Chapter 615: Chapter 614: Premier League’s Best, Football Gambler
On the assist leaderboard, the Frenchman Henry finally caught up.
Deng Kai and Henry both ended up with an astonishing twenty-five assists, sharing the Premier League’s Assist King title!
Following them in second place on the assist chart was Manchester United’s substitute forward Solskjaer, with only ten assists.
But it wasn’t that Solskjaer was underperforming, rather Deng Kai and Henry were simply monstrous.
Ten assists is already a very impressive achievement.
This was due in part to Manchester United’s two extraordinary strikers.
Whenever Solskjaer played, he would partner with either Cristiano Ronaldo or Van Nistelrooy, both of whom are fantastic strikers, making any pass from him an assist.
Giggs, Beckham, and Bergkamp followed closely with eight assists each, with the former two also complementing Cristiano Ronaldo and Van Nistelrooy.
Hasselbaink had eight assists, Zola had seven.
Among them, Zola was injured after being tricked by Deng Kai in a game against Manchester City.
Considering his age and factors such as Chelsea’s future owner, Abramovich, Zola announced his departure from Chelsea after the season ended, returning to Italy to join Cagliari.
On the goal scorers’ leaderboard.
As a player who had just joined the Premier League this year, Deng Kai claimed the Premier League Golden Boot with thirty-four goals, tying the record for the most goals in a single Premier League season set by Cole and Shearer.
With a terrifying personal record of thirty-four goals and twenty-five assists, he became the first player in the history of the top five European leagues to own such a staggering individual stat line.
34+25, even in basketball, that’s excessive.
Premier League’s second top scorer Henry had twenty-four goals, ten less than Deng Kai!
The third place went to James Beattie, who scored twenty-three goals.
Ranked fourth was Manchester City’s own Robbie Fowler, who truly had a dream resurgence this season.
Mark Viduka and Van Nistelrooy both scored twenty goals.
Owen and Cristiano Ronaldo had nineteen.
Alan Shearer got seventeen.
Pires scored fifteen.
Zola and Robbie Keane both had fourteen.
This series of data demonstrates that scoring goals in the Premier League is still quite challenging.
About twenty goals is still the standard for top Premier League forwards.
This also highlights the pure brilliance of Deng Kai’s thirty-four goals!
At the same time, Deng Kai also surpassed La Liga’s Roy Makaay, claiming this season’s European Golden Shoe!
And he is the first midfielder to ever win it!
While he might not yet be the world’s number one midfielder, as the top goal-scoring midfielder, Deng Kai is undoubtedly deserving!
This historic performance significantly widened the gap between Deng Kai and Ronaldo in the real-time Golden Ball rankings.
Unless Ronaldo leads Real Madrid to a Champions League victory, it’s unlikely he’ll overtake Deng Kai.
After all, data without honors is hardly worth mentioning.
But when such an astronomical stat line appears for the first time, it’s still quite astonishing.
Moreover... Deng Kai did have honors.
Setting aside a series of individual awards, he also had championships.
The League Cup counts as well.
Add to that half a FA Cup.
Deng Kai, with this outstanding double-double performance, also secured the Premier League’s individual prize—Premier League’s Best Player!
Joining the Premier League at the same time as Deng Kai, Cristiano Ronaldo was voted "Premier League’s Best Newcomer."
Both were selected for the Premier League’s Best XI.
This left Henry as this year’s greatest oversight in the Premier League.
With twenty-four goals, twenty-five assists, a second-place finish in the Premier League, and a nearly complete FA Cup... such achievements, and yet he missed out on everything but the Premier League’s Best XI.
Even that Assist King title felt like it was a gift from Deng Kai to Henry.
Because Deng Kai didn’t make an appearance at all in the last round.
...
On May 13, in the UEFA Champions League semifinals second leg, Internazionale Milan faced AC Milan.
In the first leg, the two sides had drawn zero to zero at AC Milan’s home ground.
In this match, it wasn’t until the final minute of the first half that Crespo, who had joined the Nerazzurri this season, successfully broke through, bringing Inter Milan within forty-five minutes of the Champions League final.
They had already retained their Serie A title this season!
In the second half, AC Milan tried everything but failed to penetrate the Nerazzurri’s defense.
In the eighty-first minute, substitute Kaka came on for the injured Rui Costa.
In the eighty-fourth minute, just three minutes after coming on, Kaka advanced rapidly through the middle, then slipped a final pass to assist Shevchenko, who scored!
Ultimately, that turned out to be the winning goal.
AC Milan, by virtue of the away goals advantage, eliminated Internazionale Milan and advanced to the UEFA Champions League final!
After the match, countless Rossoneri fans saw Kaka as the team’s savior.
On May 14, the UEFA Champions League semifinal second leg between Juventus and Real Madrid kicked off.
Manchester United’s trio of Cristiano Ronaldo, Van Nistelrooy, and Beckham couldn’t defeat Ronaldo and Real Madrid.
But this time, the Juventus trio of Nedved, Trezeguet, and Pierro succeeded in defeating Real Madrid.
Substitute Ronaldo couldn’t make an impact.
Juventus and AC Milan would meet in the final!
The major leagues in European football gradually came to a close.
Essentially only the FA Cup final on May 17,
and the UEFA Champions League final on May 25 remained.
The FA Cup came first in chronological order.
So naturally, people began to discuss the FA Cup first.
Sky Sports said, "History always has some teams that are strong, but have bad encounters, and perhaps this is what people usually refer to as ’the greatest tragedy is to be second best.’"
"Arsenal have had something of a tragic hue this season."
"In the Champions League, they failed to make a breakthrough, as usual, unable to enter the semifinals."
"In the league, they led Manchester United for most of the season, up to eight points ahead, but handed over the championship in the penultimate round."
"The FA Cup represents Arsenal’s last chance for redemption."
"Otherwise, I’m quite worried whether Arsenal will be able to rally their morale after this season."
"It’s not terrible not to see a trophy, but it’s terrible to see it and consistently fail to claim it!"
The football analysis platform also released economic factors on Manchester City’s determination to win the FA Cup: "Manchester City have many reasons to claim the FA Cup."
"They finished the season twelfth in the Premier League, without any qualifications for European competitions."
"But the FA Cup winner can secure a place in the UEFA Cup."
"This would be extremely beneficial for Manchester City’s healthy development."
"Only teams participating in European competitions have more competitiveness in terms of player recruitment, player retention, club influence, and revenue."
"It is a necessary path for Manchester City if they want to rise in the Premier League."
"So the FA Cup is a match Manchester City absolutely cannot afford to lose."
"If they miss out on the chance to compete in Europe, Deng Kai will hardly be able to garner Golden Ball influence, Manchester City, though financially healthy, will struggle to invest on a larger scale, and players will be lured away by the major clubs to potentially fall apart."
"Looking at it this way, it’s not hard to understand why Deng Kai declared war on Arsenal and Manchester United directly at Old Trafford Stadium."
"If Manchester City wants to survive, they have to clash head-on with Arsenal; declaring war also boosts morale and influence, so why not do it?"
The European media all acknowledged these points of view.
As a result, they labeled Manchester City as "the gamblers of football."
If they lost the bet, Manchester City’s prospects would basically be over.
