[FM22] Arsenal F.C. - Trusting the process?

[Telegram Sam]

4 hours ago, chroniclesofal said:

Really loving everybody's updates this year, lots of interesting saves going on and I always enjoy the more realistic ones as that's how I like to play as well. I've been playing vicariously through your saves for a while, but now I've got Covid it was the perfect time to give FM another crack. I downloaded a database that started with the real results at the end of March and here's how it's gone so far. I wasn't taking screenshots throughout so this will probably be text-heavy, with a focus on squad building and transfers as that's the side that interests me the most, trying to keep things as realistic as possible.

I drew my first three games in charge (2-2 at Palace, 0-0 at Brighton and at home to Chelsea) before four wins in a row (2-0 vs United, 4-5 vs Southampton in a crazy game, 1-3 vs West Ham and 1-3 vs Newcastle) put us in pole position for fourth. We were able to afford dropping points at home to Leeds (2-2 coming from 0-2 down) as well as losing away to Tottenham 2-1 as fourth was already as good as sewn up, and we rounded out the season with a 1-0 home win against Everton. We actually ended up sneaking into third as Chelsea had really fallen off in the stretch.

My system was an assymetric 4-2-3-1 trying to replicate the more 4-3-3 shape Arteta has used this season. Partey as DM (D) at DMC, Xhaka as DLP (S) at CML, and Odegaard as AP (S) at AMCR. Saka or Pepe at AMR as IW (A), Martinelli or ESR at AML as IW (A or S respectively). Lacazette up top as CF (S) to get him involved in link play (he also missed penalties in two of our three opening draws which didn't endear him to me). I used Tomiyasu as a FB (S) and Tierney as a WB (S) to get the more lop-sided aspect to our back-line.

Here was my squad:

GK: Ramsdale, Leno, [Turner] - With Matt Turner coming in, I knew it would be the right time to cash in on Leno. Not much else to do here as I had other priorities.

RB: Tomiyasu, Cedric - I could have put up with Cedric for another year, but I liked the idea of a young, attacking alternative to rotate with Tomiyasu. Think Livramento but on a budget.

CB: White, Holding - Holding is a fine fourth choice, HG, a good leader, but only three options here is obviously too thin when we'll be competing in Europe. The returning William Saliba is the obvious solution, so he enters the rotation as our third CB, competing/sharing game-time with Gabriel and White.

CB: Gabriel, Holding - see above

LB: Tierney, Tavares - perfect for now

DM: Partey, Elneny - I decided to extend Elneny as I like his experience, and I already had one senior player bookmarked to leave in midfield. I see Lokonga as the long-term successor to Partey in this pivot role, but I don't quite trust him there yet and so I prefer to have the ultimate pro Elneny backing up this role. Ideal to back up a key player who will play the majority of matches as he almost never complains. Almost...

CM: Xhaka, Lokonga - While Lokonga develops into a more mature, reliable midfielder, I want to use him as a rotational option in the more box to box role which also has a lot of responsibilities but isn't so crucial defensively. Xhaka has taken on this role well in real life and did fine for me, but he's not really an 8 and so this was one of my top priorities. I decided I would move Xhaka on as I wanted to give Lokonga game time here and I didn't think the Swiss would like being a back-up. This was also the ideal time to cash in, with Newcastle hovering and two years left on his contract at 29.

AM: Odegaard, ESR - Pretty good for now, but with ESR also playing a lot of games at LW I was mindful that a proper back-up to Odegaard wouldn't go amiss

RW: Saka, Pepe - I've completely given up on Pepe in real life and his performances here, despite the winner against Southampton, didn't change my mind. I wanted to find a back-up to Saka who could also fill in at AM, allowing us to occasionally rest two key players while giving enough game-time to the potential new signing

CF: Lacazette, Nketiah - I toyed with extending Nketiah to be able to cash in on him properly this summer, but his demands were a bit much and I decided it wouldn't be realistic anyway. I extended Lacazette as I didn't want to have to sign two players in one position (my nightmare) and felt he would be a fine back-up to a new number 9, as well as allowing us to kick the captaincy issue down the road for a year while the long-term candidates stepped up.

LW: Martinelli, ESR - In theory this position has the ideal depth, two quality options who also offer something slightly different. I've struggled to get a tune out of ESR on FM22 though

So my priorities were as follows: upgrade on Lacazette; upgrade on Xhaka; back-up for Tomiyasu; back-up for Saka/Odegaard.

For my new number nine, I had my scouts look at the usual names (Isak, Nunez, DCL) but the only one who was convincing and affordable was Tammy Abraham, and I wondered if Roma would accept Xhaka or Pepe in a part exchange deal. They wouldn't. So I moved quickly to bring him in for £45M rising to £50M.

I looked at a lot of players for my Xhaka replacement, including Matheus Nunes, Fabian Ruiz, Youri Tielemans and Ruben Neves. The last three were prohibitively expensive at the start of the window and I wanted to get this sorted quickly. So I went for someone many others have bought too in Declan Rice. My scouts said I could have him for between £60M and £80M, but West Ham managed to get me up to £75M. I was just happy for someone other than Pepe to be our record signing.

As I said, I'd considered keeping Cedric around for another year as I looked for a quick, attacking Tomiyasu alternative. But when a few bids came in for Cedric I decided to take it as a sign and accelerated my search. There weren't too many realistic candidates though, and I had to bide my time to get my target as he had just extended going into the summer so at first wasn't interested in negotiating. Chelsea were hovering though so I moved as quickly as I could to get Calegari in for his release clause of £11M.

That was my first three priorities taken care of, and my next step was to take care of (get rid of) the players returning from loan. Off went the handsome Pablo Mari to Stuttgart (£20.5M), my sweet prince Hector Bellerin to Dynamo Kyiv for £19.75M, Maitland-Niles to Freiburg for £19.25M, and Lucas Torreira to Newcastle for £24.5M. And there I thought he didn't like the weather in England...

I also moved Bernd Leno on to Freiburg for £8.25M, Nicolas Pepe to Mainz for £17M, Granit Xhaka to Milan for £29M and the afore-mentioned Cedric to Marseille for £7.75M. These fees felt a lot more realistic than the bizarrely inflated fees for those loan players I was desperate to get rid of but there you go. We also picked up £3M from a tribunal when Eddie Nketiah chose Aston Villa over foreign shores.

All of these departures left me with plenty of cash burning a hole in my pocket, and I couldn't help looking down at that pocket when my scouts told me they thought Harvey Barnes, a real life favourite of mine, was gettable for between £40-50M. I'd struggled to find a RW/AM who could back up for Saka and Odegaard, and I'd decided to bring back Reiss Nelson to cover for Saka when needed (rarely). So I could bring Barnes in to rotate with Martinelli (I felt we lacked directness when ESR and Saka were the wide players, so it would be good to have two direct options at LW). Leicester got me up to £49.5M but I got my man. His old number 15 had just been made vacant and it felt perfect.

At this point my squad was settled and we started the season well with a 4-0 home victory over Aston Villa, with debutant Tammy Abraham scoring the first two goals on his first appearance. Sadly that fast start was curtailed in our following game away to Leeds: in a nightmare start, we had Thomas Partey sent off after three minutes at the same time as Abraham went down with torn knee ligaments and he would be out for three months. I considered relying on Lacazette with Martinelli taking some minutes at CF, but I wasn't taken with that idea as I don't think Martinelli is ready to play up top on his own, and I couldn't countenance the idea of Lacazette week in week out.

So it was back to the transfer window for an impulsive signing, and I didn't really have the time to wait for my scouts to examine any of my potential targets. I considered Gianluca Scamacca and surprisingly Neal Maupay, but I went for a player I like in real life in Ivan Toney. He was overly expensive and my scouts weren't keen, but I think he has something and I liked that he would give us a different option off the bench when Abraham was back. He was brought in for a steep £38.5M with a week or two left in the window, and our business was concluded.

We had an excellent start to the season, making it all the way to October having conceded just one goal, though without Abraham and with Lacazette slogging away up top we were struggling for goals, and luckily Harvey "Harvard" Barnes really hit the ground running and contributed well in his first months. We had a very winnable CL group with Milan, RB Salzburg and Galatasaray but the dropped points in Austria were frustrating.

Unfortunately our first defeat was just around the corner, and we went down 2-1 at Anfield, but I was very happy with the performance, as I usually get battered there, and we did well to stay in the game at 2-0 down and really pushed for a comeback. It took us a while after to get our goalscoring mojo back, and a 4-0 defeat in Milan brought back bad memories, but I took that as us getting all the goals conceded out of our system in one go and I was okay with that. Our defensive record had been incredible but Aaron Ramsdale had bailed us out countless times saving a ridiculous number of one-on-ones while our "no goals conceded" record was still intact, so I couldn't complain much. 

The match following our Milan humiliation was an away match to Tottenham, one of the trickiest fixtures of the season, so when Oliver Skipp was sent off after three minutes I could hardly believe my luck. But we struggled to break them down and Harry Kane scored from distance to give us a lead to reverse. We threw everything at them and eventually Bukayo Saka equalised on 77 minutes, before Emile Smith Rowe stepped up with a welcome contribution, firing in off the bar from 20 yards to win the game (basically a carbon copy of his shot that hit the bar against Tottenham at home last season, except it went in). The win got us back on track and we went on a good run that culminated in a 6-1 domination of Fulham which took us into the break for the World Cup. I hadn't managed to get much out of Ivan Toney though, so the return of Tammy Abraham some time after the restart would be welcome.

During the break we had three fairly uninteresting friendlies, and also two fairly interesting proposals: a few weeks before the window opened, unsolicited bids came in for Rob Holding and Mohamed Elneny. Both players had complained about a lack of playing time, and I didn't think I'd get better offers (both in the region of £14M) in the summer, which is when I had planned on replacing them. So again I decided to accelerate my plans and had a look to see who I could get.

I had been looking at Ryan Gravenberch as a new more technical midfield option, and put in an enquiry before I realised the Toney splurge had left me quite short money-wise (usually Arsenal have so much money I don't really think too much about the budget) and I could only afford cheaper options. I scouted Mahmoud Dahoud and considered him at £13M, but eventually went for former Dortmund midfielder Julian Weigl who also had a release clause, a little more expensive at £17M. Barcelona and Inter (or someone like that) were circling around him so I moved quickly to get him.

Replacing Holding was a bit more of a head scratcher and I scoured the transfer list to see who I could get. I found Max Kilman listed as surplus to requirements at Wolves, and also found Nico Elvedi available (though unlisted) at Gladbach. I agreed deals for both at around £12M, with Kilman cheaper in terms of wages and also HG, though I was leaning towards the pedigree of Elvedi, when I was informed that Liverpool had transfer listed Ibrahima Konate. My scouts decided to leave his report on 93% and not to bother finding out if he was injury prone (an absolute deal-breaker for me) but eventually I decided to just green light the deal and reload the game to go for Kilman or Elvedi if Konate turned out to be injury prone as I suspected he might. Luckily he wasn't, so I didn't have to do any sneaky reloading (blame my scouts), though I did have to do some careful arrangement of the transfer fee as we were really stretching it budget wise to bring him in at around £20M. It felt steep compared to the other two options but I felt he had the potential to become a genuine option rather than just a back-up.

We got back underway with a frustrating 2-2 draw at Wolves, going 2-1 down having led and needing an equaliser from the returning Abraham to salvage a point, and I was concerned that the break had seen us lose that defensive solidity that had served us so well in the first half of the campaign. Luckily we had another "get it out of your system game" in the cup away to West Ham, which didn't really concern me too much, and this was sandwiched between two 2-0 league wins and a 4-0 League Cup victory to serve. Julian Weigl made his debut in that West Ham defeat, and then had his ankle broken to leave him out for three months. So much for cover.

We went to Man City hoping to hold them off, as at this point we were top and they were our closest challengers at seven points behind or so. Unfortunately this plan lasted as long as 30 seconds. We kicked off, and when a Partey pass to Odegaard didn't quite reach its target, Haaland decided to just go ahead and lob the keeper. From 50 yards, with City's first touch of the game... I was a bit lost for words at that, and City went on to dominate us and go 2-0 up (they also have Mbappe, fun times). Like away at Anfield we bravely stayed in it and fought back to 2-1, but City's obscene quality told and Haaland sealed the game before De Bruyne booted in a free kick to put the admittedly deserved gloss on the victory. I wasn't too concerned at losing in the League Cup semis to Liverpool, and was much more focused on the league, so I was delighted to get a last-minute winner in a goal-fest at St Mary's in a near carbon copy of last season's chaotic match to round out the month.

I also had to entertain a derisory bid from Real Madrid for Saka: they'd been chasing him publicly for months, but rather than offering the reported £92M, the offer was a mere £65M. I rejected it and had a bit of a showdown with the kid, and he was really pushing for a move, but when he agreed that £122M would be a fair asking price I breathed a sigh of relief, and Madrid have been sent packing.

Two things stand out in February: firstly, the monstrous week of three home games against Liverpool, City and Madrid that could decide our season. Liverpool (who had just added Raphinha to their squad having signed Lewandowski and Lautaro Martinez in the summer, and were currently tapping up Victor Osimhen) battered us in the first 25 minutes, and though our adjustments helped, we couldn't break them down and lost key points to the other rival in the emergent three-horse race. We tried to learn our lessons and take them into the City game, and it really felt like it had worked: we went 2-0 up thanks to Harvard "Troy" Barnes and Gabriel, but De Bruyne reduced the arrears at 77 minutes and then Thomas Partey gave away a soft penalty from a corner with five minutes left and Haaland punished us again, from closer range this time. We went 1-0 up against Madrid but after they wrestled back control of the game and the score we had to be content with a late Harvard equaliser and had to go to Spain needing to avoid defeat to have a chance.

The other highlight of this month were the two absolute batterings we handed out to relegation fodder Sheffield United (we smashed them, I can call them that) and early season surprise package Leeds, both at home. City and Liverpool had far superior goal difference to ours (little wonder when you see their attacking signings) so these two routs were very welcome.

March, sadly, was a struggle. We beat Aston Villa with a perfect away performance, before getting well and truly FM'd by Bournemouth, you all know the deal. We went down 2-1 in Madrid despite a brave effort, and our confidence at this point was sufficiently damaged for us to have to be grateful for a late equaliser at Brighton. After a two week break we came back refreshed and put bottom side Wolves to the sword, but with Liverpool and City both dropping points were then unable to take advantage by beating Everton. We also lost Gabriel to a ligament injury: he'll join Odegaard, Toney and Saka on the treatment table (must be a big table), with Odegaard tearing his hamstring on international duty, Toney tearing an abdominal muscle in training and Saka done for the season with a broken ankle of his own. We're nearly down to the bare bones in attack, with Martinelli, ESR and Barnes behind Abraham and only Lacazette and Nelson, who have spent most of the season with the U23s, available off the bench.

So this is where you join me, with eight games left and us only four points off Liverpool with City standing to go between us if they win their game in hand. They've got the advantage on goal difference but luckily we won't be playing either of them again... our run-in isn't too bad, with the only "big" teams visiting us at home in Chelsea, United and Tottenham. It's probably going to be a stretch too far, which is a shame as we led the league until February/March, but eventually injuries have kicked in with a broken ankle or two, our form has faltered and the more expensive deeper squads are telling. Hmm, that sounds familiarly traumatic...

I've also been looking into a Saka alternative as I basically never rotated him and don't like Martinelli or Barnes at RW and have rarely used Nelson. I had my eyes on Jarrod Bowen with West Ham in danger of relegation, but my scouts told me I could get Porto's Fabio Vieira, younger at 22, for cheaper at around £28M, which is what I've done and that's arranged for the summer. I'll also be looking to get better competition for Aaron Ramsdale (Jose Sa is on my list, with Wolves as good as down).

Lacazette will be moved on in the summer and we'll see who steps up as a leader in his absence - I made Rice my vice-captain when he arrived, as he was instantly a Team Leader on joining, and Ramsdale is also a convincing option after I persisted with some leadership courses (less luck for White and Odegaard). Abraham was initially a Team Leader (I wasn't keen on that) but his injury saw him drop out, and Tierney swapped between Leader and Highly Influential depending on his playing time. He's now been usurped by Odegaard as the third member of that leadership triumvirate, and I can't say we're getting on very well. He complained about a lack of game time when I was rotating him and Tavares, but honestly he should have been grateful I didn't drop him completely given his underwhelming performances. I've been a bit frustrated with his technical limitations in real life and that frustration has been mirrored in the game, and I've been looking at upgrades for a few months. I've got Nuno Mendes, Owen Wijndal, Marc Cucurella and Rayan Ait-Nouri on my shortlist.

I've also finally started getting a tune out of Declan Rice, after an equally underwhelming first few months for him. I thought he was perfect for the RPM role, but that didn't really work, nor did the BWM role in its various forms. I've often struggled to get the 'third man' in a midfield three to work, and as a lone BBM he wasn't doing much either. I decided to shift things a bit and have more of a midfield two, which I think Rice is more suited to, so I moved Partey up to RCM and I think that's helped a lot, with Rice finally getting his average above 7 and having more influence on games. I've also been very pleasantly surprised by Konate, who has now ousted Ben White as the first choice partner for the excellent Gabriel, who Bayern have been following for some time. Calegari has been another highlight and I trust him in a lot more games than I would have at the start of the season. Tomiyasu remains the go-to option in big games and tough away trips.

I think that's everything I wanted to write about (I had a good CM come through in the youth intake but I basically don't care about the academy) so I'll maybe update at the end of the season or at the start of the next.

