The Luton players walked into the locker room.
Luton had drawn the away locker room for this match, but even so, the away locker room at Wembley looked much better than the home locker room at Vicarage Road.
Besides the floor paved with high-grade wooden boards, there were lockers arranged in a circle, real leather chairs, a row of massage chairs next to them, and a whole row of shower rooms behind them.
There was even a small swimming pool inside the locker room, with warm water continuously flowing from the center of the pool, overflowing the top, and draining out from the surrounding outlets.
"Be careful, the warm water might suddenly turn icy cold while you're soaking in the pool!" Geoffrey said, pointing at Kante, who was staring at the pool with his mouth wide open.
"This is a common trick the home team uses against the away team!" Geoffrey leaned closer to Kante to scare him. "I heard the away locker room at Stamford Bridge only has intermittent hot and cold water, so the away team doesn't dare to shower there at all."
"The away locker room at Old Trafford doesn't even have showers, the windows are very small, and the ceiling is much lower than in a normal house, making people feel very uncomfortable walking in."
"I heard that when the Emirates Stadium was built, Wenger personally oversaw the construction of the away locker room to ensure that teams visiting the Emirates would be extremely uncomfortable..."
The players one by one shared the things they had heard.
"We won't be treated like that today, will we?!" Kante was clearly scared; the methods of these big clubs were more ruthless than the last.
"Of course not, this is the national stadium, and it's a neutral venue. There won't be differential treatment for home and away teams. Even if the home and away locker rooms differ in size, anything the home side has, we'll definitely have here too," Captain Kevin Keen said, patting Kante's head.
Kante visibly breathed a sigh of relief; he had long wanted to soak in that hot pool.
But he couldn't yet, because the team's assistant coach, John Aston, was already urging the players to hurry up and warm up.
"Hurry up, hurry up!! Change your clothes and shoes, you only have thirty minutes!! GOGOGO!!!!" John Aston had been doing this job for nearly twenty years, and he was incredibly skilled.
It was just that this was the first time he had said these exact words at Wembley.
It seemed not much different from other stadiums.
The players filed out, walking from the players' tunnel onto the pitch.
Outside the stadium, there was already a clamor of voices, the stands were packed, and on either side of the pitch, the Arsenal and Luton fans were clearly separated.
Gao Bo didn't go out with the players; he stayed in the locker room, preparing for his final pre-match tasks.
He had already received Arsenal's starting lineup, which was pretty much as he had expected, except for a slight change in the forward line.
He had originally thought that Van Persie, who had just been announced as recovered from injury last week, wouldn't start this match, and the forward partnership would likely be Adebayor and Arshavin.
However, looking at the starting lineup he had just received, Van Persie was still included by Wenger. He and Adebayor formed the two strikers, leading the line.
Arshavin also started; he would likely play as the right winger in this match, Nasri on the left, and the two central midfielders were Alexandre Song and the Spanish prodigy Cesc Fàbregas.
Current Arsenal has sufficient personnel in midfield and attack. On the bench, Arsenal also had good players like Walcott, Bendtner, Denílson, Vela, and the recovered Diaby was also on the bench.
In defense, Wenger indeed started the young goalkeeper Łukasz Fabiański. When it comes to using youngsters, Wenger is still very courageous.
The center-back pairing was Kolo Touré and Senderos.
Kieran Gibbs at left-back, Emmanuel Eboué at right-back.
Excluding players missing due to injury, this was basically Arsenal's main lineup.
Gao Bo wrote the names of these players on the tactics board according to a 4-4-2 formation.
Luton had been preparing for this match for a long time, and no matter what starting lineup Arsenal fielded, Luton could come up with countermeasures.
Gao Bo took out his notebook, which was already densely filled with notes on things to pay attention to in this match, but due to the changes in Arsenal's starting lineup, he added a few more points at the end.
After doing this, Gao Bo opened the Football Card System.
The card system still hadn't refreshed any missions for this match. Gao Bo was a little disappointed about this; it seemed that except for the first match against Chelsea, there were no rewards for playing opponents of this level...
Perhaps there would be one after reaching the final and winning?
Gao Bo wasn't entirely sure, but he still needed to equip cards for this match; this was the source of his confidence against Arsenal—without the cards, the difficulty for Luton to compete with Arsenal would increase by more than just one magnitude.
Equip Cards!
[Match Card (Blue): Team interception success rate increased by 15%]
This was Gao Bo's core card. The tactics Gao Bo arranged for Luton were largely built around this card. Without this card, Gao Bo's desired high-press tactic might very likely be broken down due to the players' lack of individual ability.
Players are the foundation for executing tactics.
Next, Gao Bo selected three other cards.
[Match Card (Yellow): Heading ability increased by 7%, designated player "Geoffrey" used]
[Match Card (Yellow): Shooting technique increased by 6%, designated player "Vardy" used]
These two cards were also Gao Bo's frequently used cards, and the next card he used was a yellow card redeemed after a continuous winning streak.
[Match Card (Yellow): Save success rate increased by 7%, designated player "Claude Rondo" used]
Gao Bo had wanted this card for a long time; a good goalkeeper is worth half a team. Although Claude Rondo's overall ability didn't satisfy Gao Bo, thankfully this English goalkeeper had quick reflexes in front of goal, which is why Gao Bo had always kept Claude as the starting goalkeeper.
Arsenal is not a team known for defending; they have always been famous for their beautiful attacking football. And facing Luton, Wenger wouldn't stoop to playing defensive counter-attacking football.
Gao Bo was sure of this, so the key for Luton in this match was to first contain Arsenal's attack and then look for opportunities to attack.
"Do you know your task?"
The players had already returned from warming up. Gao Bo was standing in front of Hassan Ali, looking at the young player he had promoted from the academy.
"Defend behind Jamie," Hassan Ali said loudly.
Gao Bo nodded: "Remember!! Defend in the front like you're in the back, go press the player on the ball!"
"Understood, Boss!!" Hassan Ali nodded.
If they were going to defend, they would do it thoroughly!
Arsenal is a very young team. If they were allowed to attack freely and these youngsters built up momentum, it would be truly difficult for Luton to defend!
Luton's defense was certainly not just parking the bus deep in their own half, but rather pressing the opponent's ball carrier starting from the forwards!
Arsenal is skilled at advancing their attack through ground passes. After trying the tactic of pushing defensive players forward in the last league match, Gao Bo decided to use this move in this match. Combined with Luton's usual collective defense and high pressing tactic, it might disrupt the attacking organization of teams like Arsenal!
Gao Bo put Hassan Ali almost in a shadow striker position. He wasn't using a defensive midfielder with good stamina and wide coverage in this position because of Hassan's attacking talent—if he had any.
The reason Gao Bo did this was to prevent Arsenal's defense from comfortably playing the ball out, ideally cutting off the connection between Arsenal's defenders and midfielders, which was the fundamental way to curb Arsenal's attack.
"Danny!! You also need to cover a larger area!" Gao Bo said to Drinkwater, then stood up: "Collectively!! You must pay attention to being collective!! Collective pressing, collective dropping back!!"
This is what Gao Bo had always instilled in Luton.
Attacking is not just the forwards' job, and likewise, defending is not just the defenders' job.
Defending starts from the front line!