Chapter 60: Screw Being Cold and Unrelenting to the End! [Third Update]

Chapter 60: To Hell with Being Unyielding to the End! (Third Update)

Li Mo’s smile widened even further.

Because the long-absent voice of the system resounded once again in his mind.

“Ding! Bond System triggered!”

“John Terry has marked you as an opponent he must defeat! You have thus acquired a new player module: John Terry Stamina Module!”

Module: Peak John Terry Stamina Module

·

Fusion Difficulty: SS

Fusion Time: 60-180 days

Stamina was undoubtedly Li Mo’s weakness.

And John Terry’s stamina was exceptionally good.

Otherwise, how could his performances on both the pitch and the dating scene have been so top-tier?

However, correspondingly,

the difficulty of fully fusing with it was also quite high.

But no matter how high it was,

could it be harder than training his own stamina to Terry’s level from scratch?

With his stamina shortcoming mended, Li Mo’s utility on the pitch would be even greater!

Moreover, having good stamina came with another advantage.

That was being less prone to injuries.

Speaking of injuries,

Li Mo lowered his head and looked at the bruise around his collarbone.

He reached out and pressed it.

A sharp, familiar pain made him bare his teeth and grimace.

He then performed a series of shoulder raises and stretching movements.

Although pulling the surrounding muscles still hurt slightly,

the fact that he could perform these motions at all meant there was no fracture.

Li Mo couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

Having defeated league leaders Chelsea,

Arsenal’s points tally in the standings reached 18 after the conclusion of this round of fixtures!

They were now only two points behind fourth-placed Everton.

Furthermore, the team’s opponent in the next league match was none other than Everton.

As long as they could defeat Everton,

the team would snatch fourth place.

This made the Arsenal fans exceptionally happy.

Before spring arrived next year,

their points had already carried them to fourth place.

Wouldn’t that mean their mission to secure a top-four finish this season could be completed with ease?

However, the media quickly told Arsenal fans not to count their chickens: Li Mo would be suspended for one match in the upcoming league fixture.

Without Li Mo,

even with Arsenal playing at home, securing a victory over David Moyes’s Everton would not be an easy task.

The current standings in the league table were as follows:

Arsenal had handed Chelsea their first defeat of the season.

As a result,

Chelsea had surrendered their position at the top of the table.

Manchester United and Manchester City had successively overtaken Chelsea.

Manchester United had 26 points, sitting at the summit of the table.

Both Manchester City and Chelsea were on 24 points.

Manchester City had leapfrogged Chelsea on goal difference.

Everton occupied fourth place with 20 points, while Arsenal sat in fifth with 18 points, eight points off the top.

This gap made Arsenal fans feel slightly deflated.

However, they quickly cast the thought—that the team had practically no hope of competing for the title after eleven rounds—to the winds.

Competing for the title?

That was still far too distant for Arsenal.

Entering the top four and playing in the Champions League

were the more realistic targets for Arsenal this season.

Meanwhile, Li Mo had scored his tenth league goal of the campaign in this match.

He further consolidated his position at the top of the scoring charts.

Before the season began,

no one could have imagined

that after eleven rounds of league matches,

a name that almost no one had heard of three months ago

would be perched firmly at the summit of the Premier League top scorers.

Following the eleventh round of the league,

the team finally returned to their home ground.

They were about to welcome the challenge of Montpellier.

From the very beginning of the match, Arsenal adopted an aggressive attacking stance.

In the end, Arsenal secured a 2-0 victory over Montpellier on home turf. Although Li Mo did not score, he provided an assist for Walcott. With this, all four of Arsenal’s main forwards—Li Mo, Podolski, Giroud, and Walcott—had now opened their accounts in both the league and the Champions League.

However, Schalke 04 also won their match.

They comfortably defeated Olympiacos 4-1 at home.

Now, Arsenal and Schalke 04 were tied on 12 points.

On the final matchday of the group stage,

Schalke 04 would travel away to face Montpellier,

while Arsenal would travel away to play Olympiacos.