Great update! Keep them coming.

[KingLara]

Arsenal Season 2 – November/December

Despite the World Cup it was still a busy couple of months off the field more than on.

 

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP C MATCHDAY 6

RB LEIPZIG 0

ARSENAL 2 – Gravenberch 11 Ballard 63

Due to our large squad I took quite a strong team to Germany for the dead rubber final group game. Pepe and Bale both made their first appearances for nearly three months. I decided to try an experiment and played Martinelli upfront with Aubameyang and Vlahovic resting in London and Balogun out with a knock. He performed ok but it was more the performance of Asensio I was pleased with. I wasn’t expecting too much from the game but we played very well. We had 96% pass accuracy for most it as well as over 60% possession.

Needing only a draw in Portugal to progress Man City succumbed 2-0 to Sporting and were out. Liverpool and Man United topped their group ahead of PSG and Barcelona. Rangers finished third behind Napoli and Ajax. Juventus only needed a draw in Marseille to progress at their expense but despite playing against ten men for the last half hour lost 1-0.

Champions League Last 16 Knockout Draw

Marseille vs Arsenal

A good draw having avoided PSG and Barcelona. In fact the other two English clubs also got good draws. Liverpool play Zenit and Man United are up against Atalanta.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

WOLVES 1 – Eduoard 60 Dudu s/o 56

ARSENAL 2 – Aubameyang 21 Saka 62

Our final game before the World Cup saw us take on Wolves. Man United a couple of hours earlier had hammered Brighton 8-0 so we needed to win. We actually played very well and were unlucky not to score more. Wolves with an XG of 0.16 (to our 2.97) still managed to score though.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 2 – Aubameyang 26 59(pen)

ASTON VILLA 0

Our first match post World Cup was a home game with Aston Villa. Not much to say really but a routine win. We played a couple of pre world cup return games against AC Milan and Levurkusen. We beat Milan 3-0 at the san siro with Martinelli scoring twice Aubameyang getting the other goal and then drew 1-1 in Germany, Gravenberch scoring just after half time.

 

Premier League Table

Just the two games for nearly all teams in November and December.

1.       Arsenal P16 P40 GD+27

2.       Man Utd P15 P38 GD+31

3.       Newcastle P16 P34 GD+15

4.       Man City P15 P33 GD+17

5.       Everton P17 P30 GD+11

 

WORLD CUP

 

Group Stage

 

The World Cup began with Congo drawing 3-3 with Croatia. I’m not sure why Qatar didn’t start the tournament as the hosts are now meant to. They lost 1-0 to Denmark and would go on to lose the other two by heavier margins. For the Danes the opening day win was the only points they got as the lost to both Congo and Croatia. The Croats topped group A on goal difference.

Group B saw France get knocked out. Having lost 3-2 to Nigeria in their first game they lost the final one as well to Uruguay. Italy and Germany eased through in Group C. Group D saw Brazil finish runners up to Poland after losing to them in the final game.  Balogun was among the goals in Group E as USA topped the group from Spain confining Netherlands to an early exit.

Portugal and Argentina went through in Group F. A 90^th minute penalty by Ruben Neves gave the Portuguese the win in their head to head. England were the only team to record a 100% record beating Senegal Jamaica and Chile. Ramsdale starting all three games and Saka coming off the bench for two lively cameos. Finally for the group stage Belgium joined France in been knocked out after losing out on goal difference to Australia. A 4-1 defeat to Colombia providing the damage and then finishing off with a goalless draw against Switzerland. The Aussies setting up an Ashes second round clash against England

 

GROUP A – Croatia 7 Congo 7 Denmark 3 Qatar 0

GROUP B – Nigeria 7 Uruguay 5 France 3 Iran 1

GROUP C – Germany 6 Italy 5 Algeria 4 South Korea 1

GROUP D – Poland 5 Brazil 4 Mexico 3 Iceland 2

GROUP E – USA 7 Spain 6 Netherlands 4 Saudi Arabia 0

GROUP F – Portugal 7 Argentina 6 Cameroon 4 Japan 0

GROUP G – England 9 Senegal 6 Chile 1 Jamaica 1

GROUP H – Colombia 7 Australia 4 Belgium 4 Switzerland 1

 

SECOND ROUND

 

Croatia became the first team to qualify after needing extra time to beat Uruguay. Perisic with the extra time goal. Bakambu scored his third brace of the tournament but it wasn’t enough as Nigeria ran out 4-2 winners. Both Italy and Brazil qualified with 1-0 wins over Poland and the shadow Germany. Portugal knocked out Spain after Extra Time with the Spaniards playing for an hour with ten men but a ramos penalty meant extra time was needed and Jota and Neves scored the goals. England beat Australia 2-0 (unlike the ashes) but only had 40% possession. Saka played at left back with Ramsdale starting in goal. Finally Colombia continued their good tournament beating Senegal 3-1.

 

Croatia 2-1 Uruguay (AET) – Kramaric 29 Perisic 112 / Cavani 80(pen)

DR Congo 2-4 Nigeria – Bakambu 20, 35 / Chukwueze 4, 39 Nwakali 61, 73

Italy 1-0 Poland – Dimarco 63

Brazil 1-0 “Germany” – Neymar 58(pen)

Spain 2-4 Portugal (AET) – F. Torres 32 Ramos 73(pen) M Llorente s/o 63 / Dias 32 Moutinho 64(pen) Jota 101 Nevez 107

Australia 0-2 England – Greenwood 34 Grealish 62

Senegal 1-3 Colombia – Diagne 73 / Uribe 48 Zapata 55 Alzate 77

 

QUARTER FINALS  

 

Nigeria and Brazil played out a pretty drab game. Only three shots on target settled by a Neymar free kick. Croatia and Italy played a much better match later on the same day with the game being decided by penalties. Lorenzo Pellegrini missed the decisive kick after the first thirteen were scored.  England would play in back to back World Cup semi finals after beating Portugal 2-0. Saka off the bench to assist Kane and then Sterling adding a second. Ramsdale and White both started. Finally Argentina beat Colombia 1-0. The goal came from Thiago Almada who I have been tempted to get. Brazil vs Argentina and England vs Croatia make up the semi finals.

 

Nigeria 0-1 Brazil – Neymar 41

Croatia 1-1 Italy (AET) – Kramaric 83 / Barella 62 - Croatia win 7-6 on penalties

Portugal 0-2 England – Cancelo s/o 78 / Kane 75 Sterling 88

Argentina 1-0 Colombia – Almada 82

 

SEMI FINALS
 

A first World Cup Final since 1966 beckoned for England as they battered Croatia. An XG of 3.39 one of the highest of the tournament. Saka started and got the third goal. Harry Kane was left unused on the bench by Southgate. Brazil vs Argentina was always going to be fiery and this one certainly didn’t disappoint.  53 combined fouls with 10 yellows cards and one red. However the football was pretty good. Martinez looked like he had given Argentina the win in the 88^th minute only for Casemiro to score just a couple of moments later. Dybala grabbed the winner though in extra time despite the Argentinians playing it with ten-men.

Croatia 0-4 England – Abraham 22 Henderson 45 Saka 47 Rashford 82(pen)

Brazil 3-4 Argentina (AET) – Vinicius 9 Rafinha 82(pen) Casemiro 90 / Gozarlez 39 Martinez 80 88 Dybala 102 – Taglifico s/o 89

 

THIRD PLAY OFF

Brazil only came for glory and were easily brushed aside by Croatia in the third place play off. Alisson keeping the score down to just 3. Two brazil players scored under a 6 rating

CROATIA 3-0 BRAZIL – Perisic 13 Pasalic 15 Kramaric 70

 

FINAL

So the final was between England and Argentina.  Despite playing well domestically in France Messi hadn’t scored or assisted a single goal and had been dreadful during the knock out stages. He actually rating wise saved his worst performance for the final with just a 6.2.  All three of the Arsenal contingent played a part in the final with Saka starting at left back Ramsdale in goal and White coming on as a sub after 64 minutes. England were a hairs breath from  lifting the trophy as an even game seemed to be heading for glory until a 92^nd minute Gonzalez back post header took the game to extra time and then penalties. Foden Alexander Arnold and Greenwood all missed with Paredes scoring the final kick. So very close to England winning it. Hopefully by the next tournament there will be more Arsenal players. Possibly a new manager too.

ENGLAND 1-1 ARGENTINA (AET) – Kane 44 / Gonzalez 90

ARGENTINA won 3-2 on Penalties

 

ARSENAL AT THE WORLD CUP.

Not much representation. Inexplicably Serbia and Japan especially left out Vlahovic and Tomiyasu while Asensio was also missing for Spain.

 

Ramsdale Played 7 Clean Sheets 5 Conceded 3 Assists 0 Save Percentage 85% Av Rating 7.13

Runnarsson Played 3 Clean Sheets 1 Conceded 4 Assists 0 Save Percentage 81% Av Rating 7.13

Saka Played 3(+3) Goals 1 Assists 1 Av Rating 7.36

White Played 1(+1) Goals 0 Assists 0 AV Rating 6.5

Xhaka Played 3 Goals 0 Assists 0 AV Rating 6.63

Torreira Played 0(+3) Goals 0 Assists 0 AV Rating 6.8

Lokonga Played 1 Goals 0 Assists 0 AV Rating 6.5

 

Ramsdale was voted best Goalkeeper while Perisic won the best player reward. Young American Reyna scooped young player.

The golden boot went to Lauturo Martinez with six goals

No Arsenal players in the dream team dominated by Argentina.

 

OTHER NEWS

Both West Ham and Chelsea hired new managers. The hammers went with Conte while the blues employed Roberto Mancini. Diego Simeone is the new manger of Man City while Mourinho took over at Atletico. Guardiola is now the Manager of Spain.

Mbappe won World Golden Ball. In the team of the year there was Arsenal reprensentation with Aubameyang making the bench.

My Youth Candidates preview had three A’s in Full backs, Attacking Midfielders and Strikers.

I brought ina new Head of Youth Development called Davide Loddo. He has 20’s in nine categories with 15 discipline and 19 negotiating the only non coaching ones without. I also added some new scouts to try and get a better knowledge as it still stands at only 38%

There’s a bit of Transfer news which I’ll save for next month. As the free transfer Market starts I was only 25 days away from being able to offer Kante a contract but sadly he signed a new one.

Other free transfers available at the moment include Lewandowski, Benzema, Ronaldo, Jorginho, Lanzini, Fred, Barkley plus the usual over 35s brigade. A few ex-Arsenal with Walcott Giroud Ramsey Alexis and Koscielny. The only one that I might get from those mentioned is Jorginho but I am not sure yet.

 

FA CUP 3^rd Round Draw

Hull vs Arsenal

A decent draw. Aston Villa host Liverpool in the only other notable tie.

 

CARABAO CUP QUARTER FINAL DRAW

Forrest Green vs Arsenal

I did mention it in my sep/oct update but we play League one Forrest Green in the quarters . Man City vs Leeds West Ham vs Burton and Leicester vs Huddersfield are the other ties.

 

January/February Fixtures

 

Prem - Brighton (A)

Prem - Bournemouth (A)

FA Cup 3^rd Round - Hull (A)

Carabao Cup QF - Forrest Green (A)

Prem - West Ham (H)

Prem - Tottenham (A)

Prem - Everton (H)

Prem - Man Utd (H)

Prem - Fulham (A)

Prem - Brighton (H)

Prem - Man City (A)

Prem - West Brom (H)

Champions League 2nd round 1^st Leg - Marseille  (A)

Prem - Aston Villa (A)

Edited April 2, 2022 by KingLara

[chroniclesofal]

So my first full season has come to an end and the title race was a close one. We were four points behind Liverpool with eight games left, with City also just a couple of points off the pace. We needed to be as close to perfect as possible, and here's how April went after the disappointing Everton draw:

It was as perfect as it could get fortunately, with Tammy coming up big in two tricky away games and two comfortable home victories, the highlight being the win against Tottenham which meant we'd done the double over them. Liverpool dropped points away to Leeds before losing to City three times in a row, twice in the CL semi finals and once in the league to swing the balance away from Merseyside. With City leaving points on the table against Newcastle as well, we were now level on points at the top, but with a far inferior difference to City's steroid-boosted attack, we were essentially a point behind.

Early in May, a Liverpool side reeling from being thumped 5-0 by City in the second leg of that semi final lost their way, going down in the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park following a late Mason Holgate equaliser and an Alex Iwobi dagger to make it 3-2. Away draws to Tottenham and Leicester meant they were out of the picture. We would start May hosting Man United who had consolidated fourth, before trips to Leicester and Newcastle, rounding out the season at home to Chelsea. City would travel to Tottenham, Southampton and United, taking on Leicester and Sheffield United at home. We just needed to be perfect ourselves and to get one slip-up from a City side also looking forward to a Champions League final against Bayern. I had my eye on the United away game but was hoping for a favour from Tottenham.

No such favour was forthcoming.

Surprisingly Southampton put up more of a fight but again, no points dropped.

A tight looking victory for us over United, but in truth we always had them at arm's length.

City responded by grinding out a win at home to Leicester who had led in the first half.

Whether Leicester were worn out from their weekend efforts in Manchester, I couldn't say, but they didn't put up much resistance at home to us a couple of days later.

With just two games left, we needed City to drop points, and as they were hosting strugglers Sheffield United in the final game, it was the away game to United I'd earmarked as the game where they might drop points... 

You couldn't write it any better. We just needed to win our two remaining games against Newcastle and at home to Chelsea and we'd be champions...

Pain.

As you can see we created more than enough to win the game comfortably, though Newcastle had some good openings too. We created a lot in the first half but when we ran out of ideas in the second half I only had Nelson and Lacazette on the bench; Rice and Barnes picked the wrong moment to have an off day. With Saka injured we'd had to use Barnes on the right, and it really had a negative impact on his performances in the back end of the season. 

So now, having failed to do our bit, we were looking to Sheffield United for a favour (having thumped them 8-0 earlier in the season). They had looked like going down in 18th place, but West Ham struggling combined with an excellent May with a favourable schedule had seen them escape relegation and they were safe before the final day:

Unfortunately this meant they now had nothing to play for, so I hoped their manager would be up for doing the Arsenal a favour, and might be able to outsmart Guardiola. Who was their manager, you ask?

NARRATIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE

We had to do a job ourselves of course, but I was pretty confident we could do just that at home to a Chelsea side who had struggled all season and were likely to finish 6th. We went 1-0 up in the first half through ex-Blue Tammy Abraham, and when he put home a penalty on the hour mark we looked good for the victory. We of course had more than half an eye on Manchester, and City had gone in front with the inevitable Haaland goal from the spot on 25 minutes. We were hoping Arteta's Blades could cling on to that narrow deficit as long as possible before nicking an equaliser, but quickfire goals from Rodri and Mbappé shortly after half-time put paid to that and the rest of the afternoon was fairly devoid of tension in Manchester and London. Lukaku got Chelsea back in it with a foolishly conceded penalty, but it didn't really matter at that point and I moped through their attempts to draw level.

Here's how the table looked after 38 games:

It was tough to lose it on goal difference but above all we had the opportunities to go all the way. Obviously the Newcastle game stands out, as well as dropped points here and there in other games we should have won, but I was also disappointed with our results against Liverpool and City (only picking up a point at home to the eventual champions out of the four games). I wanted to see an improvement in those games next season but felt I had learned a bit about how to go about doing that. I was encouraged that neither City or Liverpool had been unstoppable though, neither in the league in general or in our individual games, because in the past I've found them completely insurmountable and it's sapped the fun out of the game.

All in all, a positive season despite the title disappointment. We would want to go further in the FA Cup (third round exit to West Ham) and Champions League (knocked out in the round of 16 by Real Madrid) as well as going all the way in the league, which was clearly my first priority. I certainly wouldn't say no to another FA Cup triumph, but it would feel wrong to win the CL before the league, and the next season would mark 20 years since the Invincibles, so it was high time to end that particular drought. We would be more than happy to make do with an impressive run in Europe before a heartbreaking exit, winning us plenty of hearts on the way but not derailing our domestic campaign. The narrative has to be right!

So as I mentioned I had already agreed a deal for Fabio Vieira in March shortly before Bukayo Saka's season was ended, and my other priority was finding a better alternative to Aaron Ramsdale who wouldn't make me **** myself whenever the physio mentioned Ramsdale's name. Maybe a bit harsh on Matt Turner but I don't see him being anything other than a back-up and I ideally wanted a promising player with some experience to compete with Ramsdale, or an experienced head happy to play second fiddle. I had considered Jose Sa and scouted a few others, eliminating anyone with one of my deal-breakers (injury proneness or not liking bad games), before agreeing a deal to sign Justin Bijlow from Feyenoord at just over £20M. It was a bit steep for someone who would probably not play much, but I hoped this would see the goalkeeping position sorted for years to come as Bijlow seemed happy to play second fiddle. 

When the transfer window opened I immediately offered out Lacazette and Nelson as I wanted to cash in on them before their value dwindled any further, as they wouldn't be playing much. I accepted a host of bids for Lacazette, being more accommodating to his wishes as the captain and a good servant to the club. He chose a club who hadn't bid as much as the others but I couldn't begrudge him his move to Real Betis for £9.5M. A number of bids came in for Nelson too happily, and I was happy I had extended his contract the previous summer, seeing a nice profit as he moved to Freiburg for £18.5M, joining ex-Gunners Bernd Leno and Ainsley Maitland-Niles there.  

