FM24: Arsenal - Taking the next step

[hasdgfas]

On 26/11/2023 at 15:53, yorkie87 said:

Looking for good recommendations for roles for the front 3 of Martinelli, Jesus and Saka. Been a bit hit and miss for me. Mixed between

If-s AF-A IW-s

IW-A DLF - A IF - s

This will honestly depend a bit on the rest of the tactic, as that will affect the spaces available for them. I've also just struggled with Jesus's success in general in this FM.

[itamarled]

4 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

This will honestly depend a bit on the rest of the tactic, as that will affect the spaces available for them. I've also just struggled with Jesus's success in general in this FM.

Yes jesus is quite bad for me as well.
Eddie out preform him easily which says a lot 

[MasterFolke]

Played two seasons now. Won PL twice and League cup once, struggling in the CL and got knocked out twice in the quarterfinals. Played 433 but now im gonna try the 4231. Signings: Raya, Oshimen, André, Neves, Diomande, Roony, and the season 3 signing so far is Mitoma as replacement for Trossard. Have sold a lot and getting decent almost insane prices for the likes of Tomyasi, Nketiah, Partey and so on. I hope that my striker now in 4231 will score some more goals. Have gotten shitnewgens, all the supernewgens of course comes to Liverpool, United and Chelsea. 
 

Also sold Jesus för 90m and bought Endrick for 15😂. And in season two we also got a new owner.

Edited November 28, 2023 by MasterFolke

[hasdgfas]

Lotta transfer movement for me between seasons 1 and 2:

---

This has led to a bit of a rocky start to the new season, but we're still right up near the top in October. 

[bigman]

Just got the game on ps5 so it is a bit less intensive but still has all the match day details and the tactics etc 

much quicker for me as I loved tinkering on my laptop back in the day

started with transfers off and implemented a couple of different systems

a 433 and a 4231 with 2 dms. Won every game so far, City in the Charity Shield 2-0 then West Ham 2-0 at home, Spurs 2-1 away (kula and Jesus sent off, he’s banned for 3 games for a straight red lol) and then Forrest, 3-0 at home

saka and martinelli have been amazing for me as inverted wingers on attack and zinchenko has been contributing to the build up

rice has been my standout midfielder in a volante dm role or as a Carrilero next to an advanced playmaker

vieira is really good too and Havertz. We have a really strong team this year, potential for an upgrade in a couple of positions, namely right back, goal keeper, dm and a striker 

not sure who to go for, might look at Ferguson and target young prospects to grow into roles 

[Block4Gooner]

 

Jesus won the Ballon Dor with me as his manager

Edited December 4, 2023 by Block4Gooner

[itamarled]

10 hours ago, Block4Gooner said:

 

Jesus won the Ballon Dor with me as his manager

How do you play him? he bearly scores for me

[bigman]

Yeah that is a big return. He seems to score loads of offside goals for me and be complacent in front of goal 

 

I use him as a dlf support in a 422

[Block4Gooner]

6 hours ago, itamarled said:

How do you play him? he bearly scores for me

Pressing forward on attack but my AML and AMR are on winger attack and both my CM's are Central Midfield Attack too

This is season three so same squad really also

Edited December 5, 2023 by Block4Gooner

[ajw10]

Been a while, but I managed to finish my second season.

Treble winners. Jesus x 2 and Havertz the goalscorers in the CL Final. FA Cup was a comfortable 6-0 win over Brentford.

Came very close to breaking the fewest goals conceded record. We were on 14 conceded in the league but conceded 6 in the last 3 games.

Signed Sancho on loan in Jan but he didn't do much so he won't be signed. Jorginho leaves on a free.

Not sure what to do in the summer. Nwaneri broke into the team this season, scoring 8 in 8 starts. MLS is coming back from Metz and will take Jorginho's minutes.

Not sure on Ferguson. Signed for £28m and now valued at £60m. Wanted by Milan. Had a great middle of the season before losing form and being replaced by Jesus. Might give him another season.

Defence is where I want to strengthen. Timber and Zinchenko have been inconsistent. Saliba and Gabriel immense. White good.

[bigman]

I’m 13 games in. 10 wins a draw and 2 losses

man Utd are massively overrated as per usual (is their researcher right in the head?) and they have won 11 games and drawn 2. 4 points clear 

 

hopefully they start dropping points but I find it annoying when poor sides that won’t be challenging in real life get buffed up stats based on small periods of form 

[Kaylan]

Has anyone else had this glitch where the Emirates is called Arsenal stadium instead?

[Block4Gooner]

13 hours ago, Kaylan said:

Has anyone else had this glitch where the Emirates is called Arsenal stadium instead?

not noticed it myself butt I am inattentive

 

[ArsenalFC]

Its called Arsenal stadium in Champions League, Emirates stadium in the Premier League, probably licensing issues.

[ajw10]

It's not a glitch, UEFA don't have Emirates as a sponsor so in real life, the stadium is called The Arsenal Stadium

[bigman]

Finished my first season. Won the league by 2 points after some bottle job draws near the end of the year. I also managed to win the champions league which I havent done for a while

came second in the group behind Barca but managing a relatively easy draw to the final. Bayern first who I smashed at home weirdly and then clung on in the away leg, then benfica who lost a man to a red and I won 4-1 at home to. Then I lost the second leg 3-1 to scrape through. Lazio were next after they beat real, again, winning heavily at home and drawing the away game

i then played Barca with their magic box formation, laboured to a 2-1 win they dominated 

i played a 433 for most of the season

ramsdale as a sweeper keeper, Zinny as an iwb, Gabriel and Saliba as bpd, white as a wing back, Partey as a dm with ode lcm mezzala, rice rcm b2b/car, Saka and martinelli as inverted wingers and Jesus as either a dlf or af

the Goals were shared out, the most was ode with 16 and 15 assists. Saka and martinelli also played very well and my super subs, Eddie, trossard, Nketiah and the ridiculous vieira. He came in and bagged 10 goals over the season, seeming overpowered at times

i managed to dominate most games bar the big teams away so when the window opened I immediately sold Havertz who wanted out for 62 mill to Liverpool, sambi has gone for 15 mill, Patino for 6 with a buy back and I got rid of el neney and Jorginho on frees, the latter being a really great backup dlp. I also didn’t buy raya so that money wasn’t taken out the budget

currently I am trying to sell Tavares, tierney, trossard and maybe eddie

I have bought in siemans as by backup keeper, oshimen as my number 9 and kephrem Thuram as my dynamic midfielder

depth is insane at all positions now but there are potential upgrades at fullback. I hope timber is good across the back and Kiwior really did well as a big player when either cb got hurt

i also bought in ouedrougo but loaned him straight back to schalke

as it stands

ramsdale/siemans

white/tomiyasu

zinny/timber

gabby/saliba/kiwior

rice/partey

ode/vieira

thuram/nwanieri

saka/nelson

gabby/jesus/esr

osihmen/nketiah 

 

Any recommendations ? 

 

[gggfunk]

My first season is done. We finished 3rd in the league, the title was out of our reach as City did 97 points, beating us twice in the league (plus in the 2nd round of FA Cup). After like 30 games I was pretty sure of the top 4 as we had a good advantage over the 4th Villa and 5th Man Utd, but then we suddenly lost a couple of games in a row and before the last match-week we needed at least a draw against Man Utd to keep our position, but luckily we won the game.

In Champions League we reached the quarter final, where we were beaten by Barcelona after a pretty square tie (1-1, 1-2). We also got into semi-final of the Carabao Cup and lost to Liverpool.

I used my own custom gegenpress 4-3-3.

I did a good job with switching between Raamsdale and Raya to keep them both happy. The first one played a little bit better and started more games, but I like Raya too so obviously I activated the 31,5 mln clause and signed him permanently. I haven't decided who will be my number one next year yet, I like them both so it's going to be a very hard decision

In defense I played White/Tomiyasu - Saliba - Gabriel - Zinchenko, but the Ukrainian's form was irregular, so I sometimes changed him for Kiwior, who did surprisingly well. When we had some injury issues I gave Walters some appearances too and he impressed.

In the middle, against stronger opponents I played Partey - Odegaard - Rice, and with smaller teams Rice - Odegaard - Havertz/ESR.

Jesus scored 10 league goals and Eddie bagged 8, so this was definitely going to be a position to improve...

 

I bought some known wonderkids, most of them were sent for loans for now, plus I just activated 100mln clause for Osimhen, who hopefully will help us to fight for the title this year  

[hasdgfas]

On 14/12/2023 at 13:45, bigman said:

depth is insane at all positions now but there are potential upgrades at fullback. I hope timber is good across the back and Kiwior really did well as a big player when either cb got hurt

I bought Estupinan from relegated Brighton as I felt he was better than Zinny defensively and not a huge downgrade offensively. Timber has been solid across the back from me, so I haven't needed other upgrades at the fullback positions.

[hasdgfas]

Arsenal 2024/2025

Competitions Overview:

An outstanding season! Four trophies(if you count the community shield), capped off with our first Champions League win! Let's dig into the details.

