Neymar's Sneak Attack

The next day, the players were all on vacation.

But Klopp was not.

Early that morning, he appeared at Melwood.

The training ground was deserted, with only the groundskeepers watering the pitch in the distance.

The German pushed open the dressing room door, walked up to the whiteboard, and picked up a red marker.

He wrote a line on the board: FA Cup Final! Seven-Day Countdown!

Liverpool had already cleared two stages on their way toward the seven trophies the media had been hyping so frantically.

The League Cup and the Premier League were already in the bag.

The third stop would be Wembley, the FA Cup.

Just as Klopp began shifting his focus to the FA Cup final, Wenger was deep in thought at London Colney Training Ground as well.

More than a dozen tactical diagrams lay scattered across his office desk, each one with the same number circled in red: No. 10.

The laptop beside them was playing match footage too—clips from Liverpool's match against Southampton.

Chen Anno received the ball at the edge of the penalty area, facing two defenders.

A touch to shift the ball, then a strike in one fluid motion. The ball flew straight into the top corner.

Wenger paused the video, rewound it a little, and paused it again.

The image froze at the instant before Chen Anno touched the ball.

Wenger studied the angle of Chen Anno's swinging right leg, the distance between his planted left foot and the ball, and the tilt of his upper body.

After a long while, the Professor took off his glasses and leaned back in his chair, pressing his thumb hard against his brow.

He had managed Arsenal for twenty years.

He had faced every club on the British Isles.

Ferguson, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Guardiola...

He had