I haven't mentioned much about our youngsters, as I only really pay close attention to the top talents and try to let the staff deal with the rest. Flo Balogun had a disappointing first half of the season at Fulham in the Premier League, so I had recalled him and sent him to Anderlecht where he had a much better end to the campaign. Charlie Patino had done very well at Nottingham Forest during a year that saw them promoted to the big league, and I hoped to send both him and Balogun to a top division side in one of the stronger leagues.

In the end it was Feyenoord who kept us on the phone after concluding negotiations for Bijlow and asked if we had any good youngsters we might be willing to loan to them. We had two. It would save money on scouting at least. And crucially the Dutch league is the weakest league that I still have on watch-only - my laptop is pretty slow, so I have a minimum of leagues loaded, and I always like getting weekly loan updates for players whose progress you can actually track, rather than just sending them out into the ether and hoping their attributes magically grow. This was what I was hoping would happen for Miguel Azeez who headed to Poland to play for Legia Warsaw for a year; Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Marcelo Flores went up the road to Luton.

At left back I had been tracking four players: Nuno Mendes, Owen Wijndal, Marc Cucurella and Rayan Ait-Nouri. We had a couple of offers for Nuno Tavares from Leicester but I felt he was a perfect back-up. I was more on the look-out for interest in Tierney, as he'd disappointed me and I was struggling to forge a positive relationship with him. Unfortunately we weren't the only ones looking out for a left back, with Newcastle, Inter and Leicester all hovering around my targets. Mendes stayed put, but Newcastle came in with a huge bid for Cucurella and got him for £48.5M; Inter went for Wijndal at £42M. Both fees were well beyond what I wanted to pay for them; Mendes' potential wage demands were a bit steep for me and Ait-Nouri wasn't quite at the level I was looking for, so I decided to give Tierney another year.

I also wanted to be a bit more active in signing youngsters as it's not something I'm very good at, so when I was informed that a talent on my shortlist, Fabio Carvalho, was subject to a bid from Nottingham Forest, I decided to act, with the intention of loaning him out straight away. Luckily he was much more interested in joining us than Forest, and we got him for £19M. We didn't need any extra attackers (two players per position with versatile players to cover does me just fine) so I was hoping he would be alright going on loan. Happily, that was one of his own conditions upon signing, so it suited all parties to send him back to recently relegated Fulham, though I felt he could have played at a higher level. 

So here was our squad going into 2023-24 - I'm including the numbers for the sad people like me who find that interesting. I never change players' numbers when they're already established, especially when they suit them (Tomiyasu having Monreal's old 18 is perfect). I still promote players who have outgrown their numbers, which was the case with Martinelli, whose 35 became 14 in my first full season. I had given Tammy Abraham 25 for his first season as I felt he was a bit in the Kanu/Adebayor mould (I made an exception to move Elneny back to his original 35 as he's moved numbers a fair bit in real life already). I like Konate having Kolo Toure's old 28, and Wijnlow being 24 like Almunia and Mannone before him. Rice would ideally be 4 but I'm not taking it off White, so his trademark 41 will do. I like Vieira at 22 (2+2=4 as a little tribute to our last Vieira to don the shirt), and Weigl 19 is a nice Gilberto Silva throwback, as well as allowing us to forget the last occupant of 19 by giving it to a completely different type of player. Toney and Barnes having numbers they've previously worn is quite satisfying for me as well. 

GK: 1. Ramsdale; 24. Wijnlow, 13. Turner

RB: 18. Tomiyasu, 21. Calegari

CB: 4. White, 28. Konate

CB: 6. Gabriel; 2. Saliba

LB: 3. Tierney, 20. Tavares

RW: 7. Saka; 22. Vieira

CM: 5. Partey; 23. Lokonga

CM: 41. Rice; 19. Weigl

LW: 15. Barnes, 14. Martinelli

AM: 8. Odegaard, 10. ESR

CF: 9. Abraham, 17. Toney

A few of the positions were more or less interchangeable in terms of quality (Tomiyasu/Calegari, White/Konate, Barnes/Martinelli, Odegaard/ESR could all be decided by a coin toss) but I felt I might struggle to give game time to Saliba, Lokonga, Weigl and Toney in particular. I thought Vieira would get a decent amount of time to start with because I'm always nicest with my new toys. 

I do have a tendency to have a first XI and a second XI, a tendency which I try to avoid because I like the idea of more moderate rotation, keeping rhythm and rewarding good form rather than just making 11 changes for a midweek game. The problem I had was I had noticed several partnerships within these two XIs: a British left side of Tierney and Barnes or a Lusophone partnership of Tavares and Martinelli; a young French partnership of Konate and Saliba backing up the established duo of Gabriel and White; Tomiyasu and Saka the two senior choices on the right, with another Portuguese speaking duo of Fabio Vieira and Calegari. So every time I rotated one player, I suddenly felt like I needed to bring in the other player of that partnership. I suppose the solution is to rotate one or two of those rotational partnerships in and to retain one or two of the more senior ones. 

Other than a Harvey Barnes injury that would keep him out most of the warm-up games, pre-season was fairly uneventful and I think we won all our games. I play them all on commentary only though and barely pay attention - I only manage them myself to make sure everyone gets up to full sharpness as I find the assistant isn't great at doing that. So with an almost full bill of health, we went into the season ready to go all the way in the league this time, visiting Southampton for the curtain raiser before hosting the champions a week later. It was a good opportunity to right the wrongs of last season, and I felt we could get at City as they wouldn't have much chance to gain momentum under their new manager, a certain J. Klopp (Guardiola was now at Liverpool, love the realism). Here's how those two games went, as well as September:

 

Full marks for August, with 6 goals and 6 points in two games with none conceded. We had to wait for the break-through against a strong Southampton side and weren't value for the 4-0 win at all; the City win was much more deserved. September then was a month of two halves: an unconvincing win away to Newcastle was followed by a weak effort at home to Palace, before Paulo Dybala flashed in a winner for Juventus in the first European group game (we were third seeds, so were grateful to draw Ajax as the first seeds, as well as Wolfsberger AC). 

We had actually dominated Juventus though, creating 2.50xG to their 0.92, so I was optimistic that we were in good shape, and so things proved as we won back to back league games 2-0 and 4-0, with Tammy Abraham delivering a dominant performance to put our rivals to the sword at home. I prefer for the goals to be shared around and not to rely too much on one player, but sometimes the chances all fall to the same guy. I wasn't too fussed at exiting the League Cup at the first hurdle, with Chelsea playing a full strength team and us rotating a fair bit. They were our closest challengers at the top, with City and Liverpool still adjusting to their nice little manager swap, and Tuchel having been given another chance by a distracted Chelsea board-room who seemingly had more important things to do than sack their manager.

We were perfect in October, and were alone at the top at the start of November having only dropped points in one league game, at home to Palace. I was again delighted to get a win in a game against one of our challengers from last season: Virgil van Dijk got his customary headed goal from a corner, his third against us in this save, but when big Gabi had a header saved from an Odegaard set piece, little Gabi popped up to slam in the rebound and give us our first win over Liverpool in eight attempts, having lost all seven previously. Chelsea losing surprisingly to Everton meant we were the only invincible side left in the league. 20 years after the Invincibles... we couldn't, could we?

We couldn't. 

After a Burnley game that we dominated and only had a second-half scare when Odegaard decided to lob his own goalkeeper in a mundane period of keep-ball (got to keep things interesting I suppose), we put Ajax to the sword in an impressive performance, and I was delighted for Harvard Barnes to put in his first good performance of the season. He had so far flattered to deceive, and my attempts to cajole him hadn't done much. I had tried being demanding with him but without much success, and I realised that his struggles on the right wing at the back end of last season might have damaged his confidence. I changed tack and tried being encouraging and it seems to have worked. Sadly in the following game we just weren't up to scratch at all and couldn't have many complaints about our first league loss of the season. 

That's as far as I've got, with an international break allowing that defeat to really stew for two weeks before we come back to Ashburton Grove to take on Leicester. I hope that by then the frustration at the loss will have festered and fomented to such an extent that we come out all guns blazing and absolutely batter Brendan Rodgers' side into next week. Unfortunately we lost Emile Smith Rowe for 2-3 months to a torn groin but hopefully Fabio Vieira will offer good cover to Odegaard as well as Saka.

The other event to note is a long term injury to William Saliba, who will be out for 7-8 months having done his cruciate ligaments. I had received an interesting bid from Brentford for him in the summer, and got them up to £42.5M which I was happy to accept for a player I felt wasn't going to develop much more or play a lot of minutes as clearly the fourth choice at centre back. He wasn't interested in joining and I didn't force the issue, but now I'm probably going to replace him in January as he'll be probably miss the rest of the season. I'm looking at Elvedi again, as well as a favourite of mine in Manuel Akanji. Sebastiaan Bornauw, Bremer, Lucas Martinez Quarta and Oumar Solet are also on my shortlist, but I'll probably go for one of the two Swiss candidates for their experience and as I think they'll be content to be fourth choice. I'm leaning towards the more expensive Akanji for his two-footedness and impressive pace. 

Finally, the loan move for Patino and Balogun to Feyenoord has been really successful, as they're both playing key roles and putting in great performances for them. It hasn't been quite as easy for Fabio Carvalho, with Fulham insisting on playing him up front which I think doesn't suit him. We've had words with him and hopefully he'll find form in the second half of the season, as I'd like to get him a good top division loan next year before we decide where we can integrate him. My number 11 shirt has been waiting for the right player and I think he's the one. 

Oh, one more thing to mention: after Lacazette leaving I had a captaincy decision to make. I had made Declan Rice vice captain previously, and he was the leading candidate. I had managed to get a resilient Ramsdale's leadership up to 14 and really was tempted to give it to him (I often was tempted to take Rice off in games where we needed a goal, and I don't always love new signings being captain so soon) but a goalkeeper being captain isn't ideal for talking to the referee, and I didn't want to ruffle any feathers. I went with the obvious choice, making Ramsdale vice captain, and Odegaard is the third man in that leadership group.

On 02/04/2022 at 15:40, Telegram Sam said:

Great update! Keep them coming.

Thanks Sam! Your updates have been particularly enjoyable for me to follow this year too, very much got me feeling inspired to play FM again.

Edited April 4, 2022 by chroniclesofal

[chroniclesofal]

Several virtual months have whizzed by and I've reached the business end of the season. Here's how things have gone since my last update, starting with that game against Leicester as we returned from an international break on the back of a disappointing defeat at Sheffield United:

Sadly the requisite response was not forthcoming against Brendan Rodgers' side: we created enough to get a win despite not playing particularly well, but as we pushed for a winner Leicester hit us on the counter late on and scored an 88th minute winner through Patson Daka. I had played Ivan Toney up front as I preferred to rotate him in for home league games (in away games I liked having the pace of Abraham to threaten in behind and felt Toney would struggle more in isolation in away games where we needed an outlet) and brought Abraham back in for the Wolfsberger match, where he hit a hat-trick. In hindsight I realised I should have used our star striker in the crucial league game as we should have had enough to beat Wolfsberger without him.

December was a busy one and we opened with a third league defeat in a row which was a real blow to our title chances, with Liverpool and Man City gaining consistency and Chelsea showing no signs of slowing down. We went ahead but Villa equalised before half time and hit a winner through Douglas Luiz on 70 minutes, and despite creating more than them we couldn't regain control of the game. We took all the built-up frustration out on Juventus in a key Champions League game, as we needed to win to top the group, having lost undeservedly in Turin. It was a second consecutive European hat-trick for Tammy that did for them in a match we dominated. It was then Bukayo's turn to hit a hat-trick in the league, after I decided to switch him from a support duty to attack in another comfortable victory. A third game in a row against Everton followed and as you can see the goals kept coming:

There's something about this type of match that I love: it felt like Alex Ferguson era Man United grinding out a home win as only they could (5-2 felt like a typical scoreline of theirs, maybe just because of that one Tottenham match). We went down twice in the first half and needed two quick-fire goals after the restart to drag ourselves ahead, before putting the game beyond the Toffees late on. Fabio Vieira hadn't scored many but was our leading assister, despite playing second fiddle to key man Saka.

We then got an impressive away draw to leaders Chelsea - this was initially a 0-0 draw in which I restricted Chelsea to one shot on target (and had none ourselves if I recall correctly) but my game crashed five minutes into the Watford game and foolishly I wasn't set up to autosave after each match. I did what was fair and holidayed the game until I got the result I had earned; I also had to holiday until I got the same Champions League draw as originally. More on that later.

Ivan Toney showed why I use him in home league games with a hat-trick of his own against Watford, before our second tricky domestic away trip of the month came at Old Trafford. It was a decent result but a frustrating outcome: we had led 2-0 with great goals on the break from Barnes and Saka, before United equalised on 45+4 through Ronaldo despite two minutes being added on. A man on the touchline was heard ranting about "Allegri time". We held them at bay until the 84th minute when Scott McTominay bundled a header through Aaron Ramsdale and it felt like two points dropped. A routine home win against Bournemouth rounded out the month.

January came around and at this point I had decided not to make a signing at centre back. I had failed in my pursuit of Manuel Akanji, who wanted to be a star player, and I decided to cancel a deal for Nico Elvedi for the second year in a row (the poor guy must be developing trust issues) as I felt he wasn't any better than Saliba, who was also HG at the club and happy as a fringe player for now. Having three CBs for the run-in wasn't ideal but it would allow me to give them plenty of game time, while having Rice and Tomiyasu as back-ups would allow me to use the other CMs and RB a bit more too. No January business for me then, other than on the pitch:

A somewhat mixed month: I was happy to avoid defeat at Anfield for the first time, meaning we hadn't lost to Liverpool in the league for the season, and keeping them scoreless felt like an achievement too. Strangely the media and the board treated it as a major disappointment which was surely a bug. We put Leeds to the sword at home for the second season running, before the second string moved past Brighton in the cup. We created a lot against Burnley but were only a goal up when Gabriel was sent off just after the hour mark, and were grateful for the final whistle and the three points. Brighton then returned to Ashburton Grove to grab a point in a match where we created enough to win and didn't concede much, but the attacking verve we showed against Leeds had vanished. We were heading to a second disappointing league draw in a few days against Bournemouth before substitute Emile Smith Rowe stepped up with a vital late goal to keep us in the race, though we were five points off City.

February saw City stretch their lead over us to eight points in a game we were really unlucky to lose, having been battered 4-1 there the season before. They went 2-0 up after 12 minutes and I was fearing a repeat, but when we went from balanced to positive we started to really threaten on the counter (doesn't make sense to me but fine), and created four or five one-on-ones on the break, all of which we squandered, until substitute Fabio Vieira showed the boys how it's done and dinked Ederson to give us a shout. We pushed for the equaliser but it didn't come. A fairly comfortable win over Sheffield Wednesday in the cup followed before we won by three-goal margins against Southampton and United at home. 

We then had our Champions League round of 16 first leg, and it was a trip to the Basque country as we had been handed a favourable draw (I was impressed that they were even in the competition at all, let alone qualified for the knockout stages). I had panicked at seeing the possible opponents in the draw - despite finishing first, we might have faced Real Madrid again, or Barcelona, with Lazio and Roma somehow topping their groups. Luckily fate smiled on us, and we came back from Bilbao with a disappointing but acceptable draw. 

March went more or less as perfectly as I could have hoped for. We ground out a win away to stragglers Watford with a rare goal from captain Declan Rice, who still wasn't really living up to his £75M price-tag, before crashing out on penalties in a poor cup performance. We had equalised late on and gone ahead in extra time, but Partey's penalty hit the post and Palace scored all of theirs. I was worried the 120 minutes played would hamstring us against Chelsea in a vital league game a few days later, but I rinsed the 'rest' function (something I haven't done enough of before this save, similar to the 'shouts' function) and we were 3-0 up shortly after half time, with only a Rudiger goal on 53 minutes causing us to be on our guards.

14 goals in three games followed, and you might think they were all routine. The Forest game was anything but, and to say the scoreline flattered us would be the understatement of the century:

Admittedly we created plenty, more than enough to win comfortably, but we were behind until the 68th minute and drawing until the 78th, with Abraham sealing the points on 88', and two Tomiyasu assists in added time added sheen to a win against a Forest side who had had the stuffing knocked out of them by that point, The other two victories were admittedly more routine, with Abraham continuing his fine form, putting Aston Villa to the sword single-handedly in a remarkable display of goal-scoring, as well as contributing two in our knock-out defeat of Athletic Club. A tie with an Mbappe-less PSG awaited: I was initially not too pleased with the draw, but with Neymar and Messi aging and Isak not yet ready to fill Mbappe's boots I realised it's probably the best draw we could have gotten out of the big teams. Lazio would have been the only better draw; their reward for knocking out Dortmund is a tie with Real Madrid. Man City take on Liverpool in a repeat of last season's semi-final; Bayern vs United is the other tie. We'll play the winner of City-Liverpool if we can get past PSG.

That will have to wait until my next update after the business end of the season: I've played up until April, and here are the fixtures that await me:

I've again paused to update before a Leicester game that follows an international break - I'll hope for a better result than last time. We host PSG first so we'll look to make the most of home advantage while we have it; a home match against Sheffield United is sandwiched between those games, and tricky away ties at Everton and Palace round out the month. Here's the state of play in the league:

We were eight points off a month or two ago, so I'm delighted to be so close to City, but realistically they'll win their game in hand, so we'll be six points off and needing them to lose twice. Luckily our goal difference is a lot healthier than last year in comparison to theirs. They just dropped their first points of 2024 against Watford and we're hoping fifth placed Aston Villa can test them at home this weekend. They also play Chelsea at home and Liverpool away, and continue to compete in the cup and in Europe, so there's a margin for us there if we can be perfect. On paper our hardest league match is clearly Tottenham away in the penultimate fixture, though they're struggling in 9th under Spalletti. There's also Chelsea to worry about who stand to go two points ahead of us with their game in hand, but they'll play United, City and Liverpool in a week at the end of April so we should get a chance to hold them off too.