Premier League:

Ups and downs throughout the season. Had about a 12 point lead going into January, but it was down a LOT by the end of the month, with a loss away at barely-survived Leicester. However, this was in the midst of a GK injury crisis where I literally had to start a grey GK named Sebastien Miggins who had no attributes over 8. Probably should just have adjusted my tactics to constantly hold possesion, looking back on it. Should have tried to avoid them getting any chances at all, because they put them all away. I did sign an emergency backup at that point.

However, when our GKs stopped being in an injury crisis, it helped a lot. Even a torn thigh for Saka against Leeds, leaving him out for the rest of the season, didn't completely derail us.

Domestic Cups

Very poor performance from the backups at home against United in the League Cup, but the FA Cup had a win at Anfield and revenge against United in the final.

Champions League

In the new format, we opened up incredibly strong, with the last two matches (in January, during our GK crisis) not dropping us out of the top 8, so we got to skip a round. In the knockouts, our Home advantage at the Emirates overcame every attempt by some of the big boys of Europe to knock us out. Finally, in the final, it was a very even game decided by Warren Zaire-Emery's relentless pressing leading to a turnover that he poked home!

SQUAD STATS

The frontmen were oustanding. 27 goals from Osimhen, 16/12 from Saka, 10/12 from Martinelli. Odegaard and Havertz were also incredible from a little bit depeer. Odegaard with 15/19 and Havertz with 16/17. Roony Bardghji filled in admirably at the end of the season for an injured Saka, as well as being a good rotation option to keep him healthy throughout the season. 9 goals and 13 assists is a great return in his first season behind Saka. Back in the depeer midfield, Zaire-Emery was phenomenal, coming out strong at the end of the season next to Odegaard. Rice might not have had the average rating of others, but he was a rock at the 6. Tchouameni was disappointing. Just not quite to the level of Rice, but hopefully next season he'll more fully come into his own. And then in the backline, Tomiyasu was incredible across all spots, filling in where he needed to, and playing really well in all of them. Saliba/Gabriel continued to be a glorious pairing. Raya is just so good. He played out of his mind in a lot of the tight matches to keep us in it or keep us ahead, and we got through enough.

Transfers:

IN

Made Raya official, he was absolutely worth it. Just an outstanding keeper in FM.

Babadi's contract was expiring, so I figured at the very least I could get a big profit on him. He didn't quite fit into my plans this season and I couldn't get him a loan. I hope to next season though.

Tchouameni looks good, but didn't quite perform to the level I hoped of him when I signed him. Maybe next season?

Seimen was signed for a Raya backup and cup keeper, because Hein ain't it. He was loaned back to Stuttgart for the season, but I wish I had him for january, haha. Seriously, look at this kid.

Cox was the emergency signing during January to play over Hein while Raya was out(and also while Hein was injured, as it turns out). He just displaced Hein as backup pretty quickly.

Zaire-Emery was my top target going into the summer, and boy did he pay off. Champions League winning goal, and he looks like a staple of the midfield for a decade.

Roony is my Saka backup, but he got a lot of starts due to Saka's injury at the end of the season. He had an absolute steal of a release game, really happy to trigger that.

I've never been that happy with Zinchenko, so when Brighton were relegated last year, I went for Estupinan. He was good, but not outstanding. He was better defensively than Zinny, at least.

Took a flier on a cheap kid from Kilmarnock for 1M. We'll see.

---

Like I said, an outstanding season. Hoping next season to integrate more youth. More time for Nwaneri at the very least, and we'll see who else.

[hasdgfas]

Well, as much as I love him, if PSG is offering this up front, after we just the treble, it's time to let him go.

[hasdgfas]

Been slow going this season for various reasons, but finally hit January 2026.

PREMIER LEAGUE:

Too many away draws! And the home loss to Liverpool was absolutely brutal(but deserved). We've had some absolute destructions of other teams, especially at home, but can't quite figure out what to do away from home.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:

Having a mostly solid performance here, except that awful match at Atletico. Two away matches to finish it off, but also the weakest two opponents in the entire draw. Should get through top 8 fairly comfortable if we play how we know we can.

EFL CUP:

Straightforward so far.

TRANSFERS:

IN

OUT

Saka was going to kick up a fuss, and as we had already won everything I figured it was time to let him go. Everyone else was fringe players, except Nelson who was a rotation option. Feel like I got solid fees for everyone except Vieira. 

---

Mathys Tel was not my first choice replacement for Bukayo Saka, but I just didn't have the budget for a Vinicius Junior/Rodrygo level player. So I went a touch younger, as Roony Bardghji can rotate with him on the right. He's playing very well, but not to Saka's level(obviously).  11 goals and 9 assists in 30 appearances all competitions as right winger is excellent return.

Luca Lipani was signed off a very cheap 5M release clause to try to make a profit off of at worst. I think that's all he's going to be, I don't see a world beater in here, but his loan to Hertha has him performing well enough to increase his value.

Sam Amo-Ameyaw looked ok, and has potential on the wings with that pace. I think I overpaid a bit, but Southampton weren't selling for any cheaper and I had a lot of money available. As an English youngster, I have hope for him still. He's gotten a couple games in, has performed ok, but not outstanding. I think he'll be fine.

SQUAD

Good performances from most players. That DL spot is a struggle, between Estupinan and Zinchenko(who, like IRL, is constantly injured), but besides that, the struggles are from the youngest players, which is understandable, as I'm just trying to bleed them in with sub appearances for the most part.

---

Overall, Things are going well. Got a few things to improve, but a good foundation.

[hasdgfas]

Kroenke was going to retire at the end of the season, so we got a new chairperson and, uhhhhhhhhhhh

[ArsenalFC]

I also got a Tycoon in the end of season 3 when Kroenke said he was going to retire. Mine is from Korea

[hasdgfas]

7 hours ago, ArsenalFC said:

I also got a Tycoon in the end of season 3 when Kroenke said he was going to retire. Mine is from Korea

Have you been throwing money everywhere? I am after January so I haven't had a chance to spend anything yet.

[ArsenalFC]

Mine was after January too, so didnt buy anyone too. Maybe I will throw some money for star striker Mbappe/Osimhen or something like that. Overall I am very happy with my squad. Already added Antonio Silva and Joao Neves from Benfika, Hakimi from PSG, Ansu Fati and some other younger players. I think i will look for a star LB and ST in the summer with the korean money

[lomekian]

Finally succumbed to FM24 and after a couple of test saves until Nov seas 1 to work out my tactic, get my head around the set pieces etc, have started my first real save.

DISCLAIMER: Using some DB add-ons that

1) add real life youth players to the game (from some FM website), so have Obi-Martin etc

2) Add all Arsenal u16s myself (info taken from various websites)

3) Added BIG points deduction to Man City (the cheating bastards). Not enough to guarantee relegation, but enough to make it possible. I thought this a way to hedge bets re real life sanctions when they come

4) Remove Brexit. Yes I am still bitter.

5) Cancelled Tierney's loan (just read Sociadad won't buy him IRL so figured why not keep him in FM).

No First teamers or existing youth edited by me.

SEASON 1 Starting Transfers

Obviously Arsenal are skint to begin with, so first thing is to grab some filler non-squad guys on Frees. Some old blokes for mentoring usage, who don;t mind the old Scott Carson role. Others who rate themselves and will ask to leave when I don't include them in my squad, so can be flogged ahead of first transfer deadline to raise some funds. And pure profit for FFP! Trial them first then hold off to get them on lower wages than day 1.

Old blokes:

Daniel Caliguri, Oumar Niasse, Marco Motta, Gael Clichy (yay!), Diego Lopez, Adrian Silva, Kazuyoshi Miura

Frees to sell:

almamy Toure, Kevin Malcuit, Jose Compana (will sell when fit in Jan-ish), Tanguay Coulibaly, Anwar El Ghazi, Lingaard, Jose Sumonovic, Peter Etebo, Jean-Paul Boetius, Nemanja Jovic, Suleyman Doumbia. Used same logic to pick up Alejandro Zendejas and Alvaro Fidalgo for a combined £528,000 from Club America in Mexico - Allowed me to be prepped for any opportunistic sales in attackers outside the first 11, and neither complain about missing out on squad registration. Both actual good performers too.

Managed to get in 7.5m for Coulibaly, 8m for Toure & 10m for El Ghazi, and used Boetius in a p/ex signing later. The rest will be given league/fa cup minutes to maintain their value if the draws are kind, and to protect the real first teamers.

Then it was loaning out guys - targetted scandi teams as they always seem to be willing to make big loan payments in the summer until their seasons end in late NOV, but even some championship teams seem to be willing to throw some decent cash about. Raised a 3-4 million in loan fees alone, including for the younger freebies I brought in.

This income (and the use of deferred payments) allowed for some signings. Nearly all CHEAP prospects. Barco at £6.25m the most expensive - so effectively got him for having to train Coulibaliy for 2 months. Hoovered up some SUPER CHEAP prospects based on the Guardian's next Gen lists for the last 2 seasons and other youth players I had heard of who turned out super cheap.

