835 Collapse?

Nottingham Forest now looked like they were walking along a narrow path that only one person could go through sideways, with a deep abyss on the left and right sides. Following the movements of the footsteps, small stones would roll down and the echo of crashing sounds could be heard in the abyss, growing gradually fainter. In such an environment, the slightest inattention might cause one to lose his footing and fall. Then even one's bones couldn't be found.

In short, Nottingham Forest now had no room for even a millimeter margin of error. They couldn't lose the Champions League and the league tournament. What could they do when their goal for this season was the continental treble?

Twain didn't care about rotation for the away game against Arsenal. He deployed the strongest lineup possible.

Nottingham Forest faced a series of attacks from Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Similar to the last Champions League game, Arsenal's offensive was fast paced, leaving the Forest team struggling on the pitch.

Needing to win, Twain didn't choose conservative tactics like in the last Champions League game. Nottingham Forest chose to play defensive counterattack in the last Champions League game because they had a one-goal lead in hand. Now the score was still 0:0, and it was of little value to play conservatively—he didn't need a draw, and he couldn't accept a result other than a win.

So in this game, Twain asked the team to attack aggressively. Even if the Arsenal's swift attack made them confused and disoriented, they couldn't retreat. Instead, they had to actively carry out interceptions in the middle and front field against Arsenal. It was what Wenger wanted to see most. Nottingham Forest would consume a lot of physical energy in such a scramble.

Twain was aware of it, too. Arsenal wanted to drag down the Forest team. He had no other choice but to try to wipe out Arsenal before they themselves were dragged down.

"George! George!" Twain kept shouting Wood's name off the field, signaling for him to tackle more fiercely and to not be afraid to foul.

Gago also gave his very best on the pitch. He had trained his playing style to be like "a brave man willing to risk his life" at Real Madrid. Now that the Forest team transformed to learn from Redondo, Twain still intended to let Gago keep up with his spirit.

With the opponent using the same tactics, the Forest team played harder than they had in the last game. Apart from choosing to not play conservatively, they couldn't ignore Arsenal's home advantage.

Wenger's team in this game fully played to their fine skills: good rapport and smooth offensive. Their continuous campaign caused the entire Forest team to become exhausted. In the face of Arsenal's attack, the will was there but not the strength.

Twenty-nine minutes into the first half, the Forest team's defense finally revealed a crack, which was keenly seized by Arsenal. Fàbregas did a straight pass. Carlos Vela suddenly plugged in from the side and unexpectedly appeared behind the Forest team's entire line of defense. He was not in an offside position!

"He's not offside! Vela has the ball!"

Pepe was still raising his hand to signal that Vela was in an offside position while Akinfeev had already left the goal to strike. A huge cheer erupted over the Emirates Stadium. Amid the cheers, Vela shot low! The football passed through Akinfeev's underarm and struck the farthest goalpost to bounce into the goal…

"The ball's in! A gorgeous onside shot! And a brilliant assist from Fàbregas!!" Amid the thunderous cries, the live commentator had to raise his voice to shout along with the fans. "Arsenal leads at home! This is a heavy blow to Tony Twain's Nottingham Forest!"

Akinfeev was a little angry after the goal concede. He walked over to Pepe and shouted, "Asshole! Why didn't you come back to defend just now?"

Pepe was clearly angry, too. He brusquely pushed his teammate aside. "It was f**king offside!"

"Whether it was offside or not, you should have f**king come back! You b*stard!" Akinfeev was a little angry that his questions were pushed aside. Just as the two men were about to come to a head, their teammates around them fortunately rushed up to separate the two men.

Twain nearly flew into a rage as he watched the scene from the sidelines. He kept swearing, "Those b*stards! They're actually showing this shameful behavior on live broadcast!"

Next door, Wenger sat in his seat with a slightly hidden gleeful smile on his face. Internal strife within the Forest team? It was highly unusual. It looked like the Forest team was about to collapse under immense pressure.