In terms of performances, Tammy Abraham has been our main man, averaging a 7.76 rating and scoring 35 goals in 28 (1) appearances, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the development of Ivan Toney, who has 12 goals in 10 (6) league games and an average of 7.38. Elsewhere our right-backs have done well, with Tomiyasu and Calegari on 7.45 and 7.40 respectively, earning their new contracts; Kieran Tierney has shown he deserved to keep his place at left back with a strong 7.34 and 9 assists. Fabio Vieira has been excellent in his debut season, averaging 7.36 and leading our assist charts with 18 in all comps; Ibrahima Konate has been our most impressive centre back with an average of 7.43.

That strong form from Konate since he joined earned him interest from Juve, Bayern and United, as well as some smaller clubs, and I had to repel those bids and promise him I'd led him go for £38.5M, which appeased him, and we scared off those suitors. Sambi Lokonga also generated interest from Bayern and was disappointed not to be able to join them; a similar price-tag of £37.5M did the job. I like that the game now suggests an automatic value in these scenarios because I used to be terrified of alienating the player or going too low. We also rejected bids for Nuno Tavares. 

We've also brought in some new faces to our staff over the last year, primarily using the international breaks to find and integrate them, looking to inject top top qualitee while also making some popular appointments (and some perhaps less universally popular). Dennis Bergkamp was the first legend I brought in to work on the players' shooting technique, and I recently got Thierry Henry on board to shout at the players for not having a perfect touch. Freddie Ljungberg and Steve Bould were brought back into the fold, while the appointment of Robin van Persie to the coaching staff was met with suspicion. Scouts Gilles Grimandi and Francis Cagigao also returned, while Kolo Toure signed a new contract at Leicester. I've also got my eye on Cesc Fabregas who is now a player-coach at Hamburg. 

That's all I've got for now - we've managed to stay relatively injury free, with only a torn groin keeping ESR out for a month or so. It's now time to play through April and May, and hopefully I'll have a league championship to celebrate at the end of it. 

Edited April 4, 2022 by chroniclesofal

[chroniclesofal]

Today being theoretically my last day of isolation, I've had nothing stopping me from blasting my way to the end of the season, and that's just what I've done. Here's how April went:

We created a good amount against Leicester and restricted them to fairly little, but our finishing wasn't quite up to scratch so we were grateful for a Saka winner early in the second half. A Tammy hat-trick turned around a game that we had trailed 0-1 to PSG, with his late third giving us the breathing space we would need to take to Paris. We then battered Sheffield United at home for the second year in a row (sorry Mikel) with five of the goals coming in the first half. 

It was then to Paris to defend our lead, and though PSG didn't have any massive chances, they kept creating little openings and after Isak took one ten minutes into the second half we were up against it, and Messi made it level on aggregate after 78 minutes. We kept things level through a tiring extra time period, but penalties started terribly: Tammy missed the first spot-kick, and when Ramsdale got us back on terms immediately by saving from Kessie, Martinelli contrived to miss as well. Neymar and Isak converted either side of a calm penalty from Fabio Vieira, before Gianluca Scamacca smaccada post after Odegaard had held his nerve. Lokonga converted our fifth, and Ramsdale was the hero, saving from Hakimi to complete a victory that had looked unlikely a few spot kicks before.

Another Tammy hat-trick put Everton to the sword with their goal coming in the 90th minute, though we had allowed them too many openings for my liking. That defensive openness was clear to see at Palace, where we dropped vital points and were grateful for the point we did gain, having been 2-0 down at half-time. We struggled against their 5-2-1-2 as their central attacking trio outnumbered our centre backs and in hindsight I should have switched to either a 4-3-3 with a DM or a back three. 

A much more pleasing 2-2 draw followed, as we faced City in the first leg of the CL semis. We had again gone 2-0 down to them, two goals from Haaland (who else) in the first ten minutes of the second period putting us up against it. We switched to positive with 25 minutes left, and should have gone 3-0 down instantly when Grealish broke free and pulled it across for Haaland to complete his hat-trick, only for Ramsdale to fly across and deny him from close range, in probably the best save I've ever seen on FM. We held on and got our reward, with Abraham setting up Vieira for a goal on the break before getting one himself. It's probably not a coincidence that I had just discovered you can change the goalkeeper distribution from "area" to "position" and had asked Ramsdale to simply spam Abraham with long balls. 

Our dropped points at Palace were frustrating, all the more so because City had conceded a late equaliser at Villa at the start of the month, but this at least meant that we weren't any further away from them, and our task hadn't changed. The key league fixtures in May follow:

City dropping points in Sheffield was a welcome surprise, but we would still need them to drop points in two league games. It would have been nice if the Blades could have done this last season instead.

We held our nerve in a frustrating game against Newcastle, with Harvey Barnes in the role of supersub after others had spurned chances.

City responded with a nervy win of their own. I think we were ahead of them but they had at least one game in hand. 

I had accidentally counted Liverpool out, not realising that they stood to go level with us after our dropped points at Palace. A loss at Chelsea probably did for them, with Chelsea remaining a couple of points off us.

Another nervy North London derby followed in our penultimate game: when Eric Dier went off injured leaving them down to 10 after 83 minutes, we had to take advantage, and I thought Abraham had missed the big chance shortly before time, only for Gabriel to come crashing in with a header from the resultant corner. Later that evening...

City were on 36 games played, 85 points; we were on 37 games played, 87 points. All we needed was for them to drop points in one of their home games against Chelsea or Leeds...

Oh. 

We did our bit, beating Brentford 1-0 at home, but like last season the atmosphere was pretty flat as news came in from Manchester that they were winning comfortably. It probably didn't help that Leeds, like Sheffield United the year before, had just sealed their safety the previous game and so had nothing to play for. Talk about deja vu. Here's the final table:

At least we didn't lose on goal difference this time, although if we'd been level on points we'd have won it this year... we also got more points and did far better in the big games than the season before which had been our target, so it was incredibly frustrating to still miss out. More evaluation later on - we still had the Champions League to play for, on the back of a great result in Manchester in the first leg of the semi-final...

I am suffering.

City of course went on to win the whole thing, as well as the FA Cup (beating Bayern and Liverpool in the finals) and I was more than sick of Erling Haaland at this point. It's just no fun when a team is that dominant and they have a player that unstoppable. They also just signed Vinicius Jr for £144M in the summer so I have that to look forward to.

I was seriously considering what I could do to go the next step the following season, as I had my squad more or less how I wanted and I was just hoping for my talented players to continue developing. It's annoying that Saka's finishing seems hard-coded to be stuck at 10 when he's only 20 at the start of the game, but I hoped for more improvement from him, Martinelli, ESR and Odegaard to take us up a level, as well as increased cohesion and familiarity. As I said, our record in big games was much improved, and other than disappointing points being dropped to Everton, Brighton and Palace, it was that period of three consecutive losses to Sheffield United, Leicester and Villa that really did for us.

I did one bit of business early doors soon after the season finished: I had decided to loan out Saliba for a season after his long injury lay-off as he would need games to find his feet again, and he was clearly fourth choice behind White, Gabriel and Konate who were a strong trio. I had been tracking Milan's Pierre Kalulu, a right back who could also play centre back like Tomiyasu, though more comfortable in attack, for a little while, and my scouts told me he was available for £22M. I decided to bring him in and use Tomiyasu as a centre back, given his height advantage over the shorter Kalulu, who would rotate with Calegari giving me more stylistic consistency at right back, with Tomiyasu playing there in big away games if we needed extra security. Saliba had a couple of English loans to choose from: a rotation role in the PL with Sheffield United, or a first team role with West Ham in the Championship. He sensibly chose the latter.

When my scouts told me that Vitinha, another player on my shortlist for some time, was likely available for between £38-50M, I was intrigued, as his stats were incredibly impressive, with excellent mentals, strong physicals and great technical attributes for a deep-lying playmaker role. I didn't want to let him go to Liverpool who were also interested, so a plan formed in my head. My midfield had been quite disappointing this year, with Odegaard not hitting the heights of last season, and both Partey and Rice underwhelming again in the engine room. I had been unsure about a tactical change, but clearly my underperforming midfield was the position where I had something to gain. If I could find a role for Rice that suited him and add an extra attacking role in midfield to give us a boost going forwards, that would solve a couple of problems in one, so I decided to move to a 4-3-3 if I could get the right #8. I had originally signed Rice for that exact role, but I had seen him as more suited to a midfield two and moved towards a standard 4-2-3-1 shape. Now I planned to use him at the base of my midfield and thought/hoped the increased responsibility would see him step up. I generally like the pressing shape of the 4-2-3-1 more than a 4-3-3, and I also like having someone play off the striker so that he's not isolated and can knock the ball down to someone, but I thought it was worth a try.

I lined up a few alternative targets while my scouts followed Vitinha's exploits at the Euros, as he didn't want to decide until after the tournament. Gavi was next on my list, though he was nowhere near as robust, and I also had Tielemans, Matheus Nunes and Gravenberch among my targets, but when eventual winners England knocked Portugal out, Vitinha was happy to enter talks and we got him for £49M, paying a hefty £170k in wages.

At this point I had decided which of my midfielders would be making way: I could have moved Weigl or Lokonga on, but I thought Weigl would be a decent back-up in the #8 role, and I had previously earmarked Lokonga for the #6 role long-term; Partey was on expensive wages, had flattered to deceive, and had just a year left on his deal. It was an easy decision in the end, and I accepted various bids of around £15M for him, reluctantly agreeing to pay some £50k of his wages for the final year of his contract. Off he went to Hannover.

We also had interest in Justin Bijlow, our second choice goalkeeper who had only played in the domestic cups, from Inter. He was keen to play first team football there, so when I got them up to £32M I accepted for a solid profit of £10M on what we paid for him a year before. I went back to the other targets I had had at that moment and refreshed my scout reports, and found Ugurcan Cakir to be a very strong replacement for cheaper at £11.5M rising to £17M. Some of my coaches reckon he's even stronger than Ramsdale, the king of one-on-ones, so I might give him the Champions League group games as well as the cups.

That was all of my business in, with just some loans to sort out for my top youngsters. We had plenty of interest from Portugal and the Netherlands, and I had to avoid a couple of our players being brought in to compete with one another; Charlie Patino headed to Benfica, Miguel Azeez went to PSV; AZ Alkmaar took both Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Omar Hutchison, with Feyenoord replacing Patino's loan with Marcelo Flores. Fabio Carvalho chose to go to Shakhtar, which disappointed me as I'd hoped to see him closer to home at Wolves, or in a stronger league in Portugal. He had a poor year at Fulham after being loaned back there, and I'm beginning to think he won't make it here. That number 11 shirt is still available if he wants it badly enough.

The only player we didn't manage to find a loan for, surprisingly, was Flo Balogun, off the back of a 43 goal season for Feyenoord in all competitions. The only offers we got were for him to be a rotational option at Chelsea or Atletico Madrid, and those were obviously rejected. For some reason there were a couple of offers from the Spanish second division I had to dismiss too; then when I put him on the development list, we got brilliant offers from Leicester, Lazio, Napoli, Benfica and Lyon for him to be an important or star player, plus hefty loan fees. Sadly my loan manager decided these weren't good enough (!) and rejected them - when I retook control, I had no offers at all. Clearly a bug but a very frustrating one.

All of this meant that my squad currently looked like this going into the new season, with a couple of new shirt numbers in there (Kalulu taking 27 in a nice Eboue tribute, and Konate following Toure's route from 28 to 5):

GK: 1. Ramsdale, 24. Cakir, 13. Turner

RB: 21. Calegari, 27. Kalulu

RCB: 4. White, 18. Tomiyasu

LCB: 6. Gabriel, 5. Konate

LB: 3. Tierney, 20. Tavares

DM: 41. Rice, 23. Lokonga

RCM: 8. Odegaard, 10. Smith Rowe

LCM: 16. Vitinha, 19. Weigl

RW: 7. Saka, 22. Vieira

CF: 9. Abraham, 17. Toney, 26. Balogun

LW: 15. Barnes, 14. Martinelli

I had resolved to keep Balogun around until the window slammed shut and try to put him in the proverbial loan shop window, but Tammy Abraham getting a ligament injury would keep him out for 7-8 weeks, meaning we would need the cover. I'm still open to loaning out Balogun for one more year if a good offer comes in but I'm not holding my breath, so for now he'll compete with Toney to back up the clinical Abraham.

Pre-season went well after a dodgy first game with the new tactic against Club Brugge, and we faced City in the Community Shield hoping to get a little bit of revenge. Sadly we weren't able to get as close to them as in our more recent games, and deservedly went down 1-0, though at least this time Haaland didn't score. So we looked ahead to the real season opener, at home to newly promoted Fulham, hoping to get a bit more out of a few players in the new set-up, particularly Martin Odegaard. Here's how that went:

It could hardly have gone much better, as we raced into a 2-0 lead with both goals assisted by Odegaard, the first coming straight from kick off with a through ball setting Barnes one on one after 15 seconds. I would have liked more involvement for Balogun and I was keeping a close eye on how isolated the AF (A) was going to be in this system. I was also aware that a lot of our chances, particularly those created by Odegaard, had come from set piece deliveries, with not enough chances coming in open play for my liking, but it was a good start. Today should be my final day in isolation so I won't be playing nearly as much from tomorrow, but I could do with a distraction from real life football at the moment so I might advance a fair bit this evening...

Edited April 5, 2022 by chroniclesofal

[chroniclesofal]

After a positive test I had to continue isolation yesterday, so I cracked on and have made it to February with my somewhat tweaked team playing 4-3-3 in a hope to overhaul the relentless Man City. We had started quite well against Fulham and had a favourable opening to the season, but things would get significantly harder in October. Here's how August and September went:

Brentford had just battered Sheffield United 6-0 on the opening day so were full of confidence, and we struggled to break them down in a frustrating draw. We put things right by beating Blackburn, making their return to the top flight, and I was pleased to see our striker scoring four times. One was a penalty and one came from an error though, so I wasn't yet convinced.

We kicked off September by thumping Wolves, though were more open defensively than I would have liked; we were much more impressive against Barcelona and could have put four past them. We needed to win that game as we were in a group of death, with Barcelona, Inter and Monaco, and I really wanted to avoid finishing second. We then went ahead early doors against City, but in truth they battered us and two goals from you-know-who either side of half-time gave them a deserved win. I was a bit concerned as we had been closer to them the season before. Comfortable victories against Ipswich in the League Cup and Villa in the league concluded the month.

Toney had stepped up to cover for last season's top scorer Abraham quite well in his absence, and just as well. We had managed to find a loan for Balogun by offering him out on loan immediately after the loan manager rejected a bunch of offers for him, and this time he accepted a good offer from Marseille.

Our strong start to the group stage continued with an impressive win at the San Siro, before an Odegaard goal gave us the points against Chelsea in a game where we struggled to create much. We hadn't lose to Liverpool the season before, so it was frustrating to go down 1-0 at Anfield, especially as we had no shots on target. The goals came back at home to Monaco in the groups as we remained perfect, and we went 1-0 up against Man United in an important home game the following weekend. Sadly Harvey Barnes lunged in a few minutes later and saw deserved red, and United took control with two goals before half time. We chased the game and they killed us off in the second half. We squeezed past Blackpool in the League Cup a few days later.

November was much better results wise, as we booked our passage to the knockout stages with two games remaining, two late Barnes goals making up somewhat for his red card in the league after we had held off a late Leeds fight-back at the weekend. A convincing win at Newcastle saw Lucien Favre lose his job (never nice to see a fellow pro out of a job etc) before three consecutive wins by a one-goal margin. We had created enough to deserve the win in all three games, but it was all too tight for my liking and I was concerned about the narrow manner of the victories. The Tottenham win in particular was hard, especially against a weak side now managed by my real-life nemesis Roberto Mancini, a pathetic man, and we toiled until 72 minutes when Odegaard magicked a free-kick in off the post.

At this point I was in the process of agreeing a deal for Feyenoord talent Gabriel Vidovic, a versatile attacking midfielder who my scouts urged me to snap up at £24.5M. We didn't really need him but he was an excellent prospect and already capable of contributing, and I decided to pull the trigger. His demands were excessive and we ended talks, but when his agent alerted me to their willingness to reopen talks, I went back in, and stretched myself a little further than I had originally done, and got him on a £75k/week contract, not expecting him to play the 25 club league games that would take him to an eye-watering £120k for another season or two. However, when Martinelli broke an ankle in training at the start of December, the need for cover was clear, and we would have to accelerate his path to the first team. We would have to make it through December without cover though, and a less significant injury to Smith Rowe left us a bit short.

We started to wobble after two league victories, one much tighter than the other. We could afford to lose to Barcelona and still top the group, so I had rotated fully, but even a fully rested side couldn't get past a strong Southampton who were competing for the top six. Another tough cup draw saw our second string bow out to United despite going ahead, and we were grateful for two early goals that sent us past Sheffield United. We then led Burnley until the 70th minute, when they woke up and decided to put three goals past us in what was probably the death blow to what remained of our title hopes. We were grateful to take a point from Liverpool in a game they just about edged two days later.

