After Christmas, the attention of many media and fans focused on the "Christmas Battle". The FA's arrangements for the event are very commercial. Every Christmas, a round of giants will be arranged to attract attention.

This year's home game is Arsenal's home game against Chelsea.

Arsenal was the second in the league last season, while Chelsea was the defending champion. The two teams faced each other at this time, which attracted great attention. The only regret is that Arsenal has not performed well so far, ranking fourth in the league, which has also made the publicity gimmicks much less. If it were replaced by Manchester United and Chelsea, it would definitely become more eye-catching.

As a ‘dark horse’ team, Mirwall is much more low-key.

On Christmas Day, Millwall trained for a long time, mainly to prepare for tomorrow's game. All the players had a holiday in the afternoon, which allowed the players to spend Christmas night with their families.

The next morning, all the players gathered together.

It was the 'Christmas Battle' that day, and Millwall rushed to Portsmouth in southern England to challenge Portsmouth away.

Millwall didn't have time to prepare for more. The only thing that could be said was that the coaching staff analyzed together which players were going to have a round of recession, and other players could arrange their appearances appropriately.

This is the most important task before Christmas.

Not only this game, but also the next two games. Millwall must ensure that the main players can get news before the game against Chelsea.

Some people may think that the game against Chelsea is just a round of league games and can be given up appropriately.

In fact, this is not the case.

Millwall and Chelsea are direct competitors. Even if the outside world believes that Millwall is difficult to compete for the league championship, as long as you have the opportunity, you must work hard for it. A head-on confrontation with Chelsea is very important. It is not just one round of the league, three points, but also the influence of morale of the whole team. If you do not resist and lose to your opponent, your morale will definitely have a huge impact. Its influence may continue in the following season. Winning the game with a head-on confrontation will become a very good impact, such as: defeating your opponent head-on can make your opponent lose three points.

Millwall lost three points, but it wasn't a big deal.

Chelsea is different.

This is all because of Chelsea's results.

Chelsea's performance is so good. Since losing to Manchester United away from the league, Chelsea has maintained a complete victory until now. If it cannot block Chelsea head-on and faces an opponent who "does not lose points", how can we compete?

The players will have no confidence!

Zhang Yang attaches great importance to the fight with Chelsea. It is not just a matter of team competition, but also a very challenging thing to confront Mourinho, the world's top head coach.

That was the team's opportunity, and it was also his personal opportunity.

To preserve strength before playing against Chelsea, in the previous few league rounds, some substitutes need to appear. In the next three league games, Mirwall's starting lineup basically has no choice.

The first opponent is Portsmouth.

Portsmouth has always been a relegation team. Last season, Portsmouth was able to escape the relegation sea, but the gap with Crystal Palace is only two games. When coach Palin talked about his goal in the new season, he also clearly stated, "We must strive to keep the Premier League seat!" So far, Portsmouth ranks fifth from the bottom in the league, which proves that they can only relegate.

Head coach Palin is a very practical coach. He did not boast about trying to achieve good results. Even now, even when he defeated Liverpool in the middle of the season, he was still very low-key in front of media reporters, and everything was done to relegation.

Zhang Yang is almost the same.

Zhang Yang has been talking about relegation, but Millwall's performance...ahem...it's really unconvincing.

Before the game started, Zhang Yang also said, "I hope to beat Portsmouth so that we have a better chance to complete relegation."

Media reporters are too lazy to complain.

Zhang Yang, no matter what the reporters think, the media has been "helping" Millwall to talk about relegation at the beginning of the season. Now that the league is almost half over, he naturally has to talk about relegation in a "subordinate way". As for whether the reporter wants to hear it, he doesn't care at all.

However, the game process proves that Millwall is much better than the relegation team.

Portsmouth was at home, and only Millwall's "half-substitute lineup" was met. However, the situation was still suppressed and they could not play any advantage. In the end, Millwall defeated Portsmouth by 0-1 away with a long-range shot from Jody Morris.

After watching the entire game, Zhang Yang also let out a light breath.

Even if the team is in a crisis, they are not yet at the level of relegation, and their strength is much better than the relegation team.

This brought some confidence to the whole team.

In recent games, whether it is Everton, Newcastle United, or Blackburn and Manchester United some time ago, they are suppressed sides in every game. Even if they win the game, the process will be very difficult.

That kind of game is quite tiring.

