FM23: Arsenal - Banter FC is over

Mobius · March 3, 2023

Damn we are good in this new patch. Odegaard Saka and Martinelli are insane!

KingLara · March 9, 2023

Fm23 season 1 – MAY / END OF SEASON REVIEW

PREMIER LEAGUE

WOLVES 2 – Jimenez 33 Neto 48

ARSENAL 2 – Odegaard 44 Nketiah 73

We lead Liverpool by three points heading into the final four fixtures of the season. For the first one we found ourselves both playing at the same time away from home with us at Wolves and them at the trickier looking Newcastle. Ramsdale picked up an injury followed by a setback meaning he wouldn’t play again this season. Wolves had earlier in the season beaten Liverpool 4-1 at home, so I knew it would be difficult and so it proved. They were the far better team with 21 shots on goal to our 10 and a 2.31 xg to our 1.07. Jimenez missed a free header from about six yards out in the dying seconds. Partey picked up a yellow card which was his 15^th in the league and meant a three match ban and no domestic games for the rest of the season. To compound our miserable day a Nunez brace saw Liverpool win 2-1 at Newcastle and move 1 point behind with a +20 on goal difference and us still to go to Chelsea.

EUROPA LEAGUE SEMI FINAL 1^ST LEG

ROMA 4 – Cristante 15 Dybala 44 Zaniolo 88 Abraham 90

ARSENAL 2 – Jesus 53 Zinchenko 88

Having beaten Lazio in the previous round we returned to Rome to face Roma in the semi finals. Much like the Wolves game we were mostly outplayed with Roma having a 93% pass accuracy. We were 2-0 down at half time and I decided to shut up shop but from nowhere Odegaard produced a beautiful pass for Jesus and then Zinchenko scored a cracker for his first for the club. 2-2 was a good result but Roma retook the lead straight from kick off and with the last kick of the game Tammy Abraham gave them daylight with a header from a corner. Not out of it but work to do. Braces by Eriksen and Rashford saw Man United beat Leipzig 4-1 at Old Trafford which should mean enough to send them through to the final.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 4 – Gabriel 2 74 Hazard 28 Saliba 53 – Jesus miss/pen 57

NOTTINGAM FORREST 0

A game at home to already relegated Nottingham Forest was exactly what was needed. I rested Saka and Odegaard completely to keep the fresh for the Roma return leg and the Chelsea game. All three defender goals came from Fabio Vieria deliveries. Liverpool beat Man United 4-0 at Anfield to keep the gap the same. Darwin Nunez with a hat-trick. They would play first in the penultimate weekend away at Crystal Palace.

EUROPA LEAGUE SEMI FINAL 2^nd LEG

ARSENAL 0

ROMA 1 – Abraham 90

I was confident heading into the second leg against Roma. Unfortunately, in a scrappier game than the one in Rome their stubborn defence were able to keep us at arms length until Abraham popped up with another 90^th minute header from a corner. Man United lost 2-1 to Leipzig in germany but went through to the final 5-3 on aggregate.

PREMIER LEAGUE

CHELSEA 1 – Sterling 12

ARSENAL 2 – Jesus 22 Smith-Rowe 83

Things were slightly rosier as Odsonne Edouard hit a 93^rd minute winner as relegation threatened Crystal Palace beat Liverpool 1-0 which meant a win at Stamford Bridge would give us the title with one game to go. The game was tight and tense and I would have taken a draw but with seven minutes to go Smith Rowe poked home at the back post to win us the league. Stamford Bridge joining White Hart Lane ’71, ’04, Old Trafford ’02 and Anfield ’89.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 0

BRENTFORD 1 – Toney 45

The final game of the season saw us host Brentford at a celebratory Emirates. On another day I would have been annoyed as we were the better team and should’ve won easily but the result didn’t matter.

Final Table

Premier league table - Played/Points/Goal Difference

1. Arsenal P 38 P 89 GD 47

2. Liverpool P 38 P 85 GD 68

3. Man Utd P 38 P 75 GD 37

4. Man City P 38 P 74 GD 41

5. Tottenham P 38 P 64 GD 21

Chelsea finished 6^th one point behind Spurs. Bournemouth won at Aston Villa on the final day to stay up as Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Leicester were relegated.

Burnley and QPR were promoted automatically. Watford beat Middlesbrough in the playoff final.

Premier league season stats

Goals – Haaland 34, Jiminez 27 Toney, Salah 26 Jesus 22

Assists – Salah 16 Eriksen 15 Damsgaard 13 B Silva, Son 10 - (=8^th Saka 9 )

AV Rating – Salah 7.78 Haaland 7.60 D Nunez 7.38 Mount 7.34 Tsimikas 7.27 ( - 7^th Gabriel 7,25 )

MOM – Salah 14 Toney Jiminez 9 Haaland 8 Ronaldo 7 (=6^th Odegaard 6 )

Clean Sheets – Alisson 17 Lloris 16 Raya 15 Ramsdale 13 Ederson 12

Possession – Arsenal, Chelsea 61% Man City, Tottenham 59 Liverpool 56

X.G – Liverpool 2.32 Man City 1.95 Arsenal 1.81 Newcastle 1.71 Man United 1.65

Pass Accuracy – Chelsea 91% Tottenham 90% Arsenal, Man City 89% Aston Villa 88%

Season Awards

Footballer of the Year – Mohamed Salah

Players Player of the Year – Mohamed Salah

Young Player of the Year – Erling Haaland

Golden Glove – Alisson

Manager – Kinglara

Team of the Season – Ramsdale Robertson Gabriel Saliba Alexander-Arnold Diaz Partey Keita Salah Jesus Haaland

