Chapter 264 of the third volume of the Gunslinger Myth is a warm scene

In the eighth round of the Premier League, Arsenal beat Birmingham City 6-1 at home, while Manchester United unexpectedly missed at home, 2:. quANBen。 Arsenal's lead was extended to four points.

Four points is not much of an advantage in a long season, but Arsenal's form is so desperate that even Sir Alex Ferguson, who is known for his strong will, has to admit that Arsenal have the upper hand in the title race.

Chelsea, the city's rival Chelsea, also drew with the strong Aston Villa away from home, and is now 8 points behind Arsenal, in the face of Arsenal's strong momentum, Chelsea coach Ancelotti sourly said that Arsenal's state is too early, and it is likely to fall off the chain later, he swears that all teams will have ** and troughs, no team will win in a row to the end, Arsenal will not be an exception, according to his experience, Arsenal will inevitably have a low ebb period behind.

Arsenal did not respond to the curse of the sworn enemy, 4 titles in hand, Arsenal is no longer as sensitive as in previous years, for them, the most important thing is to play their own game, let them be jealous if they are jealous, let them talk about it, as long as Arsenal continues to win, these will not have any impact on Arsenal.

Now Arsenal are seriously preparing for the third round of the Champions League group stage, and they will face Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk. This is not a good opponent for Arsenal, an Eastern European side who have always been the nemesis of the technical stream, with Arsenal having only played them twice in their history, in the 2000/01 Champions League group stage, when they were in the same group as Shakhtar Donetsk, Lazio and Sparta Prague. At home against Shakhtar Donetsk, Arsenal narrowly won 3-2 thanks to Keown's last-minute stunner, but when it came to the away game, Arsenal was in no form and was beaten 3-0 by Shakhtar Donetsk in three consecutive games.

Shakhtar Donetsk not only restrained Arsenal, they also did not fall behind in the match against Barcelona, in the 2004-2005 Champions League group stage, Barcelona beat Shakhtar 3-0 at home, Shakhtar returned home to win 2-0 against Barcelona, and in the 2008-2009 Champions League group stage, Shakhtar lost 1-2 at home to Barcelona, and Shakhtar defeated Barcelona 3-2 away.

It is tied with two technical football teams Arsenal and Barcelona, and even the number of goals is not inferior, and there is only this Ukrainian giant in Eastern Europe among the second-rate teams in the world.

In Group H, Arsenal and Shakhtar Donetsk are two wins from two games, Arsenal is only in first place on goal difference, and this home match with Shakhtar Donetsk Arsenal must win if they want to keep the top spot, because when playing away from Shakhtar Donetsk, the weather will be extremely cold, which will be very unfavorable for Arsenal.

Shakhtar Donetsk is not only strong and restrained in their style of play, but they also have an undercover agent for Arsenal, which is Croatian striker Eduardo, who moved from Arsenal to Shakhtar Donetsk this season. Eduardo played well for Shakhtar Donetsk, starting five of nine appearances in 13 league games and scoring three goals. He started once in the Champions League and scored one goal in the Ukrainian Cup.

However, it is not the state of Eduardo, the fox in the penalty area, that worries Arsenal, but what he knows about Arsenal. Originally, Shakhtar Donetsk's defensive counterattack style of play was very restrained Arsenal, and then there was Eduardo, who knew Arsenal well, although Arsenal was in amazing shape, but he didn't dare to say that he would definitely be able to win this Ukrainian powerhouse at home.

Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the game, Eduardo said: "Arsenal have always had a lot of difficulties against Eastern European teams, and I hope this conversation with us will be as difficult as they are. Before the draw, I dreamed of playing against Arsenal and playing in front of the stands at the Emirates Stadium again, if I scored? I'm not going to celebrate. I've had a great time here at Arsenal and I respect the fans and Mr Wenger and of course the club. ”

Eduardo's departure is different from Adebayo's, and fans, players and Arsene Wenger are all regretting but helpless about his departure, because this is the inevitable choice of professional football.

