A week after the Community Shield, the 04-05 season of the English Premier League officially kicked off.

The team that the whole of England is concerned about at the moment is Arsenal. They are just two league games away from that 25-year record – starting with a 6-1 home win over Southampton in a make-off match in 02/03 on 7 May 2003, and Frenchman Arsene Wenger's side are breaking English football records: Preston were unbeaten in 1888/89, and although there were only 22 games in a season at the time, it was still an unattainable success at the time; Burnley went 30 games unbeaten in 1920/21, losing just three of their opening league games, and then reinvigorated their unbeaten run until the end of the season, winning their first league title in the club's history. Leeds United, who were unbeaten in 29 games in the 1973-74 season; Liverpool went unbeaten in 29 consecutive games in 1987-88.

At the start of the new season, Arsenal are unbeaten in 40 consecutive league games. Now, there is only one record left in front of them: Brian? Clough's Nottingham Forest went unbeaten in 42 league games between 1977-78 and 1978-79!

With just two league games to start this season, Arsenal will equal that record. After that, they went on a record-breaking streak without losing a single game.

Arsenal are in very good form at the moment, and even if they have to travel to Everton in the first round of the league, not many people will be worried about it.

As it turned out, Arsenal beat Everton 4-1 away and are unbeaten in 41 consecutive games!

On the other side, Tony? Donn's Forest seem to be in some trouble...... and Nottingham Forest have been in the limelight for a while in the summer transfer window, on a par with Russia's wealthy Chelsea. There's a lot of anticipation for Donne's side, and Nottingham's local media are bullish on the brand-new Forest side.

In the first round of the league, Forest challenged Blackburn Rovers away. Before the game, Donn put a lot of effort into researching their first opponent, the team, the players, the coach, and he did all the research and analysis. Believing he was already familiar with Blackburn, he led his team to the Ewood Park Stadium of the Boclayburn Rovers with confidence, as is customary.

Ninety minutes later, Forest, who had been full of hopes for the new season before the game, lost 1-0 to the home team Blackburn.

Judging from the score, it is good that the promoted horses play the traditional teams of the Premier League and only lose by one goal. However, this was not the case at all, and the score did not always faithfully reflect the gap between the two sides.

In this game, Donn fielded the 442 formation that had been practiced the most times in training, and sent out eleven men who he thought were the best in form: goalkeeper Darren? Ward, the central defenders are Hierro and Matthew? Epson, right wing-back is the French teenager Zim Bonda, and his performance in training has completely convinced Johan? Thompson went down. At left-back, Layton, who had been in the main position in the second half of last season? Barnes. Standing parallel to the midfield, there is no suspense on the left is the Frenchman Frank? Ribery, and to the right is Ashley? Yang, it's George who holds the middle? Wood and Albertini. Partnering Freddie up front? Eastwood and Mark? Viduka.

Also, on the bench is goalkeeper Paul? Steven Gerrard, defender Wes? Mogan, Herard? Pique, midfielder Chris? Commons and striker Pitt? Crouch.

This lineup is already the strongest lineup that Don can handle, and he is also a stable starter in pre-season training. Donn doesn't think it's going to be much worse than Blackburn.

But Blackburn, who was only 15th in the league at the end of last season, taught Forest a good lesson: don't think that buying a lot of players in the summer can be regarded as a strong Premier League team, the Premier League and the Championship are two completely different worlds!

Playing in the Premier League with the mentality of playing in the Championship (formerly League One), failure is inevitable.

Many promoted horses have not performed well after promotion, in addition to not investing enough in the transfer market, but also have a lot to do with their mentality.

Judging from the scene of the game, Forest's problem is the transition from defense to attack, Albertini is obviously not very suitable for the fast and fierce style of English football, and the pace is slow to control. What about Wood...... Don't expect him to do anything other than defend for a while.

