Chapter 351: The Little Lion's Unconventional Journey Home
Mourinho's expression was a bit grim, but it wasn't because of Li Ang's red card — it was because there were too many Manchester United fans booing Li Ang at the scene.
He didn't say much, but the moment Li Ang left the field, he gave him a strong hug to show his support!
As for the Manchester United fans cursing Li Ang nonstop?
Mourinho lifted his head and gave them a long, deep look.
Indeed, the Manchester United fans weren't wrong; they were just standing up for their injured player.
But as Li Ang's "boss," Mourinho didn't want to think neutrally or objectively at this moment.
He only wanted to make those who booed his disciple and Manchester United pay the price!
Li Ang, accompanied by Caras and Holland, walked into the players' tunnel.
Meanwhile, the remaining Chelsea players on the field, whether starters or substitutes, were all glaring furiously towards Manchester United's half.
Of course, the Manchester United players were also extremely angry.
Because Schneiderlin, who had been tackled to the ground by Li Ang, couldn't continue playing even after medical treatment and had been substituted by Van Gaal.
Fortunately, initial examinations showed that Schneiderlin's ligaments and ankle joint were fine. His inability to continue was mainly due to the blunt trauma from Li Ang's tackle.
Regardless of whether Schneiderlin had earlier deliberately fouled Hazard, the final result was that Chelsea hadn't lost a player, but Manchester United had.
Seeing a teammate deliberately taken down by an opponent was a disgrace for Manchester United's starters!
Everyone had fire in their hearts. Regardless of whether they were strong enough to face Chelsea in terms of skill, at least on the pitch now, United's players had the chance to fight back with more aggressive play.
After the game resumed, taking advantage of having an extra man, Manchester United tried to take control of the midfield and suppress Chelsea.
However, the United players hadn't anticipated that Mourinho would stubbornly switch to a three-center-back system just to continue fighting them head-on!
Trippier was pushed up to a midfield position by Mourinho.
Although he couldn't fully replace Li Ang, with him and Matic providing defensive support on the flanks, Kroos could still manage Chelsea's attacking organization!
United pushed up aggressively, neglecting their defense, and Chelsea quickly seized the opportunity for a fast counterattack!
In the 71st minute of the second half, Kroos received the ball and surged forward, delivering a long pass down the right flank to Salah, who was also pushing forward.
Salah forcefully cut inside, bypassed Fellaini's defense, and then delivered a through ball to set up Suarez for a one-on-one!
Suarez's exquisite far-post shot left De Gea, who had been outstanding today, utterly helpless.
After scoring, Suarez ran straight to the sidelines and roared at the Manchester United fans gathered in the stands!
In the past, he did this as a Liverpool player. Now, after transferring, he did it again — to stand up for his teammates!
Chelsea's other players rushed over, mimicking Suarez's chest-thumping roar towards the Manchester United fans!
The United players couldn't stand it. They ran over to demand an explanation, but frankly, trailing by three goals, their so-called "iron-blooded" actions lacked any real force.
As soon as Chelsea scored this goal, Mourinho immediately made substitution adjustments on the sidelines.
Hazard, Salah, and Kroos were all substituted off at once, replaced by Caras, van Ginkel, and the recently recovered Terry.
But bringing on these defensive players wasn't just about shoring up the defense…
When Caras, who had just come on and was playing right back, brought down Herrera with a fierce tackle, triggering another large-scale confrontation between United and Chelsea players, the neutral fans watching on TV instantly understood Mourinho's real intentions.
"Good grief, he's setting it up so even if they fight, they won't be at a disadvantage?! No wonder he pulled off the wingers and another playmaker early — Mourinho's calculations are brilliant!"
"Got guts, I like it! United players, go! Start the fight!"
"If United get thrashed by Chelsea at Old Trafford today, I'll completely lose respect for them! They're a disgrace to the Red Devils!"
"Didn't they already lose face long ago? Moyes didn't even spend much money, managed the team decently, and then those idiots at the top of United hurried to replace him…"
Many fans online became even more excited discussing it.
They no longer cared about the final outcome of the match between Chelsea and United. They just wanted to see if a real brawl would break out on the pitch.
