Chương 217: Chapter 217: Home Victory, Media Praise, Best Start in Premier League History!
Chapter 217: Home Victory, Media Praise, Best Start in Premier League History!
"Kid, I heard you went to Belgium. Were you there to see your girlfriend?"
Bosque somehow got the news and called Lin Quan specifically.
He didn't call Lin Quan to the national team, considering that Manchester City's recent schedule was too busy. He wanted to give the guy a break so he could rest more.
But instead of resting at home, he was running around. This made Bosque very angry, and he planned to cancel Lin Quan's privilege next FIFA match day.
"No, no, Coach, let me explain..."
"Explain what? Keep your form up. If you don't win the World Cup next year, I'll deal with you!"
Beeeeep, Bosque hung up.
Lin Quan listened to the dial tone, speechless: Girlfriend? De Bruyne?
Forget it, this kind of thing can't be explained; explaining would only make it worse.
Better to think about how to persuade Pellegrini to buy De Bruyne during the winter break!
Maybe I should underperform in the upcoming matches a bit, so Pellegrini realizes the shortcomings in City's forward line, and then I can pitch De Bruyne to him?
He thought about it and did exactly that.
In the 12th round of the Premier League, Manchester City hosted Tottenham Hotspur, ranked seventh in the league.
Spurs had been strong for the past few seasons, consistently in the 4-5 range, making them the strongest team outside the title contenders.
Faced with such a strong team, even if he underperformed a bit, City might still struggle.
Then Pellegrini would naturally realize the seriousness of the problem!
But what Lin Quan didn't expect was that City's luck was too good in this match.
Just 13 seconds in, Navas's long shot broke Tottenham's goal.
You know, he was at least 35 meters away from the goal when he scored.
Not only did this goal stun the entire Spurs team, but it also stunned Lin Quan.
He had a bad feeling about this!
His feeling quickly came true.
Navas's wonder goal boosted City's morale, and after the restart, they launched a fierce attack on Tottenham's goal.
Adding insult to injury, in the 7th minute, Spurs defender Sandro made a mistake, kicking the ball into his own goal during a clearance.
In just 7 minutes, City was already 2-0 up against Spurs!
There was no suspense about the outcome of this match anymore; the only suspense was how many goals City would score in their red-hot form.
Ninety minutes later, the answer was revealed.
Manchester City won 6-0 at home, giving Spurs their biggest single-match defeat in nearly 15 seasons!
The last time Spurs lost this badly was in 1997 against Kevin Keegan's Newcastle away.
At the end of the match, the stunned Spurs players seemed soulless, each finding the result hard to believe.
Lin Quan felt the same disbelief, hands on hips, looking at the Spurs players with disappointment.
Aren't you strong? How could you be crushed so easily?
If he hadn't intentionally underperformed, City might have set a new record for Spurs' biggest defeat in history.
If the Spurs players knew Lin Quan's thoughts, they'd probably curse him in their hearts! Were those two goals and two assists underperforming?
Who are you kidding?
Regarding City's terrifying scoreline in this round, the media was full of praise after the match: Sky Sports: "6-0! Unbelievable score! Manchester City mercilessly destroyed Spurs at home! Before visiting the Etihad, Spurs had the best defense in the Premier League this season, conceding only 6 goals in 11 games, but the Blue Moon doubled that in one match! Unbelievable!"
They used "unbelievable" twice, in bold and uppercase, to express their astonishment!
The Guardian: "In two consecutive Premier League home games, Manchester City delivered 7-0 and 6-0 crushing victories. The Blue Moon's attacking power is terrifying! And so far, in all competitions this season, City's home games have been all wins. The Etihad Stadium is undoubtedly the most terrifying home ground in the Premier League this season, bar none!"
The Times: "After a tough away victory, City responded to external doubts with a resounding victory. They are still one of the best teams in the Premier League!"
BBC: "After defeating Spurs at home, City set a new Premier League record, breaking the best start to a Premier League season set by Chelsea in the 05-06 season. The Special One led Chelsea to a 9-game winning streak in the Premier League eight years ago, achieving 10 wins and 1 draw in the first 11 rounds. Their unbeaten record lasted until the 12th round when they were defeated by Manchester United at home. After this round, the record for the best start in the Premier League will be held by Manchester City, with Chelsea second."
In the post-match player ratings, Lin Quan received a perfect 10:
Lin once again delivered a dominating performance, not only scoring two goals but also providing two assists. If he hadn't toned down his offensive drive towards the end, he might have achieved a hat-trick in both goals and assists.
Aguero (9 points): City's star striker continued his excellent form, scoring twice and providing one assist. The Argentine's partnership with team core Lin Quan is becoming more and more seamless, posing a significant headache for all Premier League teams.
Navas (8 points): The Spaniard scored a long-range goal that tied the fastest goal record in the Premier League this season. Though his goal tally isn't the highest, his lightning-fast goal broke Tottenham's rigid defense and laid the foundation for City's big win.
Yaya Toure (8 points): As Lin Quan spends more time with the team, Toure's cooperation with the new teammate becomes more tacit. Since assisting Lin Quan in the away game against Chelsea, their cooperation has increased. In this match, Toure, positioned as a defensive midfielder, not only provided an assist but also became an impenetrable barrier in City's midfield. Most of Spurs' counterattacks ended at his feet.
When a team's performance is good and they unintentionally break a Premier League record, the media can't praise them enough.
City's fans were naturally delighted with the praise, even wishing the media would hype them more.
However, team core Lin Quan felt a bit regretful.
