From Arsenal to the Ball God

There were just two corner kick attacks, basically everyone was there, hoping to boost each other’s morale and encourage the team to keep moving forward with a collective celebration!

”Mertesacker!”

Alexander Song was the one diving on the ground, he looked back and laughed asking, ”Do you know what scoring the first goal in March means?”

”Does it mean I get to snatch the monthly best from Ma’el and Van Persie?” Mertesacker replied with a smile, as these two players have consistently been the best performers in the team, earning the monthly best award each month.

When Ma’el didn’t win the Premier League’s monthly best, the team would compensate him with an internal monthly best featuring Arsenal’s embroidered team emblem.

And when he did win the Premier League’s monthly best, the internal monthly best would go to Van Persie.

”No.” Ma’el quickly laughed and denied, but certainly wouldn’t dampen his teammates’ spirits at this moment, ”It means we’ll remain unbeaten this month!”

”Haha...!” All the players laughed together, then got up to hug and high-five each other, celebrating at the sideline for a long time.

After this goal, they played with much more ease, although the new tactics were still in the adjustment phase, not creating many good opportunities for a while.

”Bang!”

Until the 69th minute of the second half, Arsenal attracted five pressing players through passing and control from the backfield, then Arteta sent a long ball to break through the opponent’s defense, creating an opportunity for Ma’el.

Everton’s two center-backs seemed somewhat embarrassed, already struggling to defend Van Persie and Walcott, they really had no time to cover the space behind them.

All they could do was watch the ball fly over their heads, then hope the full-back could successfully provide cover behind them.

”Boom!”

At the front, Ma’el was more decisive this time, arrived at the ball’s landing point, and used his head to nod the ball straight into the opponent’s half.

The same side full-back surrendered again, getting left behind two steps.

The other side full-back charged over at full speed, running diagonal straight towards the ball drop point, not slow.

But this time Arsenal’s right-winger Gervinho was moving forward, drawing 30% of the full-back’s attention, forcing him to balance defending Ma’el’s pass.

”Bang... snap!”

Ma’el landed the ball, made a quick move with his left foot to directly pass to the right, immediately scaring the defender to slow down, prepared to stretch his foot to intercept.

But then he quickly pushed the ball forward and charged towards the goalkeeper again.

Fake move!

This time the full-back gritted his teeth trying to catch up, but starting parallel with Ma’el, how could he be possibly faster than him.

”Bang... bang...!”

With two touches, Ma’el was already close to the box, looking at the opponent’s goal and the advancing goalkeeper, his eyes glittered with intense desire.

He took a left step, dropped his shoulder, his whole body went towards the left, then did a similar fake move on the right side.

Only at the moment of his right foot’s grounding, his right leg muscles suddenly exerted force, propelling his body towards the left.

”Snap!”

Simultaneously, his left foot pushed the ball a big step towards the left, rapidly following up his own move, completing the rhythm change.

Pendulum dribble!

The goalkeeper unsurprisingly couldn’t keep up, frustratedly sitting on the ground.

”Bang!”

Ma’el made a light push with his foot, sending the ball to the center of the goal, spreading his arms towards the sideline before the ball even hit the net.

28th goal!

Steady performance!

Two-nil!

”Aaahhhh.....!” The cheers of Arsenal’s traveling fans rang throughout Goodison Park again, team players also rushed over, celebrating once more with Ma’el.

Just like the last time, sliding on their knees or diving and sliding out of the corner flag area, they held a carnival party in front of the silent Everton fans.

”Will the goal record be broken?” When Van Persie came up, his eyes were full of envy, but still smiled and said, ”If you can break the Premier League goal record, I can accept taking the silver boot with over 30 goals.”

”Alright.”

Ma’el hugged him, then joked, ”Don’t think too far ahead, let me get to 30 goals first, you should hurry up too, keep it up!”

”Okay!” Van Persie stretched his hands for a high-five with Ma’el, ”What’s most important is that the team can win, as long as we keep winning, everything will be good.”

”That’s right.” Ma’el nodded, agreeing with his words.

”Clap, clap, clap.....!”

At the sideline, Wenger sat in the coaching seat with his hands raised high, clapping with excitement and satisfaction for this goal.

This was the first successful attempt after adding new offensive tactics, every coach would feel a strong sense of accomplishment at this moment and deeply remember this goal.

Now two goals ahead, hoping they can smoothly take Everton at away with minimal cost!

”Click, click, click...!” Media reporters at the sideline captured the moment, these photos occasionally became the cover images for some post-match reports.

”Arsenal win two-nil away against Everton! Points break through 71! With Manchester United and Manchester City having played one less game, the lead has now reached 7 points!” — The Times

”Six consecutive wins! Arsenal begin to fully charge for the Premier League title! With 22 wins and 5 draws, they are poised to challenge the highest historical score!” — L’Equipe

...

That night, at the Etihad stadium.

”Beep! Beep! Beep——!”

With the referee’s three long whistles, Mancini tightly clenched his fists in the coaching seat, waved a few punches, then calmly put his fists in his pockets and walked elegantly to the field for post-match etiquette.