January opened with some transfer business: just before the window opened, City had come to us with an offer for Kieran Tierney, who had gone back to his underwhelming self after a much more promising previous season. He had just a year and a half left on his contract, and my staff advised me that he had no intention of renewing, so I got them up to £47.5M and was fairly okay with letting him go, though I was reluctant to strengthen them further. I had noted that things hadn't gone well for Owen Wijndal at Inter, so I went back in for him at £26M, holding off interest from Bayern to make him our new left back. Sadly he didn't get his work permit in time for the Chelsea game, so we would be using Nuno Tavares there. Frustratingly, as soon as Tierney's move had gone through on the 1st of January, Declan Rice came to me, backed by the majority of the squad, and complained about a lack of depth - and though my promise to strengthen appeased them, nothing changed when Wijndal joined a couple of days later and they remained unhappy until the end of the month.

Chelsea had just sacked Thomas Tuchel, and we hoped to take advantage of the turmoil, but our complete lack of confidence saw us go down to a late Azpilicueta goal in a game we didn't deserve to win. By this point, I had decided to ditch the 4-3-3 and go back to the tried and tested 4-2-3-1 (I think I switched by the Liverpool game) as Abraham, scorer of 45 in all comps the season before despite a lay-off of 2-3 months, hadn't even reached double figures by the halfway point. Relatively comfortable home victories in the league followed, though we had to wait a while for the breakthrough against high-flying Leicester, but when their manager Brendan Rodgers jumped ship to Chelsea a few days later he had a dream start as they completely thumped us in another match where we failed to register a shot on target. With our title challenge over I had really wanted to make progress in the cups but we got no luck with the draws once again.

We went ahead against United despite our battered confidence, but they soon took control of the game and ran out deserved 3-1 winners to do a disappointing double over us, as we were really struggling to stay in the top four and they were our closest challengers along with Southampton; Liverpool and Leicester were in second and third, with City unassailable at the top dropping points only twice. We found our goalscoring touch against Burnley to record a much-needed win to boost the confidence and our goal difference at the end of the month.

We also had interest in two of our midfielders: PSG had come in for Declan Rice before the window had opened, with a massive opening bid of £90M, and he was keen to go. He hadn't been particularly impressive for us so I could have easily been tempted as I felt I could get them up to £150M, but I was already trying to sort out a Tierney replacement, and I had no good defensive midfielders on my shortlist to replace him with. I told him we couldn't lose such an influential player as him, and somehow that appeased him; an offer for Sambi Lokonga from perennial suitors Dortmund at £28M was rejected too.

That's where I'm up to now, with a Champions League tie on the horizon: despite doing brilliantly to win our group, we were faced with potential ties against Real Madrid and Bayern, who had somehow contrived to finish below Europa League winners Leicester in their group. We avoided Real and were praying for Bayer Leverkusen, but we got the trauma-inducing trip to Munich, back-to-back defeated finalists, and that will probably be that for us in the cups, leaving us to focus on the league as we try not to fall out of the top four. It's been a pretty miserable season and the switch to 4-3-3 didn't work at all, serving only to leave our striker more isolated and dropping deeper to receive the ball where our attacking midfielder would have been the season before. Vitinha has been disappointing in the 8 role and I'm not sure I'll ever get a good performance out of that position. Oh well. It's just a shame that we've lost confidence to such an extent that even going back to the 4-2-3-1 we're not as good as we were last year. My fault for being ambitious!

[chroniclesofal]

One more update from me as I tried to keep our season from going off the rails after a hugely challenging January. Unfortunately February didn't go any better.

I probably shouldn't have played the Brentford game while struggling to stay awake, because when they went 2-0 up I had genuinely been convinced that we were the ones who were 1-0 up... no such excuses for the Fulham game where we came back from a two week break still lacking in confidence. The board summoned me afterwards and I asked for more time (they had already called a meeting the month before where I had pointed to my past success, leading them to drop their concerns for the time being). They said they would assess things after another month, but didn't give me any specific points targets so I felt I wasn't in danger just yet.

Still, we needed to respond at home to Sheffield United, and when we turned a 1-2 deficit into a 3-2 lead with minutes to I thought we were going to be back on track. Sadly Nuno Tavares lost his head and gave away a penalty minutes later and we dropped yet more points. We went 2-0 down early doors in Munich and had to be fairly satisfied to keep it at that - realistically we were out but there was still a chance we could snatch something in the second leg. Then came March:

Or at least half of March. We ground out two massive wins away to Leicester and Southampton, two hugely challenging fixtures given their strong seasons and our struggles; we were only able to come away from Goodison with a point but I felt at this point I had done enough for the board to restore confidence in me after the month's assessment, with us in just three points off the top four. Sadly the board didn't agree, and to my surprise I came back to a grey screen and the following message:

I found this really bizarre as we were still in with a strong shout of getting top four despite lots of disappointing results, and expectations were only so high because we had had two and a half excellent seasons under my management. To sack me at the first sign of trouble was a really poor move and I didn't hold back in the press interviews that followed. I holidayed through to see how my team did, and it didn't get any better: they dropped to 6th after more poor results, with caretaker Kevin Betsy not doing a great job while waiting for Marcelo Gallardo to finish his season at Real Madrid and take over in the summer. I won't be taking any other jobs so that will mark the end of my save, good timing as I come out of isolation - I was just a bit miffed at this unnecessary email from my PA (or should I say former PA):

Not needed, Jacob.

Edited April 6, 2022 by chroniclesofal

[hasdgfas]

Oof, that's brutally unlucky. I find the ever-increasing expectations of the boards in FM a bit unrealistic, although maybe it's just unrealistic at the very very top when you're already winning the League every season and doing well in the Champions League. A blip of a season shouldn't be your downfall if you're doing well otherwise

[hasdgfas]

2030/2031 midseason update:

Things are going well so far! Doing super well in the League, with only a couple blips(and not to the top teams, either). We did well in the Champions League, and are looking forward to a solid tie against Milan. Kinda rough, but considering 1st in their group was Real Madrid, definitely a better option there. Solid draw in the FA Cup, and I'm 100% winning the Carabao Cup final. Losing is not an option.

Squad performances are excellent as always. Ignacio Suarez continues his climb to be the #1 over Ramsdale, we're up to 4 Academy players in the first team squad(even though Jason Blanks is leaving on a free at the end of the season), and Icaro Kunrath, while not quite scoring to Vlahovic's level, has been a fantastic purchase as I try to fit him and Vlahovic into the squad at the same time.

A few more transfers than I'm used to at this point in a save, but I guess when Jovanovic goes for 144M I can splurge a little bit on 5 players(all regens at this point. Non-regens are too old for my buying strategy)

[Sysiphus]

@chroniclesofal That's super unlucky, just as you were turning the bad form around. Very good save though and I thoroughly enjoyed your updates!

@hasdgfas Going very strong. Sad to lose Jovanovic but keeps the save interesting to redistribute your talent pool every now and then. It would be great fun and add to the enjoyment of reading your updates if you'd do a rundown of your squad at your convenience, so we get a feel for the squad. No worries if you can't be bothered though. 

[hasdgfas]

11 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

@hasdgfas Going very strong. Sad to lose Jovanovic but keeps the save interesting to redistribute your talent pool every now and then. It would be great fun and add to the enjoyment of reading your updates if you'd do a rundown of your squad at your convenience, so we get a feel for the squad. No worries if you can't be bothered though.

yeah, I usually do one every couple seasons! I'll do that in my next summer update. It's mostly regens at this point, which I understand makes it hard

Edited April 7, 2022 by hasdgfas

[KingLara]

Arsenal Season 2 – January/February

Finding good form.

 

TRANSFERS
 

The winter Transfer window was busy with clubs having more time to analyse their teams and see what was needed during the domestic hiatus due to the world cup. I wasn’t really planning on buying anybody but two exits changed that and forced me into the market.

IN

Benjamin Pavard (35m)

Lukas Hradecky (1m)

OUT

Bernt Leno (8m) - Krasnodar

Lucas Torreira  (15m) - Roma

Hector Bellerin (8.5m) – Shakhtar

 

With all three contracts due to run out at the end of the season I decided to offer them to clubs and see if anybody would take them. I could probably have got a little more but I was happy with the output.

I had a couple of choices as replacement for Bellerin. The obvious one was Livramento who I know is highly tipped but 60million was too much for me to part ways with for now. I then agreed a deal with Vrsaljko for 6.5million but ultimately went with the more expensive Pavard. Hradeckys contract was due to expire at the end of the season so I got him for very cheap. He is a good back up for ramsdale and certainly better than Runnarson although he’s been playing well in the youth team. I have some excellent young goalkeepers coming through so it’s just a stop gap until they’re ready in a few years time.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Brighton 1 – Lallana 35

Arsenal 2 – Aubameyang 81 Martinelli 88

New Years day saw us travel to Brighton. We weren’t at our best and needed a late Martinelli winner to get all three points.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Bournemouth 1 – Potter 75

Arsenal 2 – Pepe 40 Aubameyang 53(pen)

Three days later it was a similar venue, story and result. Bournemouth played slightly better although we should have scored more.

 

FA CUP 3^RD ROUND

Hull 0

Arsenal 1 – Saka 51

Rotating my team I couldn’t decide who should start up front between Balogun and Vlahovic so went with both. We played a 4-2-2-2 wide with Gravenberch and the improving Guendouzi holding midfielders. Both first choice centre backs started. The strikers had an off day but Saka and Nelson on the wings were excellent.  We had 70% possession and again should have scored more.

No real surprises from the 3^rd round. Everton went out on penalties to Middlesbrough.

5th round draw – Stoke vs Arsenal

Trips to stoke aren’t always pleasant bot not a bad draw. Man City drew Chelsea at home. Southend the last non league team standing host Ipswich.

 

CARABAO CUP QUARTER FINAL

Forest Green 0

Arsenal 3 – Saka 23 S-Rowe 32 Vlahovic 57

Over two months after we beat Ipswich 4-1 at the Emirates in the fourth round we finally made the short trip to Forest Green for the Quarters. I played 4-2-2-2 again with a makeshift back four including Norton-Cuffy at right back having had Bellerin leave. The game itself was a simple one despite the fact that we hit post and bar four times. Vlahovic went off injured and would miss a few weeks.

Leicester hammered Huddersfield 6-0 and we would meet them at Wembley (?) in the semis. Man City vs West Ham the other game.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Arsenal 0

West Ham 0 – Soucek s/o 82

West Ham ended our 33 consecutive win streak at home buy committing 33 fouls in a goalless draw. Areola with a man of the match display. We only managed five shots on target but should still have won.

 

CARABAO CUP SEMI FINAL

Arsenal 2 – Ballard 84 Aubameyang 120

Leicester 3 – Iheanacho 35 Vardy 95(pen) Vestergaard 118

After extra time

No two legs this season as we headed into a carabao cup semi final against Leicester at Wembley.  I played a strong side with Leno still at the club but due to leave before the final I started Ramsdale in goal. Tomiyasu, Saka Odegaard and Aubameyang also started. The game was even with both sides having over 2.60xg and when Ballard equalised to take the match into extra time I was confident we had the subs to win it. However Vardy scored a penalty and then Vestergaard struck from a set piece and it was game over. Aubameyang pulled one back but we ran out of time. Leicester would meet man city in the final who beat West Ham 1-0.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Arsenal 2 – Odegaard 5 Aubameyang 40

Everton 0

With very little rest from 120 minutes at Wembley we hosted Everton at 3pm on the Saturday. Luckily for us they took no advantage of it and we scored two first half goals before I killed off the game in the second half. They only had one shot on target so it wasn’t difficult.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Arsenal 1 – Aubameyang 60

Man Utd 0

The big match in January saw a top of the table clash as United headed to the Emirates. However not one United player managed more than a 6.8 rating as we easily brushed them aside. Vlahovic came back from injury to make the bench but didn’t come on.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Fulham 2 – Cornet 35 Knockaert 90

Arsenal 3 – Vlahovic 25 Saka 39 Aubameyang 76

With Fulham struggling in the league I went to Craven Cottage and started both Vlahovic and Aubameyang together. Both did well but of course the more attacking approach led to a leakier defence and Fulham managed to get two goals with one coming off the last kick of the game.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Arsenal 4 – Vlahovic 13, 85 Partey 59 Saka 69

Brighton 3 – Connolly 37 41 Bissouma 44

The first game of February saw a 7-goal thriller and Brighton looked set to do the unthinkable under my reign and secure an away win at the emirates. I played the same system as against Fulham so Vlahovic and Aubameyang started together again. We started well but every Brighton attack ended in a goal and at half time we found ourselves 3-1 down despite playing well. In the second half we ramped up the pressure and Brighton eventually caved. Overall we had 29 attempts on goal with 14 on target so the seagulls did well to keep it down to four. Still though not a good game to sit through and endure.

 

FA CUP 4^TH ROUND

Stoke 1 – Campbell 42

Arsenal 2 – Vlahovic 14, 79

Hradecky made his debut as we travelled to Stoke in the Fa Cup before two crunch away league games inside 3 days with Spurs and Man City. Only Vlahovic from my main team started while Foran and Cirjan made the bench but were unused. The game was pretty comfortable with Stoke barely threatening.

Both Manchester clubs were dumped out with United losing at Burnely and City at home to Chelsea.

5th round draw – Arsenal vs Barnsley

A good draw. Liverpool host Leicester in the only other tie of note.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Tottenham 1 – Paredes 68

Arsenal 1 – Aubameyang 90

We headed to Spurs in a good position but with Liverpool starting to gather momentum behind us. Sadly we put in one of our worst performances of the season only for Aubameyang to hit a 94^th minute equaliser that was very undeserved.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Man City 0

Arsenal 0

I would probably have taken two draws away at Spurs and City and that’s what we got. It did mean Liverpool closed the gap to just four points but it’s two of our tougher games out of the way although we do still need to travel to Anfield in April. The game itself we actually played well and had 60% of the ball but as it went on both teams were happy with a point.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Arsenal 3 – Vlahovic 17 79 Aubameyang 51

West Brom 0

Gabriel got a groin strain in training just before the game and would be out for a month. Saliba replaced him and did well. It was a good performance but another game where we should have scored more. West Brom another team against us to commit over 30 fouls.

 

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2^nd round 1^st leg

Marseille 0

Arsenal 2 – Saka 43 Vlahovic 88

I went with quite a defensive formation in the first leg with Partey infront of the back four and Gravenberch and Guendouzi ahead of him with no place for the unfortuante Odegaard. Pavard was preferred to Saliba in central defence. I opted for Aubameyang ahead of the free scoring Vlahovic as the lone striker. We played well in the game and Marseille offered very little going forward. Guendouzi got man of the match. Should have done enough to make the quarters. Aubameyang went off with a hamstring injury though and would be out for a few weeks

There were five other away wins in the first leg of the knockout stages. Both Liverpool and Man United won while Dortmund beat Barcelona 1-0 in Spain.   

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Aston Villa 1 – Watkins 8

Arsenal 3 – Bale 16 Vlahovic 27 59

The final game of February saw us travel to Villa Park. We were behind early through Watkins but recovered well and eased to the win. Bale scored his first goal of the season in a tough campaign for him so far. Vlahovic adding another two goals making it four braces in the month and 21 goals for the season.

 

Premier League Table

Three defeats in a row from the top 3 has seen Man United completely fall away after collecting just 15 points from their 11 games. Spurs are 7^th and Chelsea 10^th after enduring a tough season that has seen 9 league defeats including losses to Brentford and Everton at home.

1.       Arsenal P27 P67 GD+39

2.       Liverpool P27 P63 GD+48

3.       Newcastle P27 P57 GD+20

4.       Man Utd P26 P53 GD+33

5.       Man City P26 P51 GD+26

 

 

Premier League Stats – Min 10 matches

Premier League Top scorers

Aubameyang 24 Lukaku 22 Salah 18 C-Lewin 17 Jimenez 16

Premier League Top Assists

De Bruyne 15 Odegaard 11 B. Fernades Salah 10 S-Maximin 9 

Premier League Av Rating

Robertson 7.75 De Bruyne 7.66 Origi 7.57 Vlahovic 7.53 Odegaard 7.51

Premier League Motm

Aubameyang 8 De Bruyne C-Lewin 7 Ronaldo Lukaku 6 Salah 5

 

Champions League – Min 3 matches

Champions League Top scorers

Salah 8 T. Martinez (psg) 7 Greenwood Lewandowski Mbappe (bayern m) 6  - (Aubameyang 3)

Champions League Top Assists

Mbappe Marin (ferencvaros) 7 Neymar 6 Shaw B.Fernandes 5 – (Asensio 2)

Champions League Av Rating

Rashford 8.35 Mbappe 8.11 B. Fernandes 8.03 Haaland 7.93 :Lewandowski 7.82 (Guendouzi 7.47)

 

Arsenal stats (1^st team)

Appearances

Tomiyasu 34

White 33

Odegaard 32(+1)

Aubameyang 31(+1)

Ramsdale Gabriel 30

Partey 28(+1)

Saka 27 (+6)

Tierney 26 (+1)

Xhaka 24 (+2)

Vlahovic 22(+6)

Guendouzo 15(+5)

Tavares 14(+8)

Gravenberch 13(+9)

Saliba 11(+3)

Pepe 11(+3)

Martinelli 10(+14)

Asensio 7(+14)

S-Rowe 7(+11)

Bale 7(+9)

Nelson 7(+7)

Ballard 6

Balogun 4(+2)

Pavard 3(+2)

N-Cuffy 2(+1)

Hradecky Lopez 1

 

Goals

 

Aubameyang 28

Vlahovic 21

Saka 10

Odegaard 8

Balogun Martinelli 3

Xhaka Partey Ballard S-Rowe Nelson 2

Pepe Tavares Asensio Guendouzi Gravenberch Gabriel Bale 1

 

Assists

 

Odegaard 13

Tierney Saka 9

Xhaka 6

Asensio Martinelli 5

Pepe Vlahovic 4

Tavares Tomiyasu Gravenberch 3

Partey Guendouzi Aubameyang Nelson Bale 2

Pavard Saliba S-Rowe 1

 

 

Other News

By far the biggest deal was Joao Felix joining man City for 121 million. He is yet to score in ten appearances for them. Paredes swapped Paris for London and went to spurs and of course scored against us when we played. Spurs also brought in Damsgaard and sold Eric Dier to Milan.

