Chapter 698 - 130: God of Slaughter! Consecutive Bloody Battles! Sniping Arsenal! Wenger Is Tilted Again! Four Rounds of Applause at the Emirates Stadium

Leading the line was Wang Shuo!

A goal-scoring fiend who had netted 54 goals in a single Bundesliga season and 22 in the Champions League!

For this match, Guidolin had assigned his two center-backs, Benatia and Danilo, to mark Wang Shuo together, but he was still on edge.

More importantly, after making adjustments in the midfield, Wang Shuo further expanded his own range of activity.

He wasn’t just actively dropping back to link up with the midfield; he even drifted to the right side of the midfield to receive the ball.

And in the 4th minute of the match, it was Wang Shuo’s pressing high up on the right that forced the Udinese center-back, Danilo, into a passing error.

Lichsteiner intercepted the ball and quickly passed it forward to Arteta.

Wang Shuo spotted a gap in the defense, made a quick run forward along the right touchline, and raised his hand to call for the ball.

Arteta lofted a precise diagonal pass over the top, right into his path on the right flank.

"Alright, we’re seeing a quick counter-attack from Arsenal after winning the ball back."

"Wang Shuo on the right wing, a beautiful first touch."

"He’s been absolutely everywhere since the start of the match."

"He’s having to be both the mother and father of this team."

"Let’s see what he does here."

Facing the left-back Newton, Wang Shuo brought the ball under control and slowed his pace. He feinted as if to cut inside, but then suddenly pushed the ball toward the byline. Bursting past his man, he drove diagonally into the right side of the penalty area.

At the right edge of the penalty area, facing the onrushing Danilo, Wang Shuo performed a sudden stop-and-go. With an explosive burst of speed, he dribbled toward the byline, carried the ball into the right side of the box, and delivered a cutback to the front of the goal.

Walcott ran onto it and slotted it home.

"GOAL!!!"

"Arsenal have equalized in just four minutes!"

"It’s 1-1!"

"Walcott was the one who scored, but he has Wang Shuo to thank for it."

"He beat two Udinese defenders."

"Absolutely brilliant!"

"We saw it right there—neither Newton nor Danilo could stop Wang Shuo when he’s dribbling at them."

"That’s the quality of a superstar!"

"If you give him an opportunity, he can create danger out of even the slightest defensive lapse!"

As Wang Shuo ran to the sideline to celebrate the goal with Walcott and their teammates, Pogba, who should have been on the bench, ran over to him.

"The coach says to shore up the midfield interceptions."

Wang Shuo glanced at Pat Rice in the dugout, then looked up at the stands. He had no idea where Wenger was sitting.

"Got it. Thanks, Paul." Wang Shuo patted Pogba on the head.

"Come on, Wang!" Pogba encouraged.

Wang Shuo smiled.

He found Pogba to be quite the paradox.

He looked the part: big, dark-skinned, the very image of a beastly defensive midfielder.

’In reality, his technique is refined, but the key is that his personality is a bit soft. He’s an honest kid, not aggressive enough.’

After playing for a few years, Wang Shuo had seen his fair share of the world.

He knew very well that some players had the technical attributes to be a team’s core, but not the personality—just like Pogba.

Other players had the right personality to be the core, but their technical skills didn’t fit the role.

That’s why captains, core players, and the like were often far more valuable than other players.

...

Young teams were always prone to making mistakes.

The goalkeeper, for example.

Only after coming to Arsenal did Wang Shuo learn that Szczesny and Lewandowski were the best of friends, incredibly close.

Therefore, Szczesny was also one of Wang Shuo’s biggest supporters on the team.

But just like Weidenfeller, the kid was a real Jekyll-and-Hyde player.

Take this match against Udinese, for instance.

He could make a mistake one moment and then pull off a brilliant save the next.

First, he saved a direct free-kick from Di Natale, and then he rushed out to block a one-on-one from Armero.

When Di Natale was about to shoot the rebound, he made a quick second save, smothering the ball in his arms.

If you only focused on his mistakes, he was genuinely terrible!

But if you saw his next two saves, you’d think the guy was a god!

However, following the signal for adjustment from Wang Shuo, Arsenal gradually stabilized their midfield, taking control of possession and the tempo of the game.

Udinese’s 4-4-2 formation also began to shift to a defensive, counter-attacking posture.

By the 25th minute, Arsenal had managed a full 64% of possession.

And that was despite the team being in disarray for the first ten minutes.

But against Udinese’s tight defensive formation, Arsenal also exposed many of their own problems.

They liked to pass, and they were good at passing.

But they would always end up making a mistake in the middle of a passing sequence.

This was a result of a lack of chemistry and coordination.

The passes were either overhit or underhit, or the receiving player’s run was too fast or too slow.

Sometimes they would string together two or three brilliant passes, only to suddenly give the ball away.

There was another issue: Walcott was frequently swapping positions with Hazard in this match.

The Little Tiger was fast, but his ability to beat a man wasn’t particularly strong.

He was actually better at making diagonal runs into the box to get closer to the goal and score.

And what about Hazard?

No matter if he was on the left wing or the right, that guy would always end up drifting into the center with the ball.

Moreover, his timing on his passes wasn’t very good either.

Wenger’s tactics at Arsenal had something in common with Klopp’s: attacking through the two half-spaces.

They loved to play combinations in the half-spaces.

But if the attack was focused on the half-spaces, what about the wide areas on the flanks?

At Dortmund, Piszczek and Schmelzer both had a very strong ability to make overlapping runs from behind. They could get up and down the pitch and had incredible stamina.

Arsenal used to have that too, in Clichy and Sagna.

But both of those fullbacks had now been snapped up by Manchester City.