August was slowly drawing to a close, and Arsenal's schedule showed no signs of easing up.
There were two games left: one on August 25th, away against Udinese, and another on August 28th, away against Manchester United.
Two consecutive away games would test the depth of the squad.
The first game should be relatively easy. With a three-nil lead from the first leg, Udinese would have a hard time making a comeback at home; Arsenal could win even with a semi-rotated squad.
Arsenal would most likely advance to the Champions League group stage without much trouble.
But Manchester United was a tough opponent for Arsenal, a special one.
Not only did the team possess top-tier Premier League strength, but there was also the decade-long love-hate relationship between Sir Ferguson and Wenger, and the disputes and conflicts between Arsenal and Manchester United around the turn of the millennium.
Every clash between the two teams, whether at the Emirates Stadium or Old Trafford Stadium, was full of tension and attracted a great deal of attention.
It was no less intense than a regular derby.
Wenger's plan was obvious: he would save some strength when playing Udinese, allowing the main squad to fully focus on the Premier League Round 3 match against Manchester United at the end of the month, aiming to secure points away from home! On closer inspection, this month's Premier League schedule was truly brutal.
There weren't many rounds, but none of them were easy, with one mid-table team and two of the Big Six elites, making it a concentrated patch of tough matches in the first half of the season.
On August 23rd, Maël returned home to rest after a day of training.
Wenger had given him a day off tomorrow, but he had assigned him an important task: to take the newly joined players around London with captain Van Persie.
Was this a preparation to cultivate him as the third captain, or even the second captain? He guessed Wenger's intention, otherwise he wouldn't have chosen a young player like him to carry out such activities.
Speaking of which, after the first two league rounds, Wenger had made some big moves in the transfer window, seemingly preparing for a major push this season.
After bringing in Arteta, he first acquired Brazilian left-back André Santos from Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahçe for 7 million euros.
Then, he spent 11.3 million euros to buy German defender Mertesacker from Bundesliga team Werder Bremen, and 13.8 million euros to bring in powerful attacker Chamberlain from Southampton!
He spent almost all the money earned in the summer window, strengthening all lines of the team.
Maël was very familiar with these people, as they were basically the mainstays of Arsenal during their low period, accompanying the club through a difficult time and making great contributions to the subsequent reconstruction and revival.
"Hmm?"
He suddenly thought of something: Santos and Mertesacker, including Arteta, whom he hadn't paid much attention to before... If he remembered correctly, weren't these three the ones who Arsenal got hammered 8-2 by Manchester United in their season?
Why were they here so early?
He could understand them being on the transfer list first; clubs usually confirm transfer targets early and acquire them at the right time.
But why was it so coincidental? Thinking of the game against Manchester United at the end of the month, Maël suddenly felt a pang in his heart. That 8-2 massacre wouldn't be in the 11-12 season, would it? It was at the end of the month!
Damn it! He couldn't help but curse in his heart. Was this what it meant to be born at the wrong time? The once-in-a-century massacre was happening in his first season, and he would most likely be playing.
Even if the butterfly effect of his arrival would influence the game to some extent, the explosive form and condition of Manchester United's attacking line in that game was impossible to change.
Even if he tried to find a way, losing by four or five goals was still very likely.
"I can only tough it out."
As things stood, there was nothing he could do. He could only hope that the butterfly effect of his arrival would be greater, enough to change the outcome of the 8-2 game, so it wouldn't be too tragic.
Thinking about Arteta and Mertesacker joining the team early... If they could play in that game, it might have some impact on the result.
He would get through it first, and strive to complete the revenge against Manchester United in the second half of the season at home.
The next day, Maël and Van Persie met at noon and took several new players from the club to visit the sights in London.
He himself hadn't really explored London properly, so he took this opportunity to see the city.
He drove his Ferrari, taking Arteta, who had transferred from Everton.
Van Persie had a more important task. He drove an Audi S5, taking Mertesacker, Chamberlain, and André Santos.
They first went to famous London landmarks such as Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and the Thames River, taking photos and chatting as they walked.
Van Persie acted as a guide, showing a rare patient side. "Living in London is great. I fell in love with it after coming here. It's an international metropolis, but it's usually very quiet."
"Most importantly, the football atmosphere here is very strong. This is the city with the most top clubs."
