After the international break, the mainstream European teams have entered the final sprint stage.
In April of each year, the results of many teams' hard work for most of the year are basically decided.
Many teams have suffered complete losses because of a collapse in April...
Of course, this season's Arsenal may be an exception.
Besides winning the League Cup by defeating Birmingham at the end of February.
A large part of the reason is that their League lead is too large.
Even after Manchester United defeated Blackpool 3-2 in the rescheduled match and got all 3 points, they are still 17 points behind Arsenal.
With 9 games left in the League, a 17-point gap is almost an insurmountable desperate situation.
Even the Scottish Old Man himself has silently acknowledged in his heart that this season's League championship has already gone to Arsenal.
Of course, thinking about it is one thing, but saying it is another.
With Sir Alex Ferguson's stubbornness no less than José Mourinho's, he will never compromise until the last moment!
.....
April 3rd.
The thirty-first round of the Premier League kicked off, with Arsenal hosting the visiting Blackburn Rovers.
Fly has a deep impression of this team that gave him his first "injury" in his life at the beginning of the season.
Especially mamba, the black giant. When Fly was deliberately injured by him, he secretly gave him an elbow, which directly caused this guy to be injured and sidelined for a week afterwards.
This time facing Fly, mamba's eyes clearly showed a hint of fear.
It seems that the psychological shadow from the last time scared this black giant quite a bit.
In this match, Arsène Wenger directly put all the players who had returned to their countries to participate in matches on the bench, only fielding non-international players.
For example, Hazard, Griezmann, Jerome Boateng and others...
Of course, the most important thing is that with Fly, a non-international super leg, in charge, this is the confidence for Arsène Wenger to field substitute players without scruples.
I have to say, Fly also felt the difference between substitute players and starting players in this game.
No wonder some people can become international players, while others can only stay in the club during international breaks.
To put it bluntly, the gap in individual level is too big...
This match against Blackburn Rovers was not as easy as Fly imagined.
The current Griezmann is still too far from the true core number 10 of France's midfield in the future...
Even against a not-so-strong opponent, Griezmann played very uncomfortably in the midfield.
After all, at this stage, Griezmann is just a forward player and has not transformed into a midfield organizer like in the future.
Arsène Wenger only let Griezmann develop into the attacking midfielder position because Arsenal's forward line is too abundant at the moment.
The first half was spent with both teams pecking at each other like inexperienced players.
Many fans at the stadium, including the English media, were worried about Arsenal's sluggish performance in this match.
You know, after this match, Arsenal will usher in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals against Barcelona.
If we look at the performance in this match, wouldn't they be badly beaten by Barcelona then?
Although they knew that more than half of Arsenal's starting lineup were not on the pitch, this did not prevent them from thinking that Arsenal's form was not good.
Leaving everything else aside, with Fly, the super killer, on the field.
How could it be so difficult to play against a mere mid-to-lower table Premier League team?
Fortunately, the gap between Blackburn Rovers and Arsenal was too wide. Even if Arsenal played like a mess in this match, they could not threaten Arsenal's goal.
In the 70th minute of the match.
Fly received Hazard's cut-inside cross and swept the ball into Blackburn Rovers' goal, helping Arsenal successfully break the deadlock.
Ultimately, thanks to Fly's goal, Arsenal narrowly defeated Blackburn Rovers 1-0 at home and secured all 3 points.
Fly's total League goals also reached 53, and his total goals for the season reached 72.
Fleet Street media found a highlight from this.
That is, since Fly scored a quadruple against AC Milan on March 9th.
He only scored two goals in the next two matches, which is a cliff-like decline!
Most importantly, from March 9th to April 3rd against Blackburn Rovers, a full 25 days passed.
This means that Fly only scored two goals in the past 25 days. This efficiency, at first glance, seriously does not match Fly's overall efficiency this season.
For a time, many unscrupulous tabloids began to hype up "Fly's cliff-like decline" and "the rookie wall has arrived."
Especially the Spanish media, when they learned about Fly's "sluggish" performance in the past 20-plus days, they all became excited.
In their hearts, as long as Fly no longer performs as exaggeratedly as before, Barcelona VS Arsenal will be a landslide victory with no suspense!
After all, with the past few seasons' head-to-head records between the two teams as evidence, there really is nothing to question...
Among them, the media in the Catalonia region were the most arrogant. World Sport even wrote on the cover of the day:
"The suffocation of the Dream Three dynasty, Fly is overly nervous before facing the Dream Three, revealing his true form."
Many media professionals even started predicting a big victory for Barcelona over Arsenal.
When Arsène Wenger was interviewed at the post-match press conference and asked about the reason for Fly's slump, he just shook his head speechlessly and said:
"Fly is just adjusting himself. He needs to fully invest himself in the match against Barcelona, so he has been playing conservatively in matches during this period and has not been too serious."
"At this stage of the season, many players' bodies will successively experience adverse conditions."
"Although Fly has an ironman-like physique, he still needs to know how to regulate his body."
"In my opinion, Fly's attitude in matches during this period is a reflection of his maturity."
"In a long season, there are many and few matches, important and unimportant ones. How to make effective and reasonable choices among these matches is essentially a test of a player's ability."
"I believe that in a few days, you will see a fully recovered Fly in the match against Barcelona!"
Fly, as the Man of the Match, was asked about this when interviewed, and he just smiled calmly:
"Cliff-like decline? Wow... maybe. I only know that I have scored 72 goals this season. I don't want to say anything else, and I'm too lazy to explain anything. No need, too tiring!"
Under the question of "Has Fly's performance declined cliff-like?", Arsenal welcomed the most important match of this season, or even the most watched match globally this season.
Arsenal hosted the visiting Dream Three Barça at the Emirates Stadium!
Arsenal's super new star Fly VS Barcelona's king Messi!
...
Read 70+ more chapters in patreon.com/brainiacc