The 19th round of the Premier League is halfway through the schedule. Liverpool ushered in the weak opponent Derby County, while the other top three opponents are not weak, especially Arsenal, which ranks first, will face the challenge of Portsmouth. This is a great time for Liverpool to return to the top.

Portsmouth has an amazing record. Although he was defeated by Liverpool in the last game, this will not have much impact on their strength. Instead, Arsenal should be wary of them venting their anger with them.

Chelsea's opponent is Aston Villa, currently ranked 7th. With Chelsea's form, even if it is playing at home, it is not easy to win Aston Villa.

Manchester United's opponent Sunderland is relatively weak, but even Sunderland's ranking and record are many times better than Derby County. Compared with Liverpool, Manchester United's victory will definitely be much more difficult.

The first day after Christmas was the battle between Chelsea and Aston Villa. The game was thrilling, scoring 8 goals in total and being sent off for three. Chelsea took the lead in 90 minutes, but was tied for the fourth time by Aston Villa in the 92nd minute. The final score of 4:4 made Chelsea lose the opportunity to further improve its ranking.

The match between Manchester United and Sunderland, Liverpool and Derby County started at the same time. Although Manchester United's opponents were stronger, Manchester United was in good shape. They had already led two goals in the first 20 minutes, and they were three goals at the end of the half to secure the victory. However, Liverpool tied with their opponents 1:1 in the half.

Manchester United won the game with no suspense 4-0 in the second half, but Liverpool was extremely difficult to score in 90 minutes by Chen Yu, who scored a free kick, preventing the birth of a super upset game.

The most critical game is the match between Arsenal and Portsmouth in the evening, which will determine the ownership of the Premier League half-time champion.

Arsenal attaches great importance to this game. Arsenal is the youngest team with the average age of the Premier League. Their characteristics are fearless and unyielding, and their shortcomings are obvious. They are very emotional. They can play with a tailwind but not against the wind. Once they lose, there is a possibility of losing in a row, so Wenger must ensure that the team wins continuously.

Portsmouth was swept by Liverpool 4 goals in the last game. If they still want to make it to the top four, they will at least not lose in this game with Arsenal. Then the gap between them and the top four will become bigger and bigger.

Portsmouth, who played at home, also took active and fierce pressing at the beginning, trying to open Arsenal's goal first, but Arsenal used his gorgeous ball control and foot skills to teach Portsmouth a lesson. In front of Arsenal's extremely fast pass and catch the ball, Portsmouth could not grab the ball at all, but was hit by Arsenal repeatedly. If Arsenal's forward had not had enough ability to seize the opportunity, Portsmouth would have conceded at least two goals in the ten minutes of the game.

Soon Redknapp and Portsmouth realized the reality. The danger of playing against Arsenal is even better than that of Liverpool. Although Liverpool is also good at long passes and counterattacks, Liverpool's passes and reception speed and quality are not as good as Arsenal. However, Liverpool's Chen Yu is too evil and his ability to seize opportunities is far beyond ordinary people. Otherwise, Liverpool's counterattack is not as good as Arsenal.

Since he can't play against the opponent, he can only play defensive counterattack if he wants to win. Redknapp is a very unique coach. Since he decided to defend, he simply withdraws all the players to his half, leaving only one Kanu as a bridgehead in front.

Arsenal has strong attack power, but facing the opponent's extreme 101 deadly defense formation, it is difficult to penetrate even if the smooth and delicate short pass penetration is penetrated. On the contrary, Portsmouth's counterattack brings considerable trouble to Arsenal from time to time.

Arsenal, who played away from home in the first half, had completely controlled the situation. Although there were not many shots, there were even fewer Portsmouth. Moreover, the ball was still on Arsenal's side. After the first half, most people thought that Arsenal's goal was just a matter of time.

However, the second half was almost a replica of the first half. Arsenal had more than 70% possession of the ball, but the chance of scoring was not as good as the first half. Although Portsmouth had fewer counterattacks, it was threatened every time. Especially in the 80th minute of the game, Portsmouth goalkeeper Muvaloiri shook all Arsenal defenders in the counterattack, and the man-to-be passed Arsenal goalkeeper Amunia. When the ball was about to hit an empty goal, the ball was kicked out of the baseline by Krish, who was quickly back to defend, and destroyed Portsmouth's best scoring opportunity.

Portsmouth's counterattack scared Arsenal. In addition, the game time reached 80 minutes, the players' physical fitness declined, and the enthusiasm and adventurous spirit of both sides' offense were greatly weakened. In the end, they had to accept a 0:0 result.