Although Montpellier was stronger than Olympiacos,

the difficulty of the match facing Schalke 04 was significantly greater than Arsenal’s.

Yet, for Arsenal,

the significance of their 3-1 victory over Schalke 04 at the Veltins-Arena was now fully realized.

Even if Schalke 04 defeated Montpellier 100-0 in the final group match,

as long as Arsenal could win away against Olympiacos,

they would still finish as group winners!

After their Champions League fixture,

on November 29th,

Arsenal hosted Everton at home.

Due to receiving a red card in the previous match,

Li Mo had to serve a one-match suspension.

Consequently, he watched the game from a private box at the Emirates Stadium,

accompanied by his family members.

In Europe,

watching a football match every weekend felt like a grand party.

Aside from his eldest and second uncles, who could not frequently travel to England due to work,

Li Mo’s other family members could often fly to London.

After all, there were plenty of direct flights from Milan to London.

Sometimes, if it was an early kickoff, they could fly right back to Milan immediately after watching the game.

There was also good news for Arsenal regarding this match:

Diaby had returned from injury

and was named on the bench,

ready to take to the pitch at any moment.

Arsène Wenger intended to let him come on as a substitute to regain his match fitness.

For the upcoming away game against Olympiacos, the team desperately needed the defensive stability and physical presence Diaby provided in midfield.

Prior to the match,

the media speculated that in Li Mo’s absence,

Arsenal’s attack might encounter some difficulties.

And indeed, that proved to be the case.

Arsenal’s players had grown accustomed to Li Mo’s devastating performances in the final third.

Without Li Mo,

it seemed as though Arsenal’s players had lost their target for passes.

The game became a fierce, bogged-down battle.

Right up until the eighty-ninth minute,

the score remained locked at 0-0.

For Everton,

they would have been quite satisfied to secure a draw and leave the Emirates Stadium unscathed.

But Arsenal certainly was not.

They desperately wanted to beat Everton

to lock down fourth place following this round of matches.

Fourth place belongs to Arsenal!

No one is going to take it away!

Bound to it!

Supported by this unwavering belief,

in the ninety-first minute,

center-back Koscielny seized upon a corner kick opportunity

and bundled the ball into the net guarded by Everton goalkeeper Howard!!

With this stoppage-time winner,

Arsenal edged out Everton 1-0 at home.

Claiming all three points,

their tally surpassed Everton by a single point.

After twelve rounds of league matches,

Arsenal had crawled back into their most familiar position.

Yet, in the post-match discussions,

the media were not talking about Arsenal finally breaking into the top four.

Instead, they focused on

Arsenal’s offensive struggles in Li Mo’s absence.

"...Arsenal’s attack without Li Mo appears thoroughly chaotic; the players’ repeated forward passes look utterly aimless—prior to this, they were always accustomed to having a central striker capable of receiving their passes in the final third."

"...Some jokingly describe Arsenal’s current tactic as dogs fetching a frisbee, where the midfielders, and even Giroud, toss out the frisbee, and Li Mo always manages to ‘retrieve’ it. Now, with Li Mo absent from Arsenal’s lineup, it’s as if they are missing that mad hunting hound!"

"...Arsenal are showing signs of ‘Li Mo dependency’!"

Wenger remained silent regarding the media reports.

He chose not to respond to the topic,

because whether they were dependent or not was plain for everyone to see.

Arsenal was certainly not perfect.

They had numerous problems—if Arsenal had no flaws whatsoever, they wouldn’t be lingering in this position; they would have long been challenging for the title.

Speaking of the title race,

after this round of matches,

Manchester City had played out a draw away to Chelsea in their blockbuster clash,

while league leaders Manchester United had been held to a stalemate away at Norwich.

As a result,

Manchester United remained at the top of the table with 27 points,

but their lead over Arsenal had shrunk from eight points to six.

A six-point gap was no longer an insurmountable chasm.

Arsenal genuinely seemed to catch a faint glimmer of hope in the title race.