Arsenal in the Premier League

Home

P 19 W17 D0 L2 GF51 GA14

Away

P19 W11 D5 L3 GF32 GA22

Overall

P38 W28 D5 L5 GF83 GA36

Performance timeline

WDWWWWDWLWWWWWWWWLWWWWDLWWWWWWWDWLDWWL

Arsenal premier league stats

Goals – Jesus 22 Nketiah 12 Saka 10 Odegaard 9 Martinelli, Gabriel 5 Smith Rowe Hazard 4 Xhaka Vieria 3 Saliba 2 Cedric Lokonga Elneny 1 Own goal - 1

Assists – Saka 9 Odegaard 8 Kroos 6 Vieria Zinchenko Martinelli 5 Xhaka Tomiyasu 4 Jesus lokonga hazard 3Tierney cedric Saliba Smith-Rowe Nketiah 2 Partey White Elneny 1

Mom – Odegaard 6 Saka Jesus 5 Gabriel 3 Xhaka Tierney 2 Vieria Partey Saliba Smith-Rowe Martinelli Lokonga Hazard 1

OVERALL SEASON STATS

	Played	Goals / CS	Assists	MoM	Av rating
Odegaard	41	9	13	6	7.23
Gabriel	40	5	0	3	7.19
Jesus	39(+8)	32	4	7	7.09
Saka	39(+3)	10	10	5	7.16
Ramsdale	38	14	0	0	7.08
Partey	37	0	1	1	7.03
Martinelli	31(+12)	8	6	2	7.07
Zinchenko	31(+5)	1	6	1	6.99
Tomiyasu	31(+1)	0	4	0	7.00
Saliba	29(+1)	2	2	1	7.18
White	28(+5)	0	2	0	6.96
Tierney	21(+11)	0	2	2	7.02
Cedric	21(+2)	1	2	0	6.96
Hazard	20(+18)	6	3	1	6.89
Xhaka	20(+8)	5	6	2	7.24
Lokonga	17(+8)	1	6	1	7.37
Kroos	17(+5)	1	7	1	7.25
Turner	15	5	0	0	6.95
Nketiah	14(+19)	16	2	1	7.09
Elneny	12(+19)	4	1	2	7.27
Smith-Rowe	11(+15)	5	8	1	7.33
Vieria	9(+23)	4	8	2	7.11
Holding	8(+4)	0	0	0	7.06
Butler-Odeyeji	2(+2)	2	0	0	6.93
Marquinhos	1(+5)	0	0	0	6.70
Bandeira	1(+2)	0	0	0	7.05
Awe	1(+1)	1	0	1	8.00
Walters	1(+1)	0	0	0	7.00
Jeffcott	1	0	0	0	7.20
Ideho	0(+2)	0	1	0	7.50
Vigar	0(+1)	2	0	1	8.40
Nelson (Sold Jan)	7(+4)	1	3	0	7.14

Final Bits

Two goals in the last six minutes from Depay and Lewandowski saw Barcelona beat PSG 3-2 in the Champions League Final. Mbappe with a brace not enough for PSG

Our Semi final conquerors Roma beat Man United 2-0 in the Europa League final. A brace from Zaniolo

In the Conference League Fc Koln needed extra time to beat Monaco 2-1.

Domestically PSG totalled 105 points in winning Ligue 1. In Germany Bayern also won the title easily with Dortmund just scraping in the champions league places. Ac Milan won a tight three way battle in Italy despite losing to Inter on the final day. Juventus needing only a win could only draw at home to Roma. Finally, Real Madrid comfortably beat Barcelona to the title in Spain.

Liverpool needed penalties to beat Nottingham Forrest in the FA Cup final after a goalless draw at Wembley.

Man City sacked Guardiola. Potter also left Chelsea.

Final Summary

Premier League – 1^st

Europa League – Semi Finals – Lost 5-2 on Agg to Roma

FA Cup – 3^rd Round – Lost 1-0 at Home vs Crystal Palace

Carabao Cup – 4^th Round – Lost 3-3 7-8 on penalties Away vs Aston Villa

Obviously delighted to win the league although it was tighter than I would have liked.

Our Fa Cup loss was unlucky but I would like to do better than that for next season and get to at least the latter stages. Back in the Champions League we will try to at least make it out of the group stages and go from there.

I will look for another winger and a right back in the summer plus replacing players that are sold. Lokonga and Smith-Rowe were two players that surprised me when looking back at the stats for the season and I will try and give them more game time. I want to bring in some of the youngsters like Patino and Awe to the first team as well.

Like most first seasons our goal outputs were poor. We also lost four of our last nine games winning only three which wasn’t a great way to end the season.

I will also replace and bring in better staff for all three teams.

Gilberto Silva · March 9, 2023

How would people setup a midfield with Odegaard and Vieira as the two “8’s” in an Arteta system?

I was thinking Odegaard as a mezalla on support with Vieira as an advanced playmaker with move into channels. Or swap the roles the other way around. What do people think?

hasdgfas · March 14, 2023

After the data update, I had a hugely successful season 1:

PREMIER LEAGUE:

A truly ludicrous offensive performance from the squad, going well over 100 goals for the season, including this match that made me laugh out loud multiple times:

Even with the heavy rotation I had to do throughout the season due to injuries and tiredness, everyone performed great.