Arsene Wenger also told the truth about Eduardo's transfer before the game: "In fact, Eduardo has the qualities of an Arsenal player, when I see him, I will be happy but sad at the same time, happy because he is a great lad, he has a strong mental attribute, sad because he spent a lot of effort to sign Arsenal, but I had to let him go, because I feel that he has not been able to fully return to the form he was in in his first season with Arsenal, which is an indisputable fact. He had been out for too long due to injury, so the others were ahead of him. ”

In addition to the relationship between Eduardo and Arsenal, Shakhtar Donetsk's head coach Lucescu and Wenger are also good friends, they knew each other when they were in France 30 years ago, and both sides won two games before this game, and there was a great hope of qualifying from the group, and the competition was just for the top spot, so there was no saliva before the game, but more warmth.

In his pre-match press conference, Shakhtar Donetsk coach Lucescu said: "I've known Arsene Wenger for about 30 years, when he was manager of Nancy and we were in contact. I'm well aware of his understanding of football and our philosophies are very similar.

We will play two games against Arsenal, this one and the one in two weeks' time. We know Arsenal are strong at home, but they will have difficulties away from home. Shakhtar Donetsk are also a quality team and we got points from our trip to the Emirates Stadium.

Of course, Arsenal will control the game, which is normal because they play at home and have a lot of creative players. We have to play organised and hit them on the counter-attack. I don't dare say we're going to play attacking football because it's up to Arsenal, but we can cause them a lot of problems. This match will definitely make Eduardo feel a lot. He had been tempted to stay at Arsenal but his injury did not allow it, and now Shakhtar Donetsk are helping him get back to peak form. ”

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger spoke at his press conference about the importance of the game: "Cesco Fabregas is available, he had a little hamstring injury and is back to play. This game is important because a win we will basically qualify from the group, with six points from both us and Shakhtar Donetsk, and zero from the other two teams. This means that this game will decide who will be the first to qualify and who will win the group. Shakhtar Donetsk have won back-to-back games and are on a domestic league thrashing Braga 3-0 on the last Champions League matchday. We have to be fully focused and we can only win if we play at our best. ”

On the evening of October 19, the 60,432-seat Emirates Stadium was packed, and the guns fans in the stands chanted slogans such as "Welcome Eduardo", "Thank you for your years at Arsenal" and "We will always remember what you suffered at Arsenal". When Eduardo came out to train with the team, the gun fans at the scene also gave Eduardo a warm applause.

The on-site commentator saw this warm scene and couldn't help but sigh: "You know, before going to Arsenal, Eduardo was an absolute star who won the Golden Boot in a row in the Croatian league and had 104 games and 73 goals. But after the broken leg, his state plummeted, and he can no longer find the heroic style of the year, the FA should reflect on their referees and the style of the league, and cannot let the scene of the broken leg continue to be staged, from Eduardo to Ramsey, Arsenal now has a large number of injured players, which is a great harm to technical football, I hope that the Ukrainian team can play cleanly in this game, don't let the game taste bad......"

The third round of the evening officially kicked off. The starters on both sides walked out of the locker room holding the caddy's hand. The fans in the stands applauded their team and desperately called out their favorite players' names.

Arsenal continued the 4-2-3-1 formation of the previous big win over Birmingham: 21-Fabianski/27-Eboue, 13-Li Huan, 20-Gioru, 22-Klich/17-Song, 19-Wilshere/4-Fabregas, 8-Nasri, 23-Arshavin/29-Chamak. Compared to the previous game, Diaby was substituted, Cesc Fabregas returned to midfield, and Swiss teenager Djoroux replaced Squeerage, which was not as good as the previous one from a solid point of view, but more aggressive.

Shakhtar Donetsk also had a 4-2-3-1 formation: 30-Pyatov/33-Senna, 5-Kucher, 44-Rakitsky, 26-Lat/3-Hubsmann, 19-Gai/22-Mekkhtarion, 29-Alex Teixeira, 10-Williamian/9-Luis Adriano. Arsenal veteran Eduardo was on the bench and did not start.

Although Shakhtar Donetsk is also in a 4231 formation, Arsenal's 4231 is attack-oriented, the front three are attacking players, and even the back two have a main attack. Shakhtar Donetsk's 4231 is more like a 451 formation, with four thugs in the middle of the five, only the demon William Ann is a pure attacker, and he and striker Adriano bear the heavy responsibility of breaking down the Arsenal defense in this game.

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