Arsenal all the way to Glory: An Experiment with a New Way of Using Assistant Managers in FM

[GreyedOutMan]

FWIW: Arsenal's best U21 eleven looks something like this right now I think:

Nigel Taylor

Chris Wilson

Barry Gardner

Gerson

Thomas Cruise

Tom Burley

Lee Carlton

Tiago Dutra

Terry Robinson

Luke Freeman

Kieran Brown

My 2p worth – of that bunch I reckon only the following 4/5 have good chances of “making it†at AFC: Wilson, Gerson, Carlton, Dutra, and MAYBE Robinson. What do you guys think?

Latest Insua bid rejected – upped to £15m. Martin Galvan – doesn’t look that good to me, but I’ve asked a scout to have a looksie. Villa want £19.5m for Di Maria and I offered an improved £17m – he looks good.

20.8.11 ARSENAL v Reading – Premiership

Replaced Vela with Vaughan for this game – the first change of the season to an otherwise very settled side. Despite our dominance, Downing’s 26th minute free-kick put Reading 1-0 up. That rather deflated the team so at half time I told them they were perfectly capable of turning this around. With an hour gone, we hadn’t got the equalizer so on came Vela for Cesc, who was on a yellow and struggling a little physically. 15 minutes later, though, Vonlanthen rounded Richards to knock the ball into an empty net with Pouplin committed. Disappointing, not quite sure what went wrong there. Vonlanthen scored in the last minute of stoppage time to round things off on a bad day for the Gunners.

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 0 – 3 Reading MOTM: Vonlanthen. AFC worst man of the match: Vaughan. Vela will be back in for the next game!

Classifieds – Prem (20.8.11)

Early game: Man Utd 2 – 1 Chelsea

Arsenal 0 – 3 Reading

Ipswich 1 – 1 Tottenham

Liverpool 2 – 1 Watford

Newcastle 2 – 1 Bolton

West Ham 2 – 5 Man City

Late game: Fulham 0 – 0 Everton

Hopefully this is a one-off – a bad day at the office, we’ll bounce back.

I'm off now, have a meeting to get to. Will be back this afternoon/early evening. Thoughts on both the game and the thread would be VERY welcome!

[GreyedOutMan]

Classifieds – Prem (21.8.11)

Birmingham 2 – 0 Leeds

Portsmouth 0 – 3 Blackburn

Scunthorpe 1 – 3 Aston Villa

Before I go – the Silva bid was rejected so I’m going to have to settle for a 2nd tier winger. Villa have accepted a £17m offer for Angel Di Maria and I’m tempted to go through with that, but will put it to the vote while I’m gone. What do you think? You’ve got at least 4-5 hours to vote!

[Stomalomalus]

Di Maria looks pretty good, mate

Id say give Wilson some hardcore physical training to get that up to match his natural fitness, and I think Brown could make it with the right tutoring. Tutoring is actually very good unless the players fall out so it may be worth using.

Keep up the updates

[GreyedOutMan]

I offered a contract to Di Maria. Had to knock about £5m off the transfer budget to accommodate his wage demands, but I knew that would be the case, I generally move all the excess wage budget over to the transfer kitty to give me a better idea of how much I have overall – usually a budget of £69m (which is what I had before this) equates to more like £50m.

Euro 2012 Quals: selected results

Portugal 1 – 1 Ireland

Estonia 1 – 2 England

Kazahkstan 0 – 5 Wales

Scotland 0 – 1 Holland

Sweden 1 – 0 France

Insua bid was rejected again, so I upped it to £17.5m. However, interestingly, the leading players in terms of AvR, apart from the obvious (Cesc 7.25, Eduardo 8) are Diaby (7.50) and Sakho (7.25) which suggests perhaps I don’t really need another left back after all? What do you think?

However the Di Maria deal (£17m) went through and I have a new winger. He’s going to come straight into the team for ATex, who hasn’t been up to his normal standards lately, though ATex will still be on the bench, in place of Boukari for now. Still have £43m in the kitty, so if I need a DL, I could probably get Insua...

Also, I now have the following tutoring set up:

Diaby tutoring Dutra

Richards tutoring Gerson

Di Maria tutoring Carlton

Garay tutoring Nordtveit – though that one, Nordveit turned down.

[Stomalomalus]

You need a quality natural LB, Sakho can cover there, but he isnt natural, and makes a really good CB - better than Garay as a CB technically.

Have you got Carlton training as a CM or LM? He looked better as a CM - not good crossing stat

Is mertesacker still 1st choice?

[GreyedOutMan]

Also set up Wilson with plenty of “hardcore physical training†– I just hope he doesn’t suffer too much technically. Incidentally, Di Maria seemed to react well to being asked to tutor Carlton – what do people think of getting a new signing to tutor a youngster?

27.8.11 ARSENAL v Watford – Premiership

Team was unchanged other than Di Maria coming in for ATex, with Boukari dropping off the bench altogether. That meant a 2nd start for Vaughan, of course. Considered bringing Gerson in for Alves and playing Richards at DR – if Alves’ performances don’t pick up then I’ll do it, but I’m going to give him more time – he was among the best players in the league last year.