EFL Cup:

Let's not talk about this one.

Europa League:

I rotated heavily for this competition(intentionally so) and still kinda walked through it besides a tough final.

FA Cup:

Another outstanding performance from the squad here, avenging the early EFL Cup loss.

THE SQUAD:

Again, some truly incredible performances from everyone, particularly Jesus and Nkeitah with over 30 goals each, and then double digits from Trossard, Odegaard, Martinelli and....Saliba? Plus 7 from Cozier-Duberry, who I brought into the first team ahead of schedule in March due to an injury crisis with my attackers.

TRANSFERS:

a few transfers out, but nothing in.

Probably could have kept Nelson around, but I didn't want to turn down nearly 10M for someone with 6 months on their contract who I didn't intend to renew. I was similarly going to keep Elneny around but didn't want to turn down this offer at this point. Xhaka wanted a new challenge and I was happy to give it to him. Ajax has a buy option, we'll see if they take it.

ajw10 · March 21, 2023

Season One done, no transfers.

Spoiler

Really disappointed in Trossard's contribution, unsure whether I'm going to sell or not.

Holding, Tierney and Partey are definitely going. Turner probably too. Kiwior might go out on loan

KingLara · March 22, 2023

Arsenal Season 2 – Pre-Season / August

After a good first Season where we won the league I returned following my short summer holiday to begin the start of pre season and returning to proper European football in the name of Champions League.

I made a few staff changes bringing in a new regen assistant David Puig. Jose Fontes came in as loan manager.

We head many players returning from Loans plus a few I wanted to get rid of so balancing that wasn’t an easy task and took many sheets of paper trying to whittle down who I wanted to keep sell and loan. Even by 11pm on September 2^nd I still wasn’t overly happy.

Transfers IN

Christian Pulisic 22m

Valentin Rossier – 10m

Samuel Umtiti – 165k

Cher Ndour - Free

Transfers OUT

Nuno Tavares – 11.75m – Rangers

Rob Holding – 8.25m – Ajax

Maitland Niles – 8m – Inter

Pablo Mari – 4.3m – Zenit

Lino Sousa – 1.2m – Bournemouth

Runnarson, Awe, Bandeira, Quamina, Taylor-Hart, Butler-Odeyeji and Kovacevic all departed for small fees.

36 players went out on loan including Xhaka, Cedric, Pepe and Balogun. The likes of Patino, Flores and Norton-Cuffy have also left with me feeling they are just short of being in the first team squad.

I tried to sell Xhaka Pepe and Cedric to gain funds but had no takers or the contracts were rejected. Pulisic adds depth to wide areas after Eden Hazard finished his loan spell. I should have kept Mari but needing a back up left footed Centre back the only decent option was Umtiti. Tomiyasu is current first choice but I expect Rosier to push him. Marquinhos has stayed at the club in the under 21s just in case we need him at some point. Of course lots of players can play in multiple different positions but I would have like one more winger to back up Saka.

Speaking of Saka with a 101m release clause I was worried Man City would pay it but the offer never came. I will try to extend his contract before January but his demands are very high. Bellingham has a release clause of 105m and although I don’t like spending that kind of money I would like to have him so am kind of saving up.

SQUAD - 4-2-3-1 wide

GK – Ramsdale – Turner

DL – Zinchenko – Tierney

DR – Tomiyasu – Rosier

DC – Gabriel - Umtiti

DC – Saliba – White

CDM – Partey – Elneny

CM – Kroos – Lokonga – Vieria

AMC – Odegaard – Smith-Rowe

AML – Martinelli – Pulisic

AMR – Saka

ST – Jesus - Nketiah

PRE SEASON

Pre-season saw us travel to Singapore. However, international tournaments in America and Africa slightly disrupted us.

The trip as well as the matches went well with all players contributing. We managed to win every game quite easily until a draw with Genk in the Emirates Cup semi-finals. As fun as it is to rack up the goals I don’t think I will be visiting Singapore again. Niigata were the domestic champions.

Milwall (A) 3-1 – Smith Rowe, Jesus (pen) Saka

Si Ling United (A) 16-0 – Vieria 3 Saliba Saka Smith-Rowe Nketiah 6 Odegaard Balogun Gabriel Kroos

Niigata Unicorn (A) 10-0 – Nketiah Partey 2 Marquinhos 2 Odegaard 2 Jesus 2 Saka

Colchester (A) – 2-0 – Martinelli Rekik

Anderlect (A) – 2-0 – Pepe Kroos

Emirates Cup

Genk – 1-1 (5-4pens) – White

Barcelona – 4-2 – Saka 2 Jesus Vieira

COMMUNITY SHIELD

ARSENAL 1 – Saliba 7

LIVERPOOL 1 – Fabinho 41 – Robertson s/o 42 Alexander-Arnold s/o 48

(Arsenal won 4-3 on penalties)

The season started with an entertaining if not frustrating curtain raiser at Wembley with Liverpool. Playing the last 42 minutes against 9-men despite 25 shots we just couldn’t score and were one kick away from an embarrassing loss only for Pavard to miss. Smith-Rowe struck the winning kick. No summer signings made debuts as Pulisic picked up an injury meaning he would be out until after the first international break and I didn’t find space in the game to bring Rosier on.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 3 – Jesus 8, 71 Saka 60

EVERTON 1 – Gordon 59

Our defence of the premier league began with a home game against Everton. We were good if not spectacular but a solid enough start. A hat-trick from Cody Gakpo saw Liverpool beat Burnley 5-1 at Anfield on the opening night. They look like being the biggest challengers again. We will play them in the penultimate game of the season at Anfield on May 11^th. The last of four league away games in a row.

