

Watford currently have 16 points, seven points above the relegation zone, according to their current scoring efficiency, Watford relegation this season is basically no problem, Watford relegation pressure is not great.

Watford, who played at home, played quite conservatively, with five defenders and four defensive midfielders, leaving only one striker Odion Ighalo in front of him for a harassing counter-attack.

For Watford, they were not counting on a win over Manchester United and a draw at home would be a great victory.

You know, the draw with Manchester United was only done by Manchester City in the first 12 rounds.

With United's frenzied performances this season, their opponents have become more direct, piling up defenders at the back and putting a bus in front of goal. For the rest of the team, the draw is already a cause for celebration, and it is also an instinctive reaction of other teams against strong opponents.

Watford came close to doing just that, as they were united defensively until the end of normal time when the score remained 0-0.

However, in the 89th minute, Li Qingshan's goal made Watford's efforts go to waste.

Di Maria's corner kick was passed to the middle of the penalty area, Li Qingshan grabbed the point under the sandwich of two defenders, and then he shook his head to attack the goal, the football was pushed to the far corner of the goal by him, and the goalkeeper had no way at all.

The final score of this game was 1-0.

Li Qingshan scored a goal, which disappointed the English media who expected Li Qingshan to fall into a "goal drought".

However, at the end of the game, Ancelotti's expression was not too good.

"Now that the league is entering the middle of the season, Manchester United, who have just experienced the attrition of the international break, are showing signs of fatigue for this game. They came close to being held to a draw by Watford and are heading into the most intense Christmas Express phase of the Premier League schedule with less than a month to go, and the injured list is starting to mount for Manchester United. ”

"Maybe this game gave Manchester United a warning lesson, how long can their hot form at the beginning of the season last, maybe Ancelotti has no bottom in his heart, maybe Manchester United's first defeat of the season will come soon."

Sky Sports' commentator said the above after the game.

Although Manchester United won the game, the difficulty of the process still made many people feel that Manchester United's crazy form from the beginning of the season to the present is about to start to decline, which is in line with people's expectations of the Premier League.

The competition was fierce, and the winner was not decided until the final round.

If Manchester United are allowed to go on like this, maybe by the middle of the season, the suspense of the title will be gone, so what's the point?

So, seeing that United's form seems to be on a downward trend, many media outlets in England have begun to take advantage of the opportunity to act as prophets, predicting where United's first defeat of the season will be.

Of course, if you want to make the Premier League title more suspenseful, in addition to Manchester United having to fall from the altar, other competitors must also appear to be more powerful.

Now it seems that Manchester City is the closest to Manchester United, but this round of Manchester City has disappointed the media.

Following the draw by Aston Villa in the last round, Manchester City faced Liverpool at home in this round, and as a result, Manchester City, who performed well at the beginning of the season, was shocked by their performance at home in this game, and they actually lost 0-4 cleanly at their home stadium!

As a result, the difference between Manchester City and Manchester United has reached 11 points.

Of course, eleven points is not a point difference that cannot be chased, but judging by Manchester City's performance against Liverpool in this game, it is really hard to believe that they can fight back when they are eleven points behind!

City lost second place after a big defeat to Liverpool, but the team that replaced them in second place in the table did not always cling to third-placed Arsenal, who also lost this round, losing 2-1 away to West Bromwich Albion.

Both teams have dropped their chains, and in addition to Manchester United, who have taken the opportunity to further widen the gap in points, Leicester City has also benefited.

Leicester City beat Newcastle 3-0 in this round to pick up 28 points after a four-game winning streak and squeezed Manchester City out of second place in the table on goal difference.

Can Leicester City threaten Manchester United?

This team, which was still relegated last season, although it ranked second in the league as a dark horse this season, but so far, not many people want to believe that Leicester City can be black this season.

As for Liverpool, who are now 14 points behind the top of the table and in ninth place, and Chelsea, who are still in the bottom of the league with only four wins, they have been directly excluded from the ranks of championship contenders......