Now they have played against Portsmouth with a half-substitute, and they have made considerable advantages in the situation, and they have finally found some confidence.

Two days later, the 18th round of the Premier League, with Millwall playing against Wigan Athletic at home.

This is another easy game.

Wigan Athletics is also the newly promoted team this season. Their performance is not bad. The ninth ranking of the league shows a lot. It is surprising that a newly promoted team can rank in the middle of the league. Most newly promoted teams have to work hard for relegation in their first season, not to mention that Wigan Athletics, like Millwall, has been promoted to the Premier League for the first time in history.

Compared with Millwall's performance that is not inferior to the giants, Wigan's sports are not a little worse.

Head coach Javier understands the gap between the two sides.

In terms of lineup strength, Wigan Athletics is not better than Millwall; in terms of season performance, both sides are not comparable at all; in addition, Millwall is playing at home, Wigan Athletics has too little chance of winning.

This game was abandoned by Wigan Athletics.

Wigan Athletics also has huge bench depth problems. If you want to get a better ranking, you must give up some games appropriately to give up the main players enough rest.

When many media expect that the "two extremely outstanding newly promoted teams" will spark some sparks, they find that the two teams are all substitutes.

Needless to say, Wigan Athletics.

Millwall also has a semi-substitute lineup, and the frontcourt is a little more gorgeous. Smitchell started and Josh Simpson, who has recovered his health, also appeared. In addition, Vardy also started on behalf of the team, but in the eyes of others, Vardy may not be able to help Millwall's marginal substitute.

The other locations are a bit pitiful.

When he saw Millwall's starting lineup, Jewell felt a little annoyed. If he knew Millwall would send such a lineup, he would definitely have to work hard.

When the game officially started, Javier would not regret it.

In the third minute of the game, Millwall knocked on the Wigan Athletics goal, and Jamie Vardy, who started, made a contribution. He received a pass from Smitchell and helped Millwall take the lead with a powerful shot from the penalty area line.

In the 20th minute, Josh Simpson used a free kick opportunity to help Millwall expand his lead.

With two goals in hand, the game is not very suspenseful.

Javier no longer regrets not sending out the main lineup, because Millwall's substitute formation on the field is no worse than Wigan's main lineup.

This surprised Javier.

It’s not surprising that Zhang Yang is at all. To talk about the real player ability, the two teams have not much different lineups on the court, and Wigan Athletics is a little stronger, but the football game is not about the player’s strength, but the overall performance of the whole team.

Millwall's tactics bring better performance to players. Even if there are many substitutes in the lineup, their overall performance will be improved to a certain extent.

Millwall can suppress Wigan Athletics, and more importantly, his on-the-spot performance.

That is brought by faith.

Why do we have to let the team find confidence? Have fighting spirit? Find the feeling of being a strong team? The purpose is to give every player plenty of confidence.

When Millwall had to face Wigan Athletics, every player subconsciously felt that Wigan Athletics was not Millwall's opponent. They had sufficient confidence and would be much more comfortable on the court and would not have any pressure, so their performance improved.

Of course, this also has its disadvantages.

If Wigan Athletics breaks out, the team may make careless mistakes.

But that's OK.

Wigan Athletics performed only in this game. Under Millwall's suppression, their performance will only be worse and not better.

Millwall is the ultimate winner.

With the belief of winning, the whole team continued to confront Wigan Athletics. In the second half, David Livermore helped the team score another goal and changed the score to three to zero.

This is also the final score.

After defeating Wigan Athletics, Millwall kept ushering in the third game after Christmas, with the match being Charlton.

This game was very difficult.

Charlton is not easy to deal with. They have declined compared to the early stages of the league, but with their home court advantage, they still suppressed Millwall, who is half-substitute.

Zhang Yang constantly emphasizes defense.

During the game, Zhang Yang personally directed the defense, and he rarely did this, but in the face of Charlton's tough offensive, he had to shout and remind the players to pay more attention.

This has some effect.

Zhang Yang did not "predict" Charlton's goal in the first and second half, but unfortunately, Millwall also did not score at all.

In the end, the two sides fought 0 to 0.

However, Zhang Yang was very satisfied with the result, or he was very satisfied with the results of three consecutive games after Christmas. The team only sent half a substitute in each game, and the main players got enough rest and were able to score two wins and one draw, which was equivalent to a steady passage through the difficult stage.

This is a pretty good result.
Chapter completed!