Chapter 1 The Start

The start of the league season was getting closer and closer.

The entire Liverpool team had returned to Merseyside and begun their final pre-season preparations.

On this day, during a break in training, a camera crew arrived at the Melwood training ground.

"This isn't about filming a movie this time," Head Coach Martin O'Neill explained to the players. "They're here to shoot our season promotional video."

"Season promotional video?" Everyone expressed surprise. "We've never heard of that before, boss..."

"Starting this season, we'll be filming promotional videos every season," O'Neill explained.

This idea was the result of a discussion between O'Neill and Niang.

Both Niang and O'Neill agreed that this season marked the official start of their challenge to Manchester United's dominance in the Premier League. The team needed something different to boost morale and let the fans know what Liverpool intended to do.

So they decided to film a promotional video.

It would be released on Liverpool's official website, and O'Neill would also play it to the team before some games to boost their spirits.

Before each season, the Premier League would produce an official promotional video, but Liverpool Football Club didn't have this habit. This was something new.

Everyone was curious and excited.

All the players appeared in the video, talking about their expectations for the season. But this wasn't improvisation, where they could say whatever they wanted. Someone had written the script and lines for them, and they just had to read from it. Otherwise, many people wouldn't know what to say.

Chen Hero held the script and looked at his lines.

"Overthrow Manchester United? This is good, haha!" He laughed.

Ferguson once said, "What am I most proud of? My greatest pride in my life is knocking Liverpool off their fucking perch!"

This shows the hatred between the two teams.

When Manchester United players and Liverpool players meet on the field, they regard each other as mortal enemies.

Chen Hero had been in Liverpool for two years and had developed his own view of Manchester United—a strong opponent, and it would be a great achievement to defeat them. If they could completely end their dominance in the Premier League, that would be even more wonderful.

Ferguson thought his proudest achievement was knocking Liverpool off their perch, and now it was Liverpool's turn to think the same.

When Dalglish signed a three-year contract with Liverpool, some local media in Liverpool cheered that this was the restoration of Liverpool. Ferguson dismissed it: "In this league, they will find that it is not easy to win the championship."

Facts proved the correctness of his words. Dalglish led Liverpool with a bruised nose and a swollen face, and finally only won the most insignificant League Cup title. Dalglish also stepped down in disgrace.

But starting this season, Ferguson may not be able to maintain his disdain and superiority.

Because since last season, Liverpool had already proved their ability. They had the strength to threaten Manchester United!

If it hadn't been for having to focus on the Europa League last season, and Liverpool had gone all out in the league, it would have been hard to say whether Manchester United could have won the championship!

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Liverpool's promotional video came out quickly and was placed on the official website for fans to watch and download. Some people also downloaded the video and put it on YouTube. Because of Chen Hero's provocative lines, it triggered a big argument between Manchester United and Liverpool fans in the comments section of the video. The two sides greeted each other's mothers with words, and of course, Chen Hero's family was also caught in the crossfire.

Some nosy reporters ran to ask Ferguson for his opinion on the video. Ferguson was still full of disdain: "Overthrow Manchester United? Thank you for running over to tell me such a joke!"

Although his words revealed disdain, Ferguson didn't dare to neglect it. In fact, his preparations were almost entirely focused on Liverpool. In this season's Premier League, Ferguson believed that Manchester United's biggest enemy was not the rising Manchester City, but the gradually recovering Liverpool. Compared with Manchester City, Liverpool had substance and heritage, and such a team was the most terrifying when it exploded.

One thing can prove Ferguson's attention to Liverpool—in this summer's transfer market, Manchester United was targeting Liverpool almost everywhere.

When Liverpool bought Bale, he intended to intervene. Even if he couldn't buy Bale himself, he couldn't let his mortal enemy buy him so easily, but Chen Hero's influence was greater than his.

Later, Manchester United was also among the teams competing with Liverpool for Sahin, and Manchester United seemed to really want to get Sahin, not just to disgust Liverpool. Scholes retired for the second time, and the team's midfield needed someone who could connect the whole team, and Sahin was a good choice.

But this time, Sahin had Xavi Alonso's recommendation behind him, so he finally chose Liverpool.

Van der Wiel was also the target of Old Sir Alex. But in the end, Liverpool snatched him away.

These three things made Ferguson very angry, and he scolded the officials in his club who were responsible for the transfer errors as being very incompetent. He couldn't even compare to Liverpool's general manager, Niang!