PREMIER LEAGUE

MAN CITY 3 – B. Silva 2, 75 De Bruyne 26

ARSENAL 3 – Odegaard 29 Saliba 30 Kroos 86

It was Man City away in our second game for the second consecutive season. Last time it was a 2-2 draw and on this occasion the same result. New manager Vincent Kompany left Haaland on the bench having also done so in their opening 4-1 win at Watford. New signing Declan Rice started. We were at full strength but didn’t play like it finding ourselves 2-0 down. Once odegaard and Saliba had pulled us level though the game became even and we dominated possession but City had more shots. A late Kroos equaliser very much deserved and another good point. Ederson with a 5.9 in the city goal.

League Table

Newcastle setting the pace in the early days. Spurs beat Liverpool 3-0 but lost at Man united in their opening games.

1. Newcastle P2 P6 GD7

2. Wolves P2 P6 GD5

3. Man Utd P2 P6 GD4

4. Man City P2 P4 GD3

5. Chelsea P2 P4 GD3

6. Arsenal P2 P4 GD2

Other News

The summer was busy with transfers both home and abroad. Liverpool spent nearly 140million to bring in Cody Gakpo and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. Chelsea signed Ferran Torres and Icardi. Koopmeniners went to Spurs. Man City brought in Declan Rice and Douglas Santos while Newcastle were the biggest spenders of all buying seven players with Pedro Porro the standout name. Man United didn’t spend a penny until deadline day when they brought in En-Nesyri. Leicester now in the championship lost Ndidi who went to real madrid, Tielemans and barnes but kept maddison, daka,vardy etc. Similarly Brighton also relegated only lost Trossard to Atalanta.

PSG raided the premier league taking Neves and Toney. They also signed Luis Suarez on a free transfer to go alongside my target Asensio. Real Madrid signed Todibo, Zubimendi and Sutalo. Chukwueze and former gunner Lucas Torreira joined Barcelona. Aubameyang went to Sociadad on loan. Germany and Italy were fairly quiet.

Guardiola became Chelsea manager. Two former arsenal players took up new roles. Arteta at Fiorentina and Vieira at Strasbourg. Internationally Rafa Benitez became England manager. Keeping my seat warm until after the Euros 2024.

Draws.

Back in the champions league we were given a favourable draws with Inter Partizan Belgrade and Nice. The balls weren’t so lucky for some of the other English teams. Liverpool will do well to get out of their group with Barcelona and Dortmund. Man United also won’t have it easy with Real Madrid, Benfica and Gladbach. Man City drew Bayern but should overcome Sociedad and Salzburg.

In the Europa and Conference League Spurs Chelsea and West Ham should comfortably qualify from their groups.

Last season we crashed out in the 4^th round of the carabao cup on penalties to Aston Villa. Our third round would get underway at now championship side Brighton. Leeds host Man United and Chelsea play Newcastle in an otherwise tame 3^rd round draw.

September/October Fixtures

Wolves (A)

Leeds (H)

Inter (H) - Champions League

Newcastle (A)

Brighton (A) – Carabao Cup 3^rd Round

Liverpool (H)

Nice (A) - Champions League

Tottenham (A)

Crystal Palace (H)

Partizan Belgrade (H) - Champions League

Fulham (A)

hasdgfas · March 23, 2023

Second Season another big one:

Fantastic Performances everywhere

Premier League:

A few wacky losses and draws meant we weren't as dominant as last season, but it was enough to win on GD still.

Champions League:

A straightforward group stage, then a good matchup against Rangers, an absolute spanking of Bayern to get some revenge, a reasonably clean win against Spurs, and then a WILD final against PSG.

FA CUP:

felt really straightforward except the final.

EFL CUP:

again, fairly straightforward until the final(although Pool was tough).

STATS:

uhh, yeah, Saliba had 28 goals >.> Guess I found a corner routine.

Second on the team after Nketiah, but the entirety of Jesus/Nketiah/Thuram up top were incredible in the rotation. Seriously, look at all the numbers for everyone Trossard down. Outstanding offensive performances from everyone.

TRANSFERS:

Neto and Thuram were the two big signings of the year. They both performed really well. Need a couple bodies to strengthen depth this season, a midfielder and a couple defenders I think.

Carmi88 · March 24, 2023

Saliba banging in the goals for me too

KingLara · March 26, 2023

Arsenal Season 2 September/October

PREMIER LEAGUE

WOLVES 1 – Barnes 88

ARSENAL 3 – Martinelli 11 Odegaard 65 Smith-Rowe 87

Our first game of September was a trip to Wolves who had two wins from two. There was an early season appearance for Matt Turner after Ramsdale suffered food poisoning on the eve of the game. The match itself was a comfortable one. We managed to pick up four yellow cards from just seven fouls but everything else was positive. Saka with two assists.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 3 – Jesus 58, 90(pen) Pulisic 77

LEEDS 1 – Doan 85

Ramsdale returned but Odegaard was missing as we hosted Leeds. It was another comfortable game and we should’ve won by more. Pulisic scoring on his debut off the bench.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE MATCHDAY 1

ARSENAL 1 – Pulisic 85

INTER MILAN 1 – Brozovic 85

Our first forays into the champions league saw us host Inter. I set up tight with the Italians going five at the back trying to counter. Brozovic headed home a free kick to give Inter a late lead only for Pulisic off the bench again to equalise straight from kick off. I was happy to start the campaign with a draw even if it was at home. Nice won 3-0 at Partizan Belgrade to get their group stage off to a good start. We would travel to Nice next.