The match was too easy to win, not only failing to highlight the issues in City's forward line but also further concealing these problems.
This made him a bit anxious about how to suggest Pellegrini bring in De Bruyne during the winter break.
Forget it, there's more than a month left until the winter break; let's observe more!
Shortly after the league ended, the fourth round of the League Cup began.
This time, City had to visit Newcastle. Considering that two days later they would host their last home game in the Champions League, Pellegrini left most of the main players in Manchester, taking only half the main players and half substitutes on the trip.
It's worth mentioning that David Silva, who had been injured for three months, had returned to training before this round of matches.
To help him regain form quickly, Pellegrini brought him along.
As it turned out, Pellegrini's decision was very wise.
At St. James' Park, Newcastle seemed either stimulated by City's big win over Spurs or inspired by Sunderland's bus-parking strategy, which almost held City to a draw.
Facing City at home, they also chose to park the bus! Against the opponent's ironclad defense, City, lacking Lin Quan, struggled for 90 minutes without scoring and were eventually dragged into extra time.
In the extra time phase, Pellegrini brought on David Silva, who immediately transformed Manchester City's attacking front.
His organization, passing, and movement were like adding oil to a rusty machine, injecting vitality into City's attacking system.
As a result, City, which had struggled to score earlier, netted two goals in the 30 minutes of extra time, smoothly advancing to the League Cup quarter-finals.
After the match, Pellegrini concluded two things: Manchester City's bench isn't strong! Manchester City can't do without Lin Quan!
This gave Lin Quan a bit of comfort; as long as Pellegrini recognized the issues in City's front line, that was enough! On December 2nd, the penultimate match of the Champions League group stage began.
Manchester City faced their weakest opponent in the group—Viktoria Plzeň.
Although City had already secured advancement from the group two rounds early, the suspense of competing with Bayern Munich for the top spot remained, so they couldn't take this match lightly.
In this game, since the opponent was not strong, Pellegrini risked putting David Silva, who had just recently recovered from injury, in the starting lineup.
Clearly, he wanted to help David Silva regain form quickly and integrate into the team's tactical system as soon as possible.
Viktoria Plzeň also noticed this, so they exploited the psychological weakness of players coming back from serious injuries who avoid intense physical confrontations, and focused their attacks on David Silva's side.
With four defeats, Viktoria Plzeň had nothing to lose; they were now fighting for honor. Whether home or away, they played very openly, without any conservatism.
This mentality actually made their performance much better than when the two teams met before.
In the first 30 minutes, Manchester City didn't get any good chances.
Instead, because David Silva instinctively avoided intense physical confrontations, the opponents found some opportunities from his side, launching several threatening counterattacks.
Since David Silva became a weak link in City's defense, Lin Quan had to frequently come over to help cover and shield him.
This significantly affected City's offensive momentum in the front.
This won't work, as failing to score for too long would affect the players' mentality and boost the opponents' confidence.
More importantly, this was David Silva's first start after his recovery; if he messed it up, it might have a significant psychological impact on him.
Lin Quan hadn't forgotten how well Silva had treated him when he first came to Manchester City.
So, from the 30th minute, Lin Quan increased his dribbling time and breakthrough attempts.
This way, he could quickly exploit the opponent's defensive gaps and reduce his teammates' dribbling time, helping them avoid being entangled by the opponents.
Viktoria Plzeň evidently didn't understand Lin Quan's solo abilities well enough, giving him an opening during their defense.
In the 33rd minute, Lin Quan dribbled past several players, and as he entered the opponent's penalty area, he was tripped, earning City a penalty.
As City's primary penalty taker and given his competition with Ronaldo and Messi for the Champions League top scorer, Lin Quan would usually insist on taking such penalties himself.
But today, he let his teammate David Silva take the penalty.
"Lin, this isn't right. You need this goal for the top scorer race. I don't need it; there's no need to give me the scoring chance!"
Faced with Lin Quan's kindness, David Silva was very touched but still declined.
Having such a thoughtful intention was enough; he felt too embarrassed to take the penalty.
Silva wasn't satisfied with his first start after returning from injury.
If he had to grade himself, he wouldn't even give himself a passing score of 6.
In fact, without him dragging the team down, City might have already taken the lead.
"It's okay. Even without this penalty, it won't affect my race for the top scorer.
Go ahead, don't refuse. This is my gift to you. I hope you can use this Champions League goal as a sign of your comeback and regain your form soon!"
Lin Quan spoke sincerely, and David Silva, deeply moved, finally nodded and accepted.
Fans at the stadium, watching on TV, and online viewers were all surprised when they saw the referee awarding the penalty, and Lin Quan not taking it himself but instead offering it to David Silva.
This surprised the fans: "What is Lin doing? Why isn't he taking the penalty?"
"It looks like he wants to give the chance to David Silva?"
"Really? Such a good scoring opportunity, and Lin is giving it away?"
"Doesn't seem fake!"
"If he really does it, I'm gonna cry!"
"Lin's character is just incredible. If I were his teammate and met such a great teammate, I'd give my life for him!"
"By the way, Lin has only 5 Champions League goals. City's knockout stage journey might not go far, so competing with Messi and Ronaldo for the Golden Boot might be hard!"
"That's hard to say. The gap between him and Messi and Ronaldo isn't big. If he didn't give away this penalty, he'd only be two goals behind Ronaldo!"
"It's better this way. Lin's goals will have no penalties, avoiding criticism!"
"Indeed, non-penalty goals are more valuable than those with penalties!"
(End of this chapter)
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