Chapter 39: The First Signs of Injury

After a French dinner in Paris, Arsenal players returned to London to prepare for the League Cup.

In the League Cup, as a Premier League team, Arsenal only needs to participate in the third round.

This is also one of the privileges of being a top team.

In this kind of game, Mourinho did not put all the main players in the game, but used a large number of substitutes.

On the one hand, it allows the substitutes to maintain their form through the game, and on the other hand, it is also for the purpose of observation.

In this game, even if Arsenal used a large number of substitutes, their game state is still very good.

Although they cannot build a rigorous defensive network like the main players, they can still put a lot of pressure on their opponents.

Arsenal's opponent in this game is Nottingham Forest.

This team has experienced incredible times!

Speaking of Nottingham Forest, they won the Champions League twice in the 1978/1979 season and the 1979/1980 season, and became the most representative team of that era.

The names of Brian Clough and Nottingham Forest are printed on the top of Europe.

Talking about the Champions League honors, Nottingham Forest can be called a giant, but for many people, their evaluation of Nottingham Forest is not like this.

‘This is a team that has had an incredible highlight period. They grasped that good era and did it to the extreme! ’

Compared to the evergreens of the top leagues such as giants, Nottingham Forest’s elevator-like model makes them unable to form an equal proportion with the word giant.

They did have an incredible highlight period, but then they retreated bravely, and with insufficient funds, this also caused Nottingham Forest to be unable to maintain these records and eventually fell into desolation.

Today's Nottingham Forest is fighting in the English Championship. Although they shout for promotion every season, their overall strength does not allow them to make such a move.

The facts also show that even in the English Championship, they are not the top one.

And such Nottingham Forest met Arsenal, even if Arsenal sent many substitutes, the situation is still not optimistic.

Facing Arsenal's complex offensive mode, Nottingham Forest seemed very uncomfortable, and they were exhausted on the back line.

But even so, they could not completely eliminate Arsenal's offensive threat.

At the end of the first half, Arsenal took the lead with a goal from Giroud.

Giroud's state is really hot!

Last season, Giroud was more of a false nine player, but this season, when Mourinho slightly adjusted Giroud's position, he got more shooting opportunities, which indirectly led to Giroud's state explosion.

At present, Giroud has scored a total of six goals in the league, Champions League and League Cup, and his hot state has become a key research target for major teams.

In the past, Arsenal needed to defend the midfield and the two wings, and now on this basis, they have to defend a more terrifying Giroud, which is very bad news for the rest of the teams except Arsenal.

As for Giroud himself, he enjoyed this moment very much.

At this time, Giroud's thinking is clear, especially when handling the ball, it feels very perfect.

Both the passing and shooting feel very good.

For this reason, his state can continue.

Of course, there are also many bonuses brought to him by the team.

It can be said that Giroud's outbreak is based on the overall strength of Arsenal.

In the second half, just five minutes after the game, Giroud headed the ball into the Nottingham Forest team again.

And this goal also made Nottingham Forest's morale low.

In a simple situation, losing two goals in a row made it even more difficult for them to maintain.

And Arsenal also made some substitutions.

Kante, Aubameyang and other players are close to the court to maintain their state.

And De Ligt, Odegaard and other players are off the court.

Although they failed to score any goals in this game, Odegaard's organization and advancement and De Ligt's aerial dominance were fully demonstrated in this game.

Especially the latter, Nottingham Forest's long pass was directly strangled.

Unable to compete for the first landing point, let alone threatening the goal.

Of course, the most critical thing is Giroud's goal, which helped Arsenal gain a great advantage in the field and also boosted morale.

Even the commentator was praising Giroud's performance.

"Giroud, the best performance in this game without a doubt, his condition is really excellent, both shots made Nottingham Forest completely helpless, especially the second header, which almost forced two Nottingham Forest central defenders to head into the goal. Today's Arsenal is strong enough, and their shooters are in another outbreak period, which will give all Arsenal opponents a headache!"

Paul Merson's words made many Arsenal fans happy.

Arsenal's current state is very much like dominating Europe.

Both seasons have shown excellent performance.

Although this season has just started, Arsenal's hot state will continue.

Mourinho was also very satisfied, but he also replaced Giroud in the 70th minute.

Giroud needs to maintain his form. Now Giroud is definitely Arsenal's most critical firepower point, so he doesn't want to see Giroud being injured by the opponent.

After two goals were scored, Giroud also looked happy. Amid the applause of the fans, Giroud came off the court and sat down next to Lucky.

"Super shooter!"

Jirou gave Lucky a thumbs up and smiled proudly.

Lucky also shook his head and laughed angrily.

However, Giroud's confidence can also be heard from this sentence. It is precisely because of this confidence that Giroud can achieve such scoring efficiency.

"Keep it up. Scoring goals in the Champions League and the league depends on you, as well as avoiding being charged and fouled by the opponent!"

Lucky reminded.

If you are guarding a center, the simplest and most effective way is to move your body and run to injure the opponent.

For this reason, Lucky also needs to warn Giroud and give in on some dangerous balls.

Giroud didn't know whether he heard it or not. Anyway, Giroud was sitting on the chair with a leisurely look, admiring the score.

It's like it's some kind of beautiful pictorial.

After Giroud came off the field, Arsenal switched from offense to defense as a whole, and Nottingham Forest had little fighting spirit.

Finally, the 90-minute game ended.

Arsenal defeated Nottingham Forest 2:0 and advanced to the next round of the EFL Cup.

After this game, Arsenal still maintained an unbeaten record. At the same time, their unbeaten record also spanned three seasons, with the total reaching 50 games.

Arsenal themselves broke their own unbeaten league record.

This news is undoubtedly a shot in the arm for Arsenal fans.

The 49-game unbeaten streak is already the pride of Arsenal fans, but now the 50-game unbeaten streak tells them that they are experiencing an extremely glorious era.

Today's Arsenal fans wake up with a smile every morning. The home team's outstanding performance makes them full of confidence in every game.

But good things often don't last too long.

Achieving greatness will always be accompanied by many ups and downs and hardships.

After the EFL Cup ended, injuries occurred one after another during Arsenal's training camp.

The first is Aubameyang's thigh strain. Due to high-intensity games and insufficient conditions, his thigh muscles were finally overwhelmed.

Followed closely by Robertson's left knee injury.

When two main players were injured one after another, Mourinho was also alarmed.

He immediately organized a series of physical examinations and conducted injury predictions.

Ultimately, it turns out that, with the exception of a few players, Arsenal's players are in a phase of high injury rates.

This also includes Lucky.

Now, Mourinho has to pay attention to this matter.

Injuries are something that cannot be ignored in the profession, and they often occur in concentrated bursts.

The only good news is that it's early in the season and the competition isn't too intense.

But even so, Mourinho needs to be cautious enough.

First of all, he adjusted the training content and began to focus on relaxation training.

Secondly, develop a rotation system again.

At this time, apart from key matches, the most important job for the main players is to maintain good physical condition.

The last step is to perform more rehabilitative massages to relax the players' muscles.