Ten minutes in, Eduardo was brought down by Shittu, and he converted the penalty to make it 1-0. Soon afterwards, Di Maria made his first significant contribution with a nice tackle to set up an attack. Soon afterwards, a wonderfully spotted pass from Diaby put Eduardo in for his 2nd. Veloso might be good, but Diaby is on fire at the moment! He then nearly set Vaughan up for a 3rd, but it was saved by Watford’s ‘keeper. But on the stroke of half-time, the same duo combined and this time, Vaughan didn’t miss. We were playing really well and half-time seemed to come at a bad time. Still, I told the players to just give me more of the same in the 2nd half and sent them out to finish the job, and preferably keep a clean sheet. After an hour, Di Maria and Diaby combined well, and Di Maria found another wonderful ball for Eduardo to finish and hit his first hat-trick of the new campaign. It was his 8th goal in 5 competitive games, though include friendlies and internationals in that, and its now 16 goals in 8 games. You could say he’s on form! Then I brought off the impressive Di Maria for Carlton – good to give my other players a run out, and Nani made way for ATex too. Immediately following that, a free kick found its way to Eduardo, who scored a 4th courtesy of a big deflection from Shittu – who was having a pretty Shittu game! Eduardo nearly found a 5th from a cross by ATex, but had to settle for just the four goals in this game. And to think, I was close to selling him this summer!! What a player! Diaby picked up a bit of an injury right at the end – hope he’s ok, though Veloso is perfectly acceptable cover. Cesc got over 100 passes completed in this game, and the general performance of the team was top-drawer, though of course Eduardo stood out with his 4 goals.

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 5 – 0 Watford AFC Scorers: Eduardo 4, Vaughan. Man of the Match: Eduardo.

Classifieds – Premiership (27.8.11)

Early game: Liverpool 1 – 1 Man Utd

ARSENAL 5 – 0 Watford

Birmingham 0 – 0 Chelsea

Man City 1 – 2 Aston Villa

Newcastle 2 – 0 Leeds

Scunthorpe 1 – 2 Blackburn

West Ham 1 – 1 Everton

Late game: Portsmouth 0 – 0 Reading

Will start posting a table with the classifieds after about 5/6 more games when the table is starting to take shape, but the last 100% record went today, so 6 points from 3 games isn’t so bad, disappointing though the Reading game was. We have games in hand over most teams in the league, after the Champions' League interruption.

[GreyedOutMan]

Stoma

1) yeah, I'm trying to get Insua but its not easy. Sakho's doing really well there though.

2) i dont differentiate between attacking central mids and wingers as far as training goes - he's training as an AM, but i agree that it looks more likely he'll be a central midfielder than a winger - long term replacement for Cesc rather than Diaby of course.

3) Yes, PM is still first choice. Gerson and Veloso on the bench both capable of coming in there, and of course Eduardo (da Defender) is so versatile - he can play anywhere!

[GreyedOutMan]

Off to get some food, back in a bit and I should get through a fair bit tonight...

[GreyedOutMan]

Classifieds – Prem (28.8.11)

Ipswich 1 – 1 Bolton

Fulham 0 – 2 T*****ham

31.8.11 ARSENAL (4) v (2) Hajduk Split – Champions League Q3 L2

Ineligible Di Maria and injured Diaby made way for Veloso and Carlton for the 2nd leg of a tie that was all but over. Gerson also came in for Mertesacker for his debut, as did Pocognoli, for Sakho, while fit-again Adrian came in to give Eduardo a well-earned rest after 9 goals in 5 games. Just a minute in, Nani headed a ball back to Vaughan who hit a spectuacular volley into the net. Sure-fire goal of the season had it been in the league. Incidentally, just a thought I had – would people like me to upload the save game every now and then so you can explore and perhaps give me a few hints and tips? If so, how do I do that?

Half time came with the score still 1-0. 5-2 on aggregate of course, so on came Dutra for Cesc, who was struggling with a niggle anyway, and Vela for Vaughan, who had played magnificently, scoring a great goal and threatening more, thus meriting half a game off now that it was over as a contest. He actually finished with the man of the match award despite only playing 45 minutes. In the 2nd half, after just more than an hour, Carlton’s great run and cross fed Vela in the centre, who knocked it down for Adrian to slam past the hapless Split ‘keeper. Good that both starting strikers had scored. Adrian was struggling though, clearly not match fit, and made way for Eduardo for the last fifteen minutes. Split then pulled a goal back from a corner, which Alves could only half clear (he had a really poor game again, and I think he’ll probably be dropped for the next game), and Santini smashed through a crowded six yard box into the top left hand corner – a nice goal, but it was academic by then. Group phase, here I come!

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 2 (6) – (3) 1 Hajduk Split AFC Scorers: Vaughan, Adrian. Man of the Match: Vaughan.

---Is that screenshot helpful? Bit more feedback on thread form would be great here, guys!

3rd Qualifying Round: Selected other aggregate results

Dundee United (a) 3 – 3 Fenerbahce

Litex (a) 2 – 2 Hertha Berlin

Sevilla 9 – 0 Red Star

Juventus 2 – 1 Auxerre

Liverpool 3 – 1 Beitar Jerusalem

Basel 1 – 8 Real Madrid

AC Milan 9 – 0 Otelul

PSV (a) 3 – 3 FC Copenhagen

Eduardo picked up August's player of the month award, and his goal against Leeds (the overhead kick i mentioned) came 2nd in the goal of the month competition.

