5 days later, still at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal and Montpellier kicked off their fifth Champions League match of the season.
With Arsenal having already secured their spot as group winners, Wenger fielded a purely reserve squad for this match against Montpellier.
"Oooooooooh!!"
In the 11th minute, Gilbert's Long Shot deflected past the Montpellier goalkeeper, sending the Emirates Stadium into a frenzy. Arsenal fans cheered wildly, their voices hoarse.
"Gilbert!! Gives Arsenal a one-nil lead!!
"As everyone has seen in the past ten minutes or so, even with a reserve squad, Arsenal's strength is clearly superior to Montpellier's! People often say Arsenal's reserve squad could finish in the top six of the Premier League, and now I think the top four is very possible!
"Let's get to know Gilbert a bit better. A talented young player who came through the Colney Training Camp at the same time as Maël. He partnered with Maël at Sheffield United for an entire season, and they had excellent chemistry.
"Although he seems to be far behind Maël now, at 19 years old, being able to play as a substitute in a Premier League powerhouse team is a rare talent! Hopefully, he and Maël will have more opportunities to partner up in the future! The fans who watched them play in the EFL Championship are probably looking forward to their partnership!"
"…"
After scoring, Gilbert ran back to the bench as usual, hugged Wenger, and then found Maël, who wasn't in the starting lineup today, and embraced his friend tightly.
"I'll work hard to get into the starting lineup."
He patted Maël on the back with a smile, "The Ji-Ma Connection will reappear, wait for my assists! I'll feed you well."
"Aren't you a workhorse now?" Maël said, looking at him with a smile.
"A workhorse?" Gilbert released Maël, pointed at the field as he walked back, and said with a laugh, "Can't a workhorse score goals? Can't a workhorse assist? Don't worry, I'm versatile."
"Haha..."
Maël laughed twice, looked at his friend's back as he turned away, and murmured, "I'm the versatile one... I'll be waiting, get into the starting lineup soon."
After this goal, neither side scored in the first half, and Arsenal went into halftime with a one-nil lead.
At the start of the second half, it was noticeable that both teams weren't very excited, the pace wasn't fast, and the threatening attacks decreased, perhaps because they were both playing too cautiously.
"Boom!!"
However, in the 84th minute, the second goal finally came.
Gilbert made a sudden interception with accurate anticipation, getting in front of the opponent's number 10, Belhanda, and poking the ball away, then passing it to the right.
On the right wing, Walcott didn't rush to break through the opponent's full-back, but instead Cut Inside towards the center, creating space on the wing for João Pereira, who was overlapping from behind.
After a simple one-two back pass, João Pereira received the ball unmarked and sent a Cross into the center!
"The header in the middle is missed! Podolski is coming up at the back post, goal! Two-nil! Arsenal have basically killed the game!! What efficiency, Podolski, he seems to have been revitalized since coming to the Premier League! Apart from Maël, he's the only player in the Arsenal squad who scores a goal in less than 70 minutes! I think he needs more opportunities! But it's unlikely, it seems like every forward in Arsenal's starting lineup is irreplaceable. Let's just say, wherever there's an injury, he'll quickly step in and fill the gap!"
"…"
On the sidelines, Wenger smiled kindly and shook hands with the assistant coaches, while Maël stretched in the back, looking relaxed.
Both of them conveyed one point to the camera: they were clocking out! Clocking out with a victory!
Even though Arsenal doesn't seem to urgently need this Champions League victory, no one doesn't want to keep winning, doesn't want to earn more Champions League win bonuses! "Beep! Beep! Beep—!" Soon, three long whistles sounded, and this fifth Champions League group stage match ended with Arsenal winning two-nil.
"Who can stop Arsenal? This team hasn't lost in any of the four competitions this season! In addition, they also won a title early in the Community Shield Cup match!" - London Evening Standard
"This season, Arsenal is capable of competing on four fronts, or at least three. They are different from last season. If they maintain their form, I hope they can win the treble and make a breakthrough compared to last season." - Lineker commented.
"What I hope most is that this team can win the Champions League. I believe every neutral fan thinks so. If your main team can't participate in the Champions League, then support Arsenal. Wenger, Maël, and this team need a Champions League trophy." - Pires commented.
"Maël was rotated for a round, and his position on the top scorer list was temporarily replaced by Messi, but he still occupies the top spot on the assist list!" - AS
"Rumor has it that Mendes has already planned to start the warm-up and hype for Maël for the Ballon d'Or at the end of the year. If the rumor is true, this will definitely be news that will shake the world of football because Mendes also has a Ballon d'Or-level player under his wing." - Marca
"Obviously, this year belongs to Maël and Messi. Cristiano doesn't have much competitiveness this year, even if he has more honor accumulation and more prestige than Maël." - Gareth Speed said as a guest on Sky Sports.