Of course,

everything would have to wait until they finished their away Champions League fixture against Olympiacos, returned to England, and played the thirteenth round of the Premier League.

In the thirteenth round of the Premier League,

Arsenal would host Manchester United at home!

If Arsenal could defeat Manchester United and narrow the gap between them to just three points, then Arsenal could truly be considered contenders in the title race!

While Arsenal traveled to Greece for the final round of the Champions League group stage,

the domestic British media paid little attention to the European fixture.

Because for the final round of the group stage,

Manchester United had already locked up top spot in their group,

Manchester City had already locked up bottom place,

and Chelsea had already secured third.

As for Arsenal, all they needed to do was defeat Olympiacos to claim first place—which was a high-probability event.

Therefore, the final group match lacked traffic and engagement for the British media.

Instead, the upcoming clash between Arsenal and Manchester United offered much more space for hype: after all, last season Arsenal had suffered a bruising 8-2 defeat at the hands of United, and simply hyping up Arsenal’s revenge could generate numerous articles.

Additionally, Robin van Persie’s transfer to Manchester United during the summer transfer window served as another sensational gimmick ripe for exploitation.

The Arsenal captain jumping ship to Manchester United and returning to the Emirates Stadium made for a fantastic headline.

What made it even better was that after Van Persie’s departure, Arsenal had signed Li Mo.

Currently, in the scoring charts,

Li Mo sat in first place with 10 goals,

outshining Van Persie, who had netted 8.

At the start of the season, quite a few people had mocked Arsenal for letting Van Persie go and foolishly dreaming that a little-known youngster bought for two million could replace him.

But now, those people couldn’t laugh anymore.

Because the data spoke for itself:

Li Mo had scored more goals than Van Persie!!

This media narrative inevitably influenced the mentality of the Arsenal players to some extent.

Although they had flown to Greece,

in Athens, they discussed Manchester United far more than their actual opponent, Olympiacos.

Consequently,

when Arsenal conceded a goal at the fiercely hostile Karaiskakis Stadium,

everything unfolded quite logically.

Olympiacos might not have matched the caliber of clubs from the top four leagues,

but they were, after all, absolute giants within Greek football.

Inside the roaring Karaiskakis Stadium, the Athenians celebrated their goal wildly.

Left to serve as the helpless backdrop were the somewhat resigned Arsenal players.

Wenger sat in the technical area, shaking his head with quiet resignation.

He had already warned his players prior to the match:

This was an away game; they must not take it lightly.

Yet, what could he do?

Between Manchester United and Olympiacos,

it was clear that United held far more of the Arsenal players' attention.

“Schalke 04 has scored...”

Bould delivered the bad news to Wenger,

causing the manager’s brow to furrow even deeper.

If they managed to throw away a seemingly guaranteed first-place finish from this position,

Arsenal would be mocked endlessly for years to come!

During the half-time interval,

the players returned to the dressing room.

Arsenal trailed 1-0 away, while Schalke 04 led 1-0 at home.

Suddenly, the situation appeared precarious for Arsenal.

Especially since Olympiacos, having taken the lead, were united as one, packing bodies tightly in front of their penalty area and deploying an extremely dense defensive block.

This made it difficult for Arsenal to achieve any breakthrough in the attacking third.

Inside the away dressing room,

none of the Arsenal players spoke.

Dark clouds hung heavy over everyone’s faces.

Creak.

The dressing room door swung open.

Wenger walked in, closing the door behind him.

He swept his gaze across his players.

After a long moment, he spoke: “I warned you before the match to forget about the Manchester United game and keep your focus entirely on this match!”

“Now you see the result of being absent-minded!”

“I won’t make any tactical adjustments. The key to winning or losing this match is right here!”

Wenger tapped his temple with his finger,

then turned around and walked out.

Bang!

The dressing room door closed once more.

Silence enveloped the room.

The players exchanged glances with one another.

About a second later,

an unexpected voice broke the silence.

“Hey, guys.”

Li Mo stood up.

Everyone stared in surprise at the young man who had taken the initiative to speak.