[GreyedOutMan]

For the group phase of the Champions league, the only change in the squad saw Di Maria come in for Boukari. The draw (we were 2nd seeds) gave us Valencia (1st seed), Galatasaray (3rd seed) and Shakhtar (4th seed) – I’d say an average draw really, not too bad, but not exactly a cakewalk.

Incidentally, according to the board, the signing of Veloso was “an aberration†– better start giving him some games to give him a chance to change their minds I guess. His attributes are ridiculously good, to be fair. I’m actually thinking about perhaps putting him in at DMC, and playing 3 at the back (which would probably be Sakho, Richards and Mertesacker mostly) – what do you think? As the full backs aren’t getting forward much anyway, it might be a good solution? Feedback please, ASAP!

[Stomalomalus]

Give it a try if you want, it would solve your LB problems, lol. Ive havnt used a back 3 since CM01/02 though, so cant give you any feedback.

Veloso is ace at marking big players out of games. If you play against a team that relies on one player, get Veloso to man mark them and they wont see the ball.

That isnt an easy group! Trips to Turkey are always difficult, and Shaktar arent a bad team. Valencia still have Silva aswel, I guess!

Have you got any easy home games coming up? If so, I would suggest trying out the formation in them first.

[GreyedOutMan]

...and round three of the Carling Cup gave us a trip to Ewood Park to play Blackburn. Valencia beat Barcelona 3 – 1 after extra time in the Super Cup. Back on home soil, it was crunch time:

3.9.11 Chelsea v ARSENAL – Premiership

Decided against a change in formation for this game, bad game to try it. But I was fed up with Alves, so Richards moved to the right, and Gerson came in for his league debut at DC alongside Mertesacker. As Diaby was struggling with a niggle, Veloso did get a game this time at MC alongside Cesc. After about 9 minutes, though, Chelski’s new signing Cavani sold Mertesacker a dummy and shot low into the net to open the scoring for Chelsea. It just didn’t feel like our day, and after 13 minutes, James Vaughan was forced off after a bad tackle from Terry, and that view was reinforced. Vela came on with a point to prove, but Chelsea kept on dominating, and after half an hour, Lampard scored a good goal from outside the box to give Chelsea what was a well-deserved two-goal cushion. At that point I remembered Stoma’s Chelsea advice, and moved the formation to a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Veloso/Cesc in MC, and Vela, Di Maria and Nani in AM positions.

However, shortly before half-time, Mertesacker passed the ball back to Pouplin, who inexplicably gifted the ball to the onrushing Cavani to score a 3rd for Chelsea. Early in the 2nd half, Eduardo did have a run on goal, but it was cut out in time. However, 10 minutes into the half, a shot from Eduardo deflected off a defender into Nani’s path to pull a goal back. Would we have time to salvage something from the match? That thought was rather obliterated after 66’ when Modric’s corner found the head of Mikel to restore a 3-goal lead for Chelski. On 73’, Stoma’s advice did work, Di Maria and Vela combining to draw the defence before sliding the ball through for Eduardo to reduce the arrears once again. That was about as good as it got – Veloso went close from long range, but we never really threatened to get back into the game. Any thoughts on why that didn’t really work? It seemed to produce one goal, but that’s hardly hatfuls!!!

FINAL SCORE Chelsea 4 – 2 ARSENAL AFC Scoeres: Nani, Eduardo. Man of the Match: Cavani.

[GreyedOutMan]

Stoma - though IRL i'd agree with your assesment, in FM, the "Turkey factor" isnt so much of a problem. Its not an EASY group, but I dont think its that difficult either, really.

[GreyedOutMan]

Sorry folks, i forgot to include this screenshot.

[Stomalomalus]

I tend to find that if your midfield doesnt boss against Chelsea, then the striker wont get many chances, despite being totally unmarked. One thing that might work would be to set team mentality to wider, I havnt tried this, it just came to me, but that would mean your wingers would see more of the ball, thus drawing their CBs out wide. It also might depend on whether Grants still the manager

Id be happy with a couple of away draws in that group, and 3 home wins should then do it

[GreyedOutMan]

Classifieds 3.9.11 – Prem

Chelsea 4 – 2 Arsenal

Aston Villa 3 – 1 Everton

Bolton 3 – 1 Scunthorpe

Liverpool 3 – 1 West Ham

Man Utd 3 – 0 Birmingham

Reading 1 – 2 Ipswich

Watford 1 – 2 Newcastle.

[GreyedOutMan]

Cheers for that Stoma - I'll try to give more warning before the next Chelski game so we can knock heads together and bash out a formula to get the better of them.

FTR: vs. Chelsea: P15 W5 D2 L8 F20 A25 Pts17

[GreyedOutMan]

...and Grant is still there. it seems his staying power is quite significantly better in FM than in IRL!

[GreyedOutMan]

4.9.11 Classifieds – Prem

T*******m 1 – 1 Man City

Leeds 1 – 1 Portsmouth

Blackburn 1 – 0 Fulham

Tables 3 or 4 games away. Hopefully we’ll be a little higher by then, it hasn’t been the best of starts....

