Liverpool slaughtered Hull City on their home turf.

In the subsequent thirty-seventh round of league matches, Martin O'Neill went even further. This time, he completely abandoned the first-team substitutes and used a combination of reserve team players plus Chen Hero to face West Ham United at home.

His intentions for preparing for the FA Cup final were obvious.

However, after the previous game, West Ham United did not dare underestimate this team, even though Allardyce was very unhappy with Martin O'Neill's arrangement. But he did not dare to take it lightly—it would be very embarrassing to lose by a large margin to such a team.

In the previous game, Hull City was defeated miserably by Liverpool at their home stadium and became a laughingstock. People said they couldn't even beat a ragtag team, so it was no wonder they couldn't stay in the Premier League.

Cautious and all-out West Ham United encountered the equally determined Liverpool reserve team.

The reserve team had the advantage in morale, but West Ham United had a slight advantage in strength.

In the end, the two sides drew 2-2.

Chen Hero scored twice in the game.

His league goals for the season also reached fifty-seven—the same as last season.

After the game, the media ignored the draw between the two teams and the performance of the Liverpool reserve team. At this time, Chen Hero was the only protagonist.

The media throughout England, China, and even Europe were talking about Chen Hero's fifty-seven goals.

With one round left in the league, he only needed a hat trick to tie Dixie Dean's record.

Sixty goals in a single season!

This was truly an inhuman record!

You know, when Dixie Dean set this record, football was still very underdeveloped. There were almost no tactics to speak of. The defense was simply chasing the ball, and the modification of the offside tactic also promoted the generation of goals, so scoring was easy. High-scoring games often occurred at that time. In the seasons around 1927-1928, when he created the record, there were many goals. Ted Harper, a Blackburn forward, scored forty-three goals as the top scorer in the 1925-1926 season, and Jimmy Trotter, the top scorer in the following season, scored thirty-seven goals. The top scorer in the 1928-1929 season was David Halliday of Sunderland, who scored forty-three goals, Vic Watson scored forty-one goals in the 1929-1930 season, Tom Waring scored forty-nine goals in the 1930-1931 season, and the top scorer in the following season was still Dixie Dean, who scored forty-four goals.

But now it's different. Modern football has developed to this point, and defensive tactics have become increasingly perfect. The offside rule is becoming more and more strict. In addition, the players' physical fitness has been greatly improved, and the defensive ability has increased, making it more and more difficult to score goals.

Under such circumstances, could Chen Hero still score sixty goals in a season?

You should know that even people like Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo can only score fifty-five league goals at most in a season. This was still their peak ability.

They never had such results after that.

Could Chen Hero do something that even these two people couldn't do?

Of course, Chen Hero was already better than them because Chen Hero had already surpassed them in the number of league goals in a single season. After all, they had only scored fifty-five goals at most, while Chen Hero had already scored fifty-seven goals before that.

Now he was only three goals away from tying the amazing record created by Dixie Dean.

The English media were discussing this topic all day long, mainly divided into two factions. One faction believed that Chen Hero could not tie Dixie Dean's record, and the other faction believed that Chen Hero could tie the record easily, just with a hat trick.

Both sides had good points. After all, it was very difficult to tie the record. A hat trick was difficult even in ordinary games, let alone in a game with such great pressure. But Chen Hero's strength was obvious to all. How many times in the past had he surprised people? When you thought he couldn't do it, he insisted on doing it, and not only did he do it, but he also did it beautifully!

The Chinese media were also conducting a big discussion, not just the media, but also the Chinese fans and netizens were discussing this matter online.

However, most of the Chinese compatriots were cheering for Chen Hero. There were not many people who questioned him or doubted him. After all, they were compatriots. How could they tear down their own people's platform?

The European media were also paying attention to this matter.

Their angle was not whether Chen Hero could tie the record because Chen Hero was already good enough.

He had scored fifty-seven league goals in two consecutive seasons. If it was only one season, some people would say it was luck. Although his strength was very strong, it was not so strong to that extent. Just like when Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo scored fifty-something goals in the league, everyone's reaction was like this. While cheering for them, they also pointed out that such crazy goals were impossible every year. As expected, their goals decreased in the following season. Although they still scored more than forty goals each season, the incredible situation of more than fifty goals never appeared again.

