He knew perfectly well that his good buddy had spent most of his time at Arsenal as a glass man.
Even worse than Van Persie!
At least Van Persie had managed to carry a whole season!
Wilshere was incredibly talented, but he just didn't play very often!
In that respect, he was a bit like the Clippers' NBA superstar "Medical Card."
He was good when he played, but he just didn't play much!
Every year in the playoffs, he sat courtside in a suit, watching his teammates play.
Wilshere had been a bit like that during his time at Arsenal...
Put simply, no matter how good your technique was, you needed a healthy body first.
Otherwise, if you were always getting injured, who could put up with that?
You couldn't guarantee you'd be available, and you couldn't put up impressive numbers.
Your market value and salary would never get very high!
Van Persie had been able to join Manchester United on a top salary because he'd been available for most of his final season at Arsenal and scored 30 league goals.
Without his outstanding performances in the 2011–2012 season, it would have been questionable whether Manchester United would have bought him at all.
And they'd certainly never have offered him such a high salary.
So, don't envy someone else for earning more than you.
It's because they can do more than you, and do it better.
Under those circumstances, if they weren't paid more than you, that would be utterly ridiculous.
Anyway, Li Yufei felt completely at ease with the salary he was earning.
If this weren't the first formal contract of his professional career,
he might even have asked for the moon and demanded a Premier League top salary!
After all, he was extremely confident in his abilities!
With the skill [Iron Man], which made him immune to injuries, there was no need to worry about Li Yufei's availability.
If stamina weren't a concern, Li Yufei could play every minute of every match in a season, staying on the pitch for the full 90 minutes each time.
But Li Yufei's stamina wasn't very good yet, so he definitely couldn't keep that up.
He wouldn't get injured from fatigue, but there was no way he could maintain his form!
Wenger would never run Li Yufei into the ground like that, either.
The old man cherished this precious talent and was afraid of wearing him out.
On August 17, Manchester United beat the Magpies, Newcastle United, 3–0 at Old Trafford, bringing the first round of the Premier League to a close.
In the opening round, all the traditional Premier League powerhouses—Manchester United, Arsenal, and Chelsea—had won.
Chelsea had thrashed West Bromwich Albion 6–0 and temporarily topped the table on goal difference.
Arsenal and Manchester United followed in second and third place.
Tottenham, meanwhile, had played out a 0–0 draw with Manchester City.
On the Top Scorers List, Drogba sat at the top after scoring a hat-trick in the opening round, while Li Yufei was in second place after scoring twice in a match.
August 21.
The first match of the Premier League's second round saw Arsenal host newly promoted Blackpool.
In the first round, Blackpool had thrashed Wigan Athletic, who had narrowly avoided relegation the previous season, by a score of 4–0.
The win had filled the Blackpool squad with confidence. After all, they'd just thrashed a Premier League team from the previous season!
Even if their opponents had only barely avoided relegation, they were still a Premier League team!
Blackpool had spent the previous season fighting their way up from the EFL Championship, and now their first match in the Premier League had seen them thrash a team that had been in the top flight.
How could that not stir their ambitions and make them want more?
With that in mind, Blackpool traveled to the Emirates Stadium to take on Arsenal.
From the opening whistle, Blackpool played with the kind of physicality you'd expect in the EFL Championship.
To be fair, the Championship was even more physical than the Premier League.
After all, the Premier League had technical, possession-based sides like Arsenal. It wasn't all bruisers clashing with one another.
But Championship teams didn't have the foundation to play that kind of technical football.
Aside from using physical battles to knock their opponents down, the only tactic they could really claim as their own was the very British long-ball game.
But Arsenal had been established in the Premier League for years, and every season they faced a couple of newly promoted sides coming up from the Championship.
They already had their own way of dealing with them.
Li Yufei continued to wait on the bench in this match.
Wenger hadn't made him a starter just because he'd played well in the previous game.
Li Yufei could only be patient. He believed his day as a starter would eventually come!
On the pitch, Blackpool had dominated for the first ten minutes, but after that they were quickly brought back down to earth.
The 12th minute.
Rosicky carried the ball through midfield and sent a forward pass to Arshavin.
With his back to goal, Arshavin controlled the ball and feinted to the left, wrong-footing Blackpool defender Carey before passing to Walcott, who had made a forward run into the right side of the box.
Little Tiger collected the ball and, without a moment's hesitation, unleashed a thunderous shot.
Blackpool goalkeeper Gilks had no chance against a shot from that close range. He could only throw up his hands in surrender.
Arsenal led 1–0 at home.
The goal seemed to wake Blackpool up, but it was already too late.
The 31st minute.
Walcott beat the Offside Trap and reached Wilshere's pass.
Just as Walcott was about to go one-on-one with the keeper again, Blackpool defender Evatt chose to slide in from behind, breaking up the chance.
The reckless foul earned Evatt a straight red card. With only 30 minutes played, Blackpool were already in the awkward position of playing ten against eleven.
The worst part was that before Evatt went to ground with the slide tackle, Walcott had already stepped one foot into the box.
In other words, Evatt's foul had not only cost his team a red card, but also conceded a Penalty Kick. He'd truly lost both his wife and his soldiers.
Arshavin took the ball. Facing a goalkeeper who already looked numb, he waited for the referee's whistle, then immediately drove the shot into the bottom-right corner.
Gilks guessed the wrong way, and Arsenal took a 2–0 lead at home.
At this point, Blackpool's manager knew the match was over.
To protect their goal difference, he took off midfielder Sylvestre and sent on a defender named Keinan.
The moment he saw that signal, Wenger knew the match was in the bag. Their opponents had conceded defeat.
Before you continue