7.9.11 Bolton v ARSENAL – Premiership

Vaughan was replaced for this game by Vela, and formation change:

GK: Pouplin

DCs: Richards, Mertesacker, Sakho

DMC: Veloso

MCs: Diaby, Cesc

MR: Nani

ML: Di Maria

FCs: Vela, Eduardo

Bench: Adrian, Rakitic, ATex, Dutra, Eduardo da Defender, Hart, Gerson.

Lets see if it works....

Early exchanges suggested not, with Bolton dominating. However, we held out, and had a couple of decent chances ourselves. Half-time came with the scores still level. But the 2nd half started as the first had, with a lot of Bolton pressure. Once again, we managed to stem the tide and took the mantle of dominator for most of the latter part of the half before Eduardo got injured and was replaced by Adrian, with Diaby making way for Rakitic as we chased a winner that we were destined never to find. Not sure if this tactic’s going to work – Bolton’s wingers seemed to have too much of an easy ride and I feel a better team would have taken us to bits here. Pouplin’s man of the match award is testament to that. I fear we’re going to have to revert to 4-4-2 from now on?

FINAL SCORE Bolton 0 - 0 ARSENAL Man of the Match: Pouplin.

7.9.11 Classifieds: Prem

Bolton 0 – 0 Arsenal

Leeds 0 – 2 Liverpool

To******m 0 – 1 Portsmouth

[Stomalomalus]

Away matches are always difficult though. I always employ a more defensive counter attacking style away from home, except for the really poor teams.

[GreyedOutMan]

Pouplin, incidentally, just picked up his 20th man of the match award in Arsenal colours in...wait for it...wait for it...a MASSIVE 239 games in just over 4 years. That’s about 58 games a season, which is pretty good, even for a keeper. He’s only missed a handful of games, and only to give other keepers the odd run-out – the only injury he’s ever had was in October 2007 when he was out for 6 days with a damaged heel! Bit of an unsung hero, Simon is.

Karbassiyoon reported back with some decent young players from Italy, the best of whom is Diego Donati. What do you think? No hurry with this one really – he wont be coming in till January even if we do buy him. I’ll report back with any more that come on the radar. Champions League odds at 18-1 and apparently we should “treat this competition as a good learning experience this time round and look to make an impact in future competitionsâ€. We’ll see about that. If I can get this team gelling, I reckon we could ruffle a few feathers. We need to find a formation and set of tactics that fits though.

Anyway, in the middle of a pretty dire start to the season, what’s the worst possible fixture you could have next? You guessed it...

17.9.11 ARSENAL v Man Utd – Premiership

Vaughan moved up to the bench as Adrian was injured, and with Veloso continuing at DMC, I replaced Diaby with Rakitic, hoping that we might get forward more. We did create some early chances, and Di Maria’s square to Rakitic allowed him to feed Vela to score from 20 yards out. 1-0 Arsenal! And after 31 minutes, it got better, Di Mari’s cross inch-perfect for Nani, whose ball took a deflection off Evra into the path of Rakitic to score courtesy of another deflection, this time off Carrick. Rakitic, the engine said at the half-time whistle, was running United ragged.

5 minutes into the 2nd half, a slip from Richards let Pazzini in, but he missed a good chance to pull one back. United kept applying pressure, though, and when Vela scored a nice goal from a Rakitic pass to make it 3-0, it was probably just in the nick of time. Vela and Rakitic, both struggling with niggles, were replaced by Diaby and Vaughan, though before they could make it on, Diego pulled one back for United. But nothing more came of it, and it was a good win to start pulling back the season from a dreadful start. Perhaps the new formation is working?

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 3 - 1 Man Utd (not going to post scorers/MOTM from now on as you can click the link!)

[GreyedOutMan]

17.9.11 Classifieds – Prem

Early: Arsenal 3 – 1 Man Utd

Birmingham 2 – 0 Liverpool

Everton 1 – 2 Tottenham

Fulham 1 – 3 Bolton

Man City 3 – 0 Blackburn

Newcastle 0 – 1 Chelsea

Portsmouth 2 – 1 Watford

West Ham 1 – 1 Aston Villa

[Bloodbore8]

Good result.

[Stomalomalus]

Good result! Rakitic did well I see. That Donati looks pretty impressive! Pretty good stats for a LB. KUTGW

[GreyedOutMan]

18.9.11 Classifieds – Prem

Ipswich 2 – 2 Leeds

Scunthorpe 3 – 2 Reading

20.9.11 ARSENAL v Shakhtar – Champions’ League Group B

4 wins in 4 against Shakhtar before this game. Kept the same formation – it worked for United, it should work for Shakhtar! Certainly we held sway defensively, Shakhtar not managing a single shot in the first half. But 9 shots on goal produced only 1 shot on target, so going forward we needed a little extra edge. I gave it a little too long, probably, throwing Vaughan on for the disappointing Eduardo after 70 minutes, and ATex coming on for Rakitic, switching Veloso to MC and ATex to AMC. After 82 minutes, the moment arrived, Richards’ ball finding Nani’s head to nod down to Vaughan for the youngster to smash his 4th Arsenal goal (and his 3rd in the Champions’ League) into the net from 20 yards. Then, in the 89th minute, Vaughan suddently found himself one on one with the keeper, who saved, but could only push the ball to ATex for the 2nd goal. Both substitutes had scored despite coming on only 20 minutes before the end. Making some good substitutions this season you are, Luke! (Sorry I’m far too used to Star Wars jokes if I’m starting to make them myself! I was being called Skywalker before I knew what it meant! I used to think I could actually walk on the sky!)