These included GK Nathanial Nwosu, AM Prince Ndlovu, Kebir Ali Canpolat, Marcus Bering, Hunor Nemeth all without fees. Lots of Africans can come for next to nothing (maybe this is because I removed Brexit?), but also lots of other randoms from the next gen lists or from English teams (and Real Madrid youth too) can be picked up for next to nothing, which when you defer payments becomes almost nothing. Managed to bring in about 35 prospects for under 1M budget total! It helps I am a football spanner and love scouting!

Then as per, scouted Benfica & Sporting youth set ups, becasue they tend to have great mentals and personalities. Brought in Joao Veloso at the start for what will become £4.2m (and got 1m back in loan fees!). A few others I will try to pick up in January or the summer.

Only first team squad signings were the aforementioned Barco, HULK for £4.5m (I'd always wanted to sign him), he provides cover up front and for Saka, and his PPMs are fun, Papetti from Brescia for £1.8m just to give 1 more u21 defensive option who can play the odd game in a push, and Ernst Poku in a £6m cash + swap deal for the aforementioned Boetius - because PACE.

I did want to sell Partey and bringing Kephren Thuram, but despite lots of Partey interest, the offers were derisory, so we'll keep him for the time being. Also flogged Cedric in a loan deal that payed me£1m in loan fees with a guaranteed £4m in future income.

Obviously improved the coaching staff, as some of what we have there is poor. Will continue to do so as more funds become available.

So bar Cedric out and Tierney, Barco & Hulk in, we start as we are.

[lomekian]

Have attached my tactic - when I can work out how to post screenshots I'll share one. Have also attached my 3 option setpiece routine collection -largely based on what we've done this season.

The tactic is my interpretation of what Arteta is TRYING to do IRL.

All I can say is, if you play enough pre-season games to get it up to speed and your players fit, it REALLY works with this squad.

I have noticed in this years FM that if you get on a roll, both within individual games and in general, you can really rack up some scores.

Choice results so far:

7-0 away vs Brighton on the opening day (off only 2.5 xG - the opposite of real life)

5-1 at home to Liverpool

5-0 away at Forest (with Hulk scoring off the bench on his debut)

9-1 at home to West Ham (who were biazarrely awful and easy to create against.)

7-0 at home to Spurs (the AI making some seriously odd selection choices at FB and in midfield, and conceded 6.81xG with their first 11).

And then the best ever result I've had in FM on any version - 11-0 vs Chelsea. However HUGE mitigating circumstances in this one as they had a red card (Reece James) and FOUR players injured (Thiago Silva, Sterling, Jackson & Chilwell), ending the match with 8 men, and that was after coming into the match with a huge injury crisis, missing Enzo, Gallagher, Disasi & Mudryk, Palmer & Mudryk on top of Fofana, Nkunku & Lavia already out. They've turned their form around since then and are 6th.

I always find it interesting how players form varies from save to save. On my prior test run to develop a tactic, Saka was underwhelming, but in this one he is like Messi - 14 goals an 10 assists in 13 games  - despite being used in exactly the same way with the same teammates. Havertz has been godly in this one too, having been so so in my test, whereas in that Zinchenko, Jesus and Nelson had been the leading lights.

It is of course unsustainable that this form will last, particularly when the hard CL fixtures and other cup games kick in, but hoping to build up a nice points lead.

Lomekian meets Arteta23-24.fmf mat Routine Collection.fmf

[hasdgfas]

Very unique approach @lomekian! I haven't gone with the "buy players entirely to sell them" direction before, but it seems to be going well with everything else you're doing.

[hasdgfas]

2025/26 SEASON REVIEW

Another very successful season for the squad

4 trophies(depending on how you count the UEFA Super Cup).

PREMIER LEAGUE

After a really up and down first half of the season, the second half went significantly better, with our only loss being at Anfield. Title was clinched with the draw against City.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Not an easy path! The Barcelona performance at Camp Nou though, was outstanding. 4-1.

DOMESTIC CUPS

Glad to get the win in the NLD EFL Cup final, but the FA Cup loss to City hurt.

JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW

IN

Jocelyn Halleux was an excellent-looking youngster I picked up for 30M as I think he has incredible potential. He was bought in Jan with a loan back for the rest of the season, but he'll be in the first team mix next season.

Rafa Marin was brought in on loan as central defender depth due to my third choice central defender leaving for Atletico Madrid. He has a buy clause for 6.25M, and I think I'm going to trigger it, to hopefully make a profit at the very least.

OUT

I bought him for 2M, so this is an incredible profit, and his performances just weren't improving to the level I wanted. This felt like a great deal.

SQUAD

Outstanding performances from most players. Osimhen with 36 goals, Saka replacements Mathys Tel with 20/17 and Roony Bardghji with 11/23, young backup keeper Dennis Seimen with 22 appearances due to some nice draws. Ethan Nwaneri stepping into the first team this season and performing quite well with 6/9!

---

With the Tycoon takeover, I'm probably spending some big money this summer just because I can, although I have several players I'd like to keep developing.

[lomekian]

6 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Very unique approach @lomekian! I haven't gone with the "buy players entirely to sell them" direction before, but it seems to be going well with everything else you're doing.

Always do it with some freebies first season to some degree but FFP has also got me thinking. Some of my cheap starlets will help sigificantly even if they never get a sniff of first team action.

Got some chap called alexander Murillo from RB Salzburg that my scouts liked for a grand total of £550! Going to be hard to make a loss on that one!

[Sysiphus]

I am enjoying working my way slowly through the seasons with Arsenal on this game – just finished my 3rd one now. I've not had a lot of success, which is making the process more enjoyable for me. I haven't won any trophies yet (except for one Community shield) but my consolation is that I have won 2 PL titles if you look at the xG table in the data hub (all going in the right direction!). I've had real struggles coming up with a consistent tactic but in the second part of the 3rd season the team finally started to find its feet with the one pictured below. Nothing groundbreaking, no massive PIs (just aligning some of them with the player roles). This is the first tactic that has gotten Jesus (or any of our other strikers) to over 0.5 npxG per game and it's really maximised Martinelli as a goalscoring outlet. Jesus was the PLs top goalscorer last season (despite rotating a lot with Ferguson and playing on the wings) and Martinelly the PLs player of the season. I have not made too many signings, these are roughly the personnel changes to each phase of the team:

GK: Ramsdale out, Guillaume Restes in.
DEF: Tierney + Kiwior + Tavares out, Marc Guehi in.
MID: Partey + Xhaka + Jorginho + Lokonga out, Tchouameni + Joao Neves in.
FWD: Reiss Nelson out, Evan Ferguson in.

I am unsure of transfers ahead of season 4, I think I will roll my dice with the current squad and be reactive rather than proactive. Saka is a bit unsettled but I won't be selling him, I did that in FM23 as I generally don't want to keep unhappy players but it ruined my enjoyment a bit being without him. Players I am really interesting in acquiring over the next couple of seasons but don't have room in my squad for currently are Anatolii Trubin as an eventual Raya successor; Castello Lukeba, Jorrel Hato, Alessandro Bastoni or Nico Schlotterbeck as my primary DCL over Gabriel; Nathan Collins or Leny Yoro as DCR cover (I don't particularly like the height of Timber and White as central defenders (especially if I bring in Lukeba/Hato for DCL) and Tomiyasu moans a bit if he's played there); Eduardo Camavinga as my dream DL (IWB); and Eliesse Ben Seghir or Noah Darvich as a Fabio Vieira replacement (he has high standards of playing time which are hard to match).

In terms of youth, Reuell Walters and Patino have not quite hit the heights I was hoping for (still useful players) so I will be trying to move them on this window with a buy back clause and/or a high sell-on fee percentage. Cozier-Duberry probably falls into the same category but I feel he still has more of an unlocked potential (so far I haven't been able to unlock it though!). Nwaneri is coming along really nicely but at 19 I don't think I can find sufficient playing time for him so he will be loaned out again, hopefully to a PL side this time. Lewis-Skelly has ruined his development for himself a bit as he's refused to go out on loan up to now which has resulted in u23s football and a few cameos for the first team, hopefully he will accept a loan move this season to kick his development off again. I have a couple of good newgen prospects but none that are close to first team level.

Edited January 29 by Sysiphus

[Sysiphus]

Well, this is getting a bit hard to resist...

In other news, Camavinga has gone off my shortlist as Man City splurged 269 million on him this summer and gave him 550k p/w. They now have a weekly wage bill of 8.5m, whereas the second highest wagebill (Man Utd) stands at 5.75m. They will be hard to topple this year – won the league last season and knocked me out of both cups.

[hasdgfas]

6 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

Well, this is getting a bit hard to resist...

In other news, Camavinga has gone off my shortlist as Man City splurged 269 million on him this summer and gave him 550k p/w. They now have a weekly wage bill of 8.5m, whereas the second highest wagebill (Man Utd) stands at 5.75m. They will be hard to topple this year – won the league last season and knocked me out of both cups.