He was so young,

still retaining a trace of boyish innocence on his face.

Yet, there was no denying that

he was the team’s most relied-upon goalscorer.

He had every right to step up and say something at this moment.

“So what if we conceded a goal? It’s not like we’ve never conceded before. We’ll just turn it around in the second half!”

Li Mo said, spreading his hands.

“The opponents aren’t that strong, are they? What is there for us to be gloomy about?”

“Li is right! We still have forty-five minutes!” Captain Vermaelen glanced at Li Mo, showing no sign of displeasure at the youngster stepping out of turn, and immediately chimed in.

“Attack! We need to attack in the second half!” Vice-captain Arteta stood up immediately as well.

With the team’s top scorer and both captain and vice-captain speaking up,

the rest of the Arsenal players naturally had no objections.

None of them wanted to become a laughingstock after the match.

“Just feed the ball into the penalty area, and leave the rest to me!”

Li Mo thumped his chest as he spoke.

His declaration undoubtedly instilled immense confidence in the Arsenal players.

The atmosphere in the dressing room quickly warmed up.

They began actively discussing how to play the second half, how to launch their attacks, and so on.

At the dressing room doorway,

Wenger’s tense face gradually softened.

Then, the corners of his mouth turned upward into a slight smile,

stretching wider and wider.

“Arsène, why aren’t you going inside?”

Bould, who had been supervising the substitutes’ warm-up during half-time, returned to the dressing room.

Seeing Wenger standing by the door grinning foolishly, he asked.

“Go inside? No, no, no, I certainly can’t go inside right now!”

Wenger instantly hardened his expression again.

Though he was thoroughly pleased with the team’s ability to self-adjust,

he had already made up his mind:

he would sit rigidly in the technical area for the entire second half, keep a stern face, and maintain the persona of ‘I am furious.’

He wanted to give his players a small warning: underestimating opponents comes at a price.

Following the interval,

the Olympiacos players returned to the pitch with confident smiles.

The outcome of the first half had filled them with immense belief.

Although they were already destined to finish bottom of the group and be eliminated,

they certainly weren't resigned to finishing all six group matches without a single win—up to that point, Olympiacos had only managed a single draw against Montpellier.

Even for the sake of the thirty to forty thousand passionate fans filling the stadium to support them,

they had to fight tooth and nail for a victory!

However,

not long after the second half commenced,

the confidence of the Olympiacos players was severely shaken.

In the fifty-third minute,

Walcott crossed the ball, and Li Mo surged to the near post to meet it with a sliding finish, smashing the ball straight into the back of the Olympiacos net!

“1-1!! Li Mo!! Oh, oh, oh, his sixth goal of the Champions League group stage! Arsenal has leveled the score!!”

As the commentators exclaimed in astonishment,

the camera cut to Wenger sitting impassive and unfazed in the technical area.

“It seems Professor Wenger is hardly satisfied with just an equalizer.”

“A draw means nothing to Arsenal; they desperately need all three points, because in the other match, Schalke 04 has already taken a two-goal lead.”

Though Wenger had resolved to watch the rest of the match seated on the bench,

in the eighty-first minute,

he could no longer hold back.

Because Arsenal had scored again!

And the scorer was... once more, Li Mo!

“Arsenal takes the corner kick... at the edge of the box... Li! A fierce volley!! Good god!! Incredible!! The ball is in again!! Li Mo scores a brace! Arsenal has turned the score around and taken the lead!!!”

Nearly every commentator was stunned by Li Mo’s strike.

Without taking a touch, he unleashed a direct volley, sending the ball rocketing into the top corner right where the crossbar met the post!

A top corner!

The absolute definition of the theoretical top corner!

Faced with such a stunning goal,

how could Wenger possibly contain himself?

He raised both arms, rushed to the touchline, and cheered with unbridled passion.

“Arsène, weren’t you supposed to be unyielding to the end?”

“To hell with being unyielding to the end!”

Wenger pulled his assistant in close

and celebrated with unbridled fervor.

(Third update. Subscriptions and monthly votes requested.)