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 2 - 0 Shakhtar

Selected other scores from Matchday One:

Real 1 – 0 Leverkusen

Galatasaray 1 – 1 Valencia (my group)

Braga 2 – 2 Lyon

Man Utd 3 – 0 Dundee Utd

Juventus 2 – 0 Barcelona (Walcott scored!)

Milan 3 – 0 PSV

CFR Cluj 1 – 3 Liverpool

Sevilla 3 – 0 Celtic

CSKA Moscow 0 – 3 Chelsea

Would you believe it? Its Liverpool away next! This is what I call a tough run! Need to win it though, after the defeats to Reading and Chelsea plus the draw with Bolton. Keep going with this new 3-1-4-2 formation by the way? Does give the flexibility of moving the DMC to an AMC if we’re chasing the game...

[Stomalomalus]

Looks good. A trip to Anfield will be hard though! Good luck

[GreyedOutMan]

Stoma - NEW Anfield, I'll have you know! How original is that?!

[GreyedOutMan]

Stoma’s advice led to a £7.5m bid for Donati. Not using full backs at the moment, but theres definitely room for that to change in the future, and he’s very young. Gyan’s been doing really well for the reserves so I’ve moved him up to the first team for a bit – he might get the odd game. He’s valued at £12.5m so perhaps if he has a few good games to get in the shop window I could make most of my £16m back on him – he was a bit disappointing last year, though with only 12 starts I suppose its not entirely his fault. Boukari is rotated into the reserves for the time being.

The Donati offer was accepted and I offered a contract.

24.9.11 Classifieds: 3pm kickoffs

Leeds 1 – 0 Scunthorpe

Reading 1 – 0 Fulham

Watford 0 – 1 Ipswich

Late K/O Liverpool v ARSENAL – Premiership

Mertesacker dropped for Garay for a while. He’s been under par this season and Garay deserves a chance, his AvR’s have been great since arriving at Arsenal for a hefty price, and at 24, he’s still improving. Though he’s not quite the 6’6 giant that Mertesacker is, he’s not exactly insignificant at 6’2!

Torres’ goal after 23 minutes was chalked off instantly for offside – flag was up in good time, too. But it was a bit worrying that despite 64% of the possession after 37 minutes, we’d created 4 shots (1 on target) to Liverpool’s 8 (5). We just weren’t creating the chances that our dominance should have led to. Still, it was 0-0 at half-time. After an hour, Cesc was really struggling with a knock he’d picked up in the first half, so Diaby came on for him. With 8 minutes to go, it looked like there was going to be a goal, and I was damned if I was going to let Liverpool get it without a fight. On came Vaughan for Di Maria, Vela moved to the wing, and Rakitic moved up to AMC, with Veloso filling in at MC. Pandev scored shortly afterwards, but once again it was ruled out for offside, rather controversially in this instance. Rakitic came close from range with 2 minutes to go, but that was as close as Arsenal got. Despite 2 chances for Liverpool in the 4 minutes of injury time, we did, however, hold out for a solid point. However, if we want to get close to winning the title that should have been ours last year, we’re going to have to win a few more of these sorts of games....

FINAL SCORE Liverpool 0 – 0 ARSENAL

[Stomalomalus]

You shouldnt be disappointed with a point at NEW Anfield, a good result considering your early season form. The one thing you must do is win your home games, the teams that do that win the league. KUTGW

[GreyedOutMan]

It wasn’t so much the result as the manner of the performance that worries me, mate.

25.9.11 Classifieds – Prem

Blackburn 1 – 0 Everton

Bolton 2 – 0 Man City

Chelsea 2 – 0 Portsmouth

Man Utd 2 – 2 Newcastle

T*****ham 2 – 2 Aston Villa

Birmingham 2 – 1 West Ham

Donati transfer went through next day. The £7.5m deal will go through on Jan 1st, at which time, if we haven’t already, we’ll revert back to 4-4-2, I reckon! He looks good enough to go straight into the side.

28.9.11 Blackburn v ARSENAL – Carling Cup R3

Dutra came in for Veloso, and Diaby for Cesc. Both have been struggling for fitness. I also gave Gerson a game in place of Sakho. After 20 minutes, Vela put on a burst of speed to get on the end of a knock-down by Rakitic and open the scoring. After 38 minutes, a Rakitic corner provided Vela with a 2nd goal, and Vela then missed a golden opportunity to make it 3 after 40 minutes, dragging a shot wide after a 1-on-1. We were playing well though. Immediately after half-time, Blackburn equalized through Pedersen from a corner, and the game was thrown wide open again. After an hour, Eduardo was replaced by Vaughan, but within 8 minutes, Blackburn completed their comeback, Santa Cruz heading home from another corner. We seem vulnerable from set-pieces this year – any thoughts on how to cure that? Vaughan had a couple of chances to end the game in normal time but extra time loomed ever larger and then became a reality.