Yeah, this is around the point where I just cannot turn it down. Even when I want to keep a player around.

[Sysiphus]

15 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Yeah, this is around the point where I just cannot turn it down. Even when I want to keep a player around.

It's not that I need the money, really, it's just that I like to try to play in a realistic way and it's just not really realistic rejecting offers like this for an unsettled player... I still did it because I remember how I lost interest last year after I let Saka go to Real Madrid for a similar sum.

[Sysiphus]

Just finished season 4. The team played really well but came away from it without any silverware. We came 2nd in the league (won the xPoints league again hah) and were incredibly unlucky with draws in other competitions. In the CL, after having won the League phase, we were drawn against Real Madrid, knocking them out in penalties. In quarter finals, we faced current holders Liverpool and took them to penalties as well, but this time we were on the losing end. In the FA, we knocked out Spurs, Villa Chelsea before falling victim to Man Utd in the semis. In the Carabao Cup, we knocked out Liverpool and Man United but lost in quarter finals to Man City.

At the end of the season, we had a tycoon takeover. I hadn't bought anyone the summer before (nor in January) as I find the squad is in really good shape. Now, we have a budget of 250 million pounds and the board requires us to spend all of the budget and sign high reputation players, which I am not a fan of. I will try to make some refreshments of the squad to appease them. The board also requires us to win the PL and the CL this season, which might be very hard. There is a possibility that this will be my last season at the club and that I will look for a new challenge – let's see.

Spending the money – I'm looking at long-term target Castello Lukeba from RB Leipzig. He will not come cheap but I guess that's just good now as I have to spend all of my budget either way. Gabriel has Saudi clubs after him and wants out to get a big paycheck so that should work out fine. I just hope I don't have to spend what I receive for him as well... Other than this, I don't have any areas of the squad I want to improve upon, possibly I buy a marquee striker but we really don't need to with Jesus and Evan Ferguson on our books...

[hasdgfas]

7 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

Gabriel has Saudi clubs after him and wants out to get a big paycheck so that should work out fine. I just hope I don't have to spend what I receive for him as well...

Usually it's "spend the original transfer budget" rather than bonuses you may get. But yeah, it's always the toughest part for me as well. I'm usually not interested in gutting the squad to buy high-rep players. Maybe 1 a season, but I bring through so many young players that more than that is pretty rough.

[hasdgfas]

2026/27 REVIEW

Obviously a great season, winning everything we participated in. Starting to hit the point I lose momentum on a save, but we'll see how long I can keep going. 

PREMIER LEAGUE

Two losses, both away, both in the first half of the season, and some absolute spankings.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Smoked Madrid in the final, and again very few issues apart from a couple away matches.

CUPS

No issues at all, really.

TRANSFERS IN

TRANSFERS OUT

Little bit of a refresh. Real happy with my outs, except for Havertz under 40M, but it was going to be tough to get a profit there. Everyone else was a hugely successful fee out. And the ins are a lot of young players I'm hoping to make a profit on if they don't make the first team, and then Musiala is the big purchase(spoiler: he was worth it).

SQUAD STATS

outstanding performances from basically the whole squad. Under 7 average from only two players. One of whom is a 19-year-old central defender that I integrated into the team this season. I was hoping to play him less, but injuries and the number of matches meant he got 41 appearances. He's been fine. He's also young, he'll come through. The other was a loan signing that I didn't need to make, and really shouldn't have. Not worth it. He's heading back.

A few notes on specific players:

Musiala is hanging out down there with 16/16 on the season and an average rating of 7.21. Outstanding, especially with a slow start. Osimhen was injured for 3 months and still scored 24 goals! Odegaard was unreal. Fully in his prime now. 13/19 on the season, but a lot of pre-assists and key passes to get us into positions to get goals. Mamoru Fukui was one I wasn't expecting much from. He arrived in January after he finished the season in Japan on loan, and he was on fire. 6 goals and 2 assists in 7 appearances. He would have played more except for a couple smaller injuries.

Really loving the squad I've pulled together here. Not sure where to improve them at this point, really.

 

[VP.]

Decided to start a new save as not really played the game much lately, won the domestic treble first season but only made the CL quarters.

Only 3 incomings during January with one being a loan, Obrador was signed by Edu as have him in charge of finding future prospects. No outgoings though have just sold Nketiah to Chelsea for £51m, the idiots.

Have a couple of others I want to move on but may look at the younger players we have rather than spending loads myself but not sure yet.

[rich ruzzian]

Great season @hasdgfas,I guess you are rotating a load to keep everybody happy
btw which skin are you using? 

[hasdgfas]

7 minutes ago, rich ruzzian said:

Great season @hasdgfas,I guess you are rotating a load to keep everybody happy
btw which skin are you using?

lots of rotation. lots of games to rotate in.

 

Skin is WTCS Gold. big fan

[Sysiphus]

3 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Usually it's "spend the original transfer budget" rather than bonuses you may get. But yeah, it's always the toughest part for me as well. I'm usually not interested in gutting the squad to buy high-rep players. Maybe 1 a season, but I bring through so many young players that more than that is pretty rough.

Yeah, for us as real life Arsenal fans it's hard to for example have to sell Nwaneri (who is quite good on my game, nothing spectacular though but I'm fond of him) because of crazy ownership demands of winning everything and bringing in superstars. It starts to feel like you are managing Chelsea. Btw, great success you are having in your game—inspiring. Could you show a screenshot of Patino's attributes in your game? He never really turned out well in my save and after a few loans and a couple of half-seasons with my team I had to sell him quite cheap.

For the summer window I only brought in Lukeba (99m release clause but in my opinion the best left-sided defender in the game) to replace Gabriel (55m to Al-Ahli on 800k p/w). I was after Sesko and van Persie jr. to gut my budget a bit as Jesus was wanted by Saudi clubs plus newly-riced-in-the-world-after-takeover AC Milan and he doesn't allow me to offer him a new contract as under the new regime 30+ year old players can't have more than 1-year deals... Sesko proved to expensive (north of 100m) and van Persie joined Man Utd over me (touché). So far, the owners are "very pleased" with me spending half of the budget so I can't complain.

Tomiyasu wants out now as Real Madrid approached him on deadline day. I promised to sell him in January which gives me time to sort a replacement. Current squad shown below, I like to keep a small group and rotate.

[hasdgfas]

2 minutes ago, Sysiphus said:

Could you show a screenshot of Patino's attributes in your game? He never really turned out well in my save and after a few loans and a couple of half-seasons with my team I had to sell him quite cheap.

Real solid squad player. He's not breaking into the first XI, but I'm always happy to give him a start when I need to rotate.

[Sysiphus]

Might be coming to an end point with this year's Arsenal save. Losing interest after the tycoon takeover. I generally don't enjoy being flush with cash, never having any incentive to sell your players, being able (and in my case, forced by the owner) to build a squad of 15+ superstars making it very hard to manage gametime and all the rotations very unrealistic. No joy in developing youth as you can buy every wonderkid in the world but it will be very hard to find gametime for them. It's just not my game.

I've been meandering very slowly through my 5th season. Man Utd are running away with the league at Christmas (we are second) and I haven't found my tactics to be very reliable this season, my strikers are not scoring at all. I will probably finish this season and then resign and see if something more interesting pops up as I've become quite invested in the newgen world of this save. Who knows, maybe I find the Arsenal spark again!

[KingLara]

FM24 ARSENAL SEASON 1 – PRE/SEASON/AUGUST

A bit late to get started this year. Looking forward to the challenge.

 

Transfers

In

None

Out

Elneny (5m) – Roma

Smith-Rowe (loan) – Juventus

Ejiheri (loan) - Doncaster

 

Having already spent a huge amount of money before I took over there wasn’t much left in the kitty for new signings so I drew a blank. I was tempted by Lingard who was the only decent option on the free transfer market but ultimately chose against it. I also decided to keep most of the youth players at the club for the first half of the season. On deadline day Juventus came from nowhere and asked for smith-rowe on loan. I decided to do it. Cedric somehow managed to escape another transfer window and remains at the club. I will use him at some point though.

A wealth of Staff also came in. My trusted assistant from previous iterations Bryan Klug came in alongside 33 other additions. Among them were a new loan manager David Woodfine and an absolute joke of a head of youth development Paolo Morganti who has a 20 rating in all three recommended categories. Norbert Elgert would take charge of the under 21s.

 

Pre-Season

[SQUAD]

I will start with Ramsdale as my number one and see how the season goes from there. Cedric will likely be 3^rd choice in both full back positions.

GK – Ramsdale – Raya

DL – Zinchenko

DR – Tomiyasu – Cedric

DC – Gabriel – Kwior

DC – Saliba – White

DMC – Rice - Jorginho

MC – Partey – Vieria

AMC – Odegaard – Havertz

AML – Martinelli – Trossard

AMR – Saka – Nelson

ST – Jesus – Nketiah

 

Pre-Season Fixtures

We cruised through our first four pre-season games winning all of them. Defensively we were good and no team had over a 1.00xg. Bristol City giving us the toughest game. Saka broke his arm in the Antwerp match meaning he would miss the first six weeks of the season.