Even the commentator was excited. "Oh, oh! The Nottingham Forest players have a tussel. What's more, it's a conflict between their own players! This is getting interesting! I've done commentary for nearly ten seasons of Premier League games and nearly fifty games with the Forest team playing, and I've never seen such a heated conflict between their own men! Tony Twain always boasts that his team is the most united team in the world, and there is really little negative news in the media about their locker room, but today… all this is happening openly before all of us. It's a once-in-a-century sight! I'm already starting to look forward to how Tony Twain is going to face the influx of reporters after the game…"

Meanwhile, on the pitch, the Forest players were trying their best to calm down the two "angry bulls.""What are you guys doing?!"

"Calm down!"

"Don't make a fuss. What's wrong with you two?!"

Wood stood between the two men with one hand on each side to push them apart, but the two men tried to struggle free of Wood, unwilling to back down.

The Arsenal fans in the stands booed and jeered after a brief moment of shock. Any team's fans loved to see their opponents make a fool of themselves.

The laughter and booing sounded harsh in Twain's ears. It was even more shrill than when he was on the ground scolding, "You sons of b*tches!"

He finally stopped muttering alone and rushed to the sidelines to yell toward the field, "It's live broadcast, you damn id*ots! Live broadcast!!"

His voice was drowned out by the loud boos in the stadium, and he wasn't heard. However, it invited special attention from the cameras. The broadcast gave him a long close-up. In the camera, he clenched his fists and was red in the face. Eyes wide with fury, he looked really angry.

Shania, who saw what happened from the box, also stood up nervously from her seat. Whenever Twain was excited, Shania became worried.

Twain roared in vain on the sidelines until he was out of breath and had to return to the technical area to get some water. He didn't succeed. Kerslake handed him the water and muttered, "Is there too much pressure?"

Twain took the water bottle but didn't drink from it. Instead, he stared blankly at Kerslake, which scared the latter a little. He suddenly didn't drink the water, nor did he go to the sidelines to continue swearing. Instead, he sat down and stared at the field without saying a word as if he was in a daze.

In the end, it was George Wood who unleashed his "power" as the team captain and grabbed the collars of Pepe and Akinfeev to make them calm down. "We're playing a game now. If you want to fight, wait till the game is over!"

Even the referee stepped forward to intervene. He called the two men over to his side and gave them verbal warnings. He told them that even if they were teammates, he must give out a yellow card warning in the event of a violent physical confrontation.

The anger of the two men subsided a little, but they still didn't look at each other. They walked back to their own positions without saying a word.

While the Forest team had internal strife, Wenger got up and walked to the sidelines to beckon Fàbregas over and brief him personally. "They're having a problem among themselves. This is our chance. Next up, continue to assist Pepe with that." Fàbregas nodded as he sipped water.

Back on the pitch, Arsenal adjusted their tactics and used Pepe's position as the main offensive direction. Pepe was clearly affected by the conceded goal and the brawl, because realistically speaking, the ball did slip past him, and he didn't actively defend it. Perhaps in that moment he opened up a small gap, or for some other reason his mistake gave Vela a chance to shoot the ball in easily. For a time, the Forest team's goal was surrounded by perils.

Twain saw this and got up from the technical area, shouting Wood's name from the sidelines and using hand gestures to signal for him to cover Pepe's position. Wood obeyed and went before the Forest team's defensive line was able to regain its footing amid Arsenal's stormy attack.

Fortunately, there wasn't much time left in the first half for Arsenal. Even if there was fighting within the Forest team, the stoppage time was only three minutes. The referee quickly blew the whistle to end the first half, which also upset the Arsenal fans, who thought a Nottingham Forest goal would be conceded again if Arsenal was given another minute.

Regardless, the Arsenal players were in a good mood back in the locker room because they saw their opponent collapse. Nothing was more demoralizing than a clash between teammates in a game, because such an incident was humiliating…

They knew it when they saw the way the Forest players walked off the field with their heads down. They couldn't wait for the game to be over so that they could escape the Emirates Stadium early.

Twain stayed behind. He stood alone on the sidelines for a moment and then slowly walked toward the tunnel. From the back, he appeared to be very tired.

