Chapter 788: Unexpected Big Win
The March Premier League Player of the Month award was once again given to the Chinese superstar, who led his team to three big victories.
So far, Wang Feng has won the Player of the Month awards for August, September, December, January, February, and March. The October award went to Chelsea's Hazard, and November's to Diego Costa.
This means that Manchester City and Chelsea have swept all the awards, which perfectly reflects their intense competition.
The Blues also achieved a perfect record in March, tightly grasping onto that glimmer of hope for a comeback.
Arsenal, on the other hand, suffered heavy blows. After being embarrassed by Bayern and knocked out of the Champions League, they suffered consecutive defeats to Liverpool and West Brom in the league. Wenger's position as manager came under widespread questioning.
Defending champions Leicester City have faded from their miracle aura, only occupying seventh place in the standings. However, their historic qualification for the Champions League quarter-finals can still be considered a success.
Hull City is struggling in the relegation zone. Although they defeated direct competitors Swansea, they still couldn't escape the bottom three.
Crystal Palace had a poor start to the season, leading to the mid-season dismissal of their head coach. The new coach, Allardyce, came in like a fireman, leading the team to a strong rebound with a series of consecutive victories, pulling them out of the relegation zone.
It's worth mentioning that Crystal Palace forward Townsend staged a solo show against West Brom, contributing the Goal of the Month.
Middlesbrough's performance continued to decline, and their head coach, Karanka, became the third coach to be sacked mid-season in the Premier League this season.
For Manchester City, returning from the exhausting international break, they faced the most difficult and final hurdle of the season, challenging Arsenal and Chelsea consecutively within four days.
On April 2nd, in the 30th round of the Premier League, the Citizens faced the Gunners.
To be cautious, coach Guardiola made extensive rotations. On one hand, this was to give the main players sufficient rest, and on the other hand, it was because the match against the Blues was the top priority.
The formation adopted was a more conservative 4-5-1, with dense defensive players stocked in the midfield and backfield, including players like Kolarov and Yaya Toure.
Although this is not the Spanish coach's preferred tactic, it was still a completely new attempt, considering he didn't demand a high result from the match.
However, the effect was still pleasing. Arsenal struggled to break through the defense of these rotated players, and in the 79th minute, they conceded a counterattack goal from Nolito.
In the final moments, Giroud saved the team by scoring the equalizer goal, allowing the Gunners to retain some dignity, ending the match in a 1-1 draw.
On the evening of April 5th, at the Etihad Stadium, the highly anticipated crucial battle of the Premier League between Manchester City and Chelsea officially kicked off.
The first half was initiated by the home team, and after regrouping, the Sky Blues players quickly got into gear, organizing attacks to pressure the Blues' territory.
Stones advanced from the flank, received a pass from De Bruyne, and then quickly sent a precise cross.
Wang Feng followed up, leaping high, his forehead fiercely smashing the ball, causing it to immediately deflect towards the goal.
Although Chelsea's goalkeeper Courtois leaped to save and stretched his arm in the air to reach the ball, he couldn't stop its momentum because of its speed and power.
The ball slipped from the Belgian's palm and flew into the net from a distance.
"Goal! The ball is in! A powerful header breaks the deadlock!"
"Less than 1 minute into the game, Manchester City scores on their first attack, what a dream start!"
"This is Wang Feng's 31st league goal of the season, far ahead of Tottenham's Harry Kane with 24 goals. It's highly likely that he'll win the Premier League Golden Boot in his debut season."
"It seems that there's no difference for him wherever he plays; he's always the top scorer!"
The enthusiastic cheers from the home fans in the stands hadn't even subsided, and the Sky Blues gave them another huge surprise.
In the 4th minute, Manchester City midfielder Silva suddenly rushed into Chelsea's passing lane and intercepted the ball, then immediately handed it to De Bruyne to organize a counterattack.
De Bruyne's high-speed movement attracted defenders, and when he reached the frontcourt, he diagonally passed the ball to the top of the arc where Wang Feng was.
The Chinese superstar originally had his back to the goal, but instead of directly receiving the ball, he cleverly let it pass between his legs, also bypassing the defense of Kanté behind him.
At the same time, Wang Feng quickly completed a turn. Despite the French defender David Luiz grabbing his jersey with both hands, he managed to completely twist his body and shoot with power.
The ball curved in an arc inside the penalty area, bypassing Cahill and suddenly reversing direction towards the far corner, almost brushing past the goalpost and into the net, leaving Courtois helpless.
On the sidelines, Conte was simply stunned. Less than five minutes into the game, Chelsea unexpectedly fell behind by two goals. What's wrong with the team? They didn't seem this fierce in the first leg!
Without caring about dignity or composure, the Italian rushed to the sidelines to command his players. After the assistant referee's warning was ineffective, the main referee showed him a yellow card.
Fortunately, the Blues gradually regained their composure and stabilized their defense. Conte's yellow card was not in vain.
Subsequently, both sides gradually fell into a stalemate, but Chelsea also launched several effective attacks.
In the 39th minute, Alonso sent a long pass to Hazard in the wing, and the Belgian seemed to be preparing to dribble along the sideline.
After attracting Fernando's shift in balance, he suddenly flicked the ball towards the center and accelerated his dribble inside.
In this moment, Hazard's explosive power and speed were displayed vividly. Despite the attempts of Delph and Kompany to catch up, the Belgian forward entered the penalty area with two steps, calmly sent a chip shot facing the onrushing goalkeeper Bravo, and the ball passed over his body into the net, pulling one back for Chelsea!
Just when everyone thought that this goal would be the signal for the Blues to turn the tide, in the first minute of injury time in the first half, Wang Feng seized the opportunity in the opponent's half, decisively rushed forward, stretched out his leg to intercept the ball that Cahill was passing to Alonso.
Then he drove straight into the penalty area. David Luiz, unable to do anything, used both his hands and feet to pull down the Chinese superstar, even pulling down his shorts, only stopping him from shooting by force.
"Whistle!" The referee naturally wouldn't overlook such an obvious foul, it's a red card + penalty without a doubt!
"No! This shouldn't be a red card offense!" Conte rushed to the referee to argue, but due to losing control of his emotions, he received a second yellow card and was directly sent off to the stands.
Wang Feng personally took the penalty kick and completed his hat-trick with ease, also extending the score to 3-1.
At this point, Chelsea basically lost their ability to resist. With one less man on the field and their head coach off, both their strength and morale took a significant hit.
In the second half, De Bruyne scored another goal to seal the victory completely. In the end, Manchester City won 4-1, much to the surprise of many before the match.
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