PREMIER LEAGUE

NEWCASTLE 0 – Gonzarlez miss/pen 31

ARSENAL 1 – Jesus 46 – Saliba s/o 53

With tired legs we travelled up to a Newcastle side having won three of their opening four games and thumped wolves 5-1 in the carabao cup. Nicolas Gonzalez didn’t live up to his 48 million price tag as ramsdale saved his penalty in a cagey 1^st half. Jesus gave us an undererved lead before Saliba was harshly sent off. From there it turned into the Ramsdale show with a 9.0 rating. Newcastle had a 2.67xg to our 0.28 but just couldn’t beat him. The kind of game that wins you leagues.

CARABAO CUP 3^RD ROUND

BRIGHTON 0

ARSENAL 0

(Arsenal won 3-0 on penalties)

Saliba chose the right game to be suspended as we travelled down to Brighton. I made eleven changes but named a strong bench. Brighton had started the season well with sitting top of the championship with six wins from seven. It showed as our best player was again the goalkeeper. Turner with an 8.4 not quite Ramsdale level but still good. A poor game with just three shots on target combined was decided by penalties. Wood, Buonanotte and Pereira all missed for Brighton while Jesus Vieiria and Elneny scored for us. Man citys poor domestic form continued. 14^th in the league five points from five games they lost 1-0 at Wycombe. No wins in their last six. Chelsea also went out losing 1-0 at home to Newcastle. We would play Everton at the Emirates in the fourth Round. Salford at home to Man United and Bournemouth hosting Liverpool the pick of the other ties.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 3 – Saka 3 Tomiyasu 22 Jesus 90

LIVERPOOL 2 – Thiago 31 Odegaard o.g 52

Liverpool won both league games last season so it would be interesting to see if we could stop the rot meeting them at the Emirates. Pulisic was preferred to Martinelli in the only change from the win at Newcastle. We started well going 2-0 up after just 22 minutes. However goals either side of half time seemed set to earn Liverpool a deserved draw. But up popped Jesus from a Tomiyasu cross to earn the win.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE MATCHDAY 2

NICE 4 – Koita 1, 6 Laborde 23 Delort 56

ARSENAL 4 – Pulisic 10 60 71 Tierney 67

We travelled to Nice for out first away game and got off to the worst possible start giving away two sloppy goals to trail 2-0 inside 6 minutes. Pulisic pulled one back shortly after and I thought from that point we would run away with it but Nice went and scored again. They made it 4-1 after half time and I had to make a choice whether to take the loss or go and try and get back into it. I went with the latter and as we went all out attack the goals kept going in. Sadly having got back to parity we couldn’t find one more. Not a good game for the heart or the defence. Luckily Pulisic with a 9.7 saved our blushes. Partey limped off before the hour with an ankle injury meaning he would miss the next few games. Two draws from the first two games isn’t idea but with Partizan home and away to come we can be confident. Inter beat Belgrade 4-1 at the san siro which included a maitland-niles penalty.

PREMIER LEAGUE

TOTTENHAM 1 – Richarlison 79

ARSENAL 1 – Saka 61

Spurs weren’t the ideal opponents to be facing after a 4-4 draw. Unsurprisingly I set up much more rigid and it worked with both sides creating little. Tomiyasu was out but I thought it was too early for Rosier so played White at right back. Sakas second half goal seemed likely to be the winner only for Richarlison to slot past a poorly positioned ramsdale to equalise. Not the worst result. Just a 0.2xg for us plus only 51% possession.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 5 – Elneny 14 Odegaard 34 Pulisic 51 Nketiah 90 Kroos 90(pen)

CRYSTAL PALACE 2 – Zaha 17 Mateta 81

Post international break we responded well to the draw at Spurs. Saliba missed the game through injury but Elneny stepped up for Partey with a man of the match performance. We should have scored more.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE MATCHDAY 3

ARSENAL 3 – Saliba 10 Martienllli 11 Jesus 43 – Jesus miss/pen 48 Gabriel s/o 69

PARTIZAN BELGRADE 0

Having already lost 3-0 and 4-1 we added to belgrades woe with a routine win despite playing the last 20 or so minutes with ten men after Gabriel got a red card. Saliba joined him in being suspended for the next game after picking up a yellow card. On another day it could have been more painful. An xg of 3.83 hitting the woodwork three times and a missed penalty all letting the Serbian team off lightly. Inter and Nice drew 1-1 in the san siro meaning the top three all have five points after three games.

PREMIER LEAGUE

FULHAM 1 – Mitrovic 26

ARSENAL 4 – Odegaard 30 Nketiah 48 87 Vieria 68

Despite scoring in the last game Jesus wasn’t performing at his best so I took the chance to play Nketiah. He bagged a brace in a dominant display once we drew level. Vieria scoring his first of the season.

League Table

1. Man Utd P9 P23 GD22

2. Arsenal P9 P23 GD14

3. Wolves P9 P22 GD14

4. Chelsea P9 P20 GD18

5. Liverpool P9 P19 GD16

Us and Man United the only teams yet to lose a game. Man City under new manager Vincent Kompany are having a terrible season. 14^th in the league, out of the carabao cup to Wycombe and also in danger of being knocked out in the champions league. West Ham and Burnley are in the relegation zone while Watford have lost all nine games scoring only three and conceding 27 including six at Man United and five at Chelsea.

