Chapter 363 361: Liverpool Will Welcome Their New Era

"Chelsea still shows incredible resilience! Just after the 30th minute of the first half, Li Ang scores to help Chelsea equalize!

Now it's a true test of West Ham's mentality. Let's see if they can keep their composure after this!"

After celebrating Li Ang's crucial goal in the studio, Zhan Jun thoughtfully shifted his focus to West Ham's players.

But the one showing more visible signs of agitation was West Ham manager Bilic on the sidelines.

He couldn't accept that his team had been pegged back so quickly — it completely disrupted his tactical plans.

After a quick consultation with his assistant coaches, Bilic decided it was best not to continue clashing head-on with Chelsea's attack.

Instead, they would try to stabilize and drag the game into halftime.

But this tactical retreat was music to Chelsea's coaching staff.

Chelsea's momentum was surging. If West Ham had chosen to fight back fiercely, they could have created problems.

But by retreating defensively, they practically handed Chelsea the blade to finish them.

A "meek" opponent was exactly what Chelsea loved!

West Ham chose to bunker down and defend through the last ten minutes of the half.

Seeing this, Li Ang wasted no time — as soon as play resumed, he and Kroos pressed Chelsea's attacking organization deep into West Ham's half.

Want to defend deep?

Want to survive until halftime?

In front of Chelsea, who were experts not only at parking the bus but also at breaking through one, this was a dangerous gamble.

With Li Ang and Kroos orchestrating the play calmly, Chelsea's three forwards positioned themselves just outside West Ham's penalty area, ready to strike with long-range efforts.

Salah even switched flanks with De Bruyne to make it easier to cut inside and shoot.

Suarez had a lethal long-range shot too, capable of producing danger at any moment.

And lurking behind them was Li Ang, the human artillery cannon.

Every time Li Ang moved forward with the ball, West Ham's defenders flinched.

However, Chelsea's strategy wasn't purely to score from long shots — it was to force more set-piece opportunities.

Chelsea's players were familiar with this tactic — even Suarez, who had only joined in the summer, knew it well from training.

The idea was simple: shoot hard and sharp enough to force the goalkeeper to punch or deflect the ball out for corners.

With enough corners, the real weapon — Maguire — would shine.

West Ham's center-backs, Collins and Tomkins, were physically strong and decent in the air.

But against Maguire — standing 1.95 meters tall and weighing 95 kilograms — they still looked small.

Plus, Chelsea had a roster full of aerial threats who could capitalize on Maguire's presence.

Despite West Ham's good defensive record, they simply couldn't withstand Chelsea's relentless aerial bombardment.

And sure enough, in the 44th minute, Kalas, taking advantage of the attention drawn by Maguire and Li Ang at the near post, snuck in at the back post and headed home!

Bilic finally snapped — raging furiously on the sidelines, his anger piled pressure on his players.

Meanwhile, Chelsea's players celebrated with complete relaxation.

After halftime, Chelsea switched immediately to a defensive counterattack posture.

Bilic thought Mourinho was trying to "troll" him, but he had no evidence — he could only continue urging his players.

In truth, Mourinho wasn't trolling.

Chelsea's squad depth wasn't as deep as last season, so counterattacking football was now a deliberate, pragmatic choice.

In the past two seasons, Chelsea could play both ways — hammering weaker teams with 5–0 or 6–0 scorelines when they wanted.

But this season, they were more economical — winning without unnecessary energy expenditure.

Against West Ham, it was the same logic.

There was no need to suppress them from start to finish, especially with a packed fixture schedule ahead.

Mourinho had even abandoned the upcoming League Cup match to conserve energy for the Premier League and Champions League.

Thus, Chelsea turned into a thoroughly "rat-like," grinding team at Upton Park.

Li Ang focused solely on marking Payet in the second half.

He contributed little to the attack but successfully shut down West Ham's creative engine.

With both of them effectively canceling each other out, Chelsea, leading by a goal, could patiently defend.

West Ham, desperate to chase an equalizer at home, grew increasingly frantic.

Bilic made early substitutions in the 60th minute.

He replaced the ineffective Sakho with former Liverpool striker Andy Carroll and brought on Antonio for Zárate, switching to a 4-4-2.

Seeing this old-fashioned change, Mourinho could only shake his head.

It was nearly 2016, and yet a top-flight manager still thought 4-4-2 could save the day?

Mourinho hadn't touched a true 4-4-2 in years — switching to a 4-3-3 would have made more sense.

Bilic's desperation was showing.

But for Chelsea, this was fantastic news.

With West Ham in a rigid 4-4-2, Chelsea simply clogged the midfield and forced them wide.

Carroll's true quality was well-known to seasoned Premier League fans — even with Antonio's help, neither could match Maguire in the air.

And Maguire still had the mighty Thiago Silva beside him.

For the last 30 minutes, the match became a simple drill: West Ham attacking, Chelsea defending.

But it was Chelsea who controlled the tempo — channeling all of West Ham's attacks exactly where they wanted.

In the end, Chelsea's ironclad defense drove the 30,000 Hammers fans at Upton Park to despair.

