After Manchester United defeated Leeds United 3-0 at home, they finally ended the week-long doubles, and the next two weeks were played one week and one game.

But after the schedule was relaxed, Manchester United... encountered obstacles!

It’s not that the “Red Devils” have failed, they just encountered obstacles. In the 21st round of the league, Manchester United went to the London Emirates Stadium to fight the “Gunners”, and the result was... 1:1!

Even when Manchester United reached 50 minutes of the game, with Martial's diagonal pass, Yang Xiaozhuang's shot broke the deadlock, but Arsenal, who has always been in good shape recently, still tried to attack in the game with the advantage of home games. After Mkhitaryan dribbled the ball into Manchester United's right penalty area in the 79th minute, Joe Reilly could only trip Mkhitaryan helplessly.

Mkhitaryan's breakthrough brought a penalty opportunity to the Gunners. Aubameyang took the penalty and made the score of the game finally freeze at 1:1.

A week later, Manchester United played 1:4 away against Leeds United in the second leg of the League Cup semi-finals, and eliminated Leeds United 9:1 in two rounds, easily reaching the League Cup final.

But reaching the League Cup final did not make Solskjaer happy because...not saying that the opponent in the League Cup final was the stalemate "Red Army" Liverpool, just saying that the situation the team faced in the league recently made him unable to feel relaxed.

Manchester United played a league game with Arsenal and another league semi-final with Leeds United. However, the rival Manchester City, who is in the same city, played three consecutive games during this period, namely...

In the third round of the FA Cup, he beat Reading 3:0 at home!

In the 23rd round of the Premier League, Southampton 1:0 at home!

In the 24th round of the Premier League, Middlesbrough 1:3 away!

For Manchester City, the third round of the FA Cup is an indifferent game, but two consecutive league wins are very important, especially Manchester United tied with Arsenal away, which made Manchester City more stable in the position of the leader in the standings.

In the current Premier League standings, Manchester City has scored 59 points with a record of 19 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses!

Manchester United, ranked second, played only 21 games, three games less than Manchester City, but their record was 17 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses and 53 points, and the difference between the two teams is 6 points!

This means that even if Manchester United wins all three games, they will only lead Manchester City in the standings with three points, and once the two sides lose the second "Manchester City Derby" in the league, there will be no gap between the two sides.

In other words... in the competition for the Premier League championship this season, it is hard to say how much advantage the "Red Devils" have now compared to the "Blue Moon"!

Even if Manchester United makes a mistake in the make-up game, they will fall behind in the standings!

The reason why Manchester City has become stronger recently is really because of... Haaland's joining!

After Haaland joined Manchester City, he has played 4 games for Manchester City, and has scored 6 goals and 1 assist. The increase in attack power against "Blue Moon" is very obvious. Even in the previous game where Manchester City beat Southampton 1-0 at home, the only goal was from the Norwegian genius center.

Although he has only been joining for a short month and has not played many games for Manchester City, the "Demons" has now become the fourth most goals scored in Manchester City this season. Only Belotti, Aguero, and Jessus are ranked ahead of him!

The high efficiency Haaland showed after joining Manchester City is precisely the element that the "Blue Moon" lacks the most. For Guardiola, his team has already completed the infrastructure construction. Their pass-and-control tactics often allow them to easily grasp the initiative in the game. They have many offensive opportunities, but in previous games, they were unable to seize these opportunities and transform them into goals.

Now with Haaland... Manchester City seems to have been biochemical and suddenly becomes stronger!

Not the kind of fat, but... it's really powerful!

Haaland's existence made Manchester City's pass control in the middle and back court no longer an invalid pass, but became the initiative, waiting to send Haaland a fatal pass that could kill the opponent.

Even the English media have highly praised the "Demons", believing that although Guardiola spent 100 million to introduce Haaland, judging from the current performance of Norwegian talented center, it is possible to confirm that Manchester City's transfer deal will definitely not lose money.

Not only will you not lose money, but you should make a big profit!

