Defeating Arsenal 4-1 made Manchester City fans very happy, but the shortcoming was that Chelsea and Liverpool also faced the ball, giving Manchester City no chance to return to the top spot.
Chelsea, the Premier League leader in this round, visits Selhurst Park to challenge Crystal Palace.
This summer Crystal Palace also invested more than 50 million in the transfer market. The largest signing was the purchase of Benteke from Liverpool for 32 million.
But Crystal Palace's results this season are still very poor.
In the 17 rounds of the Premier League, Crystal Palace has achieved a record of 4 wins, 3 draws and 10 losses, ranking fourth from the bottom in the Premier League standings.
I thought Chelsea would be able to defeat such a team, but Conte's Blues were attacked by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
Judging from the technical statistics of the entire game between the two sides, Crystal Palace's number of shots, shots on target, ball possession rate, corner kicks, free kicks and other statistics are not much weaker than Chelsea's.
If it weren't for Kante's interception and sweep in the midfield, Chelsea would have been in trouble.
In the end, in the 82nd minute of the second half, Chelsea relied on Azpilicueta's cross and Costa's header to open the door of Crystal Palace. They won with a score of 1-0 and retained their top spot in the Premier League.
The hot Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton was also difficult to win. It was not until the 93rd minute of the game that Mane followed up with a follow-up shot to win.
Compared with these two teams, Manchester City's victory was hearty. In the second half, it can be said that they almost beat Arsenal to death. It was a complete win.
Guardiola defeated the Gunners with his precise and deadly tactical adjustments, winning unanimous praise from countless media and fans.
Especially the Manchester City fans, they are really satisfied with Guardiola.
This is not the first time Guardiola has made such a magical midfield adjustment.
From this point of comparison, Guardiola's coaching ability is really much better than Pellegrini's.
Not to mention Chu Zheng, who assisted a hat trick in this game.
His performance impressed all the media and fans.
When some neutral fans were interviewed by the media at the Etihad, they even called Chu Zheng's midfield masterclass performance today.
The media always likes to praise the high and downplay the low. Now that Guardiola and Chu Zheng have been praised, then as the losing side, Arsenal, who was beaten to a loss in the second half, will inevitably be trampled on.
The first player to bear the brunt is Ozil, the German midfielder who caused public outrage when he disappeared and was criticized by countless Gunners fans.
Some Gunners fans even posted a missing person notice on Ozil after the game to ridicule Ozil who was invisible on the field.
Some fans posted photos of Wenger on the scene, with the words next to them, ‘Wenger wanted to replace Ozil, but he couldn’t find him!’.
In the first half, Ozil's performance was actually respectable when he was full of energy.
But in the second half, Gunners fans treated the German as an imbecile (physically), especially after being separated from his teammates. This guy simply accepted his fate and began to walk leisurely on the field and become invisible.
So after the game, Ozil handed over the data of 0 crosses, 0 dribbles, 0 shots, 0 steals, and 0 interceptions in the entire 90 minutes, which made many Gunners fans extremely angry.
Against the backdrop of Chu Zheng, this gem, Ozil is like dough thrown into the pit, smelly and soft!
Whenever Ozil shows even a flicker of fighting spirit, Gunners fans will not be so angry. This guy has a problem with his attitude towards the game.
Not only that, Ozil was also criticized by the big brother in the Arsenal team in front of the fans.
In the last minute of the game, Arsenal got a free kick and Cech ran up directly.
At that time, people thought that Cech was coming to compete for the top spot.
However, after Cech came up, he ran in front of Ozil and moved the ball, indicating that he should not hold back and serve it quickly, openly expressing his dissatisfaction with the German.
This is not the first time Ozil has been criticized by teammates.
The last time he lost to Everton, Sanchez glared and shook his hands because Ozil was sleepwalking and failed to cooperate with him to steal the ball during a press.
In addition to Ozil, Wenger also received fierce criticism.
The 4-1 loss to Manchester City heightened the call from the Gunners fan base to see Wenger sacked.
There are those who question Wenger's substitutions, those who question Wenger's tactics, those who despise Wenger's age, and so on.
The outdated topic of "Wenger is obsolete" is once again put in front of the public.
Some people even openly claimed that Wenger's current mentality is to rest on his laurels and wait to die.
For this reason, these fans who told Wenger to go away even used Chelsea as an example.
Last season, everyone saw the virtues of Chelsea under Mourinho. The conflicts in the dressing room even spread to the pitch. The core players did not work hard, which almost caused Chelsea to fall into the English Championship.
In this case, either the core players who caused the trouble must be replaced one by one, Hazard and Costa are all eliminated, or Mourinho must be replaced.
Chelsea finally chose the latter, which was much lower cost, so Conte's appointment this season gave Chelsea a new lease of life.
Therefore, these fans believe that Arsenal's top management should follow Chelsea's example and kill Wenger, the main culprit who rests on his laurels.
And if there are opponents, there will naturally be supporters.
These fans who support Wenger are very sensible and most of them say that a defeat is nothing.
Competitive competitions are accidental.
These fans said that Arsenal and Chelsea last season are completely different.
Chelsea was in internal strife, and the players were fighting with Mourinho.
Arsenal, on the other hand, is actually very united internally.
Sanchez, Ozil, and Cech made it very clear when they joined Arsenal that they came for Wenger as the head coach, so changing coaches in this case is almost meaningless.
And in fact, Wenger has been seeking changes over the years.
When he first took office, Arsenal under his command counterattacked like a storm. Then Manchester City began to pursue a beautiful style of play and began to emphasize small-scale cooperation. Only then did Arsenal's beautiful football come into being.
Later, after several big defeats against strong teams, Wenger started to show off again.
In recent years, high pressing has become popular, and Arsenal has also adopted high pressing tactics.
So Wenger is also advancing with the times.
But there is one thing that must be admitted, that is, Wenger's changes were relatively lagging behind and were not so thorough.
Therefore, although it is not correct to say that Wenger is behind the times, it cannot be said to be wrong.
Perhaps this is the real reason why the Arsenal he has led over the years has been more than stable but lacks momentum.
After all, compared with Guardiola and Klopp, Wenger is indeed not young enough and belongs to the older generation of head coaches. It is normal that his brain is not as active as young people.
Moreover, in the past ten years, Arsenal's youth training has been like a backwater, without the support of young players from its own youth training camp who can be trained into big-name stars.
Since Henry and Fabregas left, even semi-finished products cannot be cultivated.
However, despite this situation, Arsenal can still reach fourth place in the Premier League every year and win the Champions League. From this point of view, Wenger plays an important role.
Finally, these fans also specifically mentioned Arsenal's current ranking.
After losing a game and ranking fourth in the standings, 5 points behind Chelsea, which is first, is actually not too bad. There is still hope for the championship.
Compared to Arsenal, who have been thrust into the limelight by the media and their own fans, Manchester City's side is calm and harmonious.
A big victory from a strong dialogue is the best pre-Christmas gift for both the Manchester City club and Manchester City fans.