Chapter 19 The Last Round of the Year

In the final round of the year, the 19th round of the Premier League, Manchester City challenged Burnley away.

At the Etihad Stadium, Burnley had given Manchester City a lot of trouble, once leading by two goals.

Unfortunately, they fell short at the last moment, and Manchester City scored three goals in a row, reversing the game.

That game also contributed a rather interesting meme.

After Burnley took a two-goal lead against Manchester City at their home ground, the Burnley fans who had traveled with the team questioned loudly in the stands, "Where is Zhao Gang? Where is Aguero?"

This was a taunt aimed at the Manchester City team, and it was quite lethal, so much so that Burnley was eventually overtaken and lost a good game.

In this game where Manchester City challenged Burnley, that fan leader brought his lovely daughter to the stadium again. As a fan leader, he had to warm up the atmosphere and cheer.

Under his leadership, the Burnley fans were enthusiastic, cheering and supporting their home team with all their might.

In the 16th minute of the game, Zhao Gang received a pass back from Aguero in the penalty area and blasted the ball into the goal.

The little girl, who had received many gifts from Manchester City players, clenched her little fists, widened her eyes, and raised her hands to cheer.

Her old man was so scared that he quickly hugged her, cautiously looking at the surrounding fans.

Manchester City's rhythm was steady. Facing Burnley, they didn't rush to attack, but slowly advanced and looked for opportunities.

This would minimize the players' physical exertion.

For teams with weak attacks and low competitiveness like this, Manchester City rarely played big scores in the second half of the season.

They firmly controlled the rhythm of the game and didn't give their opponents any chance at all.

In the first half, Manchester City's possession rate reached 75%, but they only had four shots and only scored one goal.

Burnley only had a pitiful eight dangerous attacks and not a single shot!

In the second half, Manchester City continued to take the initiative. Burnley found it difficult to steal their ball. After De Bruyne assisted Aguero to score a goal, Burnley basically gave up resisting.

In the end, Manchester City defeated Burnley 2:0 away. Burnley was about to slide into the relegation zone, while Manchester City was still surging forward.

After nineteen league rounds, with eighteen wins and one draw, they firmly occupied the top spot in the Premier League.

For Manchester City, this game was more like a warm-up or even a training match, a rest after the big battle with Liverpool.

And this record had never been achieved by any team since the establishment of the Premier League.

Arsenal, who held the record for the longest unbeaten run in the Premier League, had not done it; Chelsea, who had created the strongest defense in the Premier League under Mourinho, had not done it; and Ferguson, who had dominated the Premier League for almost an era, had not done it either.

Amidst much pessimism and controversy, Manchester City advanced all the way, constantly creating records that belonged to Manchester City, to the Premier League, and even to the whole of Europe!

Bayern Munich dominated the Bundesliga, but they couldn't create such a terrifying record. So many people thought that Manchester City would drop the ball in the winter, but Manchester City stubbornly created a record that was unprecedented and probably difficult to repeat.

A fierce record brings traffic and popularity.

A large number of non-Manchester City fans began to pay attention to this seemingly invincible blue army.

They wanted to understand, to know, how Manchester City had become so terrifying.

Zhao Gang would of course become an unavoidable topic for Manchester City.

A large number of fans began to understand and know the name Zhao Gang, and his influence once again improved a lot.

After the Burnley game, it was New Year's Eve. Zhao Gang connected with his family and chatted for a while.

In the evening, Ollie took Zhao Gang out. This was what Zhao Gang had promised long ago.

They were going to a party held by Ollie's friends for New Year's Eve.

Zhao Gang only knew Shia, who was Ollie's best friend.

There were also some other friends, with their boyfriends and girlfriends, and they went crazy for half the night.

Zhao Gang himself didn't like this kind of environment, but he couldn't say he hated it either.

Young people seemed to like it. Ollie liked it, and Zhao Gang didn't intend to change her personality and hobbies.

When two people are together, they should understand and support each other, not try to make the other person adapt to themselves.