In the final moments, Zhan Jun uttered a classic line to describe Mourinho's teams:

"This is Mourinho's team! If he doesn't want to attack, or if he doesn't want to lose — he simply won't!"

And sure enough, the match ended 2–1, with Chelsea once again leaving their opponents completely broken in spirit.

After the match ended, Bilic ignored Mourinho's offered handshake, storming straight into the players' tunnel with a dark expression.

Mourinho didn't seem to mind much.

He just shrugged toward the live cameras and then joined his players in their celebrations.

At the post-match press conference, Bilic lashed out, accusing Mourinho of winning with "ugly football."

"The team that played better and wanted the victory more didn't win today!"

Hearing about Bilic's comments afterward, Mourinho simply laughed.

"He's right. We played more ugly and more pragmatic. We're not great at playing so-called beautiful football.

But today we took three points from Upton Park — and that's also a fact~"

Mourinho's self-deprecating response earned him more respect from neutral fans.

But in the media, Chelsea couldn't catch a break.

Especially after Mourinho decisively threw away the League Cup — fielding an almost entirely youth-team lineup against Stoke City — he faced a wave of media criticism.

Fortunately, inside Chelsea, there was no dissent.

After all, Chelsea had already won the League Cup twice in the past two seasons.

There was no need to prove anything more in that competition.

Last season's quadruple triumph had been thrilling — winning everything felt incredible.

But at the same time, the players were exhausted by the end of it.

Aside from monsters like Li Ang, few could endure such a grueling pace.

If the coaching staff had demanded another quadruple chase this season, it would've caused friction in the squad.

Most of Chelsea's core players were now desperate for some relief.

The League Cup? They would have happily suggested abandoning the FA Cup too if they could!

Focus on the league and Champions League, rotate properly, rest well — wasn't that smarter?

So no matter how noisy the media were, Chelsea's internal camp remained peaceful and united.

On October 27th, in the League Cup Round of 16, Chelsea lost 1–3 away to Stoke City, suffering their first defeat of the season and losing their chance at a three-peat.

But the first-team regulars enjoyed a luxurious two-day break, then trained calmly for five days before heading into a key Premier League clash against Liverpool.

Liverpool, however, were in chaos.

Brendan Rodgers hadn't even survived until Christmas — the club sacked him earlier in the season.

In truth, Rodgers was a little unlucky.

After losing two of his best forwards and receiving lackluster reinforcements, he still managed a record of 3 wins, 5 draws, and 2 losses.

Not bad defensively, just a bit unlucky in attack.

If even two or three of those five draws had been wins, he might have survived longer.

But missing out on Champions League qualification last season had badly damaged his standing with the board.

Meanwhile, Liverpool's upper management had already contacted Jürgen Klopp, freshly resigned from Borussia Dortmund.

The announcement came fast — the night after Round 10, Liverpool officially sacked Rodgers and started their search for a new manager.

Then, the very next afternoon, they announced Klopp's arrival at Anfield!

Landing the mastermind behind Dortmund's golden years thrilled Liverpool fans.

However, with the summer transfer window already closed, Klopp's first task was to stabilize the squad and work with what he had.

Rebuilding according to his philosophy would take at least two transfer windows.

Nobody realistically expected Klopp to immediately lift Liverpool into the top four.

The media environment around him was quite forgiving — he had half a season to lay the foundations for future success.

However, facing Chelsea in his first real big test — that was truly unfortunate timing.

On October 31st, Mourinho and Klopp met for the first time in the Premier League.

Before the match, the two coaches chatted amiably, and Klopp warmly greeted Li Ang as well.

They were old adversaries from the Champions League days — Real Madrid had clashed with the German giants often during their peak seasons.

But the pleasantries didn't stop Mourinho and Li Ang from ruthlessly attacking Liverpool once the match began.

Klopp's ideas were clear.

With only five or six days to work, he had already given Liverpool a brand-new tactical flavor:

More running.

More aggressive pressing.

More efficient counterattacks.

Li Ang immediately felt the difference on the pitch.

Liverpool weren't executing Klopp's vision perfectly yet — it was too soon — but the intent was clear.

Their energy levels and defensive pressure were noticeably higher.

Still, these early improvements only made things slightly more troublesome for Chelsea.

In the first half, Chelsea scored twice through Salah and Suarez.

Salah celebrated wildly.

Suarez, out of respect, chose not to celebrate at Anfield.

In the second half, Coutinho pulled one back for Liverpool.

But when Chelsea introduced the returning Hazard, they soon earned a penalty.

Hazard's dribbling was still lethal —

Just 14 minutes after coming on, he forced Lovren into a reckless foul in the box.

Seeing Lovren clumsily bring Hazard down, Klopp could only bury his face in his hands on the sideline.

Li Ang coolly converted the penalty.

In the end, Chelsea triumphed 3–1 at Anfield.

No surprises there — the media had predicted as much.

But in the post-match interview, Li Ang gave Liverpool generous praise.

"Klopp has done an excellent job. I think Liverpool fans just need to believe in him.

Under his leadership, Liverpool will usher in a whole new era!"

Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.

Read 40 Chapters In Advance: /johanssen10