80_80813 For Southampton to sit at home and beat Arsenal 4-0, the English media was shocked but also said that it was normal.

Arsenal's competitiveness in the Premier League is like Wang Xiaoer's New Year, and every year is not as good as a year, which is a clear thing.

The 2-8 defeat away to Manchester United last season was not the score it should have been between the big clubs.

No matter how many reasons and excuses fans make for this game, they can't hide a fact.

That is, Arsenal's strength in the Premier League is no longer at the same level as Manchester United and Manchester City!

This is an indisputable fact!

But now, Southampton's 4-0 home win over Arsenal has once again sounded the alarm for the Gunners.

With the strong rise of teams such as the Saints and Tottenham Hotspur, if the Gunners do not change their style in the transfer market, I am afraid that it will not be long before they can even keep the top four in the league!

For Southampton, which defeated the Gunners and won nine consecutive victories, the English media gave overwhelming praise and praise.

In particular, Toni Kroos, who was voted Man of the Match, almost crowned him as the world's top midfielder.

At the end of this round, Southampton is in the standings, with 13 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses, with 42 points, ten points behind Manchester United and three points behind Manchester City, ranking third in the Premier League standings.

Southampton is followed by Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Everton, West Bromwich Albion.

Among them, the Gunners have the same points as Everton and West Bromwich Albion.

It can be said that Southampton's emergence broke the traditional pattern of the top four in the Premier League in one fell swoop, making almost all media people believe that the Saints' Champions League qualification is already nine out of ten.

But in the face of the media's praise, the saints are very sensible.

From top to bottom of the club, everyone knows that although the team has carried out a scientific rotation, the team consumption is still quite large, coupled with the injury problem, so that Southampton does not dare to be careless.

Everyone knows that the real test of the team is yet to come!

Relative to other teams in particular, Southampton also reached the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.

In January, which has just survived the test of the devil's schedule, Southampton will have to play two more games than Manchester United, Manchester City and other teams, which can be imagined to be difficult.

But give up?

Yang Huan and Bielsa can't say this kind of thing!

It's not like the way Southampton should be!

Immediately after the Arsenal game, the team ushered in the third round of the FA Cup, facing Bournemouth from the third tier, who finished second in League One and were quite good.

Southampton played on the bench.

Sturridge plays as a central striker, forming a front trident with Isco and Ravel Morrison.

In midfield, Mateo Kovacic, Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic formed a midfield three.

At the back, Alex Sandro, Nastasic, Aportic Laporte and Danilo were in defence.

The goalkeeper is Brazilian international Giulio Cesar.

Such a full bench squad for the FA Cup is really a last resort.

Because Southampton will next face Swansea City in the League Cup semi-finals.

Laudrup's side are unambiguous and have been quite competitive in the Premier League this season.

Southampton's league opponents are Aston Villa, Everton and Manchester United.

In just two weeks, five games, each of which will face tough opponents, is also a huge test for the Saints.

Therefore, Bielsa arranged a full bench to play, and somewhat had to strategically abandon the idea of the FA Cup.

But who would have thought that this group of young players of the Saints showed their strength, with Ravel Morrison's assist to Sturridge's goal, beat Bournemouth 1-0 and advanced to the next round.

This is somewhat gratifying to the coaching staff, at least, this group of young players and substitutes in the team have shown quite good strength.

In particular, young players such as Januzaj and Kovacic, who came off the bench, were even more eye-catching.

You know, these boys are now training with the first team, and Kovacic even jokingly visited his compatriot Modric as a teacher and took the initiative to learn how to play from him, which is very helpful for the progress of the young players.

After returning to Southampton, the Saints travelled north non-stop to Birmingham to challenge Aston Villa.

Aston Villa have struggled in the Premier League this season and are currently in seventeenth place, just one step away from the relegation zone.

But even with such a team, Southampton still played quite hard.

In the end, Ibrahimovic assisted Vidal to score at a crucial moment and scored a valuable three points for Southampton!

In this battle, although the saints were victorious, they were exhausted!

It was also in this round that Manchester United defeated Liverpool 2-1 at home and Manchester City won Arsenal 2-0 away, and the top three in the league and the points gap did not change in the slightest.

However, in midweek, the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals was ushered in, with Southampton away to Swansea.

Bielsa rotated and the team also played Swansea on the road.

But in the 81st minute, the midfield pass was cut off, Swansea counter-attacked, and there was a scuffle in the Southampton penalty area, and Varane was caught off guard and scored an own goal.

Because of this goal conceded, Southampton lost to Swansea!

As a result, Varane is under a mountain of pressure from the outside media.

Back in the Premier League, the twenty-third round will soon be ushered in.

Southampton host Everton.

As a result, Bielsa's side were held to a 0-0 draw by David Moyes after an overwhelming dominance on the field, ending a ten-game winning streak in the league.

Coincidentally, Manchester United were also held to a 1-1 draw away by Tottenham Hotspur, while Arsenal were unlucky to lose three in a row, losing 1-2 away to Chelsea.

