Capítulo 59: A Battle of Titans
"David Luiz got nutmegged!"
"He was actually passed by Louis!"
"Now Marinho is unlucky. He may appear in Louis's highlight reel for years to come."
The commentators all thought David Luiz was unfortunate. Being passed by Louis in such a manner was humiliating.
Under the TV lens, David Luiz hurriedly pressed his legs together while turning his head to look at Louis, who was walking away from him, with an expression full of horror.
At this moment, Louis had already dribbled the ball into the penalty area! An unexpected pass had created a huge gap in Chelsea's defense, and Louis now rushed in along this gap.
Just as he was about to shoot, he sensed danger. Terry was coming to the rescue!
If anyone was prepared for that unlikely event. It was John Terry, who knew his partner well. Luiz had been passed by various forwards enough to fill a 90-minute highlight reel. While Louis seemed to lack extraordinary skill, the fact that Luiz was defending him was enough to concern Terry.
Terry, who had been prepared, was the first to react. He rushed up quickly, tackled the ball, and when Louis was about to shoot, he shoveled the ball away to resolve the crisis.
He must have studied Louis, noting that his first choice after entering the penalty area was often to shoot as soon as possible. This was due to Louis's lack of ball-handling ability—his feel for the ball wasn't great, and his dribbling and ball-protecting skills were flawed. However, his shooting skills were undoubtedly top-notch.
Therefore, Terry was certain that Louis would shoot immediately after entering the penalty area. His flying tackle would block Louis's shooting route unless Louis got very lucky—such as having his shot deflect off Terry into a blind corner.
Eliminating such low-probability events, Terry's defense was successful. He cleaned up Luiz's mess again.
As Terry thought, after passing David Luiz, Louis indeed adjusted his pace to prepare for the shot—his playing habit was hard to change quickly. But he also saw Terry flying over for the tackle.
With only about half a second to decide, Louis instinctively chose to push the ball and then take a step forward.
Terry's foot scooped up. As expected, Louis's shot didn't happen. He chose to pass the ball instead!
Terry, having committed, couldn't stop his feet. He collided with Louis's instep, and Louis fell, losing his center of gravity. Stamford Bridge gasped.
"Penalty kick!" Wenger pointed to the penalty area and shouted.
Chelsea fans roared in horror. All the pressure was on referee Martin Atkinson. He put the whistle in his mouth and blew, then pointed to the penalty spot.
"Terry tackled Louis in the penalty area! Chelsea is in trouble! Sure enough, a penalty kick! The referee awarded a penalty kick and is walking toward Terry! What color card is it? Oh, not bad, Terry is probably relieved now because the referee only gave him a yellow card!"
Within the restricted area, the referee held up the yellow card. Terry was still sitting on the ground, looking helpless, while many Arsenal players were protesting.
"Red card! This should be a red card!"
"He's the last defender ref!"
"Red! It should be red!"
Several Arsenal players chanted. Chelsea players reacted, surrounding the referee.
"That's too harsh! There's no way it's a penalty!"
"Is there any contact? I dont see any contact at all!"
"That guy is flopping!"
David Luiz was particularly excited, pointing at Louis and shouting. Terry had been forced to foul in the penalty area to clean up Luiz's mistake.
Louis, sitting on the ground, was unhappy when he heard this. "I'm faking? I'm faking!" he shouted at David Luiz.
"Isn't it? Admit it, you just flopped! Damn it!" David Luiz, who had been nutmegged, walked toward Louis aggressively, seeking to regain his pride. This behavior quickly angered Arsenal players.
Cazorla, who was only as tall as David Luiz's chest, stepped up first. "Hey, don't look for trouble," he said, giving Luiz a push. It wasn't strong, but it was enough.
Next to him was Olivier Giroud. "Brother, if you want to cause trouble, come to me!" Giroud confronted Luiz. Other players joined in, and a conflict quickly grew, even involving the coaching benches and substitutes.
The referee blew his whistle repeatedly to calm the conflict. There were boos at Stamford Bridge, and the scene was chaotic.
Eventually, the referee suppressed the conflict with yellow cards: Arsenal assistant coach Bould and Chelsea coach Di Matteo received yellow cards. Walcott on the bench also received a yellow card for overstepping. Giroud, Cazorla, and Ramires on the field received yellow cards as well.
The main parties, Louis and David Luiz, also received yellow cards. This result made Di Matteo extremely unhappy. Not only was a penalty awarded, but Chelsea also suffered a big loss from the number of cards received.
Ramires, with many defensive tasks, and two central defenders received yellow cards. On the other hand, Arsenal's card recipients were forwards Giroud and Louis, and attacking midfielder Cazorla. Chelsea's defensive players would have to be more cautious for the rest of the game.
After the conflict subsided, Arteta stood in front of the penalty spot as Arsenal's first penalty kicker of the season. Facing Cech's goal, Arteta calmly scored.
However, the TV broadcast replayed the moment Louis passed David Luiz through his legs and caused Terry's tackle, resulting in the penalty kick.