In the transfer market, Liverpool won Manchester United 3:0. Ferguson therefore raised Liverpool's threat level in his heart.

Although Manchester City was also recruiting troops and buying horses, he just didn't take it seriously. This may be due to a deep-rooted stubbornness. He looked down on opponents like Manchester City from the bottom of his heart, and he looked down on opponents like Liverpool on the surface, but in fact, he valued them very much in his heart.

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Ferguson needed to prove that his team was still the ruler of the Premier League, the king, and he had a good opportunity, which was the Community Shield Cup.

In the 2013-2014 Community Shield Cup, Manchester United defeated last season's FA Cup champion West Ham United 3:1. Adding another collectible to Ferguson's honors list.

Manchester United was also using this method to demonstrate to Liverpool—did you see our condition? Want to overthrow us? Keep dreaming!

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Although the international transfer market had not closed when the new Premier League season started, for Liverpool, this was all the players they needed to introduce this season. Liverpool was now relatively stable, and their transfer strategy had also begun to focus on quality rather than quantity. The strength of an army does not lie in its size, but in its elite.

So in fact, Liverpool would not introduce any more players.

In this context, Chen Hero paid for everyone to go to his yard for an outdoor party, which was regarded as a welcome ceremony for the players who had just joined the team, to enhance everyone's relationship and make the new players feel a sense of belonging to this group.

This work should have been done by the captain, but Chen Hero was now also considered the captain. Although he didn't wear the captain's armband most of the time, even Van der Wiel, who was the latest to join the team, knew that Chen Hero's words carried a lot of weight in the locker room.

This was the third time Chen Hero had held this kind of pre-season team party, and it had gradually become one of Liverpool's traditions.

The main purpose of this party was to let the teammates get to know each other, so the new players who joined the team would definitely be teased.

In fact, many teams had this tradition of welcoming new teammates. For example, Chelsea required new players to stand on the table and sing. But one interesting thing was that when Benayoun, who had transferred from Liverpool to Chelsea, sang Liverpool's team song "You'll Never Walk Alone" when he took the stage to sing. As a result, he was kicked off the stage by his teammates before he finished singing...

This time, Chen Hero came up with the idea of teasing people, so everyone can imagine how miserable the three new players who joined the team were...

Although they were teased, in the atmosphere of jokes and joy, they deepened their understanding of the players of this team, and the relationship became more harmonious in the jokes.

Chen Hero still paid attention to the sense of propriety, so that everyone didn't feel bored, and the new teammates didn't feel excessive.

After the playing around, it was time for serious business.

On August 16, 2013, Liverpool challenged Sunderland away, which was their first league game of the new season.

From then on, Liverpool began their restoration.

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Manchester United used a Community Shield Cup match to announce that they still had dominance over the Premier League.

Liverpool certainly knew that this was a demonstration against them, so how could Liverpool not respond?

It wasn't easy to play an away game in the first round of the league, but Liverpool still won this game, and that was the answer to Manchester United!

Chen Hero scored the first goal for the team in the seventh minute, scoring Liverpool's first league goal of the season, and also scoring his first league goal of the season.

And the person who assisted him was Gareth Bale, who had just joined the team this season! He used his speed on the wing to break through cleanly and sent a cross, and Chen Hero jumped high and headed the ball into Sunderland's goal.

The commentator shouted: "There's really no suspense at all! When Hero jumps high, all you can do is look up!"

Chen Hero and Bale hugged each other after scoring the goal. Although the two were not yet considered good friends, the two players' own abilities were the main reason for this goal.

They're already so fierce now, what if the relationship between the two is upgraded and they become friends, and the talent of "because of friendship" comes into play?

This is really a chilling question...

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Chen Hero's quick goal was also what Martin O'Neill was pursuing. He constantly emphasized this summer, and the result of Liverpool's continuous training.

He required Liverpool's players to get into the game faster than their opponents and to be more mentally focused.

This way, when opportunities came, they could seize them faster than their opponents.

Chen Hero scored first, and everything was in the familiar rhythm of Liverpool's training. The game quickly entered Liverpool's track.

Next, Gerrard used a long shot to blast open Sunderland's goal.

This game had lost its suspense.

Although Sunderland pulled back a goal at the end of the game, it was no longer relevant, because Liverpool had already led 3:0 before that. The person who scored the third goal for the team was Sanchez.

In the end, Liverpool took down the Black Cats in this game and achieved a good start to the league.