Though Blackburn applied more or less constant pressure, the first half passed without much to note until the 105th minute, when an Arsenal break saw a good ball from Rakitic to Vaughan, who shot. Enyeama saved but could only push it out to Rakitic who had followed on his run, and couldn’t miss. Veloso came on for Rakitic just after half-time in extra time to bolster the midfield, and actually ended up scoring the 4th goal after 111 minutes, a scorcher from 20 yards, and his first goal for the club. We’d got there in the end despite making it a lot harder for ourselves than it should have been.

FINAL SCORE Blackburn 2 – 4 Arsenal after extra time

Incidentally, after that tough run, we have a nice long run in the league without any really difficult games; Chelsea (H), Liverpool (H) and Man Utd (A) are consecutively between Feb 1st and Feb 11th. I want to make sure I have a decent lead at the top by then – Newcastle (A), Man City (H), Everton (A) and Sp**s (A) will be the key matches, I reckon.

[Stomalomalus]

If you are conceding from corners, a tip I got - but havnt used yet as I dont concede many from cerners except against bloody Mertesacker! - is to set your two tallest, best players in the air to Tall, and then your second best two to Man Mark, then your CM's to back. Something along those lines. Just dont put anyone on the posts as the GK gets confused and you concede alot of goals into the corners when the GK couldve got there. Not sure how well it works, though others swear by it.

With Donati, you could switch formation depending on your oponent, maybe play with attacking FBs against lesser teams?

KUTGW

[GreyedOutMan]

Denilson gained English citizenship, which is probably lucky because I have no idea how he manages to get a work permit without playing any games! Meanwhile, we drew Newcastle (H) in the 4th round of the Carling Cup.

1.10.11 ARSENAL v Birmingham - Premiership

Vela should’ve opened the scoring early on as he was put clean through, but his tame shot was easily saved by the ‘keeper. With about 15 on the clock, Cesc went close from range, but it was to be Vela to open the scoring – Nani’s cross finding Eduardo, whose shot was saved by ex-Gunner Stuart Taylor, only to find Vela’s deadly right boot = 1-0. On the stroke of half-time, Eduardo was brought down by Doug Livermore, and he coolly slammed the penalty into the top right corner. 2-0.

Second half was really dull until the 79th minute, when Brum defender Krystian Pearce was sent off. I went for the jugular, sending Vaughan on for Veloso and moving Vela back to AMC. Vaughan came close with his first touch, nearly heading in from a Cesc corner, but it was as close to a goal as he would get in his cameo.

Anyway, another home win. That makes it 3 out of 4. But I disagree that home wins win the league – the league isn’t won at home, but at those tough away games against teams like Reading/Bolton/Scunthorpe/Ipswich etc., where you don’t play well but have to grind out a steely result. Even at home it can be important, and this result is just as important as the win against United in many ways. Steely results with unspectacular performances against teams you’re expected to beat but are never easy. That and not losing too many against your title rivals. As we’ve managed to lose one of each of those games (Reading/Chelsea), we’re 3 points off the pace despite a 4-match unbeaten run. I need to keep that going.

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 2 - 0 Birmingham

Classified Results 1.10.11 – Prem

Early: West Ham 1 – 2 T*****ham

Arsenal 2 – 0 Birmingham

Aston Villa 1 – 0 Blackburn

Everton 2 – 3 Bolton

Ipswich 1 – 1 Chelsea

Newcastle 1 – 0 Liverpool

Portsmouth 1 – 1 Man Utd

Late:

At least Chelsea dropped 2 points at Ipswich – I’m only 2 points behind them now. United also dropped 2, away at Pompey. Not to mention Liverpool losing their third game of the season already! The early season Arsenal dip seems to be less of a factor now – we’re only 3 points behind the leaders Aston Villa, who are the only unbeaten team, and top the table on 18pts, the Agbonlahor/Zarate partnership seems to be working wonders up front, and even ex-Gunner Kevin Doyle has chipped in with 3 goals, coming mainly from the bench.

2.10.11 Classifieds – Prem

Fulham 4 – 0 Leeds

Man City 2 – 1 Reading

Mestalla next, Valencia (A) in the Champs Lg.

[GreyedOutMan]

Cheers for that Stoma - i assume you mean "Mark tall player" by Tall?

[Stomalomalus]

Yeah, mark tall player Havnt used it myself, but havnt really needed it. Valencia will be a tough test. Good luck

[GreyedOutMan]

5.10.11 Valencia v ARSENAL – Champs League Group B

First time I’ve faced Valencia. I kept the same formation, but moved to a slightly less attacking style. In Emmanuel Adebayor, I’m facing one of the most feared strikers in world football! 75 goals in 105 games for Valencia now, having managed only 26 in 67 for me! Incidentally, Valencia are just as original as Liverpool it seems – this game being played not at the Mestalla but at ‘Nuevo Mestalla’!!

Vela and Eduardo both had decent chances to open the scoring in the first half hour, but shortly afterwards, Eduardo received the ball on the half-way line only to find that all of Valencia’s players had gone forward for the corner, and he was allowed to run the entire length of Valencia’s half before sliding the ball past ‘keeper Hildebrand, and at half-time the score was “1-0 to the Ar-se-nalâ€! It had the feeling of one of those great Euro nights – PSG (A), Parma in Copenhagen, Real (A), Inter (A), Roma (A), Milan (A) etc..., and when Vela scored the 2nd with 15 minutes to go, I had visions of Arsenal fans being held back by Spanish police, unable to contain their glee.

