Before Chelsea face Arsenal's challenge at home, they must first challenge Sporting CP (formerly Sporting Lisbon) away in the second round of the Champions League group stage.

The current Sporting CP is coached by Marco Silva, who is only 37 years old. He has famous players like Nani and Patricio, as well as William Carvalho and Joao Mario.

The young talents are actually not weak at all.

But Pan Yi, who was full of confidence, still deployed a lineup mainly composed of rotating players, and still achieved a 4:1 victory!

Bamford scored twice, while Schürrle and Zouma also scored.

Sporting CP only scored a face-saving goal from Nani in stoppage time.

In the eyes of many people, the result of this game is not particularly surprising. After all, Chelsea feels really unstoppable now, and it is normal that Sporting CP cannot beat them.

But one person is particularly worried about such news.

That is Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger.

After all, Chelsea’s next opponent is Arsenal!

They also played in the Champions League in midweek and also went to Portugal for an away game, but they lost 0:2 to Porto.

How can the "professor" not feel worried with such a contrast in status?

"Originally, the situation in the Premier League this season looked very chaotic. We might really have a chance to compete for the championship, but now... Chelsea's state is too stable."

Wenger sat in his office and stared at the wall blankly. The expression on his face never relaxed, and he even looked a little old.

Last season, the professor led Arsenal in the 133rd FA Cup final. After conceding 2 goals in the first 8 minutes, they reversed Hull City 3-2 after overtime and won their first trophy in 9 years.

A championship trophy.

In other words, after Wenger won ten championships in the first eight years of coaching Arsenal, he entered the cycle of "ten years without a championship".

Although they have reached the FA Cup, League Cup finals many times during this period, and even entered the Champions League final once, they just missed the championship.

In the Premier League, although Arsenal can steadily enter the top four and obtain a place in the Champions League, the goal of competing for the championship seems to be getting further and further away from them.

Buy the universe in July, sell the captain in August, be the best team in September, win five crowns in October, have hope in November, have long goals in 12 months, be injured in January, stay in the league in February, enter the midfield in March, and compete in April

The semi-finals, fifth place in May, advanced to the semi-finals in June, can play in the play-offs, the whole team was overjoyed, breathed a sigh of relief, and was ready to sell the captain.

The above is almost the epitome of every season of Arsenal over the years.

As a result, Arsenal went from being the undefeated team of kings in the Premier League to becoming the joke champion in world football.

The so-called "football jokes have a stone's throw, Arsenal have eight games to their name" is this.

What about "40 million pounds 1", "our factory has collapsed", "temperature difference signing", "five years of Bayern, three years of Barcelona", "the best formation", "Wenger's zipper", "fighting for the four crazy demons",

"Fan ambition", "loyalty law", "selling captain"...

If we elaborated on it in detail, ten chapters would not be complete.

But Wenger is not willing to give in!

Why doesn’t he want to win another Premier League championship?

The FA Cup champion is just a lower substitute.

But a champion is still a champion after all.

That is to say, last season's FA Cup championship boosted the morale of Arsenal and regained their confidence.

So this summer, they invested a huge amount of nearly 80 million pounds in signings!

Among them are Sanchez with 35 million pounds, Welbeck with 16 million pounds, Chambers with 12 million pounds, Debuchy with 10 million pounds, and Ospina with 3 million pounds.

If converted into euros, this is already more than what Chelsea has paid with Abramovich’s investment!

After all, they only spent 80 million euros on new players in the summer window.

After the start of the new season, Arsenal's state is indeed good. Although they failed to win more victories, they still maintained their unbeaten status with 2 wins and 4 draws.

What makes Wenger even more gratified is that although it has only been six rounds, it can be seen that the Premier League this season is very chaotic. Most of the big6's states are unstable, and some mid-to-lower teams have outstanding performances.

For example, Swansea and Aston Villa, which remained undefeated in the previous rounds, are still ranked fifth and sixth.

There is also Southampton. Although they had one draw and one loss in the first two rounds, they have defeated West Ham United, Newcastle, Swansea, and Queens Park Rangers in the last four games.