Charlton (A) 2-4 – Anderson o.g Partey Saka White

Bristol City (A) 0-1 - Azeez

Antwerp (A) 0-3 – Nelson, Nketiah, Havertz

LASK (A) – 1-4 – Jesus White Nketiah Odegaard

 

Emirates Cup

We hosted Boca Juniors, Frankfurt and Espanyol in a watered down Emirates Cup. We eased past Boca in the semi finals with youngster seb Ferdinand getting a goal Despite going behind early on in the final a rampant first half saw us score four goals in another good display. An excellent final showing before the competitive matches began.

SF – Boca – 3-0 - Nketiah Ferdinand Martinelli

FINAL – Frankfurt – 6-3 – Martinelli (3) Jesus Nelson (2)

 

COMMUNITY SHIELD

ARSENAL 0

MAN CITY 0

Arsenal win 4-2 on pens

The first game of the season turned into a snoozefest with neither side creating many chances. Just the combined three shots on target and 0.87xg. However our possession was better (57%) as well as our passing accuracy (93% vs 90%). Rice and Havertz made their debuts but neither took a penalty as Jesus, Trossard, Odegaard and Vieira all scored while De Bruyne saw his saved by man of the match Ramsdale and needing to score to keep City in it Bernardo Silva blazed high and handsome. Happy with the first trophy in the cabinet.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 2 – Gabriel 3 Odegaard 61

Bournemouth 0

A gentle start to the season at The Emirates, We were a bit waseful having 29 attempts 74% possession and a 2.19xg but happy enough to start with a win and not face a shot on target.

 

Premier League

Sheffield United 0

Arsenal 2 – Nelson 21 Havertz 87

Another kind fixture saw us travel to Sheffield United. They had lost 4-1 at Brentford on the opening night of the season. They restricted us well but a goal in each half was enough.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 3 – Jesus 7 Martinelli 35 Jorginho 83(pen)

West Ham 1 – Paqueta 26

The final game of August saw Declan rice have his west ham reunion. A fiery game saw 34 fouls but we dominated it and should have scored more with our 3.66xg. A good start and already some daylight from other teams struggling.

 

Table

1.      Brighton P3 W3 D0 L0 GF10 GA4 GD+6 P9

2.      ARSENAL P3 W3 D0 L0 GF7 GA1 GD+6 P9

3.      Wolves P3 W3 D0 L0 GF5 GA 1 GD +4 P9

4.      Man United P3 W2 D1 L0 GF5 GA2 GD+3 P7

5.      Man CIty P3 W2 D1 L0 GF3 GA1 P7

Liverpool began the season with two goalless draws against Chelsea and Everton before winning at Spurs 2-1 thanks to a Salah brace. Spurs are currently in 14^th with 1 point having also lost at Man City and conceded a 95^th minute Moussa Diaby equaliser at home to Aston Villa.

 

Summer Transfers

Unsurprisingly Saudi Arabia were still the busiest place for transfers with most sides having done their signings earlier. Jose Gaya was the most expensive deal moving to al ittihad for £63million Spurs sold Bissouma for £54m and brought in Andre and Matheus Reis. Liverpool brought in Bayern right back Mazraoui while Raphinha went from Barcelona to Man city on  a 1.8m loan. Chelsea also dipped into the loan market signing Guardado from Betis.

Europe

We were handed an early reunion with Harry Kane in the champions League draw with Bayern, Real Sociadad and Dinamo Zagreb making up a potentially tricky group. Man united were drawn with Sevilla, Crvena and Marseille. Newcastle face Barcelona Porto and Shakhtar while Man City are against Dortmund Ac Milan and Celtic.

Liverpool, West Ham and Brighton should all qualify from their groups in the Europa League. Aston Villa face Vitesse, FC Twente and Lizern in the conference league and should also get though.

Carabao Cup

In the Carabao Cup we drew Leeds at home. Man City vs Everton, Brighton vs Liverpool and Manchester United vs Fleetwood the most notable ties of the 3^rd Round. Spurs are already out having lost in the 2^nd round 3-0 at home to Fulham.

 

September/October Fixtures

Premier League

Palace (A) Wolves (H) Newcastle (A) Brighton (H) Burney (A) Forrest (H) Luton (A)

Champions League

Real Sociadad (H) Bayern (A) Dinamo Zagreb (H)

Carabao Cup

Leeds (H)

[Sysiphus]

Fired in 2028 (season 5), unfortunately. The new board had put "win Champions League" as a non-negiotable and we were knocked out in the semis against Barcelona (this Lamine Yamal kid!), and that was enough for them to pull the trigger. I was either way thinking of resigning soon, but as often goes I had gotten very attached to many players and wonderkids in my squad so I was reluctant to do so. Now I have taken over AS Roma in Italy from Thomas Frank, who has been doing a horrid job in the Italian capital, having them sitting in 14th place mid-way through season 6. The squad is aging and not flush with quality, so it will be a fun rebuild for me. The balance is 70m in the red, I have no transfer budget and we are 200k p/w over the wage budget.

If this sticks I'll continue to update my progress in the Serie A thread here in the forum.

[KingLara]

FM24 ARSENAL SEASON 1 – SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

 

Premier League

Crystal Palace 0

Arsenal 1 – Zinchenko 77

We travelled to Selhurst Park for the first game of September. Palace were yet to win this season after two draws and a defeat. Also being dumped out of the Carabao Cup on penalties at Swansea. We controlled the game but needed a Zinchenko arrowed shot from a clever Rice pass to get the winner. 94% pass accuracy was nice.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 4 – Martinelli 39 Saka 49 Nketiah 53 Odegaard 57

Wolves 2 – Dawson 25 Sarabia 77

Wolves came to the Emirates having won their opening four league games. Having played for England (I forgot to withdraw him) Saka played for the first time this season. Partey came back from International duty a little tired so Jorginho came in and grabbed two assists. Wolves took an early lead and despite conceding 76% possession had a high XG of 2.35. However 3 goals in 8 second half minutes took the game beyond them. I rested some legs with the Champions League game on the Tuesday although would have liked a couple more goals.

 

Champions League – Group Stage MatchDay 1

Arsenal 1 – Rice 25

Real Sociedad 0

The Champions League returned to the Emirates for the first time since 2016. Kieran Tierney was eligible to play but picked up a yellow card in an average display. None of the attacking players sparkled in a tight game of only three shots on target. Declan Rice on his Champions League debut heading in from a corner via a rebound. Happy to start with a win.  The other game in our group also saw a 1-0 win, This time for Bayern at Dinamo Zagreb. Kane scoring after just 2 minutes.

 

Premier League

Newcastle United 1 – Isak 65

Arsenal 2 – Saka 15 Odegaard 27

Having won our opening five league games we faced our toughest task so far with a trip to Newcastle. They were riding high after beating Barcelona 1-0 a fews days before. We got off to a good start taking a 2-0 lead before going into our shell a bit and allowing Newcastle back into it. They pulled a goal back through Isaak but the equaliser never really came close.

 

Carabao Cup – 3^rd Round

Arsenal 3 – Havertz 13, Trossard 38, Sousa 54

Leeds 3 – Gnonto 60 83 Enciso 63

Arsenal win 5-3 on penalties

I rang the changes for the Carabao Cup. Injuries to White, Cedric and Tomiasu while also wanting to rest Zinchenko Gabriel and Saliba meant I started with a back four of Sousa Kwior, Foran and Walters. Azeez also started whilst James Sweet, Sagoe, Henry-Francis, Ferdinand, Rosiak and Cozier-Duberry were on the bench with the latter coming on as a sub. Having gone 3-0 up we seemed to be cruising but then Gnonto started to be a pain and with me being too lazy to make tactical changes Leeds came back to level. I pushed again to avoid penalties but we couldn’t get the fourth. However in the shootout Vieira, Havertz, Trossard, Cozier-Duberry and Nketiah all scored while Raya finally did something right in the match and saved Liam Coopers penalty. A relief to get through.

Man City's tricky start to the season continued as the lost to Everton on penalties at the Etihad. Just 11 points from the first six games after draws with Chelsea and home to Fulham and a 3-0 humbling at Anfield coupled with also losing their opening champions league tine and home to Ac Milan. Elsewhere Liverpool won 3-0 at Brighton a good result in the context that Brighton were 2^nd in the league wolves knocked out Newcastle while Man United trailed Fleetwood 3-2 at half time before coming back to win 5-3 in the second half.