Ollie's age meant she liked to have fun, which was normal. Her personality was actually more mature than her peers, and she gave Zhao Gang very important advice and encouragement at critical moments.

The next day was New Year's Day. When Zhao Gang woke up, he found that he and Ollie were sleeping directly in the living room.

They had only returned at three or four in the morning, drank a little too much, and just collapsed.

In the afternoon, Zhao Gang accompanied Ollie back to her house, to meet his future mother-in-law.

Ollie had two older brothers, whose looks were hard to describe.

Perhaps all the excellent genes were left to Ollie.

On the evening of the 2nd, Manchester City challenged Sunderland away, winning a relatively easy victory 3:1 without much effort.

The first leg of the League Cup semi-final was held at Goodison Park, the home of Everton.

Everton had no desires in the league and wanted to make a big splash in the cup and win a trophy.

After all, they had already entered the top four. What if they upset Manchester City?

Everton shouldn't have believed the nonsense of some media, who believed that high pressing throughout the game was the key to defeating Manchester City.

Chelsea and Liverpool were shining examples, one being the only team to draw with Manchester City, and the other nearly defeating Manchester City at Anfield. Both used the methods of pressing and counterattacking.

Everton learned a little, but it was a bit of a mess.

They had pressing, but no counterattack.

This led to an extremely dispersed formation, and Lukaku kicked off four times in the first half alone. He was almost beaten silly.

In the second half, Everton changed their formation, trying to concede fewer goals, after all, there was still the second leg!

In the end, Manchester City achieved a 5:0 victory away.

Fernandinho finally scored, and he scored three in a row. De Bruyne and Sterling each scored a goal. Zhao Gang and Aguero became wingmen, allowing Fernie to take off successfully, and they almost shot through the poor Everton from the outside.

Looking at Lukaku's dim eyes, he should be leaving next season.

Everton's odds of advancing to the final reached one to five thousand, the same as Leicester City's odds of winning the Premier League before the start of the Premier League season.

Of course, now Leicester City's odds of winning the championship have dropped to one to thirty, which is a very big improvement.

During this period, the winter transfer window had opened, and Manchester City waited for the opportunity, waving checks and buying people everywhere.

Among them, Guardiola's favorite person, Tottenham Hotspur full-back Kyle Walker, was finally bought.

Tottenham Hotspur originally didn't plan to let Kyle Walker leave, at least not until the summer transfer window, after the end of this season.

However, Tottenham Hotspur had now lost the strength they had at the beginning of the season. After Leicester City's rise, Tottenham Hotspur had no chance of competing for the top four. It was destined to be another season with nothing to gain.

The most important reason was that Manchester City gave too much.

A full 70 million euros in transfer fees, which was already an premium of about 30 million euros.

The Tottenham Hotspur boss had already agreed to the deal, just waiting for the winter transfer window to open.

There were also two other strong reinforcements joining.

One was Sane, who Guardiola planned to buy before the start of the season, but because Zhao Gang was signed, Sane's transfer was delayed.

Now Silva's injury made Guardiola eager to continue to hoard midfielders.

The other was Aguero's replacement, Jesus, who was also regarded as a reserve player for the forward line in the future.

As for Real Madrid's Danilo, Florentino did not agree. As an important substitute for Real Madrid, he would continue to compete for various trophies this season, and Zidane did not plan to let him go.

There were basically no good choices in the winter transfer window. Being able to buy these three people had already created a record for winter transfers in the Premier League.

Especially the transfers of Kyle Walker and Sane, many people believed that this was simply a robbery for Manchester City.

Although the two players were good, the price was too high.

However, Manchester City didn't care, and Guardiola didn't care about the money.

According to the regulations of the Premier League, players who joined in the winter transfer window could not play in the 21st round of the league, so although the two players joined Manchester City and completed training, they could not play in the next league match.

In the twenty-first round of the league, Manchester City played against Southampton at home. In this game, Southampton showed very strong combat effectiveness and entangled with Manchester City for more than seventy minutes. The score was tied at 1:1.

