Chapter 793: Dream Start! Domain Skill: Stabilizer! Stepping Stone to Superstardom! Arsenal's Strategic Opportunity

The ball bounced off Wang Shuo’s chest. Before it could even hit the ground, he launched a high, looping pass, sending it directly toward the left side of the attacking half.

“Beautiful chip!

“My God, does Wang Shuo have eyes in the back of his head?

“How did he see Hazard?”

After chipping the ball, Wang Shuo quickly turned and sprinted. On the left flank, Hazard surged forward, beating the offside trap to catch up with the ball and cleanly bringing it down. But Phil Jones was also very fast, tracking back in time to block Hazard. Another one-on-one!

Hazard suddenly accelerated again, looking to cut inside with the ball. Having learned his lesson from the previous exchange, Phil Jones was incredibly cautious this time, stepping right up to close him down.

Unexpectedly, Hazard slammed on the brakes and chopped the ball past Phil Jones, driving toward the byline. Phil Jones turned to give chase, but upon losing his center of gravity, his feet slipped, and he tumbled to the ground.

Hazard carried the ball from the left side into the penalty area. Facing Smalling, he first feinted as if to continue toward the byline, then suddenly pulled the ball back and sent a lateral pass across the box. As the ball approached the penalty spot, Evans had already run over, immediately turning to challenge for it. But Wang Shuo was even faster.

Arriving at the penalty spot like a bolt of lightning, he didn’t even bother to take a touch on the cross from the left. He just side-footed it directly toward the net. The football drilled into the bottom right corner of Manchester United’s goal at breakneck speed.

“GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!

“14th minute, and it’s another goal!!!

“Wang Shuo has scored a brace!

“This is absolutely unbelievable!

“Since kickoff, the Gunners have been unstoppable, relentlessly bombarding Manchester United’s backline.

“Up until now, the Red Demon hasn’t even managed a single Shooting.”

Wang Shuo dashed off the pitch once again, running straight to the broadcast cameras. Pulling his jersey taut, he sent out another Year of the Dragon blessing to the fans back in his home country.

It was only then that everyone noticed Manchester United’s right-back, Phil Jones, was still down on the pitch, clutching his leg in agony. The head referee, Mike Dean, paused the match and signaled for the medical staff to hurry onto the field.

“It looks like Phil Jones is injured.

“Judging from the slow-motion replay, it probably happened when he was defending Hazard just now. Hazard’s continuous sudden stops and changes in direction left Phil Jones unable to keep up, causing him to sprain his ankle. I wonder how serious it is.”

As Arsenal’s captain, Wang Shuo jogged over quickly.

“How is it?” Wang Shuo asked with concern.

The Manchester United players all hung their heads. No one answered, making it obvious that the situation was far from good.

In truth, Hazard’s absolute speed wasn’t considered fast; he was just short, with a low center of gravity and incredible physical agility. Phil Jones wasn’t particularly tall himself, but he was a typical England defender: big, broad, and somewhat blockheaded. He lacked agility, which made him appear a bit clumsy.

Yet, Ferguson just so happened to love this exact type of defender. Take today’s defensive line, for example. Evra, Evans, Smalling, and Phil Jones, plus Carrick and Giggs stationed in front of them. Apart from the aging Evra, they were all players from the United Kingdom.

Moreover, Wang Shuo found it quite baffling—on what grounds was Ferguson so certain that Carrick and Giggs could withstand the attacks from Arsenal’s Midfielders?

This was also Manchester United’s biggest problem right now. They really didn’t have any Midfielders left. Fletcher, Anderson, and Cleverly were all injured, and their injuries were all quite severe. This resulted in Manchester United having absolutely zero available Midfielders right now. That was exactly why Scholes had been forced to come out of retirement.

In the first leg of their matchup, the reason Manchester United was able to match Arsenal blow for blow—and even hold the upper hand—was quite simple. One very important reason was that the Gunners were a newly assembled squad, and their Midfielders lacked chemistry. Furthermore, Manchester United had utilized the defensive Midfielder duo of Cleverly and Anderson, relying on their tireless running to disrupt Arsenal’s Midfielder Passing and cutting.

But what about now? Plagued by injuries, the 30-year-old Carrick and 38-year-old Giggs had been playing matches continuously. During the grueling Christmas schedule, Carrick had played three full matches, and Giggs had played two. After Christmas, they hadn’t missed a single game. This was also the reason why Manchester United had lost two matches during the Christmas schedule.

Wenger had mentioned this very issue to Wang Shuo before. He believed that starting from 2010—no, even from 2009 when Ronaldo left—Manchester United had already begun going downhill.

The entire Premier League had also entered a transitional phase in recent years, with the top teams generally weakening. Manchester United went without saying; Chelsea was similarly suffering through the painful growing pains of rebuilding, and Liverpool had been on a continuous slide since the late stages of Benitez’s tenure. Only Manchester City was crazily burning money to sign players.

Wenger felt that this was Arsenal’s strategic window of opportunity! Therefore, he made up his mind to sell multiple key players, rebuild the team’s roster, and splash the cash on Wang Shuo, all with the goal of making a run for the league title. And even competing for more trophies!

Now, Wang Shuo was truly experiencing just how depleted Manchester United had become.