The fourth Round draw would see us play Everton at the emirates. Man United would play Liverpool and Fulham would be up against Chelsea.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 2 – Saka 55 Gabriel 82

Brighton 1 – Fati 39

Brighton headed to Emirates having suffered their first defeats of the campaign first at Brentford in the league and then in the carabao cup at home to Liverpool. After an early Nketiah goal was ruled out for offside Fati gave Brighton the lead. Saka got us back level before Gabriel scored from our 13^th corner. Seven out of seven in the premier league with a good chance to make it 10 with the three games in October.

 

Champions League – Group Stage Match Day 2

Bayern 1 – Muller 15

Arsenal 2 – Nketiah 8 Saliba 11

Our second game of the champions league group saw us head to Bayern for a reunion with Harry Kane. I went with the double pivot of Jorginho and Rice wanting to stifle bayerns attack and try and get a 0-0. However a 30 yarder from Nketiah and a Saliba header saw us gain an early 2-0 lead. Muller quickly pulled one back but Bayern didn’t create enough to get an equaliser despite clawing back a 40-60 possession first half to 48/52 by the end. Kane ending with a 6.3 and a yellow card. Sociedad and Dinamo drew the other group game 1-1. It left us in a very strong position after the first two games.

 

Premier League

Burnley 1 – Roberts 9

Arsenal 3 – Havertz 2 Trossard 26 Saka 34(pen)

We headed to Burnley after the high of the win in Germany. Zinchenko was out with an ankle sprain meaning Kwior started at left back.  A comfortable first half performance was enough to get an easy win.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 4 – Saka 12 23 Partey 52 90

Nottingham Forrest 0

After another international break we hosted Nottingham Forest. Braces for Saka and Partey in another easy win. A couple of assists for Kwior as well. Providing good cover for Zinchenko

 

Champions League – Group Stage Match Day 3

Arsenal 3 – Rice 14 Trossard 56 Partey 79

Dinamo Zagreb 0

Match day 3 saw us host Dinamo Zagreb. They failed to muster a shot on target while our 3.29XG should have led to more than the three goals. Just like at Dinamo Bayern won 1-0 at Real Sociedad courtesy of Kane.

 

Premier League

Luton 0

Arsenal 4 – Saka 30(pen) 65 Cedric 73 Nketiah 83

Luton started life in the premier league with a 3-0 win over west ham followed by a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace. However the had since lost the next seven league games. We could have scored more in an easy win to make it 10 wins from 10 in the league. Saka with a perfect 10 display.

 

Carabao Cup 4^th Round

Arsenal 0

Everton 3 – Danjuma 7 Young 85 Beto 88

Having won our opening 15 games of the season we played Everton at The Emirtates in the carabao cup. As expected I rang the changes choosing to rest most of the senior players but having a little insurance on the bench with Trossard and Nketiah. However only one youth player (Azeez) started so it was still a decent side. We went behind early but I tried not to panic. However with time running out we pushed more and more forward and Ashley young got a second for Everton before Beto put a cherry on the cake. We had a better XG than them and 70% possession but just couldn’t score. Raya with a 5.9 not helping his chances of making the loan deal permanent. Khayon Edwards came on late to make his debut. Go again next season.

 

Premier League Table

1.      Arsenal P 10 P 30 GD 21

2.      Man City P 10 P 23 GD 7

3.      Man United P10 P20 GD 4

4.      Brentford P 10 P 20 GD 3

5.      Liverpool P 10 P 19 GD 6

Spurs and Chelsea are just hovering underneath Liverpool both on 17 points. Luton Sheffield United and Everton are in the relegation zone.  Wolves finished August in 3^rd but having lost 6 of their next seven are now down in 12^th.

 

Premier League Top scorers

Son 9 Saka 8 Hojbjerg Cunha 6 Salah 5

Premier League Top Assists

Richarlison Antony 6 Groß 5 Lo Celso Ward-Prowse 4 (8^th Saka 3)

Premier League Av Rating

Saka 8.52 Mitoma 7.58  Son 7.43 Partey 7.42 Enzo Fernandez 7.40

Premier League Motm

Mitoma 4 Salah Foderingham Son 3, Saka 2

Team XG

Arsenal 2.16 Man United 1.96 Tottenham 1.69 Liverpool 1.66 Man City 1.62

Team Av Possession

Man United 65% Arsenal Man City 64% Chelsea 61% Liverpool 59%

 

Arsenal stats (1^st team)

Appearances (16 played)

Saliba Ramsdale Rice Gabriel 14 Odegaard 12(+1)

Zinchenko 10 Nketiah (9+4) Partey 9(+3) Tomiyasu 9(+2)

Saka 9 Nelson, Martinelli 8(+4) Trossard 7(+6) White 7(+3)

Jorginho 6(+5) Kwior, Jesus 6(+1) Havertz 4(+12) Vieria 2(+4)

Raya, Azeez 2 Sousa, Cedric 1(+1) Walters, Foran 1

Cozier-Duberry, Edwards 0(+1)

 

Goals

Saka 8, Havertz Partey Odegaard Nketiah Trossard 3

Rice Martinelli Gabriel 2

Sousa Zinchenko Cedric Saliba Jorginho Nelson Jesus 1

 

Assists

Odegaard Saka Nelson 4 Jorginho 3

Kwior Partey Tomiyasu Nketiah Rice Martinelli 2

Zinchenko White Trossard 1

 

Man of Match

Partey  Saka Nketiah 2

Zinchenko Tomiyasu Odegaard Jorginho Ramsdale Nelson Rice Gabriel 1

 

 

 

Europe

While we seem to be cruising in our group all three other premier league teams are struggling. Man United are currently 3^rd after losing both away matches in Sevilla and Marseille. Newcastle are also 3^rd but are level on 6 points with Barcelona and Porto above them. Meanwhile Man City are bottom after losing their first two games home to Ac Milan and Away at Dortmund. They then followed it up with a goalless draw at Celtic. They are four behind Dortmund an six behind Ac Milan.

In the Europa League Liverpool and Brighton are progressing well and should go through but west ham are currently facing a battle for 2^nd with Toulouse on maximum points after three games. The hammers to have Ajax at home though so a slight advantage. Englands only representative in the Conference league aston Villa have won all of their games and should top their group.

 

Other news

Domestically five points separate the top 5 in Germany Bayern are 3^rd 3 points behind Leverkusen and Dortmund. Like us Inter have had nearly a perfect start with nine wins and a draw giving them an early 7 point lead.  PSG and Nice have already opened up an 8 point gap at the top of Ligue 1. Finally in Spain Villareal lead the way with Barcelona and Real Madrid 1 point behind.

The Under 21s got off to a poor start but are now recovering and are currently 5^th in the league 5 points behind Brighton. They also won their opening international cup match against Barcelona. The under 18s are currently 2nds in their league behind Norwich. In the Uefa youth league they are currently 3^rd but have a good chance to still progress.

 

November/December Fixtures

Premier League

Brentford (H) Aston Villa (A) Man United (A) Everton (H) Chelsea (A) Tottenham (H) Man City (A) Liverpool (H) Fulham (A) Sheffield United (H)

Champions League

Dinamo Zagreb (A) Real Sociadad (A) Bayern (H)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[saware]

How are people finding the Saudi impact? Got to my 2nd season & someone has come in for Odegaard. I have no desire to lose him, no matter how much anyone offers as money is not an issue. The problem is he’s only happy to stay if I offer him £900,000 a week.

Sadly, while not completely unrealistic for Saudi teams to be interested in my players (De Bruyne has left City for £68m) it does somehow spoil the game a bit for me. 

[KingLara]

Fm24 Arsenal Season 1 – November/December

A hit and miss couple of months

 

Premier League

Arsenal 0

Brentford 0

Having won our opening ten matches of the league season we hosted Brentford at the Emirates knowing that sooner or later that run would come to an end. Brentford had already won at Villa and Brighton so it was never going to be an easy game.  They played with a back 5 going very defensive and despite an xg of 2.43 we couldn’t break them down to drop our first points of the season

 

Champions League group stage Match Day 4

Dynamo Zagreb 1 – Petkovic 42(pen)

Arsenal 2 – Kwior 51 Nelson 69

We comfortably qualified from our group with two matches to spare as Kwior and Nelson sealed an easy 2-1 win. Bayern won 2-0 in Munich against Real Sociadad in the other group game.

 

Premier League

Aston Villa 0

Arsenal 2 – Nketiah 64 Tomiyasu 83

It was always a good time to play villa after a Europa league game and so it proved. Despite making a decent game of it we were always in control and ran out comfortable winners.

 

Premier League

Man United 1 – Dalot 84

Arsenal 2 – Martinelli 77 Kwior 90

We headed to old Trafford without Odegaard and Zinchenko with both suffering minor injuries. I set up quite defensively and it looked set to end in a 0-0 but Martinelli came off the bench to give us the lead. However Dalot hit a thunderbolt to equalise and the game looked likely to finish 1-1. However Kwior headed in a 95^th minute winner from a corner. Glorious.