Donn was aware of these problems, so he made the two wing-backs more active in the game, taking the ball more and trying to open up the situation from the wings. At the same time, he asked the two strikers to switch positions frequently during the game, constantly pulling out the top to attract the attention of the Blackburn defense and make space for teammates who broke through on the wing.

The idea was good, and in the opening ten minutes, the Forest's wings did cause Blackburn a lot of problems. But Blackburn Rovers manager Mark? Hughes quickly spotted Donn's intentions, and the Forest's biggest threat came from the wings, with their central midfield, unable to directly threaten Blackburn's goal due to staffing. So he simply placed the defensive heavy troops on the flanks, so that Ribery and Ashley? Yang was completely dumbfounded after trying several unsuccessful breakthroughs, and couldn't even turn around after holding the ball with his back.

Forest's attack relied mainly on two flanks, with Don seeing Ribery and Ashley? Young was targeted by the opponent and agreed to activate the second layer of attacking system - the insertion of the full-back to assist. Zim Bonda and Layton? Barnes is a full-back who likes and is good at assisting, and in his usual training, Donn also consciously asks the two full-backs to actively participate in assists, so that the Forest's attack is more layered.

The involvement of the two full-backs reinvigorated Forest's attack, with the two sides going back and forth on the pitch and the excitement of attacking and defending. But the score was 0:0. In the second half, Mark? After Hughes became familiar with all the offensive routines of the Forest team, he also found a way to completely paralyze the Forest's wing - he asked the team to strengthen the offensive on the wing, and the Forest team started a head-to-head battle on the two wings, attacking against attack, attacking instead of defending. The two wings of the inexperienced and uncoordinated Forest team were gradually pressed back by the opponent, and then ...... Blackburn had scored.

When the home team's veteran defender Carrighi? When Short (craig_short) scored the only goal of the game from a corner, Ewood Park was in a state of flux, Blackburn got off to a good start, and Forest tasted bitter consequences.

Despite losing the first round of the league, Donn did not treat the players with the same anger as he gave the impression he took. In his post-match press conference, he admitted his team wasn't doing well, but that was because "you can't expect a German team that has changed almost half of their main players in the summer to play amazing combinations and attacking with flying air." We only lost one goal away from home and I'm satisfied. ”

That's right, Donn didn't throw a tantrum at the players after the game or anything like that, the loss was planned by him. Even if it's his first Premier League season, and if nothing else, he has to pay it from time to time. Nottingham Forest not Arsenal, Tony? Neither is Arsene Wenger and has no interest in carrying forward the record set by his team 25 years ago. If you want to be unbeaten in a row, please continue to be unbeaten, and if you want to win the championship, please work towards the trophy, and Done's goal is simple: to stand up in the Premier League and survive.

Instead of putting the blame on the players who didn't perform well after a loss, think about what the team didn't do well. He has a week to improve on it in training with the rest of the coaching staff.

The media commented on the performance of the teams after the first round of matches, and the Forest team was rated as "disappointing". They felt that Forest, who had spent £12 million on 11 men in the summer, had failed to make a splash at all, and that their monotonous and unchanging wing attacks had led them to a dead end.

Donn insists that the direction of the wide attack is the right one, and only needs to work out the specifics of the running of the wing during the attack. At the same time, it is expected that Albertini will adapt to the Premier League as soon as possible, even if he only plays half the level of his peak at AC Milan, which is enough to revitalize the midfield of the Forest team.

Seven days later, on August 22, the City Stadium hosted Forest's first home game of the season, and the stadium hosted the Premier League again after four years.

On the day of the tournament, the 27,000-seat City Stadium was packed, and although the fans were disappointed that the team lost the first round of the match, they still firmly supported the young team. From the moment I entered the stadium, the singing in the stadium never stopped.

When Donn was still a fan, he often watched La Liga, mainly watching the match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Seeing this scene, he also had to lament the difference in football culture between England and Spain. Being able to coach a game in such an environment is the dream of almost all coaches.

This game, for the sake of those loyal fans, nothing can be lost!

(To be continued)