Psg are running away with Ligue 1 having only dropped points in 3 of their 24 games. A similar story in Germany where Bayern are still unbeaten. Juventus are miles clear  in Italy but its tighter in Spain. Real Madrid hold a 1 point lead over Atletico with a game in hand. Barcelona a few points further behind in third.

In the Europa League some decent sides came down from the Champions League but were sent packing as Man City and Juventus both lost their play off games. City losing 2-0 at the Etihad to Celtic. In the next round there will be another battle of Britain as Brentford play the scots. Leeds are up against PSV and Rangers face a tough tie at Valencia.

In the Conference league Chelsea are the last English club standing and play FC Kovenhavn. Theres still a few decent teams left but I would expect them to progress further.

Leicester followed up beating us in the Carabao Cup semi final by beating Man City 3-2 in the final. They came from 0-2 down as two goals from Iheanacho in the 89^th and 93^rd minute snatched the win from the jaws of defeat.

Finally a quick word on the youth teams as I completely bypassed them last season. The under 23s have really struggled and currently languish bottom of the table I have sent a lot of players on loan so that probably hasn’t helped. They are also out of all the cups. The Under 18s have done better and are 5^th although lost comfortably to Man United in the under 19 champions league knockout stages.

 

March/April Fixtures

Liverpool a big game and important not to lose. I made a pigs ear of scouting regens last March so I'm hoping to do a better job this time.

FA Cup 5^th Round - Barnsley (H)

PL - Bournemouth (H)

PL - Man United (A)

Champions league 2^nd round 2^nd leg - Marseille (H)

PL - Wolves (H)

PL - Liverpool (A)

PL - Norwich (H)

PL - Southampton (A)

PL - Brentford (H)

PL - Leicester (H

[BrickCommo23]

Still enjoying all the updates and game progress on here.

Unfortunately, I think I'll have to live vicariously through your saves for now as my laptop has pretty much given up and the games becoming unplayable.

Will upgrade for 23 - at least I managed one league title before sacking it off.

[ajw10]

On 30/03/2022 at 20:55, ajw10 said:

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

4th season done. Bit of a mixed season as we lost in the FA Cup for the first time as well as losing a final for the first time.

The CL Final was a disgrace of a performance by Tomiaysu who has definitely played his last game for the club. A 6.0 rating, at fault for two goals and subbed off after 30 minutes.

It's a huge summer as a lot of my players enter the last two years of their deal and I'm not sure some of them are worth the big pay increase.

Season 5 complete.

The two big purchases were De Ligt and TAA. This was the strongest we've been so far. Ended the season with the best attack (122 goals) and the best defense (26 conceded) and yet...

 

We dropped some silly points and Liverpool were just incredibly consistent. Frustrating and I expect we will have a mini clearout as the likes of Kessie and Lacroix are ready to leave. Might let Tierney go too. The likes of Martinelli and Adeyemi aren't untouchable either.

However we at least won all the cups. Mbappe finished with 78 goals.

This was pretty much the team that we settled on

[hasdgfas]

On 06/04/2022 at 15:38, hasdgfas said:

I'm 100% winning the Carabao Cup final. Losing is not an option.

[hasdgfas]

2030/31 Season Review

A very good season! A fantastic performance in the League, running away with it, even with Erling Haaland continuing to do nonsense at Man City. Disappointment in the CL, going out 1-0 on aggregate to Madrid, but winning everything else we were in!

Seriously, look at this nonsense. My top two combined didn't reach Haaland numbers.

These were the squad numbers. Everyone was great! Obviously a few real standouts, if you look at the numbers. I'll go more in-depth with a full squad review soon! Either later today or tomorrow.

[hasdgfas]

SUMMER 2031 SQUAD REVIEW

Player list is up above if you want a broader overview, but this is more in-depth on the entire first team, as well as some up and comers who will be in the first team soon(hopefully)

GOALKEEPERS:

Ignacio Suarez has taken over the #1 spot from Aaron Ramsdale in the league finally. He's the starting Argentinian GK as well. I bought him for 5.75M off Racing Club in Argentina, which is an absolute bargain. I anticipate him starting for a very long time.

Aaron Ramsdale. We all know this guy. He starts at Arsenal and is very good! He's just started to frustrate me a little bit. He's still the starting English GK for important matches and tournaments, and he plays all the cups for me, but just...something feels off about his performances. With a year left on his contract, I may try to move him on if anyone will pay his contract.

DR (Wingback - Support)

Tino Livramento is the starter. I bought him for 25M back in summer 2025 because Southampton had been relegated and let me tell you. He's outstanding. A bunch of assists and consistently high quality performances.

Rolando Alcott is the backup, and our first academy player! He's good! But he hasn't displaced Livramento just yet, and he's getting frustrated with that. I'm hoping to pacify him enough to get him to sign a new contract, but it's possible I'll have to sell him. Which would be frustrating but fine. I can find a backup RB, even if it would be nice for it to be an academy player.

DL (Wingback - Support)

Ellis Poate is the starter, and another academy player. He's a star, and also the starting left-back for England. He never lets me down, and can even fill in at RB if needed.

Luca Netz is the backup and it's probably time for him to go. He's fine, but has just not yet put in the performances I expected from him when paying 40M for him back in 2024/25. "Career backup" is the best description I've got for his performances for me. And that's good! We're one of the best teams in the world, but I'm concerned he wants to be more, and he just isn't with me.

DC (BPD - Defend)

Pablo Tobar is unbelievable, and is only 24 years old. He was a free transfer!!! from Millonarios in Colombia and is possibly my favorite player in the save because of that. He's a rock.

Gabriel is getting older but is still really good at 33. I'm hoping to get him to retire at Arsenal, because he deserves to with his consistent performances all save.

Ibanez is the third of our 3 rocks at the back. I have a surplus of unbelivably great DCs who are still performing at a top level. Gabriel and Ibanez are even the starting pair for Brazil. Ibanez cost 40M from Roma back in 2023/24 but has been so consistent since then.

Dani Rodrigues is, somehow, our fourth best central defender, I think. And if this guy is your fourth choice, you're in a good spot. 16.75M from Boavista in Portugal back in 2025/26, he's been out on loan a lot, because he really should be playing, even if it's not here.

Huseyin Karaaslan was someone I bought in January for 22M to start to bleed him into the side due to my two aging CDs and some possibility during January that Netz was going to leave, but then nobody left, so he's just kinda...hung out. He got some starts after we won the league, but he's for the future.

DM (BWM - Defend)

Rodrigo Bentancur shouldn't really be the starter for such an important position at 33, but doesn't seem to be aging at all. He cost 20M all the way back in the stone age of 2022/23, and has really just been a consistent performer since.

Christian John is his understudy/rotation partner and can play anywhere in the middle of the pitch. He has pace, power, skill, and grit. He cost 26M from Anderlecht in 2028/29, but that also already looks like a bargain.

Joel D'Alessandro was out on loan at Atalanta this season because Bentancur refuses to age, but will be taking his spot in the rotation soon enough. Possibly this summer, even, if Bentancur finally is ready to leave.

DM (Segundo Volante - Support)

Jude Bellingham is unreal. I was somehow able to unsettle him enough at Dortmund to get him for free back in 2026/27, and he has made this position his own. An absolute superstar for club and country.

And yet Charlie Patino is no slouch! If basically anyone else were the other member of the squad, Patino would be starting. He's also very good! And he got a lot of starts this season, as Bellingham was injured a few times. It's really a shame for him that there's such a generational talent ahead of him.

And yet Finley Heard is someone I also have high, high hopes for in the same position. Another academy player, and he has been great. This season at Stoke was a great step up for him, and while he was inconsistent, it was important for him. I may try to play him as a rotation option next season, but maybe he needs another season in the Championship?

Jason Blanks is not bad, but just...isn't quite the level I'm expecting with the players I have in his positions elsewhere. Not defensive enough for the SV position, and not quite creative enough for the AMC position. He's off to Vigo in the summer, and I hope he does really well!

AMR (Inside Forward - Attack)

Andre Cerqueira was the better performer in this position this season, with 20 goals and 14 assists. Fantastic wide player with speed and finishing. Another good 22M spent.

Steven Eck is an academy player that really fights for that spot though. The guy who is starting tends to vary by year and form, because they can both handle it if they need to. I think Eck gets more tired out by the USA International matches, tbh. He's their star and key player, so he can tire out easily.

AMC (Advanced Playmaker - Support)

Dominik Szoboszlai is the talisman of the midfield. And yet, was kind of disappointing on the stats sheet. Only 11 assists, but did get 13 goals(mostly penalties and free kicks), which goes to show that goals and assists aren't anything, because he's probably our best player. Somehow, his 83M cost looks cheap.

Emile Smith Rowe's biggest sin is that he's not Dominik Szoboszlai. He's outstanding. And gets a bunch of match time too! Just, he's not quite as good.

AML (Inverted Winger - Attack)

Gabriel Martinelli is probably my favorite player on the real life Arsenal squad, and is a great performer in FM as well. Not his best season, because he had a bunch of injuries and also because, well, he's done it all here. It might just be time to move him on and give him a fresh challenge elsewhere.

Luka Romero is like, the forgotten gem of the squad somehow. Look at him! He's great! And yet it's really hard for me to fit him into the squad sometimes, it feels like. He cost 7.5M from Lazio way back in 2023/24 and every time I think about selling him, he pops up with a run of good form and reminds me how good he is.

ST (Advanced Forward - Attack)

Dusan Vlahovic had a great season after I was frustrated with him last season. However, his numbers are a bit flattering, with the 15 cup goals being a full third of his 45 this season. PSG seems to be sniffing around, and I might let him go, because...

Icaro Kunrath is here. After destroying me at Everton for 4 seasons, I'd had enough, and spent 75M on him(up to 100M with clauses), and I'm really excited about him. He took some time to settle in, but now he's performing at the level I expected, and I expect him to be a starter for a very long time.

-------

As you can see, a very strong squad, with stars everywhere, and coming from all over the world. Hopefully a few more academy players will develop strongly in the next couple years and I can play more than just a handful of academy players, but 3-4 is not bad at all from a single academy.

[hasdgfas]

And since we're not really doing much else with our money...

[BrickCommo23]

19 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

2030/31 Season Review

A very good season! A fantastic performance in the League, running away with it, even with Erling Haaland continuing to do nonsense at Man City. Disappointment in the CL, going out 1-0 on aggregate to Madrid, but winning everything else we were in!

Seriously, look at this nonsense. My top two combined didn't reach Haaland numbers.

These were the squad numbers. Everyone was great! Obviously a few real standouts, if you look at the numbers. I'll go more in-depth with a full squad review soon! Either later today or tomorrow.

51 league goals??? That's crazy. Amazing they didn't win 38 games!

[hasdgfas]

20 minutes ago, BrickCommo23 said:

51 league goals??? That's crazy. Amazing they didn't win 38 games!

They "ran up the score" on a lot of folks. A lot of 4-0, 5-1 type games. But like, I did the double over them, not letting in a single goal. They had several draws. So he had a bunch of 2-3 goal games, but if they're all shoved into a few matches, they add up but might not add extra wins.

[hasdgfas]

I love testimonials because they let me use some players not actually on my squad anymore, so I'm excited to see that I get two of them this preseason:

[ajw10]

On 11/04/2022 at 01:05, ajw10 said:

Season 5 complete.

 

Spoiler

 

The two big purchases were De Ligt and TAA. This was the strongest we've been so far. Ended the season with the best attack (122 goals) and the best defense (26 conceded) and yet...

 

 

Spoiler

 

We dropped some silly points and Liverpool were just incredibly consistent. Frustrating and I expect we will have a mini clearout as the likes of Kessie and Lacroix are ready to leave. Might let Tierney go too. The likes of Martinelli and Adeyemi aren't untouchable either.

However we at least won all the cups. Mbappe finished with 78 goals.

 

Spoiler

 

This was pretty much the team that we settled on

Season Six complete.

My tycoon owner wanted high rep players, so we brought in Felix and a defensive regen for big money. We cashed in on Tierney, Kessie, Patino and Martinelli as we had a mini clear out.

 

Raya came in to allow one of my regen keepers to go out on loan, Raya proved to be vital when Ramsdale missed a month due to injury.

Here's the defensive regen we picked up from Atletico

He is almost certainly going to be ousting White from the team for next season.

We also settled on a new shape for the season too.

Felix was a massive disappointment and I'm considering cashing in already. Adeyemi had a big chance when both Saka and Mbappe picked up injuries but he failed to deliver. PSG are sniffing so I might have to sell him too.

As you can see we romped to the league and picked up our 3 CL in 4, with means we've reached the last 4 finals. Mbappe missed the cup semi which cost us.

Got some big regens coming through which is exciting. Considering going for Davies at LB as our owner loves a big name and Netz is moaning about a new deal

[Sysiphus]

20 minutes ago, ajw10 said:

He is almost certainly going to be ousting White from the team for next season.

We also settled on a new shape for the season too.

The DC regen looks incredible. With his 18 vision it's a shame his passing isn't higher than 9 but you'll get him training on that and you might get it up to 12-13 which is good enough! Interesting tactic, which player instructions do you have on the left AMC to make him hold the width a bit? Or do you rely on the DL to get up the flank? Alternatively, you might use the DL as a WBL and change the left DC role to wide centre back. Just some musings—it's an interesting tactic. I had a Newcastle save earlier this year and created this tactic which worked really well when I got in Esposito as a DLF and Zakharyan as a SS. 4-2-3-1 gegenpress is still the OP tactic (vertical tiki-taka good as well), but I still think that this FM edition is forgiving when you tinker, which is a great plus. Just don't try to play too defensively as you won't get any shots off!

On 12/04/2022 at 20:48, hasdgfas said:

SUMMER 2031 SQUAD REVIEW

Player list is up above if you want a broader overview, but this is more in-depth on the entire first team, as well as some up and comers who will be in the first team soon(hopefully)

Great season mate, well done! The squad is in great shape. Kunrath and Tobar are monsters.

[ajw10]

Yeah I rely on my LB to provide the width, although Mbappe and the AMCL will also drift there.

I tried the LB at LWB but it didn't provide what I wanted.

[dcaine100]

On 29/03/2022 at 23:50, ajw10 said:

I'd like to apologise to Mbappe

 

Quick question what role did you play Mbappe in?

[ajw10]

advanced forward

[dcaine100]

I decided after 20 years of regular Arsenal saves to try a save giving myself a permanent transfer ban and its been one of my most enjoyable saves, its been fun developing talented youths that might of got overlooked in a regular save.

Season 1 was just about getting back into Europe which we did finishing 5th and developing our young squad, season 2 with all the lonees back is where I wanted to push for top 3.

With all the lonees back I was aiming for top 4 but we actually ended up missing out on the league only by goal difference 😬 its the worst way to miss out but also a better performance then I was expecting, we also won the Europa league 🏆 so all in all a very pleasing season.

Nelson was my surprise top performer with 18 Assists and 6 Goals in 20 starts Avg 7.47 Guendouzi was not involved he was loaned out as his attitude can be difficult but he is still too good to sell, will give him his chance in season 3, all thou Patino has been developing and playing very well so he will have to earn his place.

First and Second XI Season Two

Squad Stats Season 2:

Looking forward to season 3 and developing players like Balogun, Azeez, Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Joel Lopez who all look exciting talents and will get game time in season 3.

Edited April 15, 2022 by dcaine100
removing screenshot

[dcaine100]

Quick question where did you guys play Omar Rekik? thinking CM (D) due to his low strength

[Vilmar]

So far I've played him at DC in my first season, but only as a sub or when others were tired. He's been OK. I'm focused on using him as stopper.

[hasdgfas]

On 15/04/2022 at 12:15, dcaine100 said:

I decided after 20 years of regular Arsenal saves to try a save giving myself a permanent transfer ban and its been one of my most enjoyable saves, its been fun developing talented youths that might of got overlooked in a regular save.

I did one of these once quite a few years back, and I agree that it's really enjoyable! Keep us updated with some screenshots of more-developed players!

[hasdgfas]

Strong start to the season!

[Telegram Sam]

2027/28 Season - Part 4

Sorry for the delayed response, folks! I managed to get COVID and that laid me low for a while. Managed to get back into playing the last few days so I've another update.

February started with an FA Cup fourth round tie away at West Ham and we came from behind to earn a 2-1 victory, with Gabriel Martinelli tapping home atW the back post to secure our passage to the next round. We eked ourselves past Bournemouth in the league thanks to a late own goal from Brandon Williams before a 4-0 drubbing of Sheffield United consolidated our position at the top of the league. Jude Bellingham bagged himself a brace in this game to continue his fine form, including a scorcher from the edge of the box.

European competition was underway again and we travelled to San Sebastián to face Real Sociedad in the first knockout round of the Champions League. A hat-trick from Vyacheslav Spirin earned us an impressive 3-1 victory to plant one foot firmly in the quarter-finals, with the young Russian having a superb season for us playing as an inside forward on the left of our attack. 