 

Champions League group stage Match Day 5

Real Sociadad 0

Arsenal 1 – Nelson 60

Already qualified we secured top spot with a snoozefest win in Spain. Nelson continuing his good form scoring one of the only two shots on target in the game. Sane scored a 94^th minute equaliser for Bayern to send them through and avoid going into the last game needing a result against us.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 5 – Tomiyasu 27 Rice 37 Martinelli 39 Odegaard 49 White 78

Everton 1 – Branthwaite 45

It was time for revenge as we took on Everton having lost 3-0 to them in the carabao cup at the end of October. We were missing both Gabriel and Saliba through suspension and fatigue as well as Zinchenko and Cedric meaning Partey started at right back. The game was a comfortable one with Martinelli and Odegaard starring. Nothing for goal shy Jesus though.  

 

Premier League

Chelsea 3 – Chillwell 29 Sterling 42 Madueke 57

Arsenal 0

With neither Nketiah or Jesus playing well enough I opted for Havertz as a false 9 as we headed to Chelsea. Odegaard was missing and sadly most of the team seemed to follow him. A team average rating of just 6.44. Gabriel was our highest rated player with a 6.8. Saka hovered in the 5’s for some of the game before finishing with a 6.0. Not a good day.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 3 – Odegaard 45 90 Nketiah 81

Tottenham 1 – Lo Celso 12 (pen)

Spurs visited the Emirates having won their last five league games while we were still licking our Chelsea wounds. Odegaard was back and turned in a captains display with a brace and an assist. An excellent response.

 

Champions League group stage Match Day 6

Arsenal 2 – Martinelli 12 Nketiah 43

Bayern 1 – Choupa-Moting 68

Already top of the group we could relax playing Bayern in the final group game. I rested Saka, Rice, Ramsdale, Saliba and Odegaard completely having eight youngsters on the bench. Bayern had the better of the game but only Gnabry and Choupa-moting scored above a 7 rating. Kane with a 6.5. we were the only team with 6 wins out of 6 in the group stage. Hoping for a kind second round draw.

 

Premier League

Man City 0

Arsenal 0

After the horror show at Chelsea I was determined not to let the same happen when we went to the Etihad to face Man City. After a sloppy start they had had only dropped points once since September with a 1-1 draw at Brighton. Both teams cancelled each other out. Not a single clear cut chance created. I was happy with the result though.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 2 – Saka 26 Nketiah 54 – Saka miss/pen 89

Liverpool 2 – Salah 13 Van Dijk 84

We had a very healthy week break before we took on Liverpool at the Emirates in the last tough run of fixtures. It was a game of two halves with us having the better of the ball and the game in the first before Liverpool roared back in the second. A draw was a fair result but Saka missing a late penalty was a blow.

 

Premier League

Fulham 3 – Pereira 33 Vinicius 81 D-Reid 83

Arsenal 1 – Saka 23

After a five-game run of Chelsea Spurs Bayern Man City and Liverpool it was nice to have an away banker at Fulham. Unfortunately despite taking the lead the players didn’t turn up and two late goal condemned us to another away London derby defeat.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 4 – Gabriel 8 Nketiah 18, 66 Havertz 54

Sheffield United 1 – Larouci 38

We responded well with our final game of December. A good win over Sheffield United. Maybe could have scored a couple more. A good way to end the year though

 

Premier League Table

1.      Arsenal P 20 P 48 GD 28

2.      Man City P 19 P 46 GD 18

3.      Liverpool P 20 P 40 GD 15

4.      Aston Villa P20 P39 GD 18

5.      Tottenham P 20 P 37 GD 17

Top of the table having played a game more with City still to play at the Emirates I’m happy with the position. Man United Chelsea and Brentford are close to Spurs so all to play for with 4^th spot. Luton Sheffield United and Nottingham Forrest are in the relegation zone. Burnley four points clear of safety for now.

 

Premier League Top scorers

Son 16 Saka, Salah 10  Isaak, Barkley 9

Premier League Top Assists

Ward-Prowse 8 Antony, Richarlison 7 Martinelli Odegaard 6

Premier League Av Rating

Saka 7.43 Mitoma 7.32  Son 7.31 Salah 7.30 R. Sanchez 7.25

Premier League Motm

Mitoma Son 6 Salah 5 Jensen Foderingham 4 (=6^th Martinelli 3)

Team XG

Arsenal, Liverpool 1.85  Man United 1.79 Aston Villa Man City 1.65

Team Av Possession

Man City 63% Arsenal 62% Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United 60%

 

Champions League

Man City pulled off the great escape recovering from just 1 point after 3 games to win the remaining three and progress. A 94^th minute Haaland winner at AC Milan on Match Day 5 the key moment. Newcastle crashed out losing home and away to Porto the decisive games. Man United squeezed through at the expense of Sevilla. No surprises in the other groups

Second Round Draw

Feyenoord vs Arsenal

A good draw considering PSG and Napoli were lurking. Man United will play Real Madrid PSG are up against Dortmund and Bayern vs Inter the other ties of note.

FA Cup

3^rd Round Draw

Arsenal vs Crystal Palace

A decent draw and should get through. Leicester vs Spurs the pick of the other ties. Woking the only side outside the top four divisions host Leeds.

 

Other News

In the Europa League Liverpool and West Ham topped their groups while Brighton finished second to Sporting. Thery will face Sevilla in the play off round while Newcastle face Swiss side Lugano. AC Milan vs Rangers the stand out tie.

In the Conference League Aston Villa comfortably topped their group finishing 10 points above FC Twente in 2^nd.

In the Carabao Cup Everton repeated their 3-0 win over us by doing the same to Chelsea in the Quarters. Aston Villa knocked Liverpool out on penalties while Brentford and West Ham also progressed meaning no top 6 club made the semi finals.  Aston Villa vs Everton and Brentford vs West Ham was how the draw fell.

Man City added to their trophy haul by winning the Club World Cup with a 3-0 win over Brazilian side ATP.

Man United finally gave up on Ten Haag and he was sacked and replaced by Zidane. Newcastle replaced Eddie Howe with Conte. Howe is now at Burnley who sacked Kompany.

In the other domestic leagues Barcelona hold a 3 point lead of real madrid in Spain. PSG are unbeaten in France with 13 wins and 4 draws but are only level on top with Nice.  Bayern are top in germany but 4 points separate the top 4. Finally in Italy Inter are 9 points clear but have played 2 games more than Roma in 2^nd.

The Under 21s are currently 6^th in their league 3 points off to with 5 points separating the top 7.  In the invitational cup the topped their group which included Dortmund ii Barcelona B and Man City under 21s. Meanwhile in the premier division cup they are also top after three games. Ethan Nwaneri started the season well but then suffered a broken leg and will still be out for around three months. In a horrible twist of fate our most talented youngster in the under18s Myles Lewis-Skelly also broke his leg. The team are 2^nd in their league but are through in the youth cup and uefa youth league. Seb Ferdinand has been their best player so far.

 

January/February Fixtures

Premier League

Bournemouth (A) West Ham (A) Crystal Palace (H) Wolves (A) Newcastle (H) Brighton (A) Burnley (H)

Champions League

Feyenoord (A)

FA Cup

Crystal Palace (H)

 

 

[aditya]

On 05/12/2023 at 22:27, Block4Gooner said:

Pressing forward on attack but my AML and AMR are on winger attack and both my CM's are Central Midfield Attack too

This is season three so same squad really also

Wow. I've always wanted to try the old school Arsenal tactic, but have always wanted to make Saka the starboy with that IF but in FM its just so hard to do it consistently. Saka was one of my best WB in FM23 for some odd reason my Assman always suggested he played as LB, and made tons of assist, makes sense to play him as a winger!

[KingLara]

 

FM24 season 1 arsenal – January/February

 

Premier League

Bournemouth 1 – Brooks 77 – Adams s/o 28

Arsenal 2 – Havertz 1, 55

January kicked off with a trip to the south coast on New Years Day. Havertz gave us the lead after just 20 seconds and we seemed to be set for an easy afternoon. Tyler Adams got himself sent off and it got even easier but despite an x.g of 3.23 we just couldn’t kill the game. Havertz got his second after half time but brooks pulled one back which set up a nervy last 15 minutes. Should have been a lot more comfortable.

 

FA Cup 3^rd Round

Arsenal 6 – Nketiah 4, 66, 90 Viera 8 Guehi 51(o.g) Jesus 83

Crystal Palace 3 – Edouard 13, 20 Ayew 58

We began our FA Cup journey with a home tie against Crystal Palace. I rested Gabriel and Saliba while starting youngsters Sousa and Azeez. Goals from Nketiah and Viera saw us race into an early 2-0 lead. However Palace kept scoring from their only shots and by the hour mark it was 3-3 Nketiah scored again before Jesus added a fifth and then Nketiah completed his hat-trick to give a flattering scoreline and a fourth round meeting with MK Dons. Leicester beat Tottenham 3-1 to knock them out. Aston Villa needed a replay to see off wigan. The fourth round draw didn’t throw up too many banana skins. Newcastle host League two Barrow.

