Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 304 The Manchester Derby: A Battle of Weaklings

"One beautiful woman is a beautiful woman, but a group of beautiful women are a pack of scoundrels!"

Reflecting on his experience at the party, Shan Yongzhuo came to a profound conclusion.

He doesn't even remember how he finally shook off these women. Anyway, he had to ask the police for help, and then, in exchange for an autographed photo, he finally made it safely home.

The next day, he stayed home all day, browsing the news, watching TV, and playing games. He felt great and realized that being alone seemed really nice.

Having a large harem of women, a harem of concubines, and so on—the idea seemed good, but in the end, he found that when he actually encountered this situation, it seemed quite troublesome.

"Sigh, being too popular is such a problem."

"The key issue is, we don't have the Dragon-Slaying Saber..."

After Christmas, the team started training again, as the league was about to begin and training could not be relaxed.

The Premier League schedule is packed after Christmas, and with the FA Cup starting in January, the pressure on the competition is considerable.

The last two league matches in December are away games against West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland.

Playing two games within four days, both away from home, is quite difficult. Mancini's requirement for the team is that they must win these two games, as the opponents are not very strong.

In the 18th round of the Premier League, Mancini fielded a semi-regular lineup against West Bromwich Albion away from home. However, with Shan Yongzhuo starting, West Bromwich Albion was no match for him.

Shan Yongzhuo performed well.

In the 18th minute, Shan Yongzhuo broke through with a powerful ground kick and fired a shot from just outside the penalty area, giving Manchester City a 1-0 lead.

Then, in the 25th minute, another brilliant free kick found the net, leaving West Bromwich Albion helpless at home.

Two consecutive goals left West Bromwich Albion players and staff looking dejected, their morale plummeting.

In the 50th minute of the second half, Shan Yongzhuo once again dribbled past two players on the edge of the penalty area before unleashing a powerful shot, extending the score to 3-0.

Subsequently, Mancini substituted Shan Yongzhuo early on.

West Bromwich Albion immediately felt much more relaxed.

West Bromwich Albion performed well in the rest of the match, pulling one back in the 70th minute, but that was also the last goal of the game.

1:3.

Manchester City secured their first victory since Christmas.

A few days later, Manchester City traveled to Sunderland for an away game.

In this match, Shan Yongzhuo started again and scored two goals in the first half. In the second half, Aguero scored another goal.

Manchester City secured another 3-0 away victory against Sunderland, extending their winning streak in the league.

Then, January arrived.

For some teams, there is a break at the start of the new year. The first match of the new year is the FA Cup, which is in early January, giving them a break of nearly 10 days. However, Manchester City is not so lucky.

Manchester City have another league match to play on January 4th, a home game against Liverpool.

Then on January 8th, they immediately had to play the third round of the FA Cup, hosting Manchester United.

Two formidable opponents in succession have given Mancini a headache.

Mancini wasn't initially keen on the FA Cup, given Manchester City's multi-front campaign this season—the league, the Champions League, and the League Cup semi-finals—the pressure on the players, given their current squad, would be immense if they were to also focus on the FA Cup. However, Shan Yongzhuo ultimately persuaded Mancini.

In the league, Manchester United lost to Queens Park Rangers at home in the last round, widening the gap with Manchester City to 3 points, which allows Manchester City to relax a little.

Ultimately, the two decided that the starting lineup would play against Liverpool, while Shan Yongzhuo would lead a reserve team in the next FA Cup match against Manchester United.

In this match against Liverpool, Shan Yongzhuo could only sit on the bench.

However, Manchester City played exceptionally well in this home game, with goals from Aguero, Balotelli, and Silva. In the absence of Shan Yongzhuo, they surprisingly defeated Liverpool 3-2.

This made Mancini somewhat happy.

As it turns out, this Manchester City team, even without Shan Yongzhuo, still possesses considerable fighting power and is capable of competing for a top-four position in the league.

What's even more encouraging is that Manchester United faltered again, suffering a humiliating 0-3 defeat away to Newcastle United, allowing Manchester City to extend their lead to six points.

A six-point margin is already a relatively safe one, a difference of two games, which can give Manchester City a considerable margin for error in the league.

This is very good news for Manchester City.

Then came the third round of the FA Cup.

Shan Yongzhuo wants to win the FA Cup again, but due to the pressure of the schedule, he can only lead a group of substitutes to play in this match.

This was something he and Mancini had agreed upon. However, Mancini's focus was still on the Champions League; he wanted to win one.

As for the FA Cup, if Shan Yongzhuo wants to play it, then let him play it; it would be best if he lost to Manchester United.

However, to everyone's surprise, Manchester United also fielded a reserve lineup.

Those were really substitutes, and many of them were even reserve team players.

Mancini never expected that Ferguson would so shamelessly abandon the FA Cup, even more thoroughly than he had abandoned it.

In the end, Shan Yongzhuo displayed his extraordinary power.

In just 25 minutes of the first half, Shan Yongzhuo scored a hat-trick.

Before the first half was over, Mancini substituted Shan Yongzhuo, and the two teams essentially went through the motions in the FA Cup match, with Manchester City winning 3-0 against Manchester United.

After the game.

Ferguson appeared very distressed: "We didn't expect to lose away from home, but that's football; you can't completely predict the outcome."

“We did our best, and the boys performed very well, but Shan Yongzhuo’s presence completely disrupted the balance of the game.”

"There's nothing we can do about this..."

The media vehemently condemned Ferguson's shamelessness, criticizing his utilitarianism and abandonment of the historic FA Cup.

Mancini also faced criticism from the English media, as it was clear to everyone that, apart from Shan Yongzhuo, Manchester City's squad wasn't much better than Manchester United's; the two teams were essentially evenly matched.

The only difference was that, in the lineups of both teams that were basically unable to avoid relegation in the Premier League, there was a "nuclear bomb" Shan Yongzhuo, which allowed Manchester City to win the game.

Otherwise, with this weak lineup of two weaklings pecking at each other, it's really hard to say who will win or lose.

After this round of the FA Cup, the team can finally relax. The next round of the league is not until a week later, and they will be playing at home against Wigan Athletic, who have had a terrible season so far.

(End of this chapter)