Chapter 3 Liverpool's Great Revival?

In the end, Liverpool defeated Bolton 3:1 on the road thanks to Chen Hero’s hat trick, achieving their twelfth victory in thirteen league games this season...

This is a very terrifying statistic.

The Premier League season is thirteen rounds in, and Liverpool sits atop the table with thirty-six points. Their arch-rivals, Manchester United, are second, currently four points behind Liverpool with thirty-two points. In third place is Manchester City. Although losing to Liverpool at home was a blow to their morale, Manchester City can still regain their confidence against weaker opponents. They currently have thirty points.

Fourth in the league is Newcastle, a surprising force this season, with twenty-eight points.

Basically, those are the top four in the league.

It can be seen that Liverpool has a huge advantage, leading second place by four points and fourth place, Newcastle, by as many as eight points.

If things continue to develop like this, Liverpool is very likely to win the Premier League title early this season.

Many media outlets have begun to tout Liverpool's great revival.

They had touted it many times before, and then they were all slapped in the face by cruel reality.

This time seems to be the closest to the truth.

Of course, there are also many people who are not optimistic about Liverpool. Their reasoning is that it is normal to perform well after the start of the league. The real test of a team's strength and foundation lies in the devilish Christmas schedule and the period after the Champions League restarts in February of next year.

Whether a team can survive these many tests and finally successfully lift the Premier League trophy, these two periods are very important.

They don't believe Liverpool can pass the test safely.

So it is too early to say that Liverpool has successfully overthrown Manchester United's rule and ushered in a great revival.

Football is a sport where you don't know the result until the last second. A long season is the same. Maybe you won't know who the final winner is until the last round.

Their doubts did not upset Martin O'Neill. On the contrary, he deeply agreed.

Don't look at Liverpool's good results now, Martin O'Neill is actually under a lot of pressure...

Losing to Chelsea earlier, resulting in their first league defeat, actually slightly relieved his pressure.

Now every game makes him tremble with fear of losing—he worries that once they lose, that energy and extraordinary luck will vanish into thin air...

But continuing to win like this also makes him feel apprehensive, because it's not scientific!

He doesn't know that the fact that these few games have been won has a lot to do with an ambitious Chen Hero.

He also doesn't know why Chen Hero is in such good shape...

In today's society, everyone is fickle. No matter how hot a topic is, people will lose interest in it over time. Therefore, it is not very common to see voices questioning Chen Hero in the media now—and the media are not stupid either. Chen Hero has been performing so well during this period, what is there for them to question? If they were to come out and question Chen Hero at this time, it would be purely lying with their eyes open and would be a personal vendetta.

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Next was the fourteenth round of the league, a home game against Fulham. Considering the Champions League game in the middle of the week, Martin O'Neill decided to rotate the squad.

Now, qualifying from the Champions League group stage is the top priority.

This rotation caused problems. Liverpool was actually held to a draw by Fulham at home!

This really surprised many people.

Although Chen Hero scored a goal at the beginning of the game, the tenacious Fulham equalized in the seventy-ninth minute. In the end, Liverpool had no choice but to accept a 1:1 draw at home against Fulham...

After being held to a draw by Fulham, and with Manchester United winning their game, the point difference between the two sides suddenly narrowed to two points!

The wind direction in the media suddenly changed. Before, they were unanimously optimistic about Liverpool winning the league title, but now they are vying to sing praises for Manchester United...

Martin O'Neill was too lazy to pay attention to those weathervanes. He didn't care about the media's opinions.

The Champions League group stage is still more important.

Liverpool currently has nine points in this group, the same as Valencia.

However, the two teams are tied in terms of head-to-head record and goal difference. Liverpool is temporarily ahead of Valencia, ranking first in the group, relying on the advantage of away goals in the matches between the two sides.

It can be said that this advantage of being first in the group is quite weak. It could be gone at any time.

In addition, Feyenoord, after two wins against Paris Saint-Germain, also has six points, ranking third, only three points away from the top two.

Feyenoord is fully capable of completing a major reversal in the last two group matches, dragging one of Liverpool or Valencia down.

Only Paris Saint-Germain has lost all four games and has already bid farewell to the Champions League knockout stage this season. But precisely because of this, this team should not be underestimated. Because they can fight for honor in the last two rounds—as the defending Ligue 1 champion, their Champions League group stage journey this season has been so embarrassing, with four losses in four games, which is really a disgrace to the name of Paris Saint-Germain... For their honor, Paris Saint-Germain may explode with tremendous energy in the last two group matches, knocking down all opponents who dare to underestimate them and think they are pushovers.