He smiled and introduced, "Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Crystal Palace, Watford, etc. These are all world-renowned teams."
"Being a football star here is much more comfortable than being a football star in other cities in England.
"You'll meet very enthusiastic London girls, and of course, foreign girls from all over the world who come to study, but that's just a side note.
"Many parties and carnivals are also very interesting. After the schedule eases up, I'll take you guys to have fun. You'll love it."
Maël listened to his introduction, and his heart was a little moved. Slowly, he really should pursue the development of his spiritual world.
He turned his head to look at Arteta next to him. Arteta looked calm, but with his appearance, this expression seemed a bit dazed and listless.
"Is there a lot of pressure playing football here?"
The German iron defender Mertesacker asked curiously, speaking in not-so-fluent English with some grammatical errors.
There was no helping it; having never lived in England, it was already pretty good that he could speak like this.
"It depends on the situation and how you perform."
Van Persie casually tore off a leaf from a maple tree next to the Thames River, using Maël as an example, saying, "If you're like Maël, and you adapt to the team's style of play as soon as you arrive, and you put up super high stats, naturally there won't be any pressure.
"But on the other hand, the pressure is also relatively high. It also depends on the individual's mentality."
Mertesacker nodded slightly, understanding about half of what he said, but he could guess what Van Persie meant.
He glanced at Maël and chuckled, "Luckily, I didn't go to any other Premier League team, otherwise, I really wouldn't know what to do if I encountered a striker like Maël."
"Haha..." Maël laughed twice and joked, "I'll take that as a sincere compliment."
"You really are hard to defend," Arteta, having watched Maël's last game, calmly added, "I estimate you've already become one of the top ten Premier League strikers that all defenders dread."
"Let's talk about being number one when it happens."
Maël walked towards the side of the road, preparing to drive to another place, "Who wants to ride in my car?"
"I want to."
Mertesacker raised his hand. He had a height of 198 centimeters and a tough defensive style, but in life, he seemed a bit shy, "I've never ridden in a Ferrari before. No one at Werder Bremen has this car.
"How much did you buy it for? I want to buy one later too. I got a raise after coming to Arsenal."
"It's 235,000 pounds in total," Maël introduced to him, leading him towards the car.
"That's expensive."
Mertesacker sighed, but he wasn't too surprised; his salary wasn't low now either.
"Vroom, vroom!" The roar of the car engine sounded. Compared to the cars of later generations, the F430 wasn't actually that fast.
But its sound was definitely one of the loudest among sports cars, with a kind of early internal combustion engine charm.
"Oh wow..." After Mertesacker got into Maël's car, his expression quickly became wonderful, beaming all the way.
Maël looked at him, knowing that the Ferrari flagship store in London was about to lose a car, and a tall guy from Germany was about to lose 235,000 pounds of signing fee.
...
Time quickly approached the evening, and the day's tour was coming to an end.
The group came to the villa at Maël's invitation, preparing to have dinner before going home.
"Oh my god."
Van Persie parked the car at the intersection and looked at the luxurious villa, which was as high as twenty meters, with envy, "I'm going to report it to the media, to let people see what kind of house a young player who has only been playing football for one year lives in."
This was a joke; the players' residences were generally quite private and would not be revealed.
Chamberlain next to him didn't say anything, and André Santos didn't understand.
Only Arteta looked forward to it, sighing, "Are players on big teams all like this?"
He came from La Masia Youth Academy, but he had never played for the Barcelona first team, and had been wandering in the mid-level teams of foreign leagues, never having been to a big team.
If Arsenal's situation hadn't been bad in recent years, and the financial problems hadn't been improved, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to join a big team.
Therefore, Arteta had long been prepared to play football diligently after coming to Arsenal.
Not seeking to be the core organizer in the frontcourt, even as a hard-working player, he would burn his full enthusiasm for the team!
Now, after seeing this house, he seemed to have another reason to work hard.
"Of course not." Van Persie waved his hand and laughed, saying, "The house he lives in is probably the best in the team, mine isn't as luxurious as his anyway."
Mertesacker also quickly walked over with Maël, his mouth agape as he looked at the mansion before him, unable to speak for a long time.
He hadn't expected Premier League players to be so inhumanly rich. In Germany, apart from Bayern and a few other club superstars, most players lived in relatively ordinary houses.
"Alright."
