Super Marshal

Saturday, May 15, afternoon.

The final round of the Premier League is underway at London's Highbury Stadium.

Arsenal hosts Leicester City.

After Chelsea won the championship seven rounds in advance, the final round of the match could not change the ranking between the two teams. Arsenal locked the league runner-up in advance, while Leicester City got a place for relegation in advance. .

Before the game, everyone felt that Arsenal should be able to easily crush their opponents.

But the truth is not the case.

The referee for this game is the 48-year-old Durkin. This is also his last game as a whistler, after which he will retire.

But I don't know whether it was because of old eyesight or other reasons, which led to a very controversial penalty at the beginning of the game.

It was the first attack in the audience. Arsenal rushed after the opening, and right back Lauren stepped in and dribbled the ball into Leicester City's penalty area, but suddenly fell to the ground.

The Arsenal players thought it should have been a penalty, but Durkin argued that Leicester City's defenders hadn't fouled.

In the slow-motion replay of the scene, due to the angle, it is difficult to judge whether it was a foul or Lauren's flop.

Perhaps affected by the opening, Arsenal had a very unsatisfactory start. Although they firmly controlled the advantage on the field, they still failed to convert the advantage into goals.

In the first ten minutes, Gilberto Silva, Henry, and Ljungberg tried to hit the goal consecutively, but none of them hit the right position, especially Henry, whose long-range shot was outrageous.

However, Arsenal still has an overwhelming advantage in overall strength and continues to control the situation.

In the 20th minute, the defender of Leicester City fouled again. Arsenal got a direct free kick in a good position, but a little far away. Henry kicked the goal directly and went higher again.

After that, Bergkamp, ​​Pires and Henry all got kicking opportunities, but they still failed to hit the target.

The only more threatening shot came from Henry's penalty area, but was bravely saved by the opponent's goalkeeper.

The French striker was so depressed that he almost wanted to hug his head, so he could only return disappointed.

But when the game entered 30 minutes, Arsenal couldn't attack for a long time, and the situation was a little slack. Leicester City suddenly launched a counterattack. Sinclair got rid of Vieira's cross from the right. Former Arsenal player Dickov A header in front of the goal hit the goal and broke Lehmann's goal.

This goal completely broke the deadlock on the field.

Arsenal began to launch a crazy counterattack, and Leicester City's situation was even more embarrassing.

Especially four minutes after Leicester City's goal, Bergkamp tore through the opponent's defense with a beautiful through ball and passed into the penalty area. After Henry received the ball, he shook off the opponent and attacked The goalkeeper, a push.

But it was supposed to be a surefire shot, but because he pursued the angle too much, he wanted to push a bottom right corner, but hit the post, and was caught up by the opponent's defensive player and kicked out of the sideline with a big foot, a foul.

Missing good scoring opportunities in a row, Henry was so angry that he flew into a rage in the penalty area.

Anyone can see the anxiety in his heart at this moment.

From being ahead by five goals, to being chased by the opponent repeatedly and to a tie, one can imagine the tension and anxiety in his heart, and the urgency to score is beyond words.

But it was Captain Vieira who really equalized for Arsenal.

In stoppage time in the first half, Vieira suddenly jumped in from behind. After receiving a through ball from Bergkamp, ​​he swayed past the goalkeeper in the penalty area and calmly pushed and hit.

What's interesting is that whether it's the assists, the passing route, or the way of scoring, they are all exactly the same as Henry's shot just now, except that one goes in and the other misses.

Once the goal is scored, the first half is over.

…………

…………

"What's the score over there?"

As soon as the whistle blew, Henry walked out of the field quickly, went straight to the coach of the home team, and asked assistant coach Pat Rice, who was Wenger's most capable assistant and had a very good relationship with the players.

Pat Rice also knew very well that the side in Henry's mouth referred to Chelsea.

"Two to zero, Chelsea are temporarily ahead."

Pat Rice's words made Henry gasp, and quickly asked, "Who scored the goal?"

Everyone could see the anxious look.

"Don't worry, it was Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Deco who scored the goals."

Hearing the news, Henry breathed a sigh of relief.

Arsenal's opponent in this game is the relegated team Leicester City, but Chelsea's opponent is Leeds United, currently ranked bottom in the Premier League. Although the hard power is better than Leicester City, this team He had lost his fighting spirit a long time ago, otherwise he wouldn't have been reduced to such a miserable level of relegation.

"Leading 2-0 in the first half, there is still hope to score in the second half." Henry said worriedly.

Last season lost the league title, lost the top scorer, Henry was unwilling, so this season he is determined to avenge his shame, not only to help Arsenal win the league title, but also to regain the top scorer throne.

But now, Arsenal has lost the championship and is empty-handed. If he loses the top scorer again, he will really get nothing.

Because of this, Henry's desire to score goals is very strong.

But sometimes the stronger the desire to score, the easier it is to make mistakes.

There were so many chances in the first half, if it was normal, he dare not say that he can grasp all of them, but at least he can score one goal. If the state is a little better, it will be no problem to score two goals, but now...