Therefore, Liverpool's last two group matches are no easier than the duel against Valencia.

This is why Martin O'Neill would rather rotate in the league to ensure that all the main players can appear in the game against Paris Saint-Germain.

In the fifth round of the group stage, Liverpool will play Paris Saint-Germain at home. This is an opportunity, because Liverpool is playing at home. They must seize the opportunity to defeat Paris Saint-Germain and lay the foundation for the team to qualify from the group stage and qualify as the group winner.

This game must be won.

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The head coach is really painstaking and brain-racking. As a player, Chen Hero would never think so much before the game, analyzing his own situation, analyzing the opponent's situation. He only knows one thing—score goals, win, and then all the problems will be gone!

This game is the same.

Paris Saint-Germain has already lost four games, so what does it matter if they lose one more? You want to defend your dignity and fight for honor? Okay, we'll leave the last group match for you to defend.

The opponent happens to be Valencia. If you defend against them, our top spot in the group will be secured!

The day before the game against Paris Saint-Germain was the day for other Champions League matches.

Messi's Barcelona thrashed Benfica 5:1, with Messi scoring twice in the game!

The commentators all know about the contest between Messi and Chen Hero. After Messi scored twice, they shouted, "This is Messi's eighth goal in the Champions League this season! He has surpassed Hero for the first time on the top scorer list!"

"Faced with Hero's aggressive offensive, Messi did not back down, but bravely met him! He proved his strength with his own actions!"

"Two of the world's top shooters are engaged in a wonderful duel on the highest level stage of the Champions League. Messi with eight goals, Hero with seven goals... For ordinary people like us, it is a great honor to be able to see the contest between these two superstars! Years later, we can also proudly say: 'I watched that classic and earth-shattering peak duel!'"

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Chen Hero did not watch this game. Of course, he would not watch Barcelona's game. At that time, he was surfing the Internet with his laptop in his hotel room, browsing Twitter and domestic microblogs to see what new and funny things there were. He was enjoying the feeling of being surrounded by a large group of fans on the Internet.

This life is so comfortable, why bother watching Barcelona's game and making himself uncomfortable?

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Chen Hero ran to open the door and found Suarez standing outside.

Seeing Chen Hero, he first poked his head to look at the TV, and found that the screen was black and not turned on at all.

"Huh? You didn't watch the game?"

"What game?"

"The game between Barcelona and Benfica!"

Chen Hero shrugged: "I'm not their fan. Why would I watch their game?"

Suarez guessed what Chen Hero was thinking. He coughed and said, "Well, I'm formally informing you—the person you hate the most has surpassed you!"

Hearing this, Chen Hero became energetic and asked, "How many did he score?"

"Two goals." Suarez held up two fingers, like a "v" symbolizing victory.

Chen Hero touched his chin and pondered: "In that case, it looks like I have to score at least a hat trick tomorrow..."

Suarez rolled his eyes: "You're being too ambitious. A hat trick is not something you can just get whenever you want. I think you only need to score twice. Anyway, we'll just keep one goal ahead of him, so he can never turn the tables! Always give him hope, but always make him despair at the critical moment. How great is that! Hahaha!"

This idea is quite sinister, and it also fits Suarez's aesthetic taste, but Chen Hero shook his head and rejected Suarez's idea: "No! Doing that will only make people think that our strengths are similar. That's not what I want... I want everyone to know that he and I are not even on the same level! So I must leave him far behind! So he can only eat the dust behind my ass!"

Messi's two goals stimulated Chen Hero. He reflected on it and felt that he seemed to have slacked off in two games. In the beginning, he scored five goals in two games. How many goals did Messi have? Only two goals!

As a result, he only scored one goal in each of the subsequent two games against Valencia. That's why Messi caught up.

Originally, he could have left Messi ten streets behind long ago...

But now he is being closely followed by the other party...

This is absolutely unbearable!

Suarez saw the expression on Chen Hero's face change from moment to moment, and he knew that Chen Hero was really stimulated this time and was planning to go on a killing spree.

He silently began to pray for Paris Saint-Germain in his heart.

Your battle for honor seems to have chosen the wrong opponent...