"GOOOOOOOOAL!!!"
"Number 23, Arshavin!!!"
"Just six minutes into the second half, Arsenal have made it 3–1. Blackburn Rovers are trailing by two goals once again."
"Blackburn Rovers' manager needs to come up with something."
After the restart.
Blackburn Rovers' players instantly went into attack-dog mode, trying to pull the score back to a one-goal deficit.
Unfortunately, their move didn't narrow the gap. It only made things worse.
The 58th minute.
Almunia saved Diouf's shot, then hoofed the ball toward the center circle.
Alex Song leapt high and headed the ball to Fabregas.
Fabregas saw Li Yufei raise his hand and immediately played a through ball forward, sending it far enough ahead of him.
Li Yufei turned and took off at once. Samba hadn't even had time to grab him before Li Yufei left him in the dust.
There was nothing he could do. For a hulking defender like him, speed had always been a weakness.
After shaking off Samba, Li Yufei reached the ball and began lengthening his stride, adjusting his pace to make sure he would be in the perfect position to shoot with his right foot.
After all, his weaker left foot was still a noticeable weakness. His shooting accuracy with it was nowhere near as good as with his right.
But Blackburn Rovers' goalkeeper, Robinson, wasn't about to give him that chance. The moment he saw Li Yufei get away from Samba, he had already charged off his line.
With the goalkeeper only a few steps away from a collision, Li Yufei was forced to change direction. He nudged the ball to the right with his left foot, then leapt over Robinson as he rushed across to block him.
After a few long strides, he caught up with the ball and flicked his right ankle. The ball rolled straight into the empty net.
Samba had been chasing from behind. He watched Li Yufei pull off that whole sequence, powerless to stop him. Blood rushed to his head, and he wanted nothing more than to chop Li Yufei's legs off.
With that goal, Arsenal's lead grew to three. Only then did Li Yufei remember that he hadn't completed his third task.
He hurried over to the touchline camera and shouted, "Taylor, I love you!"
Li Yufei's bold declaration of love in front of the whole world immediately drew a chorus of boos from the crowd.
It was just like with the Liverpool fans: how dare an away player declare his love in front of the home crowd?
It was as if he didn't care that tens of thousands of them were there!
The Arsenal players, on the other hand, were all laughing and joking. Fabregas teased him:
"Li Yufei, you and your girlfriend are so close. I'm so jealous."
"Hahaha! What's it like having a superstar girlfriend? I want one too, but nobody's interested in me!" Walcott chimed in, sounding sour.
"Heh... It's pretty good, pretty good. She's just a little strict. Everything else is fine."
Li Yufei wasn't lying. Taylor really was very strict about that sort of thing.
For one thing, she and Li Yufei had agreed that he couldn't spend too much time around the same beautiful woman.
Taylor had imposed that agreement unilaterally, but Li Yufei was happy to go along with it.
After all, at his age, he shouldn't be getting distracted by women.
For a young footballer, getting carried away with women could only harm his future.
Even when it came to sleeping with Taylor, he kept things in moderation.
At least Taylor was very careful about that. She didn't take too much of her boyfriend's energy.
"GOOOOOOAL!!!"
"Number 13, Li Yufei!!!"
"Andy, Li Yufei has scored again! He's up to seven league goals this season. Do you still insist he won't score more than 25 league goals this season?"
Andy Gray was stunned by his co-commentator's words. After a long pause, he finally replied, "Of course. The season's only just begun. Who knows what'll happen later?"
"I don't think Li Yufei can keep scoring at this rate. Two goals a game? That's impossible!"
"Forget two a game. If Li Yufei manages even one league goal per game this season, I'll apologize to him on air."
Li Yufei had no idea that Andy Gray had just made a bold prediction about him.
All he could think was how incredible this felt. He'd basically completed the match's tasks again.
Soon, he'd have 300 Intermediate Soft Rice Points and 100 Advanced Soft Rice Points—another major boost to his abilities.
Samba saw Li Yufei openly declare his love in front of the home crowd's cameras, and anger flared inside him.
"Damn it! That pretty-boy freeloader dares to provoke us on our home turf!"
"Just you wait. You're dead. I mean it!"
Samba had already decided how he would deal with Li Yufei for the rest of the match.
Blackburn Rovers' manager had just watched Arsenal score twice in three minutes, and his heart sank.
But they were at home. He couldn't afford to give up.
So he waved his hand and replaced number 11, Grella, with number 8, Dunn.
As soon as Wenger saw Li Yufei score again, he told Van Persie to get up and warm up.
It was obvious the old man was about to substitute Li Yufei.
The match was already in the bag. To protect Li Yufei's still-developing body, Wenger would never keep him on when the outcome was clear.
He had to make sure Li Yufei stayed healthy at the start of his career.
After watching him in several matches, Wenger had decided that this boy was Arsenal's future.
In his first three professional matches, he'd already scored one hat-trick and two braces.
And that was without counting the hat-trick Li Yufei had scored in the friendly against Legia Warsaw.
In other words, in the single month since joining the first team, Li Yufei had scored two hat-tricks.
That was unprecedented—and would likely never be matched!
Even Ronaldo, the sensational young phenom who'd once been called the Alien, hadn't been as outrageous as Li Yufei was now.
But the old man was mistaken. Ronaldo might not have scored as freely at the start of his career, but in terms of individual ability, the 18-year-old Ronaldo was definitely better than Li Yufei was now!
At 18, Ronaldo already had the ability of a world-class striker.
Li Yufei, by comparison, was at best a near-world-class forward.
It was just that Li Yufei's acceleration and top speed were so absurd that he could outrun defenders to so many one-on-ones.
Without maxed-out speed, Li Yufei's scoring rate would definitely drop by a lot.
At the very least, he wouldn't be able to run down some of those one-on-ones.
Still, Li Yufei was full of confidence. After all, he was a man with a cheat!
If he couldn't match Ronaldo through normal growth, surely he could with a cheat?
Back to the match.
The 63rd minute.
Just as Wenger was about to take Li Yufei off, something happened on the pitch that left him furious.
Li Yufei had dropped back to receive the ball near the front when Samba suddenly accelerated from behind and slammed straight into his back.
Worst of all, as they went down, Samba showed his studs and raked them across Li Yufei's thigh.
"Holy shit, that bastard's vicious!"
The pain left Li Yufei drenched in cold sweat.
Fortunately, the Iron Man buff meant he could ignore injuries. Apart from the pain, he wasn't hurt.
But Li Yufei wasn't the kind of good guy who took a hit without hitting back.
As he fell alongside Samba, he secretly used the Mamba Technique and drove an elbow into Samba's lower abdomen.
A shot to a man's most vulnerable spot could bring even the toughest hard case to his knees.
As Samba went down, his eyes bulged and he sucked in a sharp breath. He was clearly in agony too.
But the cameras didn't catch those sneaky moves right away.
The referee had only seen Samba commit a malicious foul on Li Yufei from behind.
Especially the last move, when he showed his studs. That was blatant. The referee's eyes caught it clear as day.
Without hesitation, the referee had barely reached the scene before pulling a red card from his back pocket.
Number 4, Samba, was sent off. Blackburn Rovers were suddenly down to ten men against eleven.
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