Back from the Champions League, rest for two days, then rush to London to take on Arsenal!

Bang!

After the ball landed, the effect was indeed better than Chivu had initially anticipated.

Inspired, Chivu was overjoyed and launched twenty long passes in a row, each one better than the last.

The final kick, aside from being slightly weaker in its spin, already showed some signs of White Whale Return in terms of its landing point and height.

Although he had been retired for more than two years, Chivu was very excited to feel that his skills had improved. After discussing it with Tang Long, he took another ten shots.

However, the quality of these ten kicks did not improve. In fact, due to declining physical strength, the last few kicks were all miskicks, and no spin was achieved.

Tang Long thought to himself, "Chivu has reached his technical bottleneck in a short period of time. If he wants to continue to improve, he needs to practice for a long time, but I guess he doesn't need to continue practicing the White Whale Return. He can already master the basic form in just a few dozen kicks. His talent is obvious to the naked eye."

Chivu placed his hands on his hips, lost in thought.

Tang Long handed him a bottle of water, Chivu waved it away and then snapped his fingers at Tang Long with a smile.

"I've got it, now look at my feet."

Bang!

Chivu launched a flying kick.

Tang Long was surprised to find that Chivu, whose physical strength had been declining and whose shots were getting worse, suddenly regained the quality of his shot, with excellent spin, instantly returning to the level of his best shot before.

He immediately asked Chivu for the secret.

Chivu laughed and said, "Breathing: if you exhale sharply from your abdomen the moment you hit the ball, your core muscles will be activated instantly, which is beneficial for generating power in an instant."

"I figured this out myself," Chivu said with considerable pride. "Looks like I can still be your teacher, haha!"

Tang Long's expression changed from confusion to joy. After kicking the opponent several times, he found that it was indeed the case.

Before this, whether it was passing or shooting, although he knew that he needed to be properly tense, this was the first time he had used the method of tensing his breath. He immediately felt that his football skills had improved by three points under Chivu's guidance, and he was extremely grateful to his mentor.

"Alright, let's go home, kid," Chivu patted Tang Long on the back. "We've both improved from today's sparring session. If I were ten years younger, I would definitely be discussing skills with you every day, but it's too late. No matter how much my skills improve, I'll never be able to return to the professional arena."

Chivu suddenly felt a pang of sadness, nodded to Tang Long, and left the stadium.

However, although the two had a discussion, and Tang Long was very open with Chivu, he never mentioned the most crucial point.

A brilliant White Whale Return requires accurate prediction of the situation on the field!

When Tang Long passed the ball, he had already calculated Agüero's running route and the goalkeeper's coming-out position;

Only in this way can the ball bounce back to Agüero's feet at the most opportune time and place.

This is not just about technique, but also about mastering the rhythm of the game.

Tang Long wasn't deliberately holding back Chivu; rather, the matter of prediction doesn't reside in physical technique but is rooted in one's mind, making it impossible to explain in words, and therefore, there's no need to discuss it.

After returning home, Chivu was thrilled to see his skills had improved and ate several bowls of rice.

He even forgot that he should send a message back to Icardi to respond to his request.

I was woken up by a message from De Bruyne during my afternoon nap, and only then did I groggily reply with a few perfunctory words, summarizing Professor Tang Long's secret to the White Whale Return.

However, Chivu believes that, given Icardi's level, not to mention active players, even he himself, who has been retired for two years, has far superior passing technique.

Even if Tang Long explained such a difficult technique to Icardi, it wouldn't be of much use.

So his reply was brief; he didn't take it to heart.

On the De Bruyne looked at Chivu's brief reply, initially bewildered, then fell into deep thought...

Back to the Premier League.

The Premier League standings are as follows after four rounds.

Manchester City have started the season with four consecutive wins, accumulating 12 points and topping the table.

Their city rivals Manchester United, have a record of 3 wins and 1 loss.

However, Manchester United didn't rank second.

Chelsea have emerged as a dark horse this season, rediscovering the form they had when they won the title two seasons ago, starting the season with a four-game winning streak, just like Manchester City!

Under Conte's leadership, the Blues are in excellent form, having just secured a 2-0 home victory against their London rivals Arsenal in the last round.

This start has given Conte a lot of confidence!

He increasingly believes that Conte did a great job removing the photo of Chelsea's legendary manager Mourinho from the players' tunnel on his first day at Chelsea, even though it caused a lot of controversy at the time!

He privately told his Italy friends:

"Mourinho's tactics are outdated. He hasn't found a job in the Premier League since he left Chelsea. My players don't need to miss that former manager. The current Chelsea must bear my, Conte's, mark."

Conte believes that if the Blues wants to Chelsea and regain the Premier League title, their biggest rival this season is not Manchester United, but Guardiola's Manchester City.

Conte came to the Premier League with great ambitions, and he wanted to see just how good this world-renowned master of possession football really was.

As a proud and arrogant Italy, he always believed that Italy was the home of Europe football, and that Italy coaches were the best in the world, far superior to those from other countries.

However, Conte hasn't had a chance to face Manchester City yet; he'll have to wait a little longer.

In the fifth round of the Premier League, Chelsea's opponent is Leicester City.