However, Valencia pulled one back with 1 minute to go, and right at the end of the third minute of 3 minutes’ stoppage time, Joaquin equalized. I know what you’ll say – its still a good result. But to be 2-0 up at Nuevo Mestalla with just 1 minute left on the clock and not come away with 3 points – well, its not feeling too good just now! Valencia had 20 shots to our 9, but we had one more shot on target than they did and 52% of the possession. Its hard to take. Looking back on it, I blame my lack of substitutions – Dutra and Eduardo should have come on to close it out. But I got caught up in the excitement, it really did feel like a famous night in Spain. Oh and just to round off the disappointment, it was Joaquin and...you guessed it, summer target Silva, who scored the goals.

FINAL SCORE Valencia 2 – 2 ARSENAL

Selected other Champs Lg scores: Matchday 2

Chelsea 1 – 1 Bayern

Kiev 0 – 1 Milan

Barca 5 – 0 CFR Cluj

Liverpool 2 – 0 Juventus

Celtic 2 – 2 Porto

Litex 0 – 5 Sevilla

Rapid 0 – 2 Real Madrid

Shakhtar 0 – 0 Galatasaray (my group)

Dundee Utd 1 – 1 Spartak Moscow

Roma 1 – 0 Man Utd

I’m going to turn in now. Blame it on disappointment and exhaustion, and come back tomorrow for more tales of (hopefully) glory days at Arsenal! Lets face it, it ain’t likely to be happening IRL for a while. Why oh why oh why won’t Wenger see we need some more experienced (i.e. big name, because experienced players who are any good have “big namesâ€) players?!

[Stomalomalus]

Unlucky, but you should be closing the game out late on - im guessing their goals were scored with them playing 424? That would swamp a back 3, so the addition of Eduardo would have closed them down better, but o, well, 2-2 at Valencia with Silva isnt a bad result

[GreyedOutMan]

Oh and by the way, the Joaquin goal was another near post header from a corner. Sakho (6'1, jumping 18) was right by Joaquin (5'10, jumping 10), and yet somehow it was the winger who got to the ball! What's going wrong?!

[GreyedOutMan]

And one more question for this evening - would a save game file now and then be useful and if so, how do i post it on here?

[GreyedOutMan]

You were spot on about the 4-2-4 by the way, but with essentially 5 midfielders in my team, shouldnt that mean that their midfield is completely battered by my team and thus it would be us creating most of the chances?

[Stomalomalus]

The AI seems to be able to up the tempo in the last 5 really well, and the 424 can be hard to deal with. The midfield doesnt get a chance to overrun theirs as they will be camped in your box, lol.

If you want to post a save file do, you would have to upload it to a fileshare site like Megaupload

[wwwpoop]

Read some of the thread (surely you can't expect me to read all of it! lol) and something is f'ed with Arsenal in this game. :/

They seem to be addicted to losing when judging by your squad and your match commentary, you should be dominating most matches.

[GreyedOutMan]

Megaupload will only let me send it to an e-mail address...

[GreyedOutMan]

8.10.11 ARSENAL v West Ham – Premiership

Only one change, with Veloso making way for Alves – he hasn’t been so good, and I’m going to switch back to 4-4-2 for the time being. 6 games without defeat before the match, so I wanna keep it up. After 10 minutes, a sharp cross from Di Maria threatened to make it to Eduardo, but was cut out just in time. Then after 24, some neat work from Cesc carved out another chance for Eduardo, but it was saved by the Hammers’ keeper. By half-time, we hadn’t really had any fantastic chances, and it didn’t improve until the 67th minute, when Nani fed Eduardo to run diagonally across the box and push his shot wide of the ‘keeper and into the back of the net. After 73 minutes, I threw on Vaughan for Vela, and when Diaby was injured on 79, Veloso came on for the last 10 minutes or so. Vaughan had a couple of decent chances to finish West Ham off before finally doing so in the 90th minute, a cutting ball from Richards putting him through to beat Kirkland to the ball and push it into the net for 2-0. A good win.

FINAL SCORE ARSENAL 2 - 0 West Ham

Diaby will be out for a month unfortunately.

8.10.11 Classifieds – Prem

Early: ARSENAL 2 – 0 West Ham

Blackburn 3 – 2 Tottenham

Chelsea 2 – 0 Scunthorpe

Man Utd 2 – 0 Ipswich

Reading 1 – 0 Everton

Watford 2 – 4 Fulham

9.10.11 Classifieds – Prem

Birmingham 2 – 2 Newcastle

Leeds 1 – 1 Man City

Liverpool 3 – 0 Portsmouth

Bolton 3 – 0 Aston Villa

Everyone’s played 9 games now – you want tables after classified results soon? Perhaps after the next set of games?

[GreyedOutMan]

Little bit of satisfaction here - 2 Gooners winning a game for England U19s....

[GreyedOutMan]

http://community.sigames.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=2101905...482071404#2482071404

been checking out this post - does anyone know how to install those cool crests? Would really jazz up my screenshots!

[JRHaggs]

Pretty good start to the season.

I'm sorry I was unable to contribute to the final stages of the winger discussions, but it seems you've found a winner in DiMaria. Nice signing!

Donati could turn out to be quite good. Get him on some strength training to get his stamina up. I'll be interested to see how he matures.

