Lin Hai Ting Tao

Chapter 1561 Premier League Chaos (First Guarantee Update)

Liverpool's match against Fulham ended in a stunning 6-0 victory.

Since clinching the title four rounds in advance, Liverpool had been winning by large margins in almost every game.

In the thirty-fifth round, they crushed Wigan Athletic 6-0 at home.

In the thirty-sixth round, they swept Portsmouth 4-1 away.

Now, in the thirty-seventh round, they massacred Fulham 6-0 away, with Chen Hero scoring a hat-trick, and rising star Carlton Cole contributing a goal and an assist, putting on a near-perfect performance.

All of these wins involved scoring at least four goals, with two games seeing them net six.

Even though Martin O'Neill fielded mostly reserve team players and first-team substitutes.

These players showed even more fighting spirit than the first-team regulars.

Because these players valued the opportunity to play, they cherished it, and were more motivated—Carlton Cole had already shown everyone the way with his actions. As long as you work hard, you can become the next Carlton Cole.

These games were the best opportunities.

Having finally gotten such a chance, they naturally went all out, desperately trying to show their best selves.

As a result, their opponents were extremely unlucky.

In addition, Liverpool's opponents weren't very strong… opponents like Wigan Athletic, Portsmouth, and Fulham were just there to make up the numbers. Even if they had goals and the motivation to strive, these all became meaningless when they encountered Liverpool.

So it wasn't surprising that large score differences occurred frequently.

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After this match, only one league game remained.

After the league game, there would be the FA Cup final.

Following the FA Cup final would be the Champions League final.

With only three games left, Liverpool's season would come to an end.

They still had two championships to win.

As long as they won them, they would set a record—seven championships in a single season, and back-to-back trebles!

Before this, no team had ever achieved this feat.

Liverpool was about to do it.

Everyone was counting down the days.

The date of the last round of the league was approaching day by day.

Liverpool fans had been distracted all week, unable to focus on anything.

They were just waiting for the league game on the weekend.

Whether Liverpool could win the title with an undefeated league record depended on this final game.

In reality, there was no suspense, but many Liverpool fans were perhaps worried that being too optimistic would bring bad luck.

So, the closer it got, the more cautious they became—they were learning from Martin O'Neill, keeping a low profile to accumulate good fortune.

If someone mentioned the possibility of winning the title undefeated in front of them, they would shake their heads and sigh, saying, "Alas, this matter... it's hard to say! Charlton is also a strong opponent! So, the final result is still unknown. We must not underestimate the enemy, we must not underestimate the enemy..."

Seeing Liverpool fans acting like this, others couldn't help but spit in their hearts, "Damn it! Hypocritical!"

It was indeed hypocritical. In the last round of the league, Liverpool's opponent was Charlton, which definitely couldn't be considered a strong team.

It would be easy for Liverpool to deal with them.

Even Charlton themselves acknowledged this fact. Before the game, they didn't do anything excessive, remaining as low-key as could be.

The result of this game was not suspenseful in the eyes of others. Perhaps only the Liverpool fans themselves wanted to put on an act.

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After defeating Barcelona 6-0 at home, Chen Hero had been training with Liverpool's reserve team. The current Liverpool reserve team had received a temporary "expansion," with Chen Hero joining, as well as some substitute players from Liverpool's first team. They were also training with the reserve team.

The main purpose of doing this was to better prepare the Liverpool reserve team for the FA Cup final.

In fact, letting the reserve team play in the last four rounds of the league was also to prepare them for the FA Cup final.

This was almost becoming a Liverpool tradition.

As long as Liverpool could win the league title in advance, the Liverpool reserve team would have the opportunity to represent the first team in the league, to adjust their form and accumulate experience for the FA Cup final.

The current Liverpool players were training very hard, and they had accumulated enough experience playing in the League Cup and FA Cup.

The spirit they showed impressed even Martin O'Neill.

He began to frequently mention the reserve team in first-team training, praising the reserve team players' performances.

This was to put pressure on the first-team stars, to show them his attitude—don't think that just because you are in the first team now, you will always be in the first team. If anyone performs poorly, doesn't work hard in training, or their form declines, then they can wait to report to the reserve team. In addition, outstanding players in the reserve team could appear in the first team at any time, threatening the status of first-team players. Like Carlton Cole.