Such a record also allowed their points to suddenly reach second place, second only to Chelsea.

This was really a great opportunity for Arsenal!

After all, Arsenal's absolute strength is not outstanding in the Premier League. It is really difficult to score 90 or 100 points in a season and then lead the championship by a long way.

But if everyone gets in a mess, Arsenal has a chance.

Just like now, after six rounds, Manchester City only has 10 points, the same points as Arsenal, but they are third on goal difference.

Arsenal ranks fourth. (Eh?)

Manchester United is seventh, Tottenham is eighth, and Liverpool is only 14th.

But the problem is...

Chelsea is number one!

And he is the first to win!

They scored 18 points in six rounds. They are simply brutal and inhumane. They don’t seem to have the same style as other teams!

As a result, it seems that Arsenal's championship dream is about to drift away again.

After all, they are eight points behind Chelsea after six rounds!

In such a short schedule, this is actually a very scary score difference.

Under such circumstances, the current troubled times in the Premier League have become less friendly to Arsenal.

After all, this also shows that there are more teams competing for Champions League seats!

For Arsenal and Wenger, the Champions League seat is the last position that cannot be lost.

After all, although the Premier League championship is a huge honor, in terms of benefits, it is not much different from second or third place.

But if someone is kicked out of the top four and cannot play in the Champions League, the loss will be huge.

First of all, at least tens of millions of euros in wasted money are gone!

And it’s not just money, it’s also attractive to stars.

Although a larger salary can still attract stars, Arsenal are not rich after all. They can only pay the market price at most, and cannot pay too much premium to buy players or offer super-large contracts.

Therefore, by staying in the top four and ensuring that you can participate in the Champions League, you can maintain your competitiveness in the Premier League.

Once squeezed out, it may directly create a vicious cycle, and then it may sink for many years.

"So, whether we can beat Chelsea in this game, or at least not lose to them, is really important."

Wenger stood up and walked around the office.

Although Arsenal fans now seem confident that they can beat Chelsea, Wenger does not think this is an easy task.

Chelsea is such a beast!

Not only did they win completely, but they also scored three to four goals in almost every game. It was simply inhumane.

And if Arsenal can escape unscathed at Stamford Bridge when facing such a powerful Chelsea team, that would be really important.

Whether it is for Arsenal players or even Wenger himself, it will be of great help in terms of confidence in achieving good results this season (fighting for fourth place).

In fact, Wenger also has an advantage.

That is, Pan Yi has defeated many world-class coaches in recent years, but Wenger is one of the few coaches who has not fallen behind.

First of all, theoretically speaking, there was no real confrontation between Wenger and Pan Yi.

Because when AC Milan played against Arsenal in the Champions League knockout round three years ago, Pan Yi was just an assistant coach.

But now everyone knows that Pan Yi actually played a leading role in Milan's tactics at that time.

Therefore, even if these two games are included, Wenger is actually tied with Pan Yi - their record is one win and one loss!

After all, Arsenal had won one game against AC Milan at the time, but lost 0:4 in the first leg at San Siro, preventing Arsenal from making a comeback in the second round.

However, it was this 0:4 defeat that made Wenger still have a lot of fear for Pan Yi.

At that time, Pan Yi's use of Aubameyang and Yin Bu at the center position was simply perfect, and Wenger was stunned.

Moreover, after Pan Yi arrived in Hamburg, especially his current performance at Chelsea, Wenger was even more impressed.

Of course, he has also watched Chelsea's games in the previous rounds, which also gave him a clear understanding of the strength of Pan Yi and this Chelsea team.

He also saw the new offensive tactics Pan Yi showed to the world and the progress shown by Chelsea players.

Players emerge in every game, and progress is visible to the naked eye. Such a team is terrible!

Even Wenger feels that Pan Yi is even more comfortable than he was a few years ago, and can use so many formations so freely!

Therefore, the performance of Pan Yi and Chelsea did put tremendous pressure on Wenger, and even somewhat shook his confidence.

"Can I defeat him? What method should I use to defeat him? Or...prevent him from defeating me?"

Wenger thought about this question repeatedly.
To be continued...