On December 3, the 14th round of the Premier League begins. The opening match of this round of the Premier League is the first-place battle between Manchester City and Chelsea.
Chelsea was the third-highest-investing club in the Premier League during this summer transfer window.
The five players of Kante, Batshuayi, Eduardo, David Luiz and Marcos Alonso cost Chelsea nearly 140 million pounds in total.
This shows that Chelsea owner Abramovich has great support for Conte, the famous Italian coach, and has high hopes.
Chelsea under Conte had won consecutive victories at the beginning of the season, but Conte's 4141 formation's tactical ideas were quickly figured out by opponents. They lost to Arsenal and Liverpool in a row and were kicked out of the game.
Team morale hit rock bottom.
At the time of crisis, Conte boldly sought change and came up with his unique 343 formation, quickly reversing the situation through the change.
Then Chelsea transformed and sublimated, like a dead tree rejuvenated with new life, causing Chelsea to burst out with incredible energy from top to bottom.
So far, the Blues led by Conte have won 7 consecutive Premier League games, and their momentum for the championship is extremely clear.
Comparing Conte and Guardiola, there is an obvious tendency to come from behind.
Therefore, this double-blue battle has attracted much attention from European and English media and fans.
The match time is at 13:30 noon on December 3, but starting from 12 noon, a large number of fans have poured onto the streets of Manchester, like a trickle of blue flowing into the center of Manchester.
Etihad Stadium.
Manchester City fans are in a good mood recently.
On November 19, in the 12th round of the Premier League, Manchester City won 2-1 away from Crystal Palace.
On November 23, in the fifth round of the Champions League group stage, Manchester City went to Germany to play against Monchengladbach and tied 1-1.
On November 26, in the 13th round of the Premier League, Manchester City played away to the newly promoted Burnley. Although the game was a bit difficult due to rotation, they finally defeated the newly promoted Burnley 2-1 with Chu Zheng's header.
Although Manchester City has been criticized by the media and there are hidden dangers in the defense, they have 2 wins and 1 draw in three games. This is an excellent answer for Manchester City fans and they are very satisfied.
Especially the Champions League.
There is still the last round left in the Champions League group stage, but Manchester City with 9 points and Barcelona with 10 points have joined hands to qualify ahead of schedule. Even if Celtic with 3 points and Borussia Monchengladbach with 4 points defeat them and Barcelona respectively in the last round, that will still be
It's impossible to qualify.
So for Manchester City, between now and mid-February next year, they can temporarily get rid of the extremely heavy burden of the European war and concentrate on the league.
Manchester City fans hope that the team can establish some points advantage during this period, so that the team can calmly balance the two fronts after entering February.
From December to February next year, these two months include the Premier League’s famous Christmas Devil schedule.
At this time of year, Premier League clubs are prone to large-scale injuries due to the overly intensive schedule before and after Christmas, which in turn leads to a series of chain reactions, ultimately leading to a decline in performance.
Therefore, in the eyes of Manchester City fans, this is a good time period for the team to establish a points advantage and lay the foundation for winning the championship.
But they did not consider that during the devil's schedule, Manchester City will actually be extremely difficult, but this is obviously not within the fans' consideration, because this is an issue that Manchester City coach Guardiola should consider. They only want results.
At 12:50, the warm-up of the two teams ended.
Chu Zheng was walking in front of his teammates. When he saw Kante among the Chelsea players leaving the field in front, he immediately accelerated and trotted up.
"Hey! N'Golo!" Chu Zheng rushed behind Kanter and jumped directly on him.
"Shit! Chu, you scared me!" Kanter dragged Chu Zheng and showed a bright smile. At this moment, he had the illusion of returning to Leicester City.
Chu Zheng quickly got off Kanter's back and reached out to put his arm around Kanter's shoulders, but because of his height, he felt the posture was a bit awkward so he took his hand back, and then the two of them walked off the court side by side.
Although they are now their own masters, Chu Zheng has not lost contact with Kante, Vardy, Mahrez and others after leaving Leicester City, and occasionally keeps in touch by phone.
So Chu Zheng is relatively familiar with Kanter's situation at Chelsea.
Just like in Leicester City, after Kante joined Chelsea, he was heavily used by Conte and started every game.
Kanter's performance on the court is still diligent, and his defensive statistics are still so dazzling that almost no one in the Premier League can match him.
The reason why Chelsea has this dazzling winning streak is inseparable from Kante's huge contribution on the defensive end.
At the end of October, in the 9th round of the Premier League, Chelsea slaughtered Manchester United 4-0. In the 70th minute of the game, Kante dribbled the ball into the penalty area from the center and then faked a move to dodge two Manchester United defenders and pushed on the right side of the penalty area.
He succeeded in shooting into the lower left corner of the goal and successfully scored his first Premier League goal after joining Chelsea, which also helped Chelsea completely seal the victory.
It is said that Conte also has the idea of developing Kante's offensive attributes.
As for whether Kanter has offensive talent, Chu Zheng, who has worked with Kanter for one season, knows it clearly.
There is definitely one, but it's hard to say where Kanter's upper limit is on the offensive end.
When he thought about Kanter, who was good at offense and defense, appearing opposite him, Chu Zheng thought it would be a terrifying ghost story.
Scary!
"Chu, don't be too arrogant on the court later, otherwise I'm afraid I won't be able to help but shove you!" As he entered the tunnel and was about to leave, Kanter suddenly winked at Chu Zheng with a smirk on his face.
Seeing Chu Zheng's stunned look, Kanter smiled again and said, "But don't worry, I won't hurt you!"
"Are you serious? N'Golo?" Chu Zheng glared and pointed his right index finger at his face, "Are you sure you can scoop the ball away from my feet?"
"How will you know if you don't try?" Kanter shrugged, then happily waved goodbye to Chu Zheng, and turned to walk to the locker room.
Kanter's words revealed some information, and Chu Zheng quickly interpreted it, that is, Conte might send Kanter to keep an eye on him. Thinking of Kanter's ghostly running positions, steals and interceptions, Chu Zheng felt a headache all over.
.
When he was at Leicester City, Kante often trained with Chu Zheng.
The two of them frequently conducted breakthrough and defensive training.
When facing Kanter head-on, Chu Zheng had a slight advantage, scoring 64 points. This means that Chu Zheng broke through ten times and Kanter intercepted the ball four times.
But defense depends on the team's tactics. A pure 1V1 solo is of little significance in most cases.
Kanter's characteristics are a huge defensive area and a strong will. Although he is thin and small, he has strong physical confrontation ability and can intercept and steal cleanly. Even if you can break through his defense from a certain position, it will only be temporary, and it may happen in the blink of an eye.
will meet again.
Kanter's sticky energy impressed Chu Zheng deeply.