A Sweet Paradise and a Grueling Schedule

In the eighth round of the league, Manchester City traveled to London to face West Ham United. Knowing that Lily Collins lived near London, Lin sent her a message before the game, inviting her to come and watch the match live.

Lily Collins had never seen a football match before and was curious about Lin playing football, so she gladly accepted the invitation and came to the London Olympic Stadium.

The cameras quickly captured her presence, and the director frequently switched the view between Lin and Collins.

West Ham's strength was mediocre, and they didn't cause much trouble for Manchester City at home.

After 90 minutes, Manchester City defeated their opponents 3-1, securing their eighth consecutive victory.

In this match, Lin performed excellently, contributing two goals and one assist, accounting for all three of the team's goals and undoubtedly earning the title of the best player of the match.

This achievement set a team record for Manchester City, marking their best start in over a hundred years.

If they could win against Chelsea in their next away game, they would tie Chelsea's record of nine consecutive wins at the start of the Premier League season set in the 05/06 season.

Currently, there are only three undefeated teams in the five major leagues.

Besides Manchester City, there are also Barcelona in La Liga and Roma in Serie A.

Despite being criticized by outsiders, Martino's Barcelona had a very strong league performance. Neymar perfectly integrated into the team, providing strong offensive power in the front.

As for Roma, under the leadership of young coach Rudi Garcia, they played the best start in their history.

If they maintain this momentum, Roma is highly likely to win the fourth league trophy in their history.

After the match against West Ham, Manchester City did not return to Manchester but flew directly from London to Moscow.

This week, Manchester City faced a grueling schedule.

On the 20th, they played West Ham away; on the 23rd, they faced CSKA Moscow away; and on the 27th, after returning to London, they had to play Chelsea away again.

In one week, Manchester City had to play three away games, with one being 2,500 kilometers away in another country.

After this round of matches, the Manchester City players would be exhausted.

Due to the long-distance travel and consecutive matches, there was skepticism about whether Manchester City could tie Chelsea's record of consecutive wins at the start of the season.

Although Chelsea also had to play away against Werder Bremen, Germany is much closer to the UK than Russia.

Moreover, Werder Bremen's strength is not high, and there are no extreme cold weather conditions.

Therefore, even with an away Champions League game, Chelsea players would consume much less energy than Manchester City players.

"Alas, there was a chance to break Mourinho's record of the perfect start with Chelsea, but now there's less than a 30% chance!"

"Yes, if they didn't have to go to Moscow, their win rate would be much higher at any other away game."

"This schedule is just too grueling!"

"In fact, the English FA did help. Although they arranged two away games for Manchester City, at least these two away games are in London. After the Champions League away game, they can return to London to prepare without having to travel around!"

"Last season, all Premier League teams fell out in the quarter-finals. This performance didn't live up to the title of the world's top league. This season, the Premier League has increased its emphasis on the Champions League!"

Lily Collins usually didn't follow football much, but after learning that Lin was a football player, she started paying attention to such news.

Seeing the pessimistic comments from Manchester City fans online, she became worried and couldn't help but send a message to Lin:

"I heard your schedule is tough lately?"

"Yeah, so I'm so anxious that I can't sleep!"

"Really? It sounds like you're lying to me."

Lily Collins was skeptical of Lin's words. As a professional player, his mental state shouldn't be that bad, right?

"Okay, I admit I lied. The reason I can't sleep is that I'm missing a certain pretty girl!"

Lily Collins sent Lin an emoji of a girl resting her chin on her hand, with a look of "keep talking, I want to see what else you can say."

"I checked, and Moscow is two hours ahead of London. You might not be able to sleep because of the time difference."

Lily Collins glanced at the time; it was almost 9 PM in London, which meant it was already 11 PM in Moscow.

For a professional player, not being able to sleep by 11 PM could indeed be considered insomnia.

"Detective Lily strikes again!"

"Stop joking. I'll tell you a few methods. Try them, and if they work, go to sleep!"

"What if they don't work?"

"Then I can't help you!"

Lin sent a pouting emoji.

Lily Collins replied with an emoji of hitting someone on the head.

Lin quickly typed: "Come on, Miss Collins. I can handle it. Don't go easy on me!" with a fighting spirit emoji.

"Can't you be serious for once?"

Lily Collins sent an eye-rolling emoji and a sweat-drop emoji.

"I'm always serious in front of others!" Lin sent a smug emoji.

Rogue!!

In a house in Surrey, seeing his reply, the seventeen-year-old girl couldn't help but smile.

Then, her expression became serious:

"Okay, stop joking around."

"Find some slow-paced music, play it on repeat, then lie down in your most comfortable position.

Empty your mind, don't think about anything, keep calm, and slowly breathe in and out..."

"How is it? Is it working?"

"Nope!"

Lin sent a grinning emoji.

Lily Collins was so frustrated she wanted to rush to Moscow to punch him.

"Why didn't it work? Did you not follow my instructions?"

Lily Collins sent several questioning emojis.

"I can't find such music on my phone. Why don't you call and sing it to me?"

"In your dreams!"

Despite saying that, Lin's phone rang in the next second.

...

Early the next morning, Lin got up early.

He looked at his phone, which unsurprisingly had run out of battery.

After plugging it in to charge, he hummed a tune as he happily left his room.