Manchester City won 2-0 against Fulham.

As a result, there is no change in the Premier League standings.

Southampton remain third with 46 points, followed by Manchester United and Manchester City on 51, Chelsea on 45 and Tottenham Hotspur on 41.

As for Arsenal, who have lost three in a row, they have fallen to sixth place, still behind Everton.

The intensity of the Premier League has been evident in the past few rounds.

Even a relegation team like Aston Villa is quite good.

In the league standings, every place in the league represents a fierce and cruel competition.

After the 23rd round of the Premier League, Southampton once again welcomed Swansea, the semi-final opponent of the League Cup, with a rotating line-up.

As a result, the two sides were once again tied 0-0.

In the end, Southampton were eliminated because of the aggregate score of 0-1.

At the weekend, the fourth round of the FA Cup was ushered in, and Bielsa still played with an all-substitute lineup.

This time, even players such as Mateo Kovacic and Januzaj were given starts.

As a result, the Saints beat amateur side Magsfield 4-0 away, and Sturridge scored an impressive hat-trick and showed quite good form.

In midweek, the 24th round of the Premier League ushered in Southampton away to Manchester United.

The two sides engaged in a life-and-death battle at Old Trafford.

The Saints opened the scoring for Southampton with Gareth Bale scoring the back of the net by Gareth Bale when it was just three minutes into the game.

But it wasn't long before United turned the tide when Wayne Rooney picked up a pass from Shinji Kagawa to equalise.

In the 27th minute, it was Rooney again, who received an assist from Evra at the critical moment, and broke through Neuer's goal again to reverse the score to 2-1.

Southampton's young centre-back Raphael Varane has been the subject of media criticism and fan pressure since scoring an own goal in the Carabao Cup semi-finals and the team were knocked out of the competition, which has also led to his poor performance in recent times.

In this game against Manchester United, the two goals conceded are inseparable from him!

Yang Huan sat in the stands of Old Trafford Stadium, also quite helpless.

Raphael Varane's potential and talent are undeniable, and even his strength is quite good, but he is still a young player who lacks the self-regulation of a seasoned professional.

However, no one can help him with this kind of thing, and he can only rely on himself to get out of the shadows.

If he comes out, he will be able to go further, and if he can't get out, maybe he will be like this in the future!

In the second half, Bielsa showed the courage and determination to win, replacing Hazard and Isco in the midfield in one go, making it clear that the carriage and horses are going to strengthen the attack and must win Manchester United away.

As a result, at the beginning of the second half, there was a storm in front of Manchester United's goal.

Ferguson made an immediate decision and immediately replaced the left-handed Smarin with veteran Rio Ferdinand to stabilize the backline.

After that, Southampton was bombarded indiscriminately, and Bielsa even changed to Drogba again, putting on a two-tower strategy.

But no matter how Southampton attacked, the tight defensive Manchester United goal seemed to be stormy, but it was just a little off.

It wasn't until the 83rd minute of the game, when Southampton, who had been unable to attack for a long time, that Toni Kroos passed back to Xavi Martinez, who found Drogba with a long pass.

The Ivorian headed the ball to Ibrahimovic, the Swede made a wonderful pass, diagonally behind the Manchester United defence, Neymar penetrated the Manchester United defense like a bolt of lightning, received the ball and entered the penalty area, shook the goalkeeper De Gea, and hit it with a single shot!

Two to two!

The decisive goal at the critical moment won Neymar a flood of praise and applause after the game!

It was also this goal that helped Southampton get away from the away side and get a point!

The 24th round of the league can also be called the darkest round of the Premier League powerhouse.

Of the ten games, only two were decided and all the others were drawn.

Manchester United drew Southampton, Arsenal drew Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Everton all drawn!

From this point, it is not difficult to see that after surviving the Christmas devil schedule and experiencing the difficulties of January, the consumption of all teams in the Premier League has reached a bottleneck.

But you know, the real battle for the Premier League title has just begun.

On another battlefield, European giants are also recruiting for the second half of the league.

Manchester United acquired African player Zaha for Crystal Palace during the winter break for £15 million, and then loaned Zaha to Crystal Palace.

Chelsea brought in Demba Ba from Newcastle for £7.5 million.

The latter decided to move during the winter break after falling out with Alain Pardew.

Arsenal brought in new Spanish international Monreal from Malaga for £10 million in the final moments of the transfer market, and the full-back was an important piece for Arsene Wenger to improve the team's wings.

In addition, teams such as Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have also strengthened their midfield.

The former brought in Philippe Coutinho, while the latter brought in Kenyan midfielder Wanyama from Celtic.

Tottenham Hotspur's introduction of Wanyama was the opinion that Daniel Levy got from Yang Huan's consultation, and the Southampton scouting system has a very high evaluation of Wanyama, especially the physical elements.

It's a pity that the Saints don't respect the body at the moment, and Wanyama is not suitable for the Saints, so it's cheaper for Tottenham Hotspur.

In the Premier League, the giants have made some moves, either to make great efforts to bring in reinforcements, or to clear the redundancy in the team