Next up was the final of the League Cup, where we faced off against Newcastle. Having beaten them 4-0 at St. James Park and 4-2 at the Emirates already this season I was confident of the victory, a competition we'd already won twice during my tenure. However, things didn't go to plan and we ended up losing our first final since the 2024 final of the same competition, where we fell to Manchester City:

It was a frustrating game, naturally. We had the better chances, more shots and more of the ball, but Newcastle seemed more up for it than us and we a constant threat throughout the game. We had fallen behind early on before an own goal from Conor Gallagher and a fine finish from Vlahović took us into the lead, but we managed to let Newcastle back into the game with fifteen minutes to go and the game went to extra-time and eventually penalties. Newcastle didn't miss a single one, Frenkie de Jong missed one for us, and that was that. It was the first trophy Newcastle had won during my save and I was pretty gutted that it was at our expense.

We didn't have time to dwell on the defeat as we played Newcastle yet again three days later, this time at home in the fifth round of the FA Cup. It was another agonisingly close game where we struggled to take our chances and it finished 0-0, so again extra time was called for. Newcastle took a lead on the 104th minute to make it seem like they were going to steal victory, but in the end Smith Rowe and Spirin got a goal each to to spare our blushes. Our xG come the final whistle was 4.95 from 43 (!) shots while Newcastles was 0.43 from 4, so I would have been furious had they picked our pocket again.

The past few games had seen us drop a level, and we dropped points in our next game as Aston Villa held us to a 0-0 draw at the Emirates; the first time we'd fail to win at home all year. We were still looking good at the top of the table with 30 games played but Chelsea's impressive form had helped them close the gap:

A dominant 3-0 win at Everton saw us rebuild some confidence before we routed Real Sociedad 4-0 in the return leg to secure a 7-1 aggregate victory in our pursuit of our third successive Champions League title. The subsequent draw had us facing off against Manchester City, with PSG or Barcelona lying in wait in the semi-finals if we could progress:

The FA Cup games were now coming thick and fast and we again hosted Villa at the Emirates at the quarter-final stage. Buoyed by our improved attacking displays of late, another goal from Spirin and a brace from Vlahović secured us a passage into the semi-finals, where we'd have to face Liverpool at Wembley. March was rounded off by a late 1-0 win at Leicester City that drew the Premier League title ever closer.

April began with the first leg of our Champions League quarter-final against City which was a home tie for us. We had the better of the game but failed to match the performance that saw us run out 5-1 victors in the league back in December, but a lucky deflection gave us a goal and an eventual 1-0 win. A scrappy 2-1 win over Brighton kept up our strong league form before we travelled up north to the Etihad to try and progress into the semi-finals with a slim advantage.

In recent games it had felt we hadn't been rewarded despite our dominance in games, but against City it was the exact opposite as we managed to secure a 2-0 victory despite being under heavy pressure for the entire match. A superb performance from Aaron Ramsdale (an 8.7 on the night) kept the scores level for an hour before a powerful header from Dušan Vlahović gave us a pretty undeserved lead. City pushed and pushed but couldn't find a way through, and we rubbed salt in the wounds late on as Matthijs de Ligt headed home from a corner to make it 3-0 on aggregate. PSG would be our opponents in the semi-final after getting past Barcelona 3-1, with Bayern Munich and Juventus contesting the other tie.

The big games were coming thick and fast and we faced Liverpool in the semi-finals of the FA Cup in what promised to be another close game between the two of us. It was a close game but one we definitely had the better of, and in the end a single goal was enough as Vyacheslav Spirin scored yet again to send us through to our second domestic cup final of the season:

Some superb play from Livramento and Martinelli down the right had carved Liverpool open down the right and it was a simple tap in from Spirin to give us the lead. With the defeat in the final of the League Cup still fresh in the mind I was determined to lift the FA Cup for what would be only the second time, especially as the board's ever-increasing expectations meant a domestic trophy was one of their demands for the season. It wouldn't be easy though, with us having to face Manchester City yet again after they overcame Leeds with relative ease.

In the Premier League we stepped close to another league championship thanks to a 2-1 win over Spurs, which was flattering to the visitors (our xG was 4.40 to their 0.77). A routine 2-0 victory at West Ham, who would eventually get relegated, secured the Premier League title with four games to spare:

We had been superb all season, with a defeat at Stamford Bridge the only blight on what had been a near-perfect campaign. We had been consistent across the campaign but had really flexed our muscles with some marquee victories including a 4-0 win at Old Trafford and demolitions of Liverpool (4-0), Chelsea (7-1) and Manchester City (5-1) at Emirates Stadium. After winning the title on goal difference last year, it was great to see dominate from start to finish and prove our supremacy over the rest of the chasing pack. The loss at Chelsea meant an Invicibles season was not on the cards, but with 91 points and four games left to play breaking Manchester City's 100-point record total set in 2017/18 was still something we could motivate ourselves for, as well as a Champions League semi-final and an FA Cup final at Wembley to look forward to.

I'll wrap up the end of the season in my next post!

[hasdgfas]

1 hour ago, Telegram Sam said:

West Ham, who would eventually get relegated

Big drop for them! Anyone on their squad who would be a good cheap relegation pickup for you?

[Telegram Sam]

3 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Big drop for them! Anyone on their squad who would be a good cheap relegation pickup for you?

This is actually the third time they've been relegated in my save after going down in 2022 and 2026. They came straight back up both times. I tried to sign Rice in 2022 but he went to Newcastle on a much higher wage instead, although I ended up eventually signing him in 2024 by activating his release clause.

I just took a look at their squad and they've a couple of handy newgens but nobody too special.

[alittletoojack]

level on points in january of my second season with liverpool at the top of the league.

we both have bids accepted for vlahovic mid jan, he chooses liverpool over arsenal. they now have a forward line of mbappe, vlahovic, salah, sane and jota. i have nketiah and balogun. 

[dcaine100]

On 16/04/2022 at 19:33, hasdgfas said:

I did one of these once quite a few years back, and I agree that it's really enjoyable! Keep us updated with some screenshots of more-developed players!

Patino is developing really well, given him plenty of game time and had him mentored by Odegaard and Smith-Rowe, actually plays really well as my BBM rotated with Lokonga:

Lopez is also developing nicely hoping he will be backup to Tierney (whos mentoring him) next season (2024/25). 

Rekik been performing well and developing well hoping he will a backup for my CM(D) and BPD, he is being mentored by Torreira and Holding.

 

[Telegram Sam]

Just a note that I've ended my save, or at least put it on indefinite hiatus for the time being. After so many seasons I've lost my desire to keep playing the save although may return to it in future. I did finish the 2027/28 season so will do a final update at some point.

I've instead decided to start a Pentagon save attempt, which is something I've never done before. Currently managing in Uzbekistan so couldn't be further away from consistent Premier League and Champions League titles with Arsenal. 😅

[Sysiphus]

19 hours ago, Telegram Sam said:

Just a note that I've ended my save, or at least put it on indefinite hiatus for the time being. After so many seasons I've lost my desire to keep playing the save although may return to it in future. I did finish the 2027/28 season so will do a final update at some point.

I've instead decided to start a Pentagon save attempt, which is something I've never done before. Currently managing in Uzbekistan so couldn't be further away from consistent Premier League and Champions League titles with Arsenal. 😅

It was really fun reading your updates mate, very good work. Enjoy your new adventure!

[Ewan0404]

Season One - 2021/2022

Transfers

We strengthened in all the key areas I felt that would make us competitive this coming season. Schick and Weigl both had options to buy build into their loan deals. Mingueza was a straight swap deal for Cedric. 

Both Elneny and Lacazette would not be getting much game time under me so I decided to cash in while we could.

Other players to leave were Pepe on loan to Manchester United and Thomas Partey to Inter on loan.

Competitions

We are back in Europe again, we were in the hunt for 4th up until the final few games where we dropped the ball with a loss to Watford and a draw with West Ham.

In the league cup we lost 4-3 to Man City on aggregate and in the FA cup we lost to Leeds on penalties in the 5th round.

Squad Stats

 

Other Notes

I have decided to have a self imposed wage cap. No player can be on over £125,000 a week - there will be an exception for two marquee players. Most contacts will be bonus related in terms of how well the club does.

Tierney was made captain on day one at the club.

[Telegram Sam]

On 30/04/2022 at 10:49, Ewan0404 said:

I have decided to have a self imposed wage cap. No player can be on over £125,000 a week - there will be an exception for two marquee players. Most contacts will be bonus related in terms of how well the club does.

I hope this works out for you but it'll be a challenge. If you keep the likes of Saka and Ødegaard around long-term they'll be wanting deals close to 200k p/w before long.

[KingLara]

Arsenal Season 2 – March/April

March and April are always two of the busiest months in my saves with plenty of games and scouring through thousands of regen reports.

We began March with a four point lead over Liverpool.

 

FA CUP 5^TH ROUND

ARSENAL 3 – Bale 6 Martinelli 19 39

BARNSLEY 0

After narrow away victories over Hull and Stoke we were back at the Emirates and with it an easier win. Martinelli with a brace and also an assist in a much changed lineup. 70% possession and 95% pass accuracy for the mostly second string.

Liverpool Spurs and Chelsea were the three big sides still left in the competition and all survived to make it to the quarters.

FA Cup Quarter-Final draw –Ipswich vs Arsenal

Another good draw for us. Spurs host Liverpool Newcastle play Southampton and Chelsea vs Luton are the other games.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 6 – Vlahovic 15 48(pen) 64 79(pen) Cahill o.g Saka 85

BOPURNEMOUTH 1 – Hughes 49

After his brace in the Fa Cup Martinelli kept his place in the starting eleven but only managed a 6.7. Vlahovic however scored four as we finally gave somebody a thrashing. XG of 4.37. Only our third +4 goal haul of the season.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

MAN UNITED 2 – Sancho 65 Greenwood 84

ARSENAL 0

We headed to Old Trafford 11 points clear of them but put in a really poor performance. Despite dominating the ball we didn’t have our shooting boots on and only managed a dismal two on target that were easily saved by De Gea. Liverpool beat Norwich to cut the gap to three points at the top.

 

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SECOND ROUND 2^ND LEG

ARSENAL 4 – Vlahovic 6 72 80(pen) Saka 14

MARSEILLE 2 – De la Fuente 23 Lazovic 56

We hosted Marseille at the Emirates in the second leg after we comfortably won 2-0 in France. We got off to a great start with two early goals but Marseille were more attacking and pulled it level after half time. However we responded with another two goals from Vlahovic who completed another hat-trick from the spot with ten minutes left.

Having won 1-0 in Barcelona A Haaland hat-trick helped Dortmund to a 4-1 win on the night and knock Barca out. PSG had a scare but made it through despite losing 3-1 at Porto

Champions league quarter final draw – Arsenal vs Liverpool

Fighting for the title we would meet Liverpool in Europe. The other ties were Dortmund vs Man United Real Madrid vs RB Leipzig and Bayern vs PSG.

 

FA CUP 5^TH ROUND

IPSWICH 1 – Scarlett 35

ARSENAL 3 – Aubameyang 17 Bale 52 Smith-Rowe 66

Despite having an international break after I still named a weakened team. Aubameyang did start though and gave us the lead before spurs loanee scarlett equalised. Once Bale got the second after half time it was just about game management and Smith-Rowe added a third.

Both Southampton and Spurs recorded impressive 3-0 wins. The Saints away at Newcastle and Tottenham at home to Liverpool. Robertson was sent off early though. Chelsea eased past Luton 5-1.

FA Cup Semi Final draw – Arsenal vs Southampton

Certainly easier on paper than Chelsea or Spurs. An unlikely treble still a possibility.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

LIVERPOOL 0

ARSENAL 0

Four days before our Champions League quarter final would begin we played Liverpool in the league. After our defeat to United they were just three points behind. United were a further four points adrift from them but had played an extra game. With all that in mind it turned into a must not lose game for us so natuarally I parked the bus and escaped anfield with a 0-0 and a good point.

 

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER FINAL 1^ST LEG.

ARSENAL 1 – Gravenberch 27

LIVERPOOL 0

Back at home I went slightly conservative with my line-up. Pavard was preferred to Tomiyasu at right back and Asensio to my other wingers on the right. Aubameyang started at left wing as I couldn’t leave Vlahovic out. Despite us controlling the ball Liverpool had the better of the game before and after Gravenberch scored the only goal. I’m happy to take a lead to Anfield but would rather it be wider.

Man United scored three goals from their three shots on target to produce a fine win at Dortmund. Halland struck in the 92^nd minute to give them hope in the second leg. Leipzig beat Real Madrid 2-1 and Mbappe and Messi were the scorers as Bayern and PSG drew their first leg 1-1

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 6 – Saliba 17 44 Asensio 48 Aubameyang 56 81 Pepe 90 / Aubameyang miss/pen 66

NORWICH 0 – Giannoulis s/o 54

Sandwiched between the two Liverpool games we hosted relegation bound Norwich.  Ramsdale Asensio and Aubameyang were the only players to keep their place. I played Taveres and Tomiyasu as attacking wing backs meaning Saliba and Ballard were playing as our only real defenders. Two back post headers from free kicks saw Saliba give us a 2-0 lead before half-time. We ran a bit riot in the second half Aubameyang not allowing Saliba to take a penalty for an unlikely hat-trick and then subsequently missing it. Norwich committed 34 fouls in the game with five players scoring under a 6 rating. They’ll have better days.  

 

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER FINAL 2^nd LEG.

LIVERPOOL 1 – Matip 77

ARSENAL 0     

After Extra Time 

Arsenal won 8-7 on penalties

I made a big decision before the game opting to bench 31-goal Aubameyang in favour of a more defensive minded midfield. It worked perfectly as we frustrated them through a combination of controlled possession and defensive solidity. Unfortunately with just 13 minutes left Joel Matip swept home a smartly taken kree kick from Robertson and Liverpool had their parity. Eventually the tie was settled by penalties. After Fabinho missed early on it seemed like we would be comfortable but Asensio powered wide and the penalties came and went before finally it got to the defenders and Andy Robertson missed. I didn’t expect to make the semis in the first year back in the champions league but obviously I was very happy to.

PSG missed a host of chances as Bayern won 3-1 in Paris to send them through to the semis. United completed the job over Dortmund in style winning 4-2 at Old Trafford and Real Madrid reversed their 2-1 deficit from the first leg against Leipzig by winning 4-0 in Spain. Eden Hazard scored a hat-trick.

Champions League Semi-Final draw – Arsenal vs Manchetser United

Another English team and home again for the first leg. Real Madrid host Bayern in the first leg of the other semi.

 

FA CUP SEMI FINAL

ARSENAL 1 – Vlahovic 18

SOUTHAMPTON 3 – Boye 41 46 Adams 86

A disappointing end to our unlikely treble bid as Southampton eased to victory as Wembley. We started well with Vlahovic giving us the lead but as soon as the Saints equalised I could see what was coming.  Southampton would play Chelsea in the final who beat Spurs 3-2.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 5 – Saka 3, 28 Aubameyang 52, 90 Smith-Rowe 72

WOLVES 1 – Gibbs-White 64

We responded well to the fa cup semi final defeat with a thumping win over Wolves at the Emirates.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 3 – Aubameyang 18 84 Bale 70

BRENTFORD 0

I opted for a strong side against Brentford despite the Man United semi final on the Tuesday. I don’t know what Brentford put in their water but the scoreline was extremely flattering for us. They had double our amount of shots at goal at a similar XG. We needed Ramsdale to have an 8.7 man of the match display to win. With possibly one eye on United we were a bit off our game. Pass accuaracy of 87% much lower than usual. Only 54% possession also on the smaller side. Martinelli and Odegaard picked up knocks and would miss the first leg of the champions league semi final

 

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI FINAL 1^ST LEG.

ARSENAL 2 – Aubameyang 1 Saka 85

MAN UNITED 1 – Sancho 19 / McTomminay s/o 90

I didn’t expect to make a champions league semi final in my first season in the competition but now we were here I of course wanted to win. We got off to a perfect start with Saka pulling the ball back for Aubameyang after just 30 seconds.  The game was a lot of huff and puff but not really clear chances. Sakas goal five minutes from time giving us a narrow lead heading into the second leg. The winner will likely meet Real Madrid in the final. They won 4-0 over Bayern who played the last 30 minutes with 9 men having already lost Kimmich to a red card in the first half before seeing Sabitzer also get sent off.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 4 – Vlahovic 15 71 89 Pepe 32

LEICESTER  1 – Iheanacho 45

I made 9 changes to the team for our fourth home game in a row. Vlahovic scored his FIFTH hat-trick of the season in a very comfortable win. A good day for us saw Man United lose at Man City and Liverpool go goalless at Bournemouth.  A fine way to end two busy months.

 

Premier League Table

Much more comfortable than last season. Spurs are 8^th and Chelsea 10^th. Norwich and West Brom are set to be relegated while Brentford and Fulham are level on points in 17^th and 18^th with three games left. Fulham with the slightly easier remaining games. Burnely have been promoted from the Championship. Nottingham Forrest have a 2 point lead over QPR with two games left. Sheffield United Crystal Palace and Blackburn are the other teams in the play offs.