"Everton will face the in-form Arsenal in the next game. Moyes and his team are determined to end this team's Premier League unbeaten record!" - Merseyside Report with a picture.
"??? Go see a brain doctor if you're sick." - Moyes' daughter's social media. "This is my basic plan, I won't make it public, but you can take a look first."
On November 24, the day before the Premier League Round 13 match against Everton, Mendes came to Maël's house and placed a plan on Maël's table.
Maël picked it up and looked at it carefully, seeing that it was a 'Ballon d'Or Paving' plan, divided into three parts.
The first part is to emphasize his performance, data, and honor accumulation in the past year.
First of all, they will create many exquisite data charts and goal and assist highlight videos, such as Header highlights, Long Shot highlights, total goal highlights, etc., as well as various posters and photos.
The purpose of doing this is very simple: to use these charts and highlight videos to carry out viral and crazy dissemination through social media! Circulate all over the world to deepen fans' impressions of his performance in the past year!
They also plan to create video highlights of him in some key games, such as Finals Equalizer and Game-Winner, Finals Hat-trick to win the best player, Derby Battle domination, etc., highlighting and emphasizing his role and stability in key battles.
These are common methods. You must remind fans of your dominant performance in the past year, otherwise fans will easily forget and will not think that the cold data numbers are special.
The second part is to create his 'hero' image.
Every star will do similar hype and paving because the world likes heroes and yearns to see heroes in the real world.
If this impression can be thrown to the fans and gain their approval, then more and more people will support him, and his call for awards will become louder and louder.
Once this happens, those with voting rights will also be affected, silently adding more to his impression score and final score in their hearts.
Although Maël didn't want to deliberately do these things, the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony is just around the corner, and every star is hyping it up like this, so he can only follow the trend, put down his face, self-esteem, and other things for the Ballon d'Or honor.
"Highlight leadership qualities and team spirit, and use public welfare activities to enhance the image."
Maël read out the method of creating his 'hero' image in Mendes' plan, and asked with a smile: "These two are easy to understand, but tell my inspirational story. Is there an inspirational story?"
"Isn't there?"
Mendes looked at him in shock, raised his eyebrows and smiled: "Two and a half years ago, you couldn't even afford a pair of shoes, and now you have everything.
"This is very inspirational. You really got everything through hard training. All your sacrifices have turned into nourishing liquid, helping you grow into a towering tree."
"Okay." Maël shrugged, picked up the document and continued to look down, "I thought that in people's minds, I was just a lucky, talented, and young genius."
"Hahaha" Mendes laughed, he didn't interrupt Maël to continue reading.
The third part he mentioned is to communicate with a large number of media in advance to ensure that they will continue to report positive news about Maël during this period and that there will be no comments that affect his reputation.
Finally, contact the Ballon d'Or judges in advance to win their support, which is also the most important thing. However, Maël doesn't have to worry about it, Mendes will take care of everything.
"How is it?" Calculating that Maël had probably finished reading, Mendes asked with a look of anticipation.
"Very comprehensive."
Maël put down the documents, he didn't understand them, so he couldn't see anything.
"Actually, a very important point is missing." Mendes raised his head, paused, and then said, "These are the ones that can be put on the table, the ones that can be written, and there are some that can't be written."
Maël's expression changed, and curiosity appeared in his eyes, "What?"
"Putting down others to raise yourself, contacting the media to smear others, and trying to lower the impression of competitors."
As Mendes spoke, he raised his head, his eyes became a bit sinister, but there was still a smile on his face, "Uh, of course, it's within a reasonable range, without malicious attacks."
Maël looked at him, and didn't speak for the time being, as if stunned.
"This is a must, if you don't do it, your competitors will."
Mendes was worried that Maël was too young and talked about morality, "There is no bloodless competition, harmony is only on the stage, if two or more people want the same thing very much, then their means of competition will not be too clean.
"The greater the temptation, the dirtier the means, when there are enough benefits, people will even gamble their lives, let alone their conscience, this is the smallest price.
"Doing this is because others will use the same means against you, if you don't use it, you will naturally be weaker.
"What I know is that many stars in history had the opportunity to win the Ballon d'Or in their peak year, but because their methods were too clean, they eventually lost unexpectedly and became a lifelong regret."