Maël looked at their expressions and led them inside, "Don't just stand there, this house isn't mine yet. Wait until it's mine before you say what you want to say."
"Being the king of houses isn't anything. Like Van Persie said, London is a football city, it's only worth bragging about if you become the king of London."
His words made the five of them smile faintly. He himself didn't laugh much; this was truly one of his small goals.
On August 25th, the entire Arsenal team traveled to Udine, Italy, for the second leg of their match against Udinese.
Maël was also on the roster, but he didn't start. He and Van Persie were among those who got a rotational rest.
Due to the good integration of several new signings into the team, Wenger boldly gave them playing opportunities in today's game.
This was a bit risky, but fortunately, he brought along several core players, giving him the opportunity to make substitutions at any time.
After the overall arrangement, Arsenal's formation became like this: Goalkeeper Szczęsny, the defense line from left to right, André Santos, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Sagna.
Midfield Alexandre Song, Arteta, Rosický, and in the forward positions, Arshavin, Chamakh, Chamberlain.
It could be seen that there was still a certain amount of combat power, and it wasn't too difficult to conduct a defensive counterattack against Udinese.
"Vinci per noi!" At 7:30 PM, the match kicked off at Stadio Friuli, and the home team went all out, launching a do-or-die counterattack.
Maël sat on the sidelines with Van Persie, observing the performance of the new signings.
Soon, Mertesacker caught their attention in a very conspicuous way. The German center-back's defensive strength was extremely strong.
Whether it was positioning, marking, tackling, clearing, aerial duels, etc., he had extremely strong abilities! Apart from one slow turn that allowed the opponent's midfielder Pinzi to get past him, he made almost no mistakes.
"Very strong."
Van Persie thought of Koscielny and sighed with a smile, "Now, the team's defense line is competitive. Everyone must be in their best form to have a chance to play."
"Moreover, there's a guarantee of rotation during a dense schedule."
"That's right." Maël nodded. What he was thinking about more was whether Mertesacker could have helped the team avoid one or two goals if he had played in that 8-2 massacre.
Or more? Or would they have been blown out by a Manchester United in hot form, conceding even more goals? "Bang!"
Just as he was thinking, the opponent's forward Di Natale scored with a long shot, penetrating Arsenal's goal and taking the lead at home.
Maël glanced at the time and realized it was already the 39th minute of the first half, so it wasn't a big problem. Arsenal still had plenty of room for adjustment.
After the second half started, Wenger substituted Gervinho for the underperforming Chamberlain, and then brought on Walcott in the 60th minute to strengthen the attack in the frontcourt.
This quickly paid off. Arteta, who had been threading passes in the central position, played an over-the-top long pass in the 65th minute.
"Bang!"
Walcott stopped the ball and broke into the penalty area, hitting the bottom left corner with a shot, helping the team equalize! The aggregate score was four to one! And they had an away goal! It could be said that there was absolutely nothing to worry about.
"Yeah!" After getting his first assist in his Arsenal career, Arteta came to Wenger's side and jumped into Wenger's arms to celebrate together.
It seemed to be thanking the Professor for bringing him to Arsenal, giving him the opportunity to play in the Champions League and get stats.
For him, this was a novel experience, a memorable moment.
Wenger smiled happily, patted Arteta's head, and hugged him again to celebrate.
"He's not bad either."
Maël had been paying attention to Arteta's characteristics just now. He hadn't watched much of Arteta playing in his previous life. "His passing ability is very strong. In the first half, he received and passed the ball the most for Arsenal."
"And mainly, his attitude is good, his running ability is very good, and his tackling and interception are also outstanding."
"An all-around midfielder." Van Persie gave his evaluation, looking at Arteta's back and saying, "I hope he can become an all-around midfield core and carry the banner of Arsenal's midfield."
"Hopefully."
Maël saw that Wenger had placed Arteta in the left midfield position, knowing that this might be his future partner.
Time continued to pass. In the 71st minute, Di Natale broke into the penalty area himself and created a penalty, but unfortunately, the subsequent penalty kick was not scored.
This ball destroyed Udinese's morale. After all, they weren't Liverpool, and they didn't have the 'great comeback' DNA in their bones.
As Walcott scored another goal in the 89th minute, helping the team reverse the score to 2-1, the referee directly skipped the injury time and blew the final whistle.