Thinking about Lily Collins singing to him last night, Lin felt warm inside, almost as if the temperature in Moscow had risen a few degrees.

However, his teammates felt that Moscow was a terrible place.

Before the match, Pellegrini asked his assistant about the weather. The most challenging part for Manchester City wasn't the opponent but the cold weather.

"According to the weather forecast, the temperature will drop to around zero degrees Celsius tonight!"

"Will it snow?"

"Hard to say. It's possible. If it rains, we better pray it's snow because rain in such cold weather is even worse. If the players get wet, they will definitely get sick!"

If the temperature is near zero and it rains continuously, the players' body heat will quickly be lost. Over time, they could catch a cold.

"Hmm, we need to change our tactics!"

Pellegrini decided not to let the players fight long in such cold weather. He planned to launch a fast attack at the start to establish an early lead, then replace the main players with young players for counterattacks.

This way, they could minimize the main players' physical exertion, ensuring the European campaign's performance while saving energy for the next game against Chelsea.

However, their opponents had the same idea!

"GOAL!!!"

"Just thirteen minutes into the game, CSKA Moscow broke through Manchester City's defense. The scorer is their winger Tosic!"

"Incredible! Facing a strong Manchester City, CSKA Moscow didn't play defensively but chose to attack, taking the lead. Now the pressure is on Manchester City!"

In the commentary booth, the guests were all surprised by this result.

Before the game, most people favored Manchester City, who had won ten consecutive games across all competitions and recently defeated Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

However, no one expected CSKA Moscow to be so strong, suppressing Manchester City at home.

"If Manchester City loses this game, there could be three teams with six points in Group D, each having beaten one another, making the qualification situation very uncertain."

"This is good news for Bayern Munich, but not what Manchester City fans want to see!"

On the sidelines, Pellegrini and his assistants discussed.

"The temperature is too low. The pre-match warm-up effect is gone, and the players' bodies are already cold. We need to re-warm them. The opponents are more adapted to the cold than us. Starting with an attack was risky!"

"Yes, we should have held back and waited for their initial surge to pass before attacking!"

"Alright, let's play like this. Start attacking around the twentieth minute to equalize the score!"

The Manchester City coaching team quickly reached a consensus and communicated their new instructions to the players, telling them to play steadily.

After the restart, Manchester City didn't rush to attack but patiently passed the ball around, letting each player move to warm up.

CSKA Moscow initially planned to retreat and play counterattacks after scoring.

But after positioning themselves, they found that Manchester City wasn't rushing to attack but passing the ball in their half.

This puzzled the CSKA Moscow players: Are they giving up?

If they are giving up, should we seize the opportunity to attack more and get more goals?

The players were hesitant, and on the sidelines, CSKA Moscow coach Slutskiy was also indecisive.

After these few minutes, Manchester City didn't seem that strong.

He didn't feel they were as strong as Bayern Munich, whom they faced before.

Considering their goal difference was negative before this game, if they couldn't score more goals, even a win over Manchester City might leave them behind due

 to goal difference.

So, after much hesitation, Slutskiy decided to strengthen the attack, hoping to score another goal!

Regardless of Manchester City's real strength, they had to seize this opportunity while their opponents were in poor form to score more goals.

This way, even if their goal difference wasn't as good as Bayern's, they could at least stay ahead of Manchester City.

The home fans were thrilled to see their team pressing and suppressing the Premier League leaders.

"Look, this is the strength of the Russian Premier League champions. The Premier League leaders are nothing in front of us!"

"Ha, the Premier League always boasts about being the best league in the world, but their leader is only this good? I think the Premier League might not even be as strong as our Russian Premier League!"

"It's not just Manchester City. Last season's Real Madrid also struggled at our home. Here, we are invincible!"

The score and the advantage on the field made the Russian Premier League fans very confident and proud.

In recent years, the Russian Premier League has received massive investments from oligarchs, attracting many star players and significantly improving their strength.

However, because Russia is far from the European center, they don't get as much attention as the five major leagues.

This made the Russian Premier League fans feel indignant, and they were eager to prove their strength by defeating a team from the big leagues!

And Manchester City was just the appetizer. When Bayern Munich visited next month, they planned to overthrow the defending champions and shock the world!

It wasn't just the CSKA Moscow fans who were overconfident. Their players also felt very confident at this moment.

In the 23rd minute, CSKA Moscow midfielder Keisuke Honda organized an attack.

Seeing Lin coming to press him, he didn't pass to a teammate but wanted to show off some skills and humiliate Lin.

Keisuke Honda wasn't convinced by Lin's fame. He thought he was just as good but didn't get the same recognition because he played in the Russian Premier League instead of a big European club.

Honda planned to transfer to AC Milan to prove himself but saw this match as an opportunity to demonstrate his skills by outplaying Lin.

"Whoa, get past him!"

"Eastern Beckham, show him your skills!"

Seeing their star ready to take on Lin, the CSKA Moscow fans were ecstatic.

They had confidence in Honda's skills, and from what they saw in the first half, Lin didn't seem that formidable.

They all believed Honda would easily outplay Lin.

Seeing Honda not passing but trying to dribble past him, Lin didn't hesitate and bumped into him.

With a loud thud, Lin, like a bulldozer, knocked the Japanese player off his feet.

Honda was stunned, and so were the fans.

This wasn't part of the script!

But before they could react, Lin was already charging towards CSKA Moscow's half with the ball!