Competition was no longer limited to the first team or the reserve team.

Instead, it was directly popularized throughout the entire Liverpool club.

In this situation, whether they were from the reserve team or the first team, no one dared to be lazy, or rely on their status as a first-team regular to enjoy special privileges and act like a big shot.

Whoever wasn't up to par would go down, and naturally someone would come up to replace them. If you accidentally lost your position, who knew when you would be able to win it back.

Therefore, everyone trained as hard as they could, afraid of making mistakes.

Many people thought that Liverpool's first-team's excellent performance was due to the team's stars. But in reality, the reserve team also played a big role in this, and it could even be said that "the medal has half of my credit and half of yours."

If the reserve team players hadn't performed so well, how could they have motivated the Liverpool first team to rush forward desperately?

Even those established stars didn't dare to be negligent.

This made them always try to show their best selves in the game.

One person like this, two people like this, three people like this... the whole team was like this.

How could the team's performance not be good?

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In the blink of an eye, the last round of the league came.

In the last round of this season's league, the suspense of the title race was gone, and the suspense mainly focused on the Champions League qualification and relegation.

Especially the Champions League qualification. The competition was in full swing.

Boas's Man City had given up the FA Cup and lost to Liverpool. But they hadn't fallen behind, because their rivals hadn't performed consistently enough either.

Man City, Newcastle, and Arsenal were fighting to the death for a Champions League spot.

Man City had overtaken Newcastle United to become fifth in the league, and was only one step away from fourth. If they could win in the last round, and Arsenal lost at the same time, they would win fourth place by one point and get a Champions League spot for next season, even if it was just a qualifying spot. For Man City, this was also a success.

There was also suspense between second-placed Man United and third-placed Chelsea as to who would be second and who would be third. But this suspense was much smaller, because no matter who was third and who was second, they both had a Champions League spot. Only the fourth-placed team had to play in the qualifiers.

In addition, because Liverpool had already won the league title, they were not eligible to participate in next season's Europa League as the League Cup champions. And the League Cup runner-up could not replace the League Cup champions in the Europa League like the FA Cup runner-up could. The Europa League spot vacated by Liverpool would be transferred to the league. The sixth-placed team in the league would replace Liverpool in next season's Europa League. If the sixth-placed team in the league had already qualified for the Europa League, then this replacement spot would be given to the seventh-placed team in the league.

The sixth-placed team was now Newcastle United. Newcastle United's goal was also the Champions League. In addition, they had also reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup. The rules of the FA Cup were different from those of the League Cup. The FA Cup champions could participate in the Europa League, but if they also qualified for next season's Champions League, then this Europa League spot would automatically be given to the runner-up.

In this way, no matter what, Newcastle United had already secured a spot in next season's Europa League. A European spot was guaranteed.

The gap between the sixth-placed and seventh-placed teams was too large, reaching four points. In this way, even if sixth-placed Newcastle United had secured a European spot for next season in advance.

Because they already had a Europa League spot, the spot left over from the League Cup could not be given to them, but instead had to be given to the seventh-placed team.

As a result, the competition for seventh place also became fierce.

In the past few rounds of the league, the four teams from seventh to tenth place had also launched a brutal battle for this Europa League spot.

This spot was not valued by the big clubs, and Liverpool didn't want it, but it was very attractive to those mid-table Premier League teams.

Being able to qualify for next season's European competition would bring in more revenue. Although this amount of prize money was small compared to the Champions League, it was already a "huge sum" for mid-table teams.

It was worth them fighting tooth and nail for.

This season's Premier League, although the title was already decided, was still full of suspense.

In this special period of dynasty change, the Premier League presented an unprecedented chaotic scene.

Maybe there wouldn't be such problems next season. By then, with Ferguson's retirement, the era of Man United would be completely over, and the Premier League would enter the Liverpool dynasty.

No one knew what would happen in the future, so they definitely couldn't imagine that the future Premier League would be stable to the point of despair...

This was all because of Chen Hero's great goal.

For the Premier League, the Liverpool dynasty may be the darkest period.

But for Liverpool fans, those were the most glorious and brilliant days.