Mourinho's substitutions were practically throwing fuel on the fire himself.
But the more ridiculous thing was, despite having home-field advantage, United's players didn't really dare go all out and brawl with Chelsea!
Over the last 20 minutes of the match, yellow cards were handed out like candy.
Chelsea's defenders picked up three yellow cards, and United also got three, with the situation nearly spiraling out of control.
Still, the bigger confrontations were ultimately diffused by the referee in time. Well… with six yellow cards in 20 minutes, how could he not intervene?
United essentially found a way to back down.
Meanwhile, Chelsea's former captain Terry even wanted to lead his young teammates to block United's dressing room door!
But Mourinho finally stepped in, preventing Terry from escalating the situation further.
At the post-match press conference, Mourinho went on a full offensive, fiercely criticizing United for employing destructive fouling tactics in the first half!
Van Gaal, of course, didn't hold back either. After all, based on the result, Li Ang had indeed been sent off with a straight red card.
With the facts on his side, Van Gaal was brimming with confidence. He even called on the FA to severely punish Li Ang for his retaliatory foul on Schneiderlin.
However, to many people's surprise, the FA didn't immediately issue a detailed disciplinary statement regarding Li Ang's on-field retaliation.
They did release a statement — the FA has always hated incidents that could hurt the Premier League's commercial image — but no specific punishment was announced at once.
Neutral fans who just wanted to enjoy the drama were suddenly very interested, eager to see how the FA would deal with the Premier League's current top star, Li Ang.
Later that evening, Manchester United officially released Schneiderlin's injury report.
It stated a soft tissue contusion in the ankle area. Combined with the severe swelling photo Schneiderlin posted on his social media, it did look pretty alarming.
But veteran fans who understood the game knew exactly what such a so-called "injury" meant.
Compared to ligament or joint damage, a soft tissue contusion was practically nothing!
As long as it wasn't too serious, an athlete could fully recover and return to play after just over a week of rest.
In other words, Schneiderlin wasn't actually badly hurt at all.
It looked scary in the photo, but with proper treatment, the swelling would go down within two days.
Therefore, Li Ang was nowhere near as "villainous" as the Manchester media were currently portraying him.
His behavior was certainly wrong and needed to be criticized, but in terms of the result, the punishment did not need to escalate to the severity of a suspension of over ten matches.
Shortly after Schneiderlin's injury assessment was completed, the FA officially released the final disciplinary announcement:
A severe warning, a fine of £100,000, and a three-match suspension!
As soon as this punishment was announced, the vast majority of Premier League fans immediately felt that the FA had indeed done a decent job this time.
£100,000 was no small amount, and coupled with the standard three-match suspension, Chelsea would suffer a considerable impact on their league performance due to Li Ang's "reckless" behavior.
However, if one examined the FA's punishment more closely, it was clear that they were blatantly playing favorites.
In the most high-profile match of a Premier League round, committing such a retaliatory foul in front of hundreds of millions, if not over a billion, fans?
If it had been any other player, the FA's current disciplinary style would have dictated a heavy suspension of seven or eight matches.
After all, with the Premier League's global promotion campaign in full swing, any incident that damaged the league's image fell squarely within the FA's crackdown efforts!
That malicious foul wasn't just about knocking down a Premier League player; it could have jeopardized a major commercial negotiation for the league.
Li Ang, however, was a special case — he carried a massive commercial value with him, and thus the FA was willing to be lenient.
A £100,000 fine and a standard three-match suspension could silence public criticism.
It was also an indirect warning to Li Ang:
They knew he had money, but if they truly wanted to, they could still suspend him heavily. This time they opted for a hefty fine and a light suspension. There would be no next time — if he committed such an offense again, it would not be so easy to get away.
Li Ang didn't immediately grasp the FA's painstaking intentions, but Mendes caught the signal.
While launching a media campaign to solidify Li Ang's image as someone who "stood up for his teammates," Mendes also arranged for Li Ang's personal media accounts to release a "statement of apology."
Of course, although the statement was labeled an apology, it had been polished by Li Ang's agency to focus entirely on expressing regret for not upholding the Premier League's image as a promotional figure.
