But he wasn’t as agitated as Toure, he sighed to himself and didn’t blame Navas, instead he turned around and walked away.
The substitutes were grumbling and took their seats, and coach Pellegrini could only laugh bitterly.
"What on earth was Navas thinking in that moment?" Tang Long asked Kolarov beside him.
In this match, the starting left-back was Crisi instead of Kolarov, so the Serbian full-back sat on the bench with Tang Long.
Kolarov couldn’t help but complain: "You’ll get used to it eventually, Navas is great at everything—he’s fast, dribbles well, and his passing is accurate—but he just doesn’t like shooting!"
"It’s not about liking or not, which player wouldn’t take a shot at an open goal?" Tang Long couldn’t fathom it.
"Let me tell you a stat, Navas played in 35 league games last season, with 8 assists and not a single goal!" Kolarov said.
Hearing this statistic, Tang Long found it amusing; it seemed Navas really didn’t like shooting.
Considering Manchester City’s offensive power, a winger appearing 35 times in the league, providing 8 assists and not scoring once, couldn’t be said to be poor in shooting skills; it could only mean he just preferred passing—an oddity that needed addressing!
Later in the match, Manchester City had many good chances, but none came close to Navas’s open goal opportunity.
The score was 0:1 at halftime.
In the locker room, Manchester City’s coach Pellegrini encouraged each player with a motivational tone.
"That early goal was just an accident, we’re playing well, we have control of the entire game. If our ability to seize opportunities was just a bit better, we might have already overtaken them. Keep playing in the second half, trust me, kids, we’ll win the match!"
At this time, Pellegrini had no intention of subbing Tang Long in.
For one, Pellegrini still had some concern over Tang Long’s lower back injury.
He wouldn’t put Tang Long in unless it was urgent.
On the other hand, he felt the team was functioning very well, and after surviving Arsenal’s early onslaught, they quickly took control of possession.
According to the first half statistics, in 45 minutes, Manchester City had a possession rate of 59%, while Arsenal only had 41%.
Regarding shots, Manchester City had 8, with 4 on target; Arsenal had just 3, 1 on target.
The second half began.
Until the 55th minute, Pellegrini firmly believed the team would complete a comeback.
But unforeseen circumstances occurred!
At 58 minutes, the sky over London suddenly clouded over, and heavy rain poured down!
Both coaches were taken aback by this sudden storm.
According to the weather forecast, it was supposed to be cloudy with an 8% chance of rain, unlikely to rain at all!
The rain would alter the field’s conditions.
Even the most advanced drainage systems on a field would become slippery once rain falls.
And changes to the field’s state could significantly affect a team’s tactical approach.
Both Manchester City and Arsenal played primarily in a possession style.
No need to mention Manchester City, who mostly controlled the ball at their feet, while Arsenal, with a little over 40% possession, cherished their rare possession, not easily handing the ball back to Manchester City with long kicks.
However, the rain turned heavier from drizzle to downpour in barely ten minutes, and the field noticeably accumulated water!
Manchester City, with the most possession, was the first to be affected.
The ball’s movement was disrupted; several short passes nearly intercepted by Arsenal due to inconsistent speed.
Veteran Wenger knew this gave Arsenal, leading by 1:0, a perfect chance to hold onto the lead.
Wenger immediately subbed out the speedy winger Walcott for the larger and more disruptive Iwobi in such chaotic conditions.
Pellegrini also realized that relying on short passes to penetrate into the opponent’s box was now impossible!
In his urgency, he made two substitutions, taking off the 170cm Silva and 172cm Sterling, sending on the 181cm Bernie and 185cm Iheanacho, and also instructed the 190cm Yaya Toure to charge into the opponent’s box.
"Wow, Manchester City is going for the high balls, interesting!" Henry remarked.
"Haha, as I said, the Premier League relies on physicality. Fancy footwork won’t cut it, it’s just boring!" Keane perked up.
"I wonder if Manchester City will play high balls," Henry said, "and Pellegrini hasn’t considered sending Tang in either."
"How could they not use high balls? Just kick up and smash it into the goal with the head—that’s the brute way. Twenty years ago, I won championships with Manchester United playing like that!" Keane proudly stated.
Manchester City’s players began the traditional English long ball assault, frequently targeting Arsenal’s penalty area with high balls.
But with Mertesacker, at 6’6", no one could out-jump him.
At this moment, Pellegrini glanced at Tang Long who was warming up normally.
Keeping Tang Long warm was his instruction, but the veteran Manchester City coach hadn’t decided to send Tang Long in.
In Pellegrini’s view, Tang Long wasn’t known for heading or physical duels.
Even Agüero, at 172cm, was considered better at headers than Tang Long by Pellegrini.