In the end, Arsenal defeated Udinese with an aggregate score of 5-1, advancing to this season's Champions League! "The pressure is much less." Wenger honestly left a short but meaningful sentence after the post-match press conference, amusing the reporters.
In the following two days, Maël began to devote all his time to improving his Weak Foot, wanting to upgrade it before the away game against Manchester United.
August 27th, one hour before the club's bus set off for Manchester.
He was still on the training ground, practicing his Weak Foot with a sweat-soaked brow, just a little bit away from the breakthrough.
"I'll go back and get your gear for you."
José looked at his watch beside him, clearly not expecting this training session to last so long that it might delay the next day's big6 match against Manchester United.
He didn't try to persuade him much. After a period of contact, he understood that once Maël made a decision, it was impossible to change it.
Especially when it came to training time, he had his own set of standards, sometimes suddenly adding extra sessions.
José drove his BMW back to Maël's house, knowing that Maël would still be training when he returned.
A number of Arsenal players had already gathered nearby, curiously watching with their bags, wondering why Maël was still training at this time.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Maël ignored their gazes, kicking one left-footed curler after another.
This kind of single-skill training wasn't tiring and wouldn't affect his condition for tomorrow.
At most, it would lead to some incomprehensible gossip. These were minor matters; he had been through it all before and was used to it.
At 4:20 PM, with only ten minutes left before departure.
Maël felt a surge of heat in several parts of his body, including his cerebellum, right hip, and lower back.
He could feel his somewhat awkward left foot and leg integrating into his body, increasing their coordination! Weak Foot, upgraded!
[Skill: Strong Side Foot lv4]
[Proficiency: (1/5000)]
[Effect: After gaining power, you gradually pursue the accuracy of your Weak Foot. Through countless efforts, you finally feel that your Weak Foot is approaching your Strong Side Foot, but it is still some distance from perfection!]
Strong Side Foot! Maël moved his left ankle and found that his control over his Weak Foot had indeed increased significantly. Both legs were extremely flexible, as if reborn.
"Arteta."
He saw Arteta standing with Mertesacker and had a playful idea, "Four out of ten left-footed shots hitting the crossbar, 1000 pounds, what do you say?"
Arteta didn't expect to be suddenly called out and hesitated before winking, "Left foot... how about three out of ten?"
"It's four out of ten."
Maël ran to the field to pick up the ball, quickly gathering 10 balls, "Are you in or not?"
"Let's do it."
Arteta nodded and started playing with Maël, "Are you really going to pay up, not joking?"
"Yes!" Maël excitedly agreed, using a curved passing technique to kick the first ball, the most controllable way to hit the crossbar.
The first ball missed.
"Clang!" But the very next ball accurately hit the crossbar.
Arteta remained unmoved, watching Maël's movements with Mertesacker.
Then the fifth shot hit, the sixth shot hit... the total number of hits reached 3.
"Not bad." Mertesacker's eyes flickered, praising him. As defenders, they were quite envious of this kind of footwork.
"I feel like I've been tricked?" Arteta smiled wryly, staring at Maël's back with some nervousness.
"Bang!"
At this moment, Maël kicked the eighth ball, the football waiting for the arc to fly towards the goal's crossbar, with a natural drop in the air, and finally successfully made contact with the crossbar, emitting a crisp sound, "Clang!"
"Oh!" Arteta leaned back, shaking his head and clapping his hands, sighing, "Okay... I'll give it to you when we get back from the away game."
Mertesacker also offered applause, feeling a little fortunate that he had resisted the urge to bet more just now.
"You have to remember."
Maël waved at him, took the ball, and handed it to José. He then took his match gear from José. "I don't have time. Please take this to the equipment room. I have to go."
"Good luck." There was a tremor in José's expression. He remembered Maël's left-foot stability just now and couldn't help but ask, "Is this the result of you insisting on practicing a little longer?"
He wondered if he should go back to the Sports University for another two years to see if increasing training time in a concentrated period helps improve a person's strength.
"How could it be?"
Maël chuckled and waved at him, saying, "It's all because you taught me well, Mr. José. You keep it up too!"
"Me?" José held the heavy ball bag, looked down at his feet.
Could it be that his idea all along was right, and he really has some special talents in training? ps: Today's update is 25,000 words, with a total of 371,000 words. The monthly goal is 400,000.
Please vote!
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