Haaland's joining is definitely the most correct transfer deal for Manchester City in the past two seasons. The previous Italian scorer Beloti's joining did not bring any particularly obvious changes to Manchester City. Manchester City supporters also think that besides Manchester United's "Kings", other strikers... are probably at this level!

It was not until this winter transfer period that Haaland joined, that Manchester United fans realized that an excellent center striker could really bring a qualitative leap to the team!

Earlier, some people thought that the Red Bulls in Salzburg performed very well. After coming to the Premier League, his ability was not enough to play a significant role in the world's No. 1 league, but the "Demon" told everyone with his performance that he... is indeed a scorer at the level of Chinese Yang!

At least, Haaland has such potential, no one can deny it!

Even Guardiola's speech became tough when he was interviewed by reporters in recent times: "The competition for the league championship is far from over. It should be said that it has just begun. Although we are currently ranked higher in the standings, we actually have no advantage. Even once Manchester United performs well in the make-up game, we will become the side behind! But we have the confidence and ability to play in a better form in the subsequent games!"

In fact, what Guardiola said...is really aimless!

Although Haaland is already familiar with other people in Manchester City, it is hard to say how tacit understanding is. The most important thing is that Haaland has not yet fully integrated into his tactics. He does not understand Guardiola's pass and control tactics enough. This leads to many times Haaland's activities in the penalty area, which not only does not allow Guardiola's pass and control to make the most threatening attack, but also forms resistance.

But as the media and fans commented, Haaland's personal abilities are really strong and his physical condition is really good, so just with these and some simple cooperation between him and his teammates, the "Demon" can already provide strong support to Manchester City.

After Haaland is completely integrated into Manchester City's tactics and familiar with the passing and control tactics, Guardiola believes that this Norwegian genius will be even more unstoppable!

Even, because of his good physical condition, Haaland will likely... surpass Messi at his peak in the future!

As it turns out, Guardiola's reliance on Haaland is very wise. In the next 25th round of the Premier League, Manchester City beat Watford with one away goal, and Haaland once again scored the only goal in the game.

This is the last eleven days. Manchester City won one goal twice in the game, and Haaland also took over the only goal in the game twice.

It seems that Manchester City's attack power has declined, but in fact, although "Blue Moon" only scored one goal in these two games, they completely controlled the game on the court and did not give their opponents any chance.

Haaland performed well on this side, while Manchester United’s “King” performed more powerfully on the other side!

In the 22nd round of the league at Manchester United, Yang Xiaozhuang used a "big four-game" to help Manchester United beat West Ham United 6-1 at home, which not only kept Manchester United under pressure on their competitors, but also allowed him to score 42 goals this season!

Yang Xiaozhuang's goal number is already three times that of Harry Kane, the second-place scorer list!

On February 8, Manchester City beat Leicester 2:0 at its home city stadium. Haaland scored another goal, increasing his Premier League goal number to 8!

On the other hand, Manchester City tied with Middlesbrough 2:3 away, and Yang Xiaozhuang used a "scoring twice" to help Manchester United win another away game.

On February 12, Manchester United played a supplementary match between Chelsea. This time, Manchester United did not give Chelsea a chance like the first round of the new season. Instead, they won a complete victory away with the goals of Yang Xiaozhuang, Pereira and Adam Myers.

With the victory of this game, Manchester United has narrowed the gap between itself and Manchester City to three points with two games less!

"Blue Army" coach Yaldim seemed helpless after the game: "There are two super strong teams in the Premier League now, namely Manchester United and Manchester City. The strength of these two teams has become the only one in the entire league. It is difficult for other teams to break the strength of Manchester teams. I believe that in the next five years, or even longer, the competition between these two teams will be the main theme of the Premier League! It is really difficult for other teams to participate in the championship competition, including Chelsea. If we want to have the strength to compete with them, we need to invest more, and it is very likely that we will not be able to achieve the results we want in a short period of time."

What Jaldiem said was very correct, but he did not express his true thoughts. There are really too few players in the English football world and even the entire European football world who can reach the level of Manchester United's "King". Although Haaland has not reached it yet, it is very close!
Chapter completed!