1.       Arsenal P34 P83 GD+58

2.       Liverpool P35 P78 GD+44

3.       Man City P35 P78 GD+41

4.       Man Utd P35 P72 GD+47

5.       Newcastle P34 P68 GD+22

 

Premier League Top scorers

Aubameyang 30 Lukaku 30 Calvert-Lewin 25 Vlahovic, Greenwood 21

Premier League Top Assists

De Bruyne 20 Saint Maximin 13 Odegaard, Salah 12 Pulisic 11

Premier League Av Rating

De Bruyne 7.72 Robertson 7.65  Vlahovic 7.60 Calvert Lewin 7.55 Lukaku 7.54

Premier League Motm

Calvert-Lewin 11 De Bruyne 10 Aubameyang 8 Lukaku 7 Vlahovic 6

 

Champions League Top scorers

Greenwood 11 Haaland 10 Salah, Mbappe 9 T. Martinez (psg) 7 - (Vlahovic 5)

Champions League Top Assists

Mbappe 8 Neymar 7 B.Fernandes Marin (ferencvaros) Shaw 7   – (Odegaard 4 )

Champions League Av Rating

Rashford 8.35 Haaland 8.03  Mbappe 7.85 Robertson B. Fernandes 7.83 B Diaz 7.73 - (Odegaard 7.50)

 

REGENS

A right back was our best talent while a couple of others we ok.

I ended up signing 18 youth players but as usual most were from abroad so it will be a while until they are in an Arsenal shirt. There’s some promise there though.

 

EUROPE

PSG and Bayern have already won their leagues. Ream Madrid are 4 points clear of Atletico with five games to go. Juventuus are all but champions.

Completely under my radar Brentford have made the Europa League semi finals. They lead Atletico Madrid 2-1 after the first leg. Gladbach and Benfica drew their first leg of the other semi 2-2 in Germany.

The Conference League final looks set to be Lazio vs Chelsea after both teams won comfortably in their first legs.

 

May Fixtures

Champions League Semi Final 2^nd Leg  - Man United (A)

PL - Leeds  (A)

PL - Southampton (A)

PL - Newcastle (H)

PL - Chelsea (A)

[hasdgfas]

And with this, I think it's time for me to retire this save:

 

An undefeated season, winning everything multiple times, gotten through a good ~dozen seasons, it's time for me to move on. I'll probably play the Euros to try to win them with England and then move onto a totally new save. This one lasted me a while! First patch saves rarely last me until May, but I had a blast with this one. I'll post a few of my favorite players from the course of the save, as well as some overall trophy counts, in a final review either today or tomorrow. 

[ajw10]

Another season down and this one was quite the disappointment considering the recent success.

In terms of transfers we had a clear out. Yitao is a regen that is the long term successor for Mbappe. Havertz came in as a short term option whilst I develop some of the younger CAM's I have. He'll probably be sold this season

The first time in 4 years that we didn't reach a CL Final. Absolutely bottled it v PSG.

The last screenshot has bugged out and is showing the players all comp stats instead of just the league. I'm considering a clear out considering the amount of top regens I have coming through. I think Havertz and White definitely go. I'm also not against selling Trent and Odegaard just to freshen things up a bit

[hasdgfas]

Final Review

Competitions

Fantastic and consistent performance in the League. Only failed to win it 4 times and was 2nd each time.

5 Champions League wins and one runner-up is VERY good. I'm very happy with this.

Less success in the cups, at least the FA Cup. A bunch of Carabao Cup wins, but a lot of FA Cup runner-ups. 

Just a lot of trophies.

Best Eleven

4 academy players in the overall best eleven, with ESR, Eck, Poate, and Patino. 3 of them substitutes to the best XI, but that's fine. Vlahvoic was an unbelievable goalscorer, Martinelli was incredibly consistent, and Ramsdale was a rock until the last couple seasons here.

Players

Let's talk about some of my favorite players.

Dusan Vlahovic:

Like I said, an incredible goalscorer. over 20 League goals in all but one season, and incredible average ratings throughout. Easily the most important player to my success. Very few other players would have been able to fill his role for me.

Dominik Szoboszlai:

Maestro of the middle of the field ever since Odegaard went to Inter for 150M. Didn't quite have the G+A numbers you might expect, but his performances were always about more than that. He kept us dangerous and one of the highest scoring teams in the Premier League.

Steven Eck:

Star attacking Academy player of the save. He was part of the first Academy intake in the save, and became starting AMR within 5 seasons. His performances on loan, particularly at Nottingham Forest, were a revelation, and really accelerated his development.

Ellis Poate:

Star defensive player out of the Academy. He was out on loan longer, but that was because I had an incredibly stacked DL position for a long time. His loans to Ajax, Dortmund, and Juventus were great, I just couldn't quite find a spot for him until selling Tierney for 34M to PSG.

Misc

First time I've had a stadium named after me at a club as large as Arsenal. I won't get to use it, but that's fine. Knowing they're building it is enough for me. Also a big upgrade on the 60,704 person Emirates.

---

I'll keep this specific save at this specific moment around in case anyone wants to see any other specifics from the save, but like I said, I'm retiring from Arsenal, going to the Euros with England, and then starting a new save after that. It's time.

[Ewan0404]

On 03/05/2022 at 17:35, Telegram Sam said:

I hope this works out for you but it'll be a challenge. If you keep the likes of Saka and Ødegaard around long-term they'll be wanting deals close to 200k p/w before long.

That’s why I have two marquee players who can earn over 

[Azariiix]

On 03/05/2022 at 23:48, ajw10 said:

Another season down and this one was quite the disappointment considering the recent success.

In terms of transfers we had a clear out. Yitao is a regen that is the long term successor for Mbappe. Havertz came in as a short term option whilst I develop some of the younger CAM's I have. He'll probably be sold this season

The first time in 4 years that we didn't reach a CL Final. Absolutely bottled it v PSG.

The last screenshot has bugged out and is showing the players all comp stats instead of just the league. I'm considering a clear out considering the amount of top regens I have coming through. I think Havertz and White definitely go. I'm also not against selling Trent and Odegaard just to freshen things up a bit

Could you share your tactic please?:)

[KingLara]

Arsenal Season 2 – May (and a bit of June)

Heading into May we had a five point lead over Man City and Liverpool having played a game less meaning just five points separated were required for consecutive titles. But first we had a champions League semi-final second leg against United to negotiate.

 

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI FINAL 2^nd LEG.

MAN UNITED 1 – Rashford 67    

ARSENAL 0

(After Extra Time)

Arsenal won 4-2 on penalties

In a copy and paste from the Liverpool Quarter Final we headed to Old Trafford with a one goal lead courtesy of a 2-1 win at the Emirates. We played almost a perfect European performance but just like Matip did for Liverpool Rashford popped up with an undeserved goal to send the tie to extra time and the inevitability of penalties. Rashford and Dalot missed for United while Bale, Vlahovic, Aubameyang and Gravenberch all scoring even allowing for another Asensio miss. We set up a final against Real Madrid who having held a 4-0 lead over Bayern after the first leg lost 3-2 in Germany. Should be an interesting final for my young team.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

LEEDS 0

ARSENAL 0

We headed to Leeds after the United win needing just five points for the title. However they proved a tough nut to crack and despite controlling the game we couldn’t get a goal. White was restored to the team having sat out the semi final for inform Saliba. Liverpool had won but Man City were held at home to Leicester meaning it was only Liverpool as our sole challengers again.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

SOUTHAMPTON 0

ARSENAL 2 - Vlahovic 20 Martinelli 65

We put in a solid display at St Marys with every player scoring between a 7.1-7.7 rating other than Aubameyang whose mind was elsewhere as he scored a lowly 6.6.  A point in our final two games against Newcastle and Chelsea would be enough.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 4 - Vlahovic 13 43 67 Martinelli 84

NEWCASTLE 1 – Saint-Maximin 53

A match against Newcastle with high stakes on offer. What could possibly go wrong?! Luckliy I had Vlahovic in my ranks and he scored yet another hat-trick (sixth for the season) to fire us to our successful defence of the league title. It meant a potentially tricky last game as Chelsea as left null and void.

 

PREMIER LEAGUE

CHELSEA 2 – James 69 88

ARSENAL 1 - Vlahovic 29

We were in party mood for the final game of the season. Vlahovic gave us the lead and we seemed to be ending the domestic season with a win but two rockets from Reece James gave Chelsea the victory. A rare high in a poor league season for them finishing 9^th.  

 

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL

ARSENAL 1 – Bale 4

REAL MADRID 0

There was plenty of drama off the pitch in the 13 day gap between the Chelsea match and the champions league final. A few players took the opportunity to come to me and complain about promises not been kept. One was Aubameyang who was transfer listed and then signed for Zenit. He suffered shin splints days before the final so would miss playing his last game for us. We made a big signing for the next season as the old adage of “never go back” was ignored. A number of minor injuries also didn’t help us. Gabriel was passed fit but the orange injury sign put me off and I left him out. I started both former Madrid men in Bale and Asensio who had been preferred to Odegaard over the recent matches. I unsurprisingly went very cagey and once we got the early goal we frustrated them and they couldn’t break us down. A potentially good season turns into a great one. Now I want a treble next season.

 

ARSENAL – Ramsdale, Tierney, Saliba, White, Pavard, Gravenberch (Xhaka 90) Partey, Asensio, Bale, Saka (Guendouzi 78) Vlahovic

Subs not used: - Hradecky Martinelli Nelson Odegaard Tavares Tomiyasu S-Rowe Pepe Ballard Balogun

 

REAL MADRID – Courtois, Alaba, Militao, Milenkovic, Nacho, Casemiro, Kroos, Valverde (Modric 61), Hazard, Coman (Vincius Jr 56) Benzema (Jovic 67).

Subs not used: - Guaita, Romagnoli, Gutierrez, Carvajal, Camavinga, Kubo, Park, Arribas, Rodrygo

 

Match Stats – Shots(ot) – 10(3)/14(3) – Possession 61/39 - XG 1.47/1.37 – Fouls 3/13 Yellow Cards 1/2

Woodwork 0/0 - CCC 1/0 – Passes 785(93%)/548(89%) – Av Rating 7.25/6.66

Man of Match – Ryan Gravenberch 7.8

 

 

Final Table

Premier league table  - Played/Points/Goal Difference

1.       Arsenal P 38 P 90 GD 62

2.       Liverpool P 38 P 87 GD 66

3.       Man City P 38 P 82 GD 38

4.       Man Utd P 38 P 81 GD 56

5.       Newcastle P 38 P 75 GD 24

 

Everton finished a respectable 6^th Spurs 7^th and Chelsea finished 9^th.  West Brom, Norwich and Brentford who finished 5^th last season were the teamsto get relegated.

Burney and Nottingham Forrest were promoted automatically. Burnley finished with 100 points. QPR joined them after beating Sheffield United in the play off final.

 

Premier league stats 

Goals – Aubameyang, Lukaku 30 Calvert-Lewin 27 Vlahovic, Salah 26 Greenwood 23 Jimenez 20 Wilson 19 Mane 15 Iheanacho 14

Assists – De Bruyne 20, Saint-Maximin 14, Pulisic, Salah 13 Odegaard 12 Fraser, B Fernandes 11, Asensio, Robertson, Tierney

AV R – Robertson 7.73, De Bruyne 7.72 Vlahovic 7.61, Calvert-Lewin 7.55 Lukaku 7.50 Salah 7.49 Origi 7.41, Odegaard 7.38 Pulisic 7.37, Aubameyang 7.36

MOM – Calvert Lewin 12, De Bruyne 10, Aubameyang 8 Vlahovic, Lukaku, Salah 7, Robertson Saint Maximin 6 Iheanacho B Fernandes 5

Clean Sheets – Ederson 17, Ramsdale, Alisson, Pickford 16 Martinez (newcastle) De Gea 12 Mendy 11, Meslier 10,  Kohn (Southampton) Lloris 9

 

Awards

Footballer of the Year – Andrew Roberston

Players Player of the Year – Andrew Robertson

Young Player of the Year – Mason Greenwood

Golden Glove – Ederson

Manager – Kinglara

Team of the Season – Ramsdale Roberston Tomiyasu White Gabriel De Bruyne Rice Partey Salah Calvert-Lewin Aubameyang

 

Arsenal in the Premier League

Home

P 19 W18 D1 L0 GF65 GA13

Away

P19 W10 D5 L4 GF29 GA19

Overall

P38 W28 D6 L4 GF94 GA32

 

Performance timeline

 WWWLWLWDWWWWWWWWWWDWWWWDDWWWLDWWWWDWWL

 

Arsenal premier league stats

Goals – Aubameyang 30 Vlahovic 26 Saka 10 Odegaard 7 Martinelli 5 Pepe 3 Xhaka Partey Saliba Smith-Rowe Bale 2 Tavares Asensio 1

Assists – Odegaard 12 Asensio Tierney Saka 9 Xhaka S-Rowe 5 Tavares Smith Rowe Tomiyasu 4 Aubameyang Gravernberch 3 Pepe Partey 2 Pavard Vlahovic Saliba Guendouzi Nelson Bale 1

Mom – Tomiyasu Aubameyang 8 Vlahovic 7 Tierney 3 Xhaka White Ramsdale 2 Tavares Asensio Odegaard Saliba Saka 1

 

OVERALL SEASON STATS

 

	Played	Goals / CS	Assists	MoM	Av rating
Ramsdale	48	22	0	2	7.23
Hradecky	3	1	0	0	7.02
Tierney	39(+1)	0	10	3	7.10
Tavares	21(+9)	1	4	1	7.17
Tomiyasu	41(+1)	0	5	0	7.12
Pavard	15(+2)	0	2	1	7.38
White	47	0	0	2	7.14
Gabriel	39	1	0	1	7.22
Saliba	24(+4)	2	2	1	7.45
Ballard	10(+1)	2	0	0	7.53
Partey	43(+1)	2	2	0	7.11
Guendouzi	20(+10)	1	2	1	7.05
Gravenberch	28(+9)	2	5	1	7.24
Xhaka	28(+4)	2	6	2	7.20
Odegaard	41(+2)	8	17	2	7.36
Asensio	22(+18)	2	13	2	7.07
Smith-Rowe	13(+14)	4	5	0	7.04
Saka	40(+9)	15	13	3	7.08
Martinelli	16(+19)	7	8	1	7.05
Bale	12(+16)	5	5	1	6.88
Pepe	12(+12)	3	4	0	6.79
Nelson	7(+10)	2	2	0	7.05
Aubameyang	42(+6)	36	4	9	7.30
Vlahovic	36 (+7)	37	5	9	7.49
Balogun	5 (+3)	3	1	1	7.14
Norton-Cuffy	3(+1)	0	0	0	6.80
Lopez	1	0	0	0	6.80
Azeez	0(+2)	0	0	0	6.50
Leno	10	4	0	0	7.12
Bellerin	4(+1)	0	0	0	7.12
Torreira	1(+9)	1	1	1	7.05

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Bits

There was heartbreak for Brentford in the Europa League final as they lost 2-1 to Benfica.

In the Conference league a Lukaku brace saw Chelsea beat Lazio 2-1

Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern and PSG all won their respective leagues. The latter three defending their title from the previous season.

 

Season Summary

Delighted to win the league again with the added bonus of the Champions League. I will try to add to the trophy hall and give a better go in the two domestic cups. Losing both semi finals was disappointing.

We gave a better attacking output this season but only 29 away goals in the league is shocking. I will try and be a bit more attacking.

Next season I will set my focus on the youngsters such as Patino and Azeez and try to give them more 1^st team football. Aubameyang will need to be replaced and I am looking at moving on Guendouzi, Xhaka, Pepe and a few others.

I will be doing things a bit differently as I want to get five seasons done before FM23 so might give an update at some point but otherwise just play the whole season and then do a report afterwards

[Ö-zil to the Arsenal!]

Anyone else seen the FM Challenge on the Athletic podcast?

Essentially to win the Premier League and/or Champions League with Arsenal with six academy players in the team.

The caveat is that the six must have come all the way through the Arsenal system, not signed at any point - so for example, Martinelli, Saliba etc. do not count, even if classed as 'home grown', whereas Smith-Rowe, Saka etc. count. The six must also be in the most-used eleven, so not squad players.

There must be a couple of people here who have already done it?

Seems very do-able. I could certainly see Saka, Smith-Rowe, Nketiah, Balogun and Patino making a solid team, but I'd need to think more about a 6th. Might be fun.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Ö-zil to the Arsenal!

[hasdgfas]

7 hours ago, Ö-zil to the Arsenal! said:

I could certainly see Saka, Smith-Rowe, Nketiah, Balogun and Patino making a solid team, but I'd need to think more about a 6th. Might be fun.

does Ballard count? I don't remember if he was bought at any point, but he's real solid in FM22

[Spiegel]

I started an Arsenal game on the back of the podcast a few days ago funnily enough! Just made it to January 1st in the first season.

After a poor start, we have managed to claw my way into fourth place after a great run in December.

Didn't make any signings or sales in the initial transfer window, as I've only really managed lower league sides of late, and wanted to get to know the players etc. 

Currently running a 4-2-3-1, with Odegaard as the false-nine - inspired by @Ö-zil to the Arsenal!'s thread in the tactic forum. He's performing really well in the role. 

For the January window, there's a few outgoings;

I have agreed for Lacazette to move to Spartak Moscow for £4.3mill.
Rob Holding's going on loan to Aston Villa with a mandatory £18mill future fee.
Cedric looks likely to move to either Wolves or Villarreal for £12mill. 
Elneny's also likely moving, despite playing well, to Dinamo Moscow, at the end of his contract.

I'm trying to keep incoming players to a minimum to allow me to develop younger players, but I am currently in negotiations for Franck Kessie for a free transfer at the end of the season. He'll take Elneny's spot in the team.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Spiegel