"Thierry." Wenger walked over from the side, "Don't put too much pressure on yourself!"

Henry looked deeply at his mentor and nodded heavily, "I know, don't worry, I will never lose!"

After speaking, Henry turned and walked into the player tunnel.

Wenger watched him leave behind, but sighed with worry.

After all, he put too much pressure on himself.

Henry has performed well enough this season. Without his 30-odd goals, it would be impossible for Arsenal to achieve today's results. He is definitely the biggest contributor to the team's success today.

But Wenger also knows his lover very well, the more critical the moment, the more pressure he puts on himself.

For some people, this is a good thing, but not necessarily for Henry.

…………

…………

In the second half, they changed sides and fought again. Arsenal launched a strong attack on Leicester City after the opening, hoping to eat their opponents in one go, but Leicester City chose to stick to it and refused to give an inch.

The two sides played inseparable, but Arsenal still failed to find an effective way to break the Leicester City team.

The Gunner is best at defensive counterattacks. Breaking dense areas has never been his strong point. Whether it is Henry, Bergkamp or other forwards, they are not good at breaking dense areas. Instead, they can play a more role in counterattacks.

This also made it difficult for Arsenal to convert the advantage into goals even though they had the advantage on the field.

Instead, Leicester City, after stealing a breakthrough from Pires, launched a counterattack and created Gilberto Silva's handball in the penalty area, but referee Durkin did not award a penalty.

The Leicester City team was very dissatisfied with this, and the Arsenal players also refused to give an inch. The two sides even had physical conflicts. In the end, Durkin each played 50 rebounds to resolve the conflict between the two sides.

But after the game restarted, the Leicester City team's actions increased significantly, which made it more difficult for Arsenal to launch their offense.

Henry was anxious and helpless on the court. He was like a headless fly, bumping around with his head covered.

He looked to the sidelines from time to time, although he didn't speak, but the assistant coach Pat Rice knew him very well, and kept shaking his head, signaling Chelsea, but Eto'o still failed to score.

Obviously, the closer it is to this critical moment, the greater the pressure on the players on both sides, the more nervous they are, even so nervous that it is difficult to score a goal.

But the news that Eto'o failed to score, not only did not relieve Henry's psychological burden, but made his desire to score more intense, because he knew that as long as he scored a goal, he would win.

He believes that Eto'o must also think so in the Stamford Bridge stadium in the south.

Sixty minutes later, Arsenal failed to score and Henry got nothing.

But Chelsea in the south scored another goal.

Fortunately, the goal is not Eto'o, but Ronaldinho.

This made everyone at Arsenal breathe a sigh of relief.

But Henry ran more actively on the field, rushing whenever he saw an opportunity, and drilling when he saw a gap, and everyone in Arsenal was also cooperating with Henry, trying to create opportunities to score goals.

Seventy minutes later, Chelsea scored another goal!

"Damn it, why did you enter again?" Pat Rice cursed angrily.

But when he heard that Deco was the hero of the goal, he laughed again.

"What the hell, it seems that the damn Cameroon striker is also under too much pressure. Even Deco scored twice, and he hasn't scored yet!"

But soon, Pat Rice shook his head and sighed, "What the hell are these!"

Even his unrelated assistant coach tensed his nerves and felt a lot of pressure, let alone Henry, the client on the court.

He must be crazy about scoring goals now, right?

But at this critical moment, a sudden change occurred on the court.

After Bergkampra took the ball to the left, Ashley Cole crossed into the penalty area obliquely from the left rib, and the Dutchman directly picked a pass without thinking.

After Ashley Cole took the ball, he turned around and was about to pass his opponent. As a result, Sinclair, who performed well in this game, reached out and pulled Ashley Cole down in the penalty area.

In an instant, everyone turned their attention to referee Durkin.

The Arsenal players rushed towards him immediately, and Henry and Vieira, who were the first to bear the brunt, shouted in unison with hideous faces, "Penalty, this is a penalty!"

This time, Durkin finally didn't hesitate any more, blew the whistle directly, and pointed his right hand to the penalty spot.

"yeah!"

In an instant, the entire Highbury Stadium cheered.

Henry even huddled with his teammates in the penalty area, celebrating this hard-won god-given opportunity.

Vieira, Pires, Gilberto Silva, Ashley Cole, Bergkamp...

All the players ran over to encourage Henry, and the French striker stood on the penalty spot without hesitation.

I saw him carefully place the ball on the white spot, lightly stepped on the turf in front of the ball, and then slowly backed away. Every step was calculated carefully, as if everything was going to hinder him. The factors of scoring are all eliminated.

After taking a few steps back, Henry stood still, closed his eyes, and breathed heavily.

It wasn't until the referee blew the whistle that he took a deep breath, opened his eyes suddenly, and rushed towards the ball. Every step, as he expected, stepped on him. on the step.

Every step is so precise and familiar!

The goal is finally here!