Premier League Top scorers

Isak 9 De Bruyne, Barnes (wolves), Jesus, Lindstrom (Southampton) 6

Premier League Top Assists

Saka Mount 6 Chilwell Salah 5 Antony 4

Premier League Av Rating

Antony 7.77 Pavard (Liverpool) 7.63 Barnes 7.59 Isak 7.58 Rashford 7.57 ( 7^th Saka 7.54)

Premier League Motm

Damsgaard 3 Antony Barnes Milinkovic-Savic (Liverpool) Rashford 2 ( =2^nd Jesus, Saka 2)

Team XG

Liverpool 2.05 Chelsea 2.00 Man City 1.99 Man United 1.91 Newcastle 1.81 ( 8^th Arsenal 1.44)

Team Av Possession

Chelsea 63% Arsenal 59% Liverpool 58% Man United 57% Tottenham 55%

Where’s Haaland?

14 league goals at this stage last Season there is no sign of Erling Haaland on the charts this time. Here is his season so far. It still isn’t too bad by normal standards.

Played 7(+3) Goals 7 Assists 0 MOM 2 Av Rating 7.28

Arsenal stats (1^st team)

Appearances (17 played)

No youngsters yet.

Saka 13(+1) Gabriel, Kroos 13

Jesus 12(+2) Saliba Tomiyasu Ramsdale 12

Odegaard 11 Zinchenko 10(+2)

Martinelli 9(+4) Partey 7

Elneny 5(+5) Pulisic 5(+2)

Tierney 4(+5) Vieira 3(+9)

White 3(+3) Lokonga 3(+1)

Nketiah 2(+6) Turner 2

Smith Rowe 1(+6) Rosier 1(+3)

Umtiti 1

Goals

Jesus 7

Pulisic 6

Odegaard 4

Saliba, Saka Nketiah 3

Martinelli Kroos 2

Vieria Tierney Tomiasu Smith-Rowe Elneny 1

Assists

Saka 8

Odegaard, Kroos 5

Tomiyasu 3

Vieria Jesus Elneny 2

White Smith-Rowe Martinelli 1

Man of Match

Pulisic Ramsdale Saka Jesus 2

Turner Odegaard Saliba Elneny 1

Youth teams

With 36 players on loan the Under 21s have suffered and have only seven players in the squad which include two goalkeepers. I will address this for next season. Currently fifth in the league but not a lot of good to report. Goalkeeper Tom Smith has so far been by far and away the best player. The under 18s however bolstered from some regen signings are unbeaten at the top of their league. Omari Benjamin again leading the way with 22 goals.

Europa League / Champions League Conference League

Bayern and PSG are the only teams with a 100% record in the champions League. Liverpool, Barcelona and Dortmund all have six points in group A while Man City only have three trailing Bayern with nine and Real Sociadad on six. Man United are level with Real Madrid at the top of Group F with six points.

In the Europa League Spurs and Chelsea should qualify comfortably. As should West Ham in the conference league.

Europe

Domestically the same old story in Ligue 1 PSG have ten wins and a draw from their first eleven games. In italy the top seven are separated by just three points. Juventus lead the way. In Spain and Germany Real Madrid and Bayern are like PSG also unbeaten with both having 28 points from 30.

November/December Fixtures

Everton (H) – Carabao Cup 4^th Round

West Ham (H)

Partizan Belgrade (A) – Champions League

Brentford (A)

Aston Villa (H)

Nice (H) – Champions League

Burnley (A)

Inter (A) - Champions League

Bournemouth (H)

Chelsea (A)

Watford (H)

Man United (A)

ajw10 · March 27, 2023

Season two completed.

Spoiler

League performances were a bit hit and miss but we just kept winning. A second round exit to Napoli was a real low point.

Going to use Martinelli up top next season as Jesus is really inconsistent. Last summer I bought in Rice, Guehi and Fati, with Rice the only out and out starter. I need a partner for him even though Xhaka is still performing.

Fati is always injured.

Jorginho, Vieira, Trossard and Tierney are all for sale. Might sell Tomiyasu and Nketiah too

ajw10 · April 2, 2023

This game is really dead isn't it? Just nothing

hasdgfas · April 5, 2023

Not sure if the game is dead or just the forum-style posting of it. Feels like things are moving to YouTube/Twitch/Reddit rather than here

KingLara · April 5, 2023

Season 2 – November/December

CARABAO CUP 4^TH ROUND

ARSENAL 4 – Smith Rowe 3 68 Vieira 31 Lokonga 41

EVERTON 3 – Calvert-Lewin 9 Onana 44 Mcneil 77

Having fallen at this stage the previous season I was determined to advance to the quarters having been given a favourable draw. Without having suitable replacements in midfield wanting to rest Kroos and Partey I paired Jesus and Nketiah upfront. A Vieria free kick was the highlight in an entertaining if a little nervy game but we got over the line to set up a quarter-final again at home to Blackburn. No other shocks in the 4^th round other than Bournemouth winning at Brentford. Man United won 3-0 at Salford. They would host Spurs in the quarters, Newcastle would play L:iverpool and there would be a midlands derby with Aston Villa against West Brom. Jesus and Vieria both picked up minor knocks and would be out for a couple of weeks.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 4 – Odegaard 40 Saka 48 53 Nketiah 60