Conte felt confident of winning the match, and his focus was more on their title rivals, Manchester City.

Manchester City's opponent is Arsenal, the team Chelsea just defeated!

In Conte's view, even though Arsenal's strength is not as good as Manchester City's, Manchester City, who just played UEFA Champions League match two and a half days ago, will definitely make some rotations. Moreover, they are playing away against Arsenal, so there is a high possibility that they will drop points in this match.

Conte even got Arsenal manager Wenger's phone number and sent him a congratulatory text message.

"Professor Wenger, I'm sorry we beat you last round, but I believe Arsenal will bounce back under your leadership in the fifth round against Manchester City. Good luck!"

When Wenger saw this text message, his face turned green with rage!

"Who gave my phone number to this Italy brat?" Wenger said angrily, showing Conte's text message to a staff member. "I know what this kid is up to. Goodness, he's going to help Chelsea no matter what, win or lose, right?"

In fact, Wenger also took the match against Manchester City very seriously, without Conte's "encouragement and urging".

When the new season's schedule was first released, Wenger was inwardly cursing the Premier League League: "What kind of crazy schedule is this? I just played Chelsea, and now I have to play Manchester City, two tough opponents in a row. Is this how you schedule a game? If the team doesn't perform well, I'll be under a lot of pressure."

Sure enough, after being completely outplayed by Chelsea 0-2 at home, Wenger was under immense pressure, which left him breathless.

Media outlets widely believe that Arsenal's record of one win, one draw, and two losses at the start of the season has completely disqualified them from the title race.

If things continue like this, whether they can even finish in the top four by the end of the season remains a huge question.

Some Arsenal fans were quite outspoken in expressing their dissatisfaction with Wenger.

"Why has Arsenal been fighting for a top-four finish every year for so many years? It's definitely inextricably linked to Wenger!"

"Professor Wenger is an Arsenal legend, but it's time for him to step down."

"Even married couples experience the seven-year itch, let alone Wenger who has been managing the team for 20 years. Ferguson has already retired, Wenger, you should take a break too!"

"We at Arsenal need an injection of fresh blood, and I'm not talking about the players, I'm talking about the coach!"

"Our Arsenal's possession-based style is beautiful to play, but it doesn't win games. We should get a more pragmatic coach who plays a counter-attacking style."

"It's such a pity. The management should have brought Conte over at the beginning of the season instead of watching him go to Chelsea!"

Faced with such pressure, what could Wenger do besides endure it?

The team's poor performance is an undeniable fact.

But who knows the hardships he's endured all these years?

The team has been burdened with debt for countless years in order to build a new stadium; where would they find the money to buy star players in the transfer market?

How can a team improve its roster strength without star players?

Can we rely solely on youth training programs to develop talent?

I'm just a coach, not a magician who can turn lead into gold!

However, even if he can't make a profit, Wenger still wants to prove himself, and he doesn't want to see his Arsenal suffer two consecutive defeats in the Premier League.

Moreover, deep down he didn't want to lose to Manchester City at all.

Last season, Wenger had a falling out with the team due to a physical altercation with Pellegrini.

Although Pellegrini left Manchester City for Manchester United this season, Guardiola has arrived.

Wenger and Guardiola have no personal grudges against each other.

However, when Guardiola arrived in the Premier League, the Britain media around the world called him the master of possession-based tactics in the world, a definition that made Wenger quite unhappy.

"Have these media outlets never seen the world? Have they forgotten who first introduced beautiful football to the Premier League!"

Arsène Wenger's Arsenal has been pushed to the brink of elimination.

Now, not only for the team's results, but also for his own reputation, Wenger has to go all out!

"Welcome everyone to tune in on LeSports broadcast of the 5th round of the 2016-2017 England Premier League season, Arsenal vs. Manchester City."

"I'm commentator Zhan Jun, and my co-commentator is Zhang Lu Coach Zhang, whom everyone is familiar with."

"Hey everyone."

"Really, Manchester City is on a four-game winning streak and in great form, but they made a lot of rotations in this match. Even Tang Long was on the bench. Are they underestimating their opponent?"

Guardiola did indeed make significant rotations in this match.

The main reason is that the schedule is just too packed.

Just two and a half days ago, they had just finished playing against Monchengladbach, and now they were traveling a long distance from Manchester City to London to Arsenal.

Even if Manchester City's players are all as strong as iron, they can't withstand this kind of torment.

Therefore, Guardiola must adopt a rotation tactic; otherwise, even if these key players do not get injured, their stamina will be exhausted in the first half of the season, leading to a collapse in the second half.

Zhang Lu analyzed, "I don't think so. It's mainly due to physical limitations, so Guardiola has to use rotation."

"Manchester City is a strong team, but playing away against Arsenal is still an away game, so there's no reason to underestimate them."

Starting lineup for this match.

Home team Arsenal: 4231

Welbeck

Sanchez / Cazorla / Walcott

Xhaka / Coquelin

Monreal / Koscielny /Musta/ Bellerin

Ospina

Away team Manchester City: 433

Sterling / Bonazzoli / Sane

Silva / Ranocchia /JD. com

Kolarov / Stones / Otamendi / Zabaleta

Bravo

"The referee blows his whistle!"

"The match is now in session!"