Shania saw the scene from the box, and her face sank. When Tony Twain acted brashly on the sidelines and experienced such intense games, he would suddenly age ten years when he went home. He had a heart problem, and the pressure was so great. She was really worried.

The Forest players in the locker room were silent. Akinfeev and Pepe sat far part and didn't look at each other.

Hearing the sound of the door opening and closing, people looked up and saw the boss. They didn't see an angry expression on his face. It didn't even look like the calm before the storm.

Twain swept his gaze across everyone. His eyes slowly turned to look at them one by one, which seemed to take several minutes. The locker room was dead silent. Kerslake was not one who could withstand such an atmosphere. He tried several times to open his mouth and say something, but he gave up in the end. He didn't think the atmosphere felt right.

Twain finally spoke up. "I think I've made a mistake. I happily made an exciting bet with someone, but I forgot your ability to bear it. Now it looks like I was wrong. Ridiculously wrong. It wasn't my intention to put you under the same pressure as me. You all know… Well, I want to put all the pressure on myself so that you can play without worry." He kept shaking his head to rebuff himself. He looked pained and tired. "So I won't put any pressure on you for this game. You just play. As for the matter of eating the table, you don't have to worry about that. That's on me. I have my ways." With that, Twain sat down in his chair and let out a long breath.

"Igor and Pepe—don't let this get to you both. I don't blame you. I know you're all thinking about the team, so let bygones be bygones." He put his hands together as if he didn't really take it to heart.

"I now realize that the treble is not an easy thing to do, especially given our situation. It's a pipe dream for us to want to win the treble. The outside world was justified in ridiculing us. I, Tony Twain, am used to talking big. But I want to thank you all. You always make my big talk become a reality every time… But this time, it's not the same. The treble is indeed… very hard. All right!" He got up from his seat again and raised his voice. "I admit defeat! We're not qualified to win the treble! Everyone will go home and sleep after this game. Don't think about anything else. Let's win either the Champions League or the FA Cup."

"Let's take the pressure off! It's no big deal to lose this game to Arsenal! As long as we knock them out of the Champions League, revenge will still be ours to take!"

Twain finished speaking only to find that the locker room was still dead silent, even quieter than before. He asked strangely, "What's the matter? Why are you not talking? Did I say something wrong? Hey, I'm doing this for the good of you guys! I'm trying my best to relieve the stress for you! Is this your attitude in response? What are you looking at me for? Why are you not talking?" He suddenly shouted, breathing heavily and staring at the crowd in the room.

"Say something! Like, 'Okay, we gave up the league tournament!' or something like that."

"No." Wood stood up and said, "I don't want to give up the league tournament." With that, he looked at Twain.

Pepe hesitated for a moment before he got up to say, "Boss… I apologize for what happened in the first half. I lost my cool when I saw that we conceded a goal…"

"That's why I'm here to relieve your stress, isn't it?" Twain spread his hands and shrugged.

"But what I want isn't for the pressure to be reduced in that way…" Pepe shook his head and said, "Like George, I don't want to lose the championship title."

"Boss… None of us said we were going to give up the league tournament. Why would you say that?" This time it was Akinfeev. He came forward and said, "I apologize to Pepe. I acted impulsively in the first half, but it's all right now. We're only one goal behind. Why give up now?"

More and more people stood up to express their wishes. No one wanted to give up. They all wanted to win the championship. At last everyone stood up and surrounded Twain in the middle.

Twain looked left and right. "Strange. So in other words, you suddenly don't want to lose the game again?"

"We didn't say we wanted to lose the game, boss!" Someone corrected the mistake in Twain's words.

"Do you really want to win?" Twain asked incredulously.

"Does anyone want to lose?" Wood asked in return.

When Twain heard Wood, he put his hands up in front of his chest and lowered his head to signal to everyone not to speak first. He was silent for a moment and then spoke up. "Very well. You'll forget what I just said from now on. Forget those d*mn words like 'give up the league tournament,''go home and sleep.' Let's set up tactics against Arsenal for the second half…"