WEST HAM 1 – Orsic 10

Riding high in the Europa Conference League with five wins from five including a 13-0 drubbing of Sheriff Tiraspol, West Ham arrived without a league win in six since a 4-3 win over everybody's whipping boys this season Man City. They weren’t going to get any reprieves from us as we ran out easy 4-1 winners. Every outfield player with a plus 7 rating.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE MATCH DAY 4

PARTIZAN BELGRADE 2 – Jovanovic 4 Bojanic 15 – Prodanovic miss/pen 83

ARSENAL 5 – Smith Rowe 20 Nketiah 28 37 55 78

Usually by this stage of the european group stages I would be able to play a weakened team. However after drawing the first two games I couldn’t do that meaning the liksd of white and rosier were getting angrier at not playing. Gabriel and Saliba were both suspended but otherwise I played the strongest available team Belgrade had lost the three previous group games by three goals including a 3-0 loss at the Emirates. That run continued after we overcame a dreadful start. Nketiah and Kroos helping themselves to foursomes in goals and assists. Nice and Inter drew the other game in the group 2-2 meaning we just had to beat Nice at the Emirates to go through.

PREMIER LEAGUE

BRENTFORD 0

ARSENAL 1 – Odegaard 88

We put in a solid if unspectacular performance at Brentford to keep up our winning run. An Odegaard free kick enough to beat a side who had a higher xg and a better pass accuracy while only narrowly missing out on having the same possession as well.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 3 – Gabriel 22 Odegaard 42 Nketiah 54

ASTON VILLA 0

With fresher legs after the international break, we recorded a routine win over Aston Villa. Martinez keeping the score to just the 3 goals. I stupidly put Pusilic available for international duty and of course he suffered another injury meaning he wouldn’t play again until January.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE MATCH DAY 5

ARSENAL 6 – Nketiah 8 31 36 48 Saliba 15 Marquinhos 90

NICE 0

Needing a win to go through we delivered in spectacular style. Another four-goal haul for Nketiah with Vieira this being the main assist provider with three. Inter needed a couple of late goals to beat Partizan 4-2 in Belgrade which meant we would have to avoid defeat to the in the san siro to top the group.

PREMIER LEAGUE

BURNLEY 0

ARSENAL 1 – Nketiah 20

Vieira kept his place in the team for the trip to Burnley. It was a bit of a slog and we were quite wasteful but Nketiah smashed in a martinelli ball over the top and burnley never looked like equalising. Martinelli twisted his ankle so would be out for a few weeks.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE MATCH DAY 6

INTER MILAN 0 – Martinez s/o 75

ARSENAL 2 – Nketiah 13 Kroos 25(pen)

We travelled to Milan knowing just a draw would see us top the group and avoid some of the big boys in the knockout stages. I played the strongest team available to me knowing Inter had threats. We started the game well with Nketiahs clever flick giving us the lead before Kroos killed the game with a penalty. We just sat back and let Inter pepper the goal but Ramsdale was comfortably behind everything. Martinez then hacked at Smith-Rowe and it was game over. Top of the group is a good feeling as are five clean sheets in a row. Not sure where that has come from. Nice beat Partizan 6-0 meaning they leapfrogged Inter and went through to the second round.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 3 – Nketiah 3, 5 Marquinhos 88

BOURNEMOUTH 0

Bournemouth having escaped relegation on the final day of the previous season were comfortable this time around in mid-table. Nketiah put us 2-0 up after just five minutes and it seemed like another high scoring win but the next goal never came and it took Marquinhos to come off the bench to get the third late on. An easy day for Ramsdale with Bournemouth having an XG of just 0.04.

PREMIER LEAGUE

CHELSEA 0

ARSENAL 2 – Saka 12 Jesus 90

At one point Chelsea seemed like our closes title challengers but a poor run of form had seen them drop to seventh when we visited Stamford Bridge. Saka picked the pocket of mount to open the scoring and it was pretty easy from there. Jesus heading in an Odegaard corner in stoppage time to seal the win. There wasn’t a single clear cut chance in the game and just a combined XG of 1.7. Always nice to beat Chelsea especially away from home. Our seventh clean sheet in a row.

CARABAO CUP QF

ARSENAL 4 – Vieira 1 31 Jesus 21 78

BLACKBURN 1 – Hyam 53 – Buckley s/o 67

Due to Under 21s and Under 18s having key fixtures I had a very thin squad to choose from. Kroos, Partey and Saka all started where they would usually be resting. The game was very comfortable. Rovers had been doing well in the championship challenging for a play off place but were nowhere near good enough. They did manage to score though as we conceded our first goal in eight games. The winning run stretches to fourteen.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 4 – Nketiah 2 48 Saliba 53 Saka 59

WATFORD 0

December 23^rd finally saw us play bottom club Watford. A 2-2 draw at home to Everton the only point the have picked up in the 17 league games. With Man United just three days away I rested Odegaard and Partey. Watford showed why they only had 1 point with a toothless display in which they had 0 shots on goal to our 30. Kroos got all four assists in a perfect 10 display. 13 assists in all competitions for him now this season.

PREMIER LEAGUE

MAN UNITED 1 – Fernades 6

ARSENAL 3 – Nketiah 34 73 80

Boxing Day saw our final game of the month and year as we headed to Old Trafford. United started well and took an early lead but we soon grew into the game with Nketiah scoring another hat-trick taking him to 22 in 14 starts. United huffed and puffed but didn’t create a single clear cut chance as we comfortably saw the game out and made it 16 wins in a row.

