Greatest Of All Legends-Chapter 789: Opening Week Games II

The Tottenham players arrived back at the locker room after a short pitch inspection and began kitting up.

Jason lightly strapped his ankle before putting on his socks. Putting on the rest of his kit as well as a training top since they were going for warm-ups first, he finished changing and sat quietly with his headphones over his ears.

Suddenly Alli yanked off his headphones from behind, and holding it up, he asked, "What’s this you’re doing? Music conditioning or some type shi?"

"Nah, just talking to your girlfriend, she’s wishing me well," Jason snapped.

"Jokes on you ninja, I’m single," Alli shot back and they both laughed.

They didn’t get to laugh for long as Nuno once again began reminding the players of their tactical instructions, directing his efforts especially towards the players in the starting lineup.

Right after that, they headed out to the pitch to begin warming up and this time there were clearly a lot more fans at the stadium and the seats on the grounds were fast filling up.

On one side of the field was the Tottenham players warming up and on the other half, the Man City players who had arrived were also on the field, warming up.

Jason glanced at Man City players, looking for Foden, but the guy was nowhere to be found and Jason figured that he wasn’t fit or the manager didn’t put want him in the lineup for some other reason.

***

"It’s the opening day guys. It is always best to have a good start. We can build off that,"

"Our opponents are tough, but we can win. We worked hard in training, we know if we defend well and can hit them on the counter to score one or two, then we can hold on to our lead and take the three points,"

"You know your jobs and you know our goal,"

"Let’s achieve something today,"

Nuno’s little motivational speech was met with cheers and applause from the Tottenham players who stood up and began heading to the tunnel with high morale.

Throwing a piece of the gum in his mouth, Jason followed after the others and lined up in the tunnel with the other substitute players.

The Man City players had also begun to line up in the tunnel as well and some players of the two teams even exchanged words with each other.

Jason recognized quite a few of the Man City players and they recognized him as well, but there was no love lost between them.

Foden was the only Man City player Jason had a good relationship with and since the guy wasn’t around, Jason just silently in place.

Less than ten minutes later, the players began marching out to the field.

{And here we have the standout fixture in the opening week of the premier league}

{The defending champions of the premier league travel to North London in a bid to stamp down their authority at the beginning of a new season}

{They’ll have to contend with the home owners to get the three points they so dearly want and one thing is for sure. Tottenham is not going to make it easy for them}

{Two strong teams, both looking for the best results to start the league. Some believe it best for the two sides to share the points, but neither side would be happy with anything other than a win today}

The commentator did his job of hyping up the crowd as the starting players marched out onto the field while the manager and the substitute players peeled away and went to their team’s technical area.

{Today’s battle of the 4-3-3}

{Both teams seem to be using the same formation, but we know that the tactics both managers will be employing are nothing alike}

{Here’s the Manchester City lineup}

{Ederson stands between the sticks and is directly guarded by the defensive partnership of Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake while Benjamin Mendy and Joao Cancelo guard the left and right sides respectively}

{Directly in front of the defense is Fernadinho who would be assisted by Gundogan and Jack Grealish in the center midfield}

{On the left wing is Raheem Sterling who will be looking to trouble the defensive third along with Riyad Mahrez on the right}

{And in the center, looking to get the goals is Ferran Torres}

{With players like this who are very dynamic and can easily switch positions with their teammates, the Tottenham team will have to be careful when they are not in position and have to specially keep an eye out for the the off the ball movements of their opponents}

While the commentator busied himself, the players fulfilled the pre-match rituals while the fans had their own fun singing and cheering for their team’s while waiting expectantly for kick-off.

*Fweeeeeeeee!!!*

{There it is, the whistle to kickstart their 2021/22 season and were away!} The commentator cheered as the game kick-started with Son’s pass into the Tottenham half from the center of the field.

The ball was received by Alli who swiftly laid it off to Hojberg.

The ball moved rapidly around among the Tottenham players who dropped deep to support the other players in keeping possession.

The Manchester City players followed after the ball, coming deep into Tottenham’s half in an attempt to take possession, but that was exactly what the Tottenham players wanted.

With a long pass from Hojberg to Bergwijn on the left flank, Tottenham tried to kickstart a counter attack.

With Cancelo out of position as he had moved upfield to try to support the press, Bergwijn ran down the open space on the flank.

Cancelo swiftly gave chase and rapidly caught up, but not before Bergwijn sent a low cross toward the center of the box.

The ball bounded powerfully toward Son in the center, but Dias managed to intercept the ball and with an outstretched foot, slowing the ball.

Son didn’t give up on the ball and raced to catch the ball that had been deflected off its intended path and barely catching up to it in the left side of the penalty box, he pushed the ball back and hit it as fast as it could.

Unfortunately he rushed the shot and couldn’t get the ball on target and it flew harmlessly over the goal.