As Liverpool won away, Arsenal, who had just reached the top of the list, had to return the throne of the half-time championship to Liverpool.

Wenger was very angry about this result. At the post-match press conference, Wenger was a little angry, "I must say that Portsmouth was not playing football in the second half. They didn't push it out at all, they were just defending. It was surprising that they could put ten people in the backcourt. Their defense line was very experienced, and the forwards also focused their attention on defense, and they put a Canu in the frontcourt. You can't play like this every week. Last week, they were really good at Liverpool, but they were fed four goals by the opponent. So after they saw that they couldn't play against us in this game, they only cared about the defense."

Even though he was angry, Redknapp was determined to play like this, what could Wenger do? After all, it was his fault for not breaking their goal. Wenger finally said something that would not make the home team angry. He said: "I can't be disappointed with Harry's operation. This is his freedom. We don't have a superstar like Chen Yu. We must find a way to solve the problem of scoring."

Re-winning the half-time championship is of great significance to Liverpool. Starting from the 2003-04 season, the Premier League championship for three consecutive seasons was won by the team ranked first in the standings after the Christmas schedule, expanding the statistical scope. In the 15 seasons since the birth of the Premier League, there have been a total of 8 Christmas schedules and leading the final championship after winning the championship. Only last season was the magical performance of Liverpool, that is, after winning the half-time championship, Liverpool has more than 50% hope to defend the title.

In addition, although Liverpool and Arsenal only have the same points, Arsenal's Champions League opponents are stronger, and there is also the African Cup game in the middle. The departure of Toure and Eb will inevitably weaken Arsenal. Sendros and Toure are not on the same level. Once they encounter a strong forward, the Swiss will have a psychological shadow. Moreover, the seemingly strong Sendros is always injured and almost becomes a glass man. Toure will not return until February at the latest. Once he is injured again, Wenger can only arrange for Gilberto or Song to play a guest role as a central defender. Obviously, these two are worse than Sendros.

Liverpool is almost not affected by the African Cup. Therefore, although Liverpool is now defeating Arsenal only by the advantage of goals, it is actually very difficult for Arsenal not to be left behind by Liverpool. Since Chelsea fell too much, it is not easy to ensure the position in the semi-finals. The one that poses the most threat to Liverpool is actually the Red Devils and Manchester United.

Historically, Manchester United's sprint in the second half was even stronger. In the championship battle, Manchester United managed to catch up with five times. The strongest one was to chase Newcastle in 9596 season with 8 points. Ferguson led his team to successfully reverse and win the championship.

Judging from the schedule, Manchester United was eliminated in the League Cup as early as Liverpool. They both had at least two or three more games than Arsenal and Chelsea, which was very valuable in the second half of the season. In addition, before Manchester United's Champions League knockout, the league opponents, like Liverpool, gradually increased from weak to strong, which was conducive to the team's best state.

Moreover, in terms of staffing, Chelsea is in a civil strife and Arsenal is young. Only Manchester United's staffing is similar to Liverpool, with reasonable age matching and superstars in charge. Because after Arsenal suffered a setback in this round, the media believed that Manchester United was the one that could pose a real threat to Liverpool.

For Manchester United, the 20th round is a good opportunity for them to catch up with Liverpool and Arsenal. In this round, both Arsenal and Liverpool face the challenge of strong opponents, and their opponents are relatively weak. If they can defeat West Ham United in this round, and Liverpool and Arsenal are blocked by Everton and Manchester City, Manchester United is expected to tie or overtake them in points.

The media also believes that the 20th round is the key battle of the Christmas Devil schedule. This is the third game of the Devil schedule. Since it is basically played every three days, the players are very tired in physical fitness and spirit. At this time, what determines the outcome of the game is no longer purely skill, but more depends on whether the players have the will of steel. At this level, the giants are not much better than ordinary teams, which means that the chance of a weak team being upset is still quite high.

Manchester United was the first to start the game in the semi-finals. The day of the game coincided with the birthday of Manchester United coach Ferguson. Manchester United players wanted to give gifts to Sir Ferguson with a refreshing victory, but also hoped to use victory to put pressure on Liverpool and Arsenal. In the game, Manchester United players were a little anxious to win and lacked patience in the offense. Although C. Ronaldo used his personal ability to score the first goal in the 8th minute of the game, he missed the penalty to lock in the victory, which gave West Ham United confidence to equalize.
Chapter completed!