From Arsenal to the Ball God

The two of them walked for a long time, seemingly forgetting their weariness, until it was very late before they parted ways to go home.

...

On February 15th, the 26th round of the Premier League kicked off at Sunderland’s home ground, Brighton Stadium.

Sunderland is considered a team with a prosperous history, having won the top league championship 6 times, and it is also one of the oldest teams in English Football history.

Nowadays, they do not have their past glory, but they can be considered a mid-table team, ranked 12th in the league, with no worries of relegation.

”Aahh...Oh....!”

”Aahh...Oh....!”

The match started at seven-thirty in the evening that day, with Arsenal fielding their main players, not daring to be careless in an away game.

Ma’el lined up against the former Manchester United player O’Shea in this match, an experienced defender who once played for Manchester United.

In fact, Sunderland’s defense line is almost transplanted from Manchester United, with three out of four players having played for Manchester United; this team is considered a successor to carry on with the Manchester United old guard.

”Bang bang bang...!”

At the beginning of the match, Ma’el kept getting chances to advance with the ball, striking against the aging O’Shea and Richardson on the same side.

Occasionally, they managed to defend successfully using their excellent experience, limiting his breakthroughs, passing, and shooting.

But most of the time, all they could do was rely on fouls and minor actions.

In the 18th minute of the match, Richardson beside O’Shea received a yellow card, making his defense actions more cautious.

In the 34th minute, O’Shea also received a yellow card, which greatly increased the defensive pressure on that side.

Helplessly, Sunderland had to send more players for assistive defense, but this could only be considered as robbing Peter to pay Paul, soon allowing Walcott opportunities on the opposite side.

”Bang!!”

In the second half of the match, in the 61st minute, Walcott penetrated the penalty area and made a horizontal pass, Ramsey who came in from the front point made a sliding shot and sent the ball into the near corner.

One to zero!

First goal!

”Bang!”

However, only 9 minutes passed when Sunderland scored a sudden goal through a corner chance, responding in kind.

One to one!

Arsenal’s set-piece defense has always been problematic, and the arrival of Mertesacker hasn’t alleviated this issue.

Indeed, there’s no way around it; set pieces are inherently an important scoring method for weaker teams against stronger ones.

Every week, they have lessons on set-piece training, mastering this scoring method nearly perfectly, scoring through it is not surprising.

”Recover!”

After leveling the score, Sunderland quickly retreated fully on defense, shrinking in front of the penalty area and setting up an iron defense.

With O’Shea and several veterans commanding, their defense seemed solid, not allowing Arsenal to create any great opportunities.

The score remained deadlocked until the 89th minute, and until the match entered the 90th minute, Van Persie, who performed excellently this season, finally picked up his ’key man’ script.

”Bang bang bang...”

”Bang!”

From the wing position, Ma’el held the ball surrounded by three people, he agilely broke away, delivering a short pass to Van Persie in the middle, and then turned towards the back of the opponent’s defense.

Van Persie originally set up ready to make a direct pass to the flanks; at the moment of passing, he paused somehow, lowering his left leg.

Then, when he folded and hit again, he forcefully engaged his calf and ankle, turning the ball towards the direction of the goal’s far corner.

Sneaky shot!

”Bang... pop.”

The football flew from his foot, bouncing once inside the penalty area, rolling towards the goal, not too fast, but too sudden, giving the goalkeeper no reaction time.

By the time the Belgian second keeper Mignolet dived to block, it was already too late.

The football bounced and rolled into the far corner with the most mundane way, delivering a crucial strike.

Decisive goal!

point becomes 3 points!

”Ahght.....!”

The goal may be plain, but everything after the goal was impossible to be plain, the Arsenal away army at Brighton Stadium waved their hands wildly on the stands, frenziedly celebrating the decisive goal.

wins arrived!

Van Persie spread his arms as if a great bird spreading its wings, with a faint smile on his face, looking very stylish.

”You rascal!”

”Beautiful!”

”Having you and Ma’el is truly our blessing, not far from the 26 wins of the 03-04 season!”

”Five consecutive wins!”

The Arsenal players together ran towards him, Alexander Song and others soon jumped on his back, everyone squeezing into a heap.

Ma’el also ran towards him, unexpectedly easily gaining an assist.

So satisfying.

Winning is good!

He came to Van Persie’s side, smiled and high-fived with him.

”With me here, just feel lucky and happy.” Van Persie laughed, mimicking his lines from the last game in jest.

”Beep! Beep! Beep——!” The match ended quickly, eventually, thanks to the goals from Van Persie and Ramsey, Arsenal advanced further!

wins, 5 draws!

”Oh yeah.... Oh yeah Oh yeah...!”

After the match, everyone returned to the locker room and started celebrating unrestrainedly, they took off their shirts, waving and jumping, shouting the familiar melody of the football world.

Wenger and Philip entered the locker room together, standing aside and clapping while watching them, talking quietly.

”68 points.” Philip said with a smile: ”Approaching 70, really close.”

Wenger nodded slowly, smiling widely: ”This month played so well, won all 4 Premier League rounds, earning 12 points.

”If we can get another 12 points next month, maybe we can hit for an early championship in April.

”But that should be difficult, just a beautiful imagination, haha.....”

Philip shook his head and waved his hands with a bitter smile, looking like someone accustomed to hard days, ”I don’t dare to think, really don’t dare to think.”