In the 80th minute, Zhao Gang finally assisted Aguero to complete the winning goal.

Southampton even had a chance to tie the score, but unfortunately they failed to seize the opportunity.

For Manchester City, what was even more regrettable than this game was that Aguero was injured again.

In the previous few seasons, it was difficult for Aguero to complete full attendance. This season, he had been playing smoothly, but he still couldn't hold on and was injured and left the field at the end of the game.

Fortunately, Guardiola had the foresight to buy Jesus.

In the FA Cup match in midweek, the three new players all made their debut, and the opponent was the poor Everton.

Everton would meet Manchester City three times in the cup competition within a month.

For Everton's players, this was simply hellish torture.

Manchester City's new players were on the field, and it was at home, so they naturally wanted to perform well.

Although the cooperation between them and their teammates was not very tacit, as long as you paired Zhao Gang with a not-so-bad striker who could grab points and make runs, this striker would have enough opportunities to shoot.

New player Jesus scored twice in the first half, and Sane and Zhao Gang also scored a goal each.

Everton was beaten 4:0 in the first half and performed even worse than the previous game.

They completely collapsed, completely and thoroughly.

"Damn it! Everton has had bad luck for eight lifetimes. They have to play Manchester City three times in a month, and there is also a League Cup semi-final! Manchester City can't play like this!"

"Everton is probably going to strike..."

"Look at Lukaku, look at Lukaku's hopeless little expression. He is already lost. There are no teammates in the frontcourt and the defense is leaky. Isn't that the end??"

"Manchester City should let the water go in the second half, right?? Playing like this will leave you with no friends!"

Sure enough, in the second half, Zhao Gang was replaced by Sterling early, but Everton couldn't stop Manchester City's offensive at all. In the second half, Sterling and De Bruyne scored a goal each, and Everton swallowed six eggs away, and they had been kicked so hard that they couldn't find the north.

Although Aguero was injured, the new player Jesus performed very well in the FA Cup.

Manchester City's attack did not stagnate because of this. They could still firmly control the situation on the field and defeat their opponents by a large margin.

The excellent performance of Jesus, Sane, and Kyle Walker in the FA Cup made Manchester City fans overjoyed.

If this situation continues, Manchester City will really be unstoppable this season.

When the twenty-second round of the league began, the Manchester City media had already become a little arrogant.

"When Manchester City play against West Ham United at home, will they score five or six?"

"Jesus has seamlessly integrated into Manchester City. How many chances will Zhao create this time?"

When the two teams first played against each other, the Hammers scored a goal first by relying on a very controversial foul and interception.

Although Manchester City reversed the score in the end, Manchester City fans and the media had always been brooding about it.

This time, Manchester City played against the Hammers at home, and the media and fans were naturally eager to see a massacre.

Before the game, Guardiola was still very humble in the interview.

"Yes, we have been winning, League Cup, FA Cup, league. The new guys are in good shape and performing very well.

We are just trying to play each game, and this is not something to celebrate, after all, we have not won a championship yet.

In fact, in the league, we have been on the verge of failure several times, but fortunately the players won the game in the end. We are not invincible, and we will most likely lose more than one game in the end. We are just temporarily in the lead.

Continuous victories have made many people notice us, and we now have more attention than ever before.

I hope that all media fans and players can pay attention to the game itself, rather than some strange gossip.

Oh, and one more very important thing, Zhao has not scored in the last two league games. He has had his longest league goal drought of the season. I hope everyone will not put too much pressure on him. He is only nineteen years old and he already has too much pressure.

He is giving his all in every game, and some fans' demands on him and Manchester City are unrealistic.

I have heard a lot of discussions about Zhao recently, and when he doesn't score, some extremely irresponsible media and fans question his performance. I hope everyone can objectively recognize one thing, there is no nineteen-year-old player who can compare to Zhao.

I have always said that Messi is the best player I have ever seen, and now I want to tell everyone that Zhao is the best player of this age, the best player I have ever seen, heard, or even imagined."