 

Premier League

West Ham 5 – Miranchuk 57, 63, 90(+7) Ward-Prowse 87(pen) Cornet 89

Arsenal 4 – Gabriel 51 Odegaard 66, 75 Jesus 90(+4)

We travelled to West Ham who were on the back of a decent run of form and having just won the first leg of their league cup semi final against Brentford. Declan Rice missed the game after suffering a hernia ruling him out for a month. A drab first half came to life spectacularly in the second as the goals flowed. 3-2 up with a few minutes to go Odegaard gave away a silly penalty. Cornet then caught us on the break but Jesus got us level. However with 5 minutes of stoppage time still to go I felt we had the momentum to win it but Miranchuk had the last laugh with a perfect 10 display. Ramsdale with a 5.9 got a stern telling off. Failing to save any of the only five shots west ham managed on target.

 

FA Cup 4^th Round

Arsenal – 4 – Trossard 5 45 Viera 57 90

MK Dons – 0 – Hunter s/o 63

We were licking our wounds for two weeks as an international break came. Sousa Azeez James Sweet and Walters all started as I was given a chance to rest most of the first teamers. A very comfortable win. Man United were knocked out losing 1-0 to reading at Old Trafford. Bournemouth won 4-3 at West Ham while Coventry beat Aston Villa 1-0. We would play Blackpool at the Emirates next. 

 

Premier League

Arsenal 1 – Nketiah 83

Crystal Palace – 0

Having walloped Palace 6-3 in the fa cup we hosted them again in the league just a few weeks later. All eyes though were in Manchester as City took on Liverpool. A tighter affair than the cup clash saw us get a late winner through Nketiah. Still should have scored more though. Liverpool did us a huge favour by winning 3-0 at City and giving us a cushion at the top.

 

Premier League

Wolves – 3 – Lemina 53 Kalajdzic 60 Cunha 84(pen)

Arsenal 4 – Nketiah 13 White 18, 67 Gabriel 90

Our first game of February saw us travel to Molineux to play Wolves. It was another eventful game as we first squandered a 2-0 lead to be level at 2-2 and then 3-2 up. Finally though Gabriel popped up in the 94^th minute to give us the winner. Ramsdale with another poor game. This time conceding 3 from just 5 shots on target.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 3 – Viera 9 Odegaard 15 Nketiah 83

Newcastle – 1 – Gordon 80

We secured a comfortable win over Newcastle at the Emirates. Viera preferred to Havertz scoring the opener. An xg of 2.75 still suggests a wastefulness In front of goal though.

 

Champions League second round (1^st Leg)

Feyenoord – 3 – Hartman 45 Ivanusec 59 Timer 68

Arsenal 1 – Nketiah 41 – Gabriel s/o 79

We travelled to Feyenoord for the first leg of the second round tie. Although on paper it looked a good draw they had beaten Atletico madrid 3-0 in their last group match so I wasn’t taking them lightly. We had an off night but they outplayed us and deserved the win. I’m still hopeful we can turn it around at The Emirates though.

 

Premier League

Brighton – 1 – Milner 30 – Veltman s/o 34

Arsenal 3 – Nketiah 58 Havertz 90 Webster o.g 90(+6)

A trip to Europa League playing brighton wasn’t the worst fixture we could’ve got and it improved after Veltman was sent off in the first half shortly after Milner had given them the lead. We were missing Gabriel and Saliba with minor injuries but it didn’t seem to matter as Nketiah got as level. However, try as I might we couldn’t get our attacking territory going. Brighton still having 50% possession. Finally a Havertz header looped over Steel for the winner. A webster own goal added gloss in injury time.

 

Premier League

Arsenal 4 – Nketiah 25 White 39 Kwior 41 Zinchenko 55

Burnley – 0 

Gabriel and Saliba were both still missing as we hosted Burnley at the Emirates. We didn’t miss them too much as we ran away with the first half and managed the game well in the second. Odegaard with three assists.

 

FA Cup 5^th Round

Arsenal 5 –  Kwior 9 Viera 15 Cedric 25 Partey 45(+4) Havertz 53

Blackpool – 2 – Ekpiteta 45(+1) Rhodes 83

The final game of February saw our kind fa up draw continue as we played Blackpool. Walters was given a start at right back but was the only youngster to feature. Blackpool were 9^th in League 1 but to their credit gave us a decent game but we controlled it throughout to set up a quarter final with Coventry. Newcastle needed penalties to beat Blackburn but made it through to the quarters. They will travel to Anfield. Meanwhile Fulham host Leicester and Chelsea play Man City,

 

Premier League Table

1.      Arsenal P27 P66 GD38

2.      Man City P27 P60 GD25

3.      Liverpool P27 P55 GD25

4.      Man Utd P27 P55 GD23

5.      Aston Villa P27 P33 GD25

Chelsea are six points behind Villa in 6^th. Sheffield United and Luton look set to be relegated while Crystal Palace and Burnley are currently separated by one point. They play each other on the final day of the season. In the race for promotion Leeds and Leicester look likely to go up. Norwich in 3^rd five points adrift.

 

Arsenal season stats so far

Arsenal stats (1^st team)

Appearances (40 played)

Ramsdale 34 Gabriel 33 Saliba 30 Odegaard 29(+1)  Rice 28(+1) Nketiah 26 (+6)

Saka 26 (+1) Martinelli 21 (+9) Tomiyasu 21(+5) White 20(+9) Zinchenko 19(+8)

Partey 18(+8) Kwior 16(+3) Havertz 16(+19) Jorginho 15(+14)

Nelson, Jesus 15(+11) Trossard 14(+14) Viera 14(+11) Cedric 13(+2) Raya 6 Azeez 4

Sousa 3 (+1) Walters 3 Foran 1(+1)Sweet 1 C-Duberry 0(+2)

 

Goals

Nketiah 18 Saka 10 Odegaard 9 Havertz 8

Viera, Martinelli Gabriel Trossard 5

Kwior, Partey White 4

Nelson Rice Jesus 3

Zinchenko Cedric Tomiyasu 2

Sousa Saliba Jorginho 1

 

Assists

Odegaard 13 Martinelli 9 Saka 8 Nelson 7

Jorginho Rice 6 Nketiah 5 Tomiyasu 4

Viera Trossard 3

Kwior Havertz Zinchenko Partey Azeez Jesus 2

Cedric White 1

 

Man of Match

Nketiah 6 Saka 4 Tomiyasu Martinelli 3

Zinchenko Partey Odegaard Nelson 2

Havertz Viera Cedric Jorgino Ramsdale Rice Gabriel 1

 

Transfer Window

The window was busier than usual. Man City signed Nicholas Gonzarlez and Juan Foyth for a combined fee of 128million. Needing even more forwards Liverpool bought in David Neres for 39m. Spurs bought Brahim Diaz from Real Madrid for 25m while possibly the best bit of business came from Aston Villa who loaned in Tammy Abraham although they lost Leon Bailey to PSG. Newcastle signed Thiago Silva and Valentin Barco while the oddest transfer was Scott Mctominay moving to Chelsea on loan.

Champions League

There were mixed fortunes for English teams in the first legs of the champions league second round. While we lost at Feyenoord, Man United also lost losing 1-0 at Old Trafford with a goal by a certain Jude Bellingham. Meanwhile Man City conceded a late penalty to live the tie nicely balanced having beaten Leipzig 2-1 at the Etihad. Elsewhere PSG, Dortmund and Napoli hold 2 goal advantages while Benfica vs V=Barcelona and Porto vs Atheltico Madrid both ended up in 3-3 draws. Only one away winner from the first leg ties.

In the Europa League Newcastle progressed from the play off round beating swiss size Lugano 7-0 on aggregate. Brighton were knocked out though by Seville on penalties. Liverpool and West Ham join them in the last 16 draw where they will play Fc Lens and Seville. Newcastle will play Villarreal.

Aston Villa are the premier leagues sole survivors in the conference league. They weren’t handed the easiest of last 16 ties though facing Fenerbache. Ajax vs Besiktas the pick of the other matches.

Other news

Speaking of Villa they won the carabao Cup beating Brentford in the final. Diaby with the goal in a tight game.

In the domestic leagues Real Madrid Barcelona and Villarreal are separated by 3 points in La Liga, Things are less tight in Italy with Inter holding a 3 point lead over Roma in what looks like a two-horse race. PSG are 6 ahead in France while Dortmund lead bayern by 4 points in Germany. The two play each other at the end of March.

The Under 21s are currently 6^th in their league but just 8 points separate the top 10. They are through in both cup competitions though. The Under 18s are 3^rd but 10 points adrift of Norwich with 4 games to go. They made it to the fa youth cup 5^th round but lost 2-1 at Sunderland. They are however through to the Uefa youth league knock out stages and will play man united in the 2^nd round.

 

March/April Fixtures

Premier League

Nottingham Forrest  (A) Luton (H) Brentford (A) Aston Villa (H) Man United (H) Everton (A) Chelsea (H) Tottenham (A)

Champions League

2^nd Round - Feyenoord (H)

FA Cup

QF - Coventry (H)