Good to see there's another assistant with the same personnel-related ruthlessness. We'll keep him honest, Stoma!

Keep it up, Luke. Great read. Your side look destined for greatness.

[Bloodbore8]

I don't want to rush you but--TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEXT GAME NOW!!!! PLEASE!!! SO INTERESTING!!!

Can you show us the page that says who scored and when (the overview) from now on? Thanks in advance!

Oh, and BTW, I'm still waiting for my copy of FM08 to come in the mail. What's taking Amazon so long??? The good news is that I finished the demo 19 games through the season with 48 points, 3 points more than Man Utd with a game in my hand. The big 4 are still dominating but Newcastle were 2nd for a long time but then suddenly dropped to 5th.

[GreyedOutMan]

Cheers for the feedback guys - good to know there are people following. I'll be playing (and updating) a fair bit this evening - i've been really busy lately.

Bloodbore - do you just want the overview page or that plus the stats page I've been putting up for a while?

Anyone know about the crests question?

[GreyedOutMan]

For the moment I’ll keep the updates the same – I don’t know if you want the overview instead of or as well as the stats page, and I think the stats page is more useful, as I generally tell you the minutes in my commentary. If you would prefer the overview instead tell me.

In Euro 2012 qualifying, England’s victory over Slovenia in their final match was actually academic – they’d already qualified as group winners, ahead of the Czechs who qualified in 2nd place for the tournament in Poland and the Ukraine over the summer.

Back to domestic matters:

22.10.11 Newcastle v ARSENAL – Premiership

My record over Newcastle wasn’t exactly spectacular, with 6 draws, 2 wins and 2 defeats in 10 games. I need to get some wins in against them! Diaby’s injury made way for Veloso to get another game, whilst Dutra got a spot on the bench, along with Carlton for whom Gerson made way. Carlton, incidentally, seems to be picking a lot up from Di Maria – his attributes are skyrocketing, and just lately he’s clearly been working on his composure and ball control which have both shot up. Robin Van Persie, who has been Newcastle’s star player this year so far, was luckily injured, but in Quagliarella they have another in-form striker, and Steven Taylor is amongst the best defenders in the league on current form. Newcastle dominated the first half and only some dogged defending by the ever-improving Arsenal defence held them off until the 42nd minute when Nani scored a well-placed shot from outside the area from an acute angle, and Arsenal went in at the break with a rather undeserved lead. Eight minutes into the 2nd half, Newcastle got their belated reward, with a good goal from James Milner, catching Pouplin rather badly positioned. Just after the house mark, Di Maria made way for Carlton, and Vaughan came on for Vela. However, moments later, Newcastle went ahead through a nice goal from Belluschi. The turnaround was no less than Newcastle deserved. Quagliarella’s 3rd goal after 78 minutes – another mistake from Pouplin – made the result a little fairer, though it still flattered Arsenal after a really rather lackluster display. Eduardo and Vela were particularly disappointing, and Alves’ bad form continues, while only Cesc and Nani were able to make any real impression on the game, though by my reckoning, their ‘8’s at the end of the game were rather generous. A really poor performance, ending a 7 game unbeaten run. With any luck it’s a blip and not a return to the form we had earlier in the season and at the back end of last year!

FINAL SCORE Newcastle 3 - 1 ARSENAL

Classifieds: 22.10.11 – Prem

Early: Fulham 0 – 0 Chelsea

Aston Villa 5 – 2 Reading

Ipswich 3 – 3 Liverpool

Newcastle 3 – 1 ARSENAL

Portsmouth 1 – 0 Birmingham

Scunthorpe 0 – 3 Man Utd

West Ham 3 – 1 Blackburn

Late: Everton 3 – 2 Leeds

A bit of consolation with Chelsea and Liverpool dropping points, I guess. But we’re now four points off the pace. Here's the table as promised.

[GreyedOutMan]

I’ve lost my patience with Alves, and have replaced him with Eduardo. When Diaby’s fit, I’ll probably revert back to my 3-1-4-2 formation, but for now, Eduardo should be able to do well at left back, with Sakho and Garay in the centre and Richards at right back. I know it’s probably not the best use of Richards’ talent, but Eduardo is not really suited to playing at right back. He can do it, but he’s left footed.

23.10.11 Classifieds – Prem

Man City 2 – 1 Watford

Tottenham 1 – 2 Bolton

Team Focus: IPSWICH (will try to do one of these every now and then FYI, with any team for whom I have something to say!)

Interesting stat for you – Ipswich have managed to draw every one of their 5 home games so far this season. 2 away wins has kept them afloat, currently 14th, and actually if you look at the home games they’ve drawn, they’ve done really well – Spurs, Bolton (who are top of the league currently), Leeds, Chelsea and Liverpool...but having finished 13th last season, a full 17 points clear of the relegation zone, they’ll be disappointed with that start, I’m guessing, and will need to pick up some points fast.

A bid of £12.2m has just come in from Real Madrid for Alves. It’s not even a third of what I paid for him, but despite improving from 6.89 in his first season to 7.09 in his 2nd, his 8 appearances this time around have yielded 6.63. Quick poll therefore (deadline will be when the “stall†option is no longer there) - £12.2m (£3.3m up front, another £9m over 24 months): SELL or NO SELL? Hurry!