Chapter 45: Ripping the Opponent Apart in One Half — Dark Horse Turns White
The match continued.
Xia Qi had become Olympiacos's primary defensive focus; wherever he appeared, two or three players would double-team him.
At first that defensive approach seemed to work, but they soon discovered Xia Qi was uncanny.
More precisely, his football IQ was too high.
For example, in the 42nd minute,
Chamberlain again ripped down the right and cut inside.
At that moment Xia Qi suddenly shook off Torosidis and José Holebas, sprinted past Podolski like an arrow leaving a bow, and charged toward the far corner.
Chamberlain → cut inside
Xia Qi → lose his markers → make a run to the goal
= Chamberlain → assist Xia Qi!
The idea was sound.
So the defenders originally marking Podolski were all drawn away by Xia Qi's swarm.
Podolski begged Chamberlain for the ball: I need to get some face back.
Unfortunately Chamberlain was alone, cutting into the box; ignoring the unmarked Podolski and under Modesto's interference, he struck and the ball hit Modesto's leg — a missed chance.
A run like Xia Qi's could be a fluke once, but repeated it reveals his trickery.
If Arsenal's front pairing had been more in tune, Olympiacos might have conceded two more.
As Arsenal peppered shots, time slipped to first-half stoppage time.
On the edge of the box, Xia Qi received Wilshere's pass and pushed the ball to Podolski.
Then, with two bodyguards on him, he surged forward.
It's a common tactic: a one-two wall pass.
But when Xia Qi regained the ball he didn't follow the usual route: he didn't shoot, he didn't one-two with Podolski.
Instead he moved the ball to the space ahead of Podolski's run.
That position was empty!
The ball rolled into the gap.
Arteta made a quick run into the space; unmarked, he adjusted his position calmly to prepare and then met the ball with a windmill volley.
The ball rocketed like a cannon; Roy Carroll made a fine save but the shot was too fast, and he'd been fooled by Xia Qi for a second.
On the pitch, one second can decide life or death.
At halftime, Arsenal led Olympiacos 5–0.
"Crushing Olympiacos in one half — the big dark horse turns into a big white horse…"
"Xia Qi scored a first-half hat-trick and assisted two more; all five Arsenal goals were connected to him."
"This is Arsenal's best performance this season. If Wilshere stays healthy and keeps linking with Xia Qi like tonight, Arsenal could go far."
The away dressing room was morose; goalkeeper Roy Carroll felt like he was dying — five conceded at halftime, he felt like a fish out of water waiting to die…
That feeling infected the team.
After beating Schalke 04 2–1, Olympiacos had hoped for more, but tonight Arsenal showed them what a big club looks like.
The gap between them was a chasm.
Jardim, seeing his players' state, tried to serve them a large helping of morale talk and said:
"Xia Qi is actually easy to defend. Can he really be better than Inzaghi?"
But the defenders who'd tried to mark Xia Qi loudly replied:
"Better than Inzaghi by far — that Xia Qi has speed, strength, technique, and damn, football IQ to boot…"
Great!
The pep talk was wasted; he might as well have thrown it away.
Jardim thought of subbing his starters to spare them the psychological damage.
He led the players back onto the pitch amid a chorus of jeers.
At first he was angry — five conceded, and fans still booing?
Then he noticed Arsenal's substitute warm-ups and realized the boos were for Wenger.
Although Xia Qi had been a scoring machine before, he'd never been so godlike and unfathomable as tonight.
Tonight Xia Qi gave the impression: I can do it too — provided I can get to that space.
That "I can do it too" vibe excited fans and sent them to buy beer and lozenges during the break to prepare to lose their voices.
But Wenger sat Xia Qi down.
How could they tolerate that?
Even a veteran coach can be useless in the eyes of the crowd.
So they vented.
Wenger remained calm — three points were in hand; now was the time to blood players, to build Wilshere's understanding with the forwards. That mattered more than pleasing the fans. Arsenal hadn't won a title in nine years.
How far could they go relying on Xia Qi alone?
Wenger looked further ahead.
Across the way Jardim was cursing — he'd just taken off his starters and Wenger had read him… a true tactical master had foreseen his foresight!
The second half was entertaining too; the teams ended up 3–1 in the second period.
That scoreline might fit a Champions League fixture, but combined with the first half's 5–0, Olympiacos just wanted to flee…
Which they did that night — straight from the stadium to the airport.
"Ding, this match has ended. Rewards are being settled…"
"This match the host played 45 minutes, participation grade B, performance A+, reward: +10 attribute points."
"Ding, regional legend rank +1."
"Ding, regional legend rank +1."
"…"
After the match word came through that Schalke 04 and Montpellier had drawn 2–2, and everyone realized it wasn't that Olympiacos was strong — Schalke had been poor.
In Champions League Group B, Arsenal had two wins from two matches and led the group with 6 points; Olympiacos had one win and one loss with 3 points and sat second; Schalke 04 and Montpellier had one point each at the bottom.
The next day the media hyped the Wilshere–Xia connection into a flower, perhaps overdoing it.
England manager Roy Hodgson announced his national squad without changing a single name — those who were in stayed in, those who weren't stayed out.
Sir Alex Ferguson scolded Hodgson: "You scouted for nothing — Rooney is out of form, the De Geas can't play together, why not try Wilshere–Xia?" Sir Alex certainly hoped Hodgson would take both Xia Qi and Wilshere.
But Hodgson had other concerns: if he took Xia Qi, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott all together, Arsenal would be gutted for international duty, and he feared Wenger charging the FA with two chef's knives in hand.
…
On the eve of England's home match against Malta, Xia Qi and Wilshere linked up for a 3–1 win over West Ham United at the Boleyn Ground.
This London derby was raucous, but AI Xia Qi was unaffected; he performed as usual — two goals and an assist — helping Arsenal continue to top the table.
After seven Premier League rounds, media attention turned to England's 2014 World Cup qualifiers.
England were in Group F with Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta, Lithuania and Scotland.
European qualifying advances the group winners directly; second place and the best third-placed teams enter playoffs.
On October 8, England played their second qualifier.
On October 8, England beat Malta 2–0.
Other group results:
Scotland 1–1 Lithuania
Slovenia 1–0 Slovakia
Four days later, on October 12, England drew Slovenia 0–0 away.
Other results:
Slovakia 3–0 Scotland
Lithuania 2–0 Malta
After three rounds the Group F table read:
England 7 points,
Lithuania 5,
Scotland 4,
Slovenia 4,
Slovakia 3,
Malta 0.
On paper that looked decent, but the media were unhappy about England's 0–0 with Slovenia.
They clamored for Xia Qi and Wilshere to be called up. If only a few outlets suggested it, Wenger might not have overthought.
But once a breeze of opinion formed, Wenger suspected a hidden hand aimed at targeting leaders Arsenal.
This suspicion was later confirmed in the match against Norwich and Arsenal…
(END CHAPTER)
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