Speaking of this, he was not ready to stop, as if he wanted to convince Maël in one fell swoop, "You are different from them, they want the Ballon d'Or, and what you want is the youngest Ballon d'Or winner in football history.
"It is to break the Messi-Cristiano monopoly, and the high-spiritedness of a 19-year-old who is born out of nowhere and sits in the best position!
"So..."
Maël chuckled and shook his head, "Don't worry, Mr. Mendes, I'm not the kind of person you think I am, from the beginning, I couldn't possibly have a negative attitude towards this suggestion."
"Ha." Mendes smiled with relief, and pointed at Maël with his finger in the air.
"I was just thinking..." Maël looked at Mendes, unable to speak.
"What about Cristiano Ronaldo?" Harry, who had been sitting on the sofa and not disturbing the two, couldn't help but said, he was one of the people closest to Maël, knew almost everything about Maël, and also knew what he was thinking.
Mendes laughed a few times pretending to be relaxed, "That's my business."
Maël stared at his face, feeling that this matter was probably not that simple, the Portugal superstar should not be willing to be a foil, after he found out that Mendes was pouring resources into him this year, there must be some reaction. "What are you thinking?" Mendes looked back at Maël and asked curiously.
"I'm thinking..."
Maël looked away, picked up the remote control and tuned the TV to Sky Sports, "It's so fast, I haven't even prepared myself, I don't have too many ideas about the Ballon d'Or, but suddenly I have to warm up and pave the way."
Half an hour later, Mendes left with a look of expectation and said, "Maël, recently hire some people for the Football Record and your social media public relations team, we want an account matrix, we want to spread your news virally."
"That's natural."
Maël nodded, hugged Mendes, and said with a look of nostalgia, "You haven't come much during this time, stay in London for a while longer, let's drink at the end of the season, and get drunk for three days and three nights."
"Hahaha!"
Mendes turned and left, his laughter echoed in the path in front of Maël's house for a long time, he turned his back to Maël and raised his hand to wave left and right, "Okay! What I hope is to drink with the Treble winner at the end of the season!"
Maël looked at the back of the delicate man not far away, and chuckled.
"Maël!!"
November 25th, Goodison Park, the game went to the 44th minute of the first half, Maël on the wing suddenly accelerated to get rid of two defenders, and then nutmegged Everton center-back Distin, creating space.
"Bang!!"
Immediately following that, he connected with the outside of his foot at an extremely fast rate, curling a shot towards the far corner, suddenly threatening the goal without any adjustment steps.
Goalkeeper Howard dove out, falling to the ground after missing the ball, and heard the cheers of the Arsenal fans in the distance, "WowWowAaaahhhh!"
At the very start of the second half, before he could regain his composure, he saw Maël once again explode past right-back Hibbert on his right side, sweeping a low, flat ball towards the front of the goal.
"Bang!"
Just as he turned his head, Van Persie's white teeth smiled at him; the opponent was already one meter in front of him.
He could only see Van Persie's general shooting motion, and nothing else, not even where the ball went.
"Yeahhhh!!" But judging from the sound, plus a little common sense, it wasn't hard to tell that Van Persie had definitely scored.
Nine minutes later, Giroud received a Cross from Kyle Walker and sent the ball into his net again.
"Bang!!"
Two minutes before the end of the game, Bale sent in a Cross from the right, and Maël arrived in time, poking the ball into the goal with the tip of his toe.
Four to zero! "Beep! Beep! Beep—!"
At the end of the match, Howard stood in front of the goal with his hands on his hips, not quite understanding why some media outlets thought they could stop Arsenal's 51st unbeaten game.
At that moment, he suddenly heard something and turned his head towards the sidelines.
Mixed in with the cheers of the Arsenal away fans and the boos of the home fans was the roar of their coach, Moyes. The famous Scottish coach looked furious, his eyebrows furrowed together, his body language expressive.
Although he couldn't hear what he was saying, Howard understood, or rather, he imagined there must be a sentence in there, "Fuck the Merseyside Report! Fuck stopping Arsenal! Are you making a joke out of me!"
"2 Shots, 1 Assist! Maël's stable and efficient performance led Arsenal to their 51st Premier League unbeaten game! At the same time, his Premier League stats for this season have reached 22 goals and 10 assists, achieving a double-double in 13 rounds!" - London Evening Standard
"Moyes fails after boasting! The team loses to Arsenal zero to four, suffering a complete defeat!" - Merseyside Report
"You son of a bitch." - Moyes' social media
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