Therefore, when Chen Hero finally scored fifty-seven goals last season, many people exclaimed Chen Hero's strength, but also felt that this result had a lucky element in it. Just because he could score fifty-seven league goals this season did not mean that he could also score fifty-seven league goals next season...

Who would have thought that Chen Hero would actually do it in the next season! And he completed the goal one round in advance.

This made those who thought Chen Hero was lucky silent—what kind of luck could make someone score fifty-seven goals in two consecutive seasons?

In the face of Chen Hero's power, they had to bow their heads. It was strength, powerful strength, that allowed Chen Hero to score fifty-seven league goals in two consecutive seasons.

So, did he still have the strength to tie the legendary record of sixty goals?

Everyone's eyes were focused on Chen Hero, focused on the last game.

In the last game, Newcastle played against Liverpool at home.

This was not an easy game to play because Newcastle was ranked sixth this season, which was a very good result, and they were also playing at home. Their combat power was twice as high as when they played away.

If Chen Hero wanted to tie the record, he had to score a hat trick in the game. If he wanted to break the record, he had to score at least four goals.

The difficulty was staggering.

It was no wonder that many media felt that it would be difficult for Chen Hero to tie the record, and even more impossible to break the record. Therefore, everyone only said "tie the record" and never said "break the record."

If he only needed to score twice, many people would have confidence in Chen Hero because Chen Hero had a nickname called "Mr. Brace," which showed that he was really good at scoring twice.

This season, not counting the brace in the hat trick, Chen Hero had completed twelve braces, accounting for nearly one-third of the entire thirty-eight league games, which was a very terrifying result.

As for hat tricks, he completed six this season, and he also had six last season, which were both the best in history. Therefore, there were still many people who held different opinions on tying the record, and they felt that Chen Hero could do great things. Their reason was this data.

But to break the record...

Chen Hero hadn't scored four goals in a single game this season.

So, everyone felt that it was too difficult to score four goals in the last game, and no one even mentioned it.

※※※

In the game against Newcastle, Martin O'Neill didn't let the entire reserve team plus Chen Hero go to the away game again. He added a few reserve team players and also let the first-team starters play.

This wasn't because he was afraid of Newcastle or planned to create an opportunity for Chen Hero to perform a hat trick at all costs.

It was because this was the last game for the first team before the Champions League final—the FA Cup final had nothing to do with the first team—in order to give the first-team players who hadn't played in two league games a chance to play and find their form, the first team had to play in this game.

At the same time, he also considered the FA Cup final, so he didn't use all the first-team players, but still retained some reserve team players.

In this way, he took another pieced-together team north to Newcastle to challenge the local tyrant Newcastle United.

※※※

"I know Hero is only three goals away from tying Dixie Dean's record. We won't let him get his wish. It's great to score fifty-seven goals in two consecutive seasons, but to score sixty goals? Wait for next season!"

Newcastle United coach Alan Pardew said in an interview with reporters.

He didn't say this to deliberately anger Chen Hero. He had to say this because he really didn't want his team to be a foil for Chen Hero to create a record.

No one would want that.

For the record-breaking side, this was a great historical moment, worthy of being remembered forever, and then repeatedly brought up.

But for their opponents, it was an embarrassing thing because when others talked about the record created by Chen Hero, they would not forget to say: "He created this record in the game against Newcastle United..."

Who would want to be recorded in history like this!

Not only did the Newcastle United coach not want it, but the Newcastle United players also said that they would not let Chen Hero get his wish.

"At the critical moment, I don't mind using fouls to stop him!" Newcastle's main center-back Steven Taylor bluntly said that he would use some unsportsmanlike actions to stop Chen Hero.

The reporters were also a little surprised to hear him say this. Although everyone did this, it was still rare to say it so nakedly.

They asked, "Even if it means getting a card? A red card?"

Taylor nodded vigorously: "Yes! No matter what the cost, I will not allow him to tie the record in front of me!"

Looking at Taylor's resolute look, many reporters took a breath.

It seemed that this game would not be easy for Chen Hero, definitely not easy!