It also included apologies to the fans who supported Li Ang — but conspicuously omitted any apology to Manchester United or Schneiderlin.
From the perspective of many executives in other Premier League clubs, the FA's treatment of Li Ang was overly lenient.
They were certainly unhappy about it.
After all, it was clearly a case of double standards — the FA's usual approach to players from their clubs was strict and merciless!
But to be fair, over the past two seasons, many commercial endorsement deals from China had significantly fattened their club coffers…
And considering the potential increase in endorsement income next year, these Premier League executives turned a blind eye and chose not to get involved in the matter.
Manchester United, however, were unwilling to let it go. They expressed dissatisfaction with the FA's punishment and filed an appeal, demanding a harsher penalty for Li Ang!
Meanwhile, after Chelsea promptly paid Li Ang's £100,000 fine, they also collected footage of Manchester United players committing malicious fouls against Chelsea players in the previous match and lodged a counter-appeal!
The two clubs were now locked in a public relations battle, and the FA was left with a headache.
But in the midst of this media storm, Li Ang acted as if nothing had happened, enjoying a comfortable two-day rest before launching into extra training during the international break.
During this international break, most of Chelsea's first-team players had been called up by their national teams.
Li Ang, along with a few remaining young players, underwent a round of physical training at the Cobham training base.
Mourinho also promoted a few more youth players from the reserves to the first team for training.
When the international break ended, Mourinho, seeing that several first-team players who had just returned from two national team matches were all suffering from varying degrees of fatigue, decisively ordered Zouma and others to prepare to start in the fifth round of the Premier League.
In the past, at times like this, Li Ang would continue to start as the core stabilizer.
But now, with Li Ang serving a suspension, Mourinho had no choice but to rely more on his substitutes, hoping these young men could step up during this critical recovery period for the main players.
On the afternoon of September 12th, Chelsea traveled away to Goodison Park to face Everton in the fifth round of the Premier League.
For this match, Suarez, Hazard, Matic, Thiago Silva, and Azpilicueta were all left out of the starting lineup.
Kroos partnered with De Bruyne to sit at the heart of midfield for the first time.
Behind them was van Ginkel, and ahead of them was a new attacking trident composed of Gnabry, Llorente, and Salah.
In defense, Bertrand returned to the starting lineup once again.
He and Trippier took up the starting left and right-back positions.
The center-back pairing was Maguire and Gary Cahill.
Oblak remained the starting goalkeeper, his form unaffected.
Chelsea's starting lineup from midfield backward looked solid, but their forward line made many Chelsea fans a bit uneasy.
However, once the match kicked off, Llorente used his rich experience and physical strength to open up space for his teammates on the attacking end.
The tall Spanish center-forward was not only able to hold off defenders but also capable of retaining possession — Mourinho's use of such a classic target man was nothing short of masterful.
The wing-play tactic wasn't fully effective because Gnabry appeared slightly nervous on the day, but Salah fulfilled his tactical duties perfectly.
Everton's right-back Galloway was completely destroyed by Salah!
Just in the first half alone, Salah successfully dribbled past Galloway six times!
After tearing open Everton's right flank, Salah wreaked havoc inside their penalty area, constantly unsettling the defenders whether by shooting or passing after cutting inside!
In the first half, Salah both scored and assisted, helping Chelsea take a 2-1 lead over Everton.
In the second half, although Everton managed to score an equalizer, Llorente's crucial poacher's goal once again secured the victory for Chelsea!
In the end, Chelsea narrowly defeated Everton by a single goal and brought three points home from the away match.
Chelsea's new batch of substitute "bandits" not only proved their vital value to the team but also earned the main players a precious three-day rest period.
Three days later, Mourinho led the team onto a flight bound for Madrid, Spain.
It was both an away trip and a special kind of "homecoming."
On the way from the airport to the hotel, the Chelsea players were surprised to see:
Many fans wearing Real Madrid jerseys lining the streets, holding up signs welcoming Mourinho and Li Ang "home"!
Li Ang leaned against the window, smiling and waving continuously at the familiar Real Madrid supporters.
Mourinho also wore a nostalgic smile on his face throughout the journey.
Yes, they were "home."
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