At the post-match press conference, Wenger was asked about Varane's mistake. The old man replied calmly:
"We have no need to dwell on one mistake, because it did not affect Arsenal's eventual victory."
"You have to understand that Rafael is only seventeen. He still has an endless future ahead of him."
"Putting that mistake aside, Rafael performed very well in this match."
"I'm very optimistic about his future. He'll become part of Arsenal's future, just like Li Yufei."
Hearing Wenger bring up Li Yufei of his own accord, the reporters continued asking questions:
"Mr. Arsene, Fry only scored one goal in this match. Does that mean he has already hit a rookie bottleneck?"
When the old man heard this, his face showed an expression that seemed to say, Are you stupid? He replied:
"I don't know when scoring one goal in a match became a rookie bottleneck. It seems everyone has very high expectations for Fry!"
"Then here's the question: Since everyone has such high expectations, why did the vast majority of the media consider Fry's earlier claim that he would win the Premier League Golden Boot this season to be arrogant?"
"Isn't that contradictory?"
The Fleet Street reporters were rendered somewhat helpless by Wenger's counterquestion.
What a turn of events. They had always been the ones asking other people questions, but this time, they had been counterattacked directly.
But having said that, Wenger's words were not entirely without reason.
Why had they all agreed that Fry was boasting? Thinking it over carefully, it seemed to be simply because he was too young.
Apart from that, they had no other evidence.
But now that they looked back, on the current Premier League Top Scorers List, Fry was far ahead with eight goals.
Drogba, in second place, had scored only four.
Looking at it this way, Fry really did have a chance to win this season's Premier League Golden Boot. It was even possible that he might win the European Golden Shoe.
At that thought, the Fleet Street reporters suddenly looked at one another.
Could it be? Could it be that football history was about to see the birth of the first player to win a league Golden Boot in the very first year of his professional career?
Were they really about to witness the emergence of an unprecedented legend?
To be honest, many Fleet Street outlets simply couldn't believe it.
This was just too much like a fairy tale. It shouldn't exist in reality!
But regardless, Wenger's words today were quickly reported by media outlets everywhere.
That counterquestion even genuinely made quite a few media workers start thinking.
If they believed that Li Yufei scoring one goal in a match counted as a poor performance,
then why did they still believe Li Yufei couldn't win the league Golden Boot?
One had to understand that, judging from the Premier League Golden Boot's past scoring figures, even Alan Shearer's record of thirty-four goals in a single season,
spread across every match, amounted to less than one goal per game.
Yet now, when Li Yufei scored one goal in a match, the media instinctively decided that he had entered a bottleneck period.
The contradiction between these statements already showed that Li Yufei's growth was simply too rapid.
It had left even the professionals, including the media, without an accurate assessment of his ability—and then Li Yufei had grown stronger again.
This bizarre situation, in which other people's understanding couldn't keep up with the speed of a player's improvement, had occurred only once in the entire history of the Football World!
Even Ronaldo in his prime had never been this outrageous!
Thus, news about Li Yufei once again exploded throughout Britain. This time, even other European countries began paying attention.
That was because the question their fellow journalists had asked was simply too absurd!
The Spanish, German, Italian, and French media were extremely curious about what had caused their colleagues to ask such an outrageous question as, "Does scoring one goal mean he's hit a bottleneck?"
Once they investigated the matter, those media outlets exploded as well!
What the hell? Eight goals in four league matches—an average of two goals per game?
If that were all, they wouldn't have been so shocked!
After all, Messi and Ronaldo could both accomplish that when in good form.
But the key point was that the person who had done all this was a super-rich second-generation heir who was not yet eighteen and had only just begun the first season of his professional career!
That topic alone was packed with explosive elements.
In particular, through this news, media outlets in other countries also learned about Li Yufei's interview after he won the Premier League's August Best Player award.
When they heard that this underage rookie, who had only just begun his professional career, was pointing fingers at the entire Premier League and even taking an advance loan on the Premier League Golden Boot,
they were even more astonished!
What kind of person would say something so arrogant in front of the media?
Even Ibrahimović, the famous egomaniac of the current Football World,
hadn't been this domineering and arrogant before becoming famous, had he?
At the same time, Li Yufei's rookie performance—arguably the most explosive in history—also attracted the attention of some players with ulterior motives.
Spain.
Madrid.
Cristiano Ronaldo was resting at home, still gloomy because Real Madrid had been held to a 0–0 draw at home by Mallorca in the first round of the league.
At that moment, when he saw the news about Li Yufei, the words "eight goals in four matches" immediately caught his eye.
After reading through the relevant reports, Ronaldo let out a long breath, put down the newspaper, and turned around to enter the gym.
He had to admit that Li Yufei was putting enormous pressure on him—far more than the outside media imagined!
That was because he had played in the Premier League for six years and knew exactly how intense it was!
A forward capable of scoring eight goals in four Premier League matches was absolutely one of the top players in the world!
And when that achievement was combined with Li Yufei's age—under eighteen—
the threat he posed to Ronaldo instantly reached its highest level.
Ronaldo would not underestimate Li Yufei simply because he had yet to win any honors.
By his own admission, he could never have produced such an outrageous performance at eighteen!
For now, he was merely relieved that Li Yufei was still young and lacked match experience. Catching up to him in a short period was not very realistic.
Even so, Ronaldo had already placed Li Yufei behind Messi as the second-greatest enemy in his eyes!
Thinking of how his team was currently being suppressed by Messi's Barcelona, while an unprecedented super-talent had emerged in England,
Ronaldo felt the pressure mounting to the limit!
He now had to use training to calm himself down.
Only after regaining his composure could he think rationally about what path to take next.
"Fry, I hope we can face each other soon..."
Before you continue