"It is said that Louis has no extraordinary ability? Where did this rumor come from?" Zhang Jun, the commentator of Xinglang Sports, couldn't help but complain.
Wenger celebrated the goal with clenched fists. The scene where Louis passed David Luiz replayed in his mind over and over again.
Luck? Maybe. But this is not luck! Wenger recalled Louis choosing to drop back to catch the ball after being restricted by Terry. Wenger realized this was Louis's intention. He asked for the ball because he was confident in his ability with his feet. Wenger started rubbing his hands again, a habit when he's excited.
"He is becoming more and more versatile!" Wenger said to Bould, who had heard it countless times. Each time, it proved Louis's progress.
Bould no longer knew what to say. "Yeah, yeah, he's getting better and better," he murmured. He had never seen a player improve so quickly—players in their twenties do improve fast, but not like this. He was convinced he had never seen such progress before.
Louis's improvement no longer surprised Bould and others but frightened them. Also frightened was Di Matteo on the sidelines. He crossed his arms, frowned, and leaned back slightly, maintaining this position for almost a minute. Even Cech's failure to save the penalty did not faze him.
Of course, he wasn't doing this to be cool but because he couldn't figure out what had happened. Was someone playing a joke on him? Di Matteo made sure he had studied Louis's game before the match. His video analyst reviewed it several times, concluding Louis had good shooting skills, a certain ability to score outside the penalty area, and was very strong. However, his main way of scoring relied on running without the ball—in other words, he lacked ball-handling ability. After a game, the football wouldn't stay at Louis's feet for more than one minute!
Such a player had just received a through ball with his back to the goal, lightly moved his instep, turned around, almost dunked Terry, and created a penalty kick. Di Matteo suddenly wondered if Louis had hidden his good ball skills until this game.
He shook his head to clear the thought and started to make some moves, clapping his hands and shouting reminders to his players. The game had just begun! Conceding a goal was nothing to be upset about. They needed to get the game back as soon as possible.
Though Di Matteo hoped Chelsea could respond immediately at home, Arsenal's momentum temporarily suppressed them. Meanwhile, Louis's activity made Chelsea's defense fearful. At any moment, he could find an opportunity to go forward and kill the game. He could also participate in passing and receiving in the frontcourt. Everyone realized Louis did have the ability to handle the ball, making Chelsea's back line more cautious in their defense.
Defending a forward who is good at running without the ball is different from defending one who is good with the ball at his feet. If a forward excels at both, it becomes a nightmare for any defense. And it was only the first half; Louis hadn't run out of gas yet.
For a while, Arsenal's offense was flourishing, and Chelsea was forced to counterattack. This situation improved slightly in the second half of the first half, but in the second half, after Louis took a rest, Arsenal's offense picked up steam again.
After halftime, Terry felt increasing pressure. Thirty-two-year-old Terry hadn't yet passed his physical peak, but the pressure he faced wasn't physical—it was the young man in front of him. Arsenal's young striker was strong, fast, had good bounce, and his header was impressive. He could resist and run, and even stop the ball at his feet.
Although he didn't have many flashy moves, his basic skills were exceptional. He executed practical ball-handling techniques without showing off. Such a striker was extremely difficult to deal with, especially with David Luiz making small mistakes out of panic, putting more pressure on Terry.
Scenes of confrontations between Louis and Terry frequently appeared on TV screens. Louis knew he was facing one of the best central defenders in the Premier League,
To defeat Terry, Louis had to use all his strength.
He found that it was not easy to get past Terry one-on-one with his foot skills. Terry's positioning was very sophisticated—this guy was an old monster. Even if Louis wanted to provide support, Terry always managed to stand in a key position. If he tried to use speed directly, Terry was always on guard.
Louis found it really difficult to deal with such a truly world-class central defender. Although several attempts failed, Louis was not discouraged.
Having been rotated in midweek, Louis knew that if Arsenal couldn't expand the score to seal the victory in this game, there was little chance he would be substituted. He had gained more experience in the game, and his physical fitness was also improving. He could still distribute the physical effort required to play a full game a week.
The game unknowingly reached the 80th minute. Arsenal had not made any substitutions yet. The team's offensive momentum was good, and the score was temporarily ahead. Wenger was not in a hurry to make substitutions.
Meanwhile, Di Matteo had already begun to substitute his players. Lampard replaced Ramires, Mikel played as a single defensive midfielder, and Chelsea changed their formation from 4-2-3-1 to 4-1-4-1.
After completing this substitution, Di Matteo suddenly regretted letting Drogba go at the beginning of the season. The only genuine center forward the team could use now was Torres. The remaining two centers, Sturridge and Bamford, were too young, and their capabilities were not obvious enough—both of them liked to pull to the wings to exploit the center defenders.
Di Matteo looked at Louis. A true forward had to be like this guy. Even in the face of Terry, even if many methods had been used and had not worked, he always fought against the opponent's strongest defender.
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