Premier League Table

1. Arsenal P17 P47 GD33

2. Liverpool P17 P43 GD32

3. Wolves P9 P38 GD14

4. Tottenham P36 P20 GD12

5. Man Utd P9 P34 GD22

We won every league game in November and December but so did Liverpool. They also beat United at Old Trafford. Wolves are still defying expectations but suffered a 5-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in their previous game. Man City have found their feet slightly but are still 11^th. West Ham and Burnley are in the relegation zone alongside Watford.

Premier League Top scorers

Nketiah N. Gonzalez 13 Calvert Lewin 10 Isak, Lukaku 9

Premier League Top Assists

Salah 11 Kroos, Son 8 Odegaard, Saka 7

Premier League Av Rating

Salah 7.60 Saka, Nketiah, Semedo 7.49 Odegaard 7.38

Premier League Motm

Saka, Milinkovic-Savic (Liverpool) Gonzalez Edouard 4 Calvert Lewin 3

Team XG

Liverpool 2.05 Man City 1.82 Chelsea 1.77 Man United 1.75 Arsenal 1.74

Team Av Possession

Chelsea 61% Arsenal 58% Tottenham 57% Liverpool 56% Man United 55%

Transfer News

At the beginning of November, Lokonga left for Al Hilal after I accepted a 40million bid. It means we are short in Midfield so I may buy or loan in January as I don’t feel any of the youngsters are ready to step up and I want Vieria and Smith Rowe to concentrate on the forward positions. Zinchenko is an option as he hasn’t been playing as much recently due to Tierney's good form.

I don't plan to do any business in January although I might look at getting in a free transfer for next season. Gundogan for 11million is tempting.

Loan Watch

36 players on loan I am not going to go through all of them but here are the stats of the first team members and a couple of youth

Balogun (Toulouse) – Played 5(+5) Goals 3 – Assists 0 – MOM – 0 – AV Rating 6.77

Biereth (Stoke) - Played 12(+2) Goals 4 – Assists 0 – MOM – 1 – AV Rating 6.78

Cedric (Montpellier) - Played 12 Goals 2 – Assists 2 – MOM – 0 – AV Rating 6.91

Danilo (Sporting) - Played 25 Goals 1 – Assists 3 – MOM – 0 – AV Rating 6.98

Flores (Montpellier) - Played 8 Goals 1 – Assists 3 – MOM – 1 – AV Rating 7.20

Norton-Cuffy (Millwall) - Played 23 Goals 1 – Assists 3 – MOM – 1 – AV Rating 6.93

Patino (RB Salzbug) - - Played 5(+5) Goals 1 – Assists 0 – MOM – 0 – AV Rating 6.5

Pepe (Crystal Palace) - Played 14 Goals 5 – Assists 3 – MOM – 2 – AV Rating 7.09

Rekic (FC Lorient) - - Played 15 Goals 0 – Assists 0 – MOM – 0 – AV Rating 6.63

Xhaka (Fiorentina) - Played 14 Goals 1 – Assists 2 – MOM – 0 – AV Rating 7.06

Europe

In the champions League Liverpool won their final group game against Dormund at Anfield to pip them to second spot in the group behind Barcelona. Dynamo Kiev lost all six games. Man City crashed out after finishing third behind Bayern and Real Sociedad. Man United finished top of their group though above Real Madrid. Celtic and Rangers both finished third in their group. Not too many surprises elsewhere. The second round draw will see us play RB Leipzig. Man United play Atletico Madrid and Liverpool are up against Bayern. PSG play Juventus in the stand out tie of the other games.

Man City now in the Europa League will play Wolfsburg in the play off round. Spurs and Chelsea finished top of their groups.

West Ham won all six games in their Europa Conference League Group and finished with a +25 goal difference mainly thanks to a 13-0 win over Sheriff. They didn’t even concede a goal.

Draws

Two draws domestically. In the Fa Cup we drew Fulham at home. Leeds vs Liverpool and Man United vs Brentford the stand out ties from an insipid draw.

In the Carabao Cup semi-finals we will play Newcastle with the first leg at the Emirates. Aston Villa face Man United in the other game.

January/February Fixtures

Ten games in a packed January.

QPR (H)

Newcastle (H) – Carabao Cup Semi-final 1^st Leg

Fulham (H) – FA Cup 3^rd Round

Newcastle (A) – Carabao Cup Semi-final 2^nd Leg

Tottenham (H)

West Ham (A)

Man United (H)

Wolves (H)

Man City (H)

Everton (A)

Leipzig (A) - Champions League 2^nd Round 1^st Leg

Fulham (H)

Edited April 5, 2023 by KingLara

hasdgfas · April 7, 2023

Dang, you really got Eddie firing, @KingLara!

ajw10 · April 7, 2023

I'm finding this game a real chore to play, which is a shame as it's nice to finally have a good Arsenal team, but it's just not fun to play at all.

ThanatosAFC · April 10, 2023

On 07/04/2023 at 02:36, ajw10 said:

I'm finding this game a real chore to play, which is a shame as it's nice to finally have a good Arsenal team, but it's just not fun to play at all.

I don't think it's just Arsenal but the Premier League in general compared to other league's in this game.

KingLara · April 17, 2023

SEASON 2 January/February

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 4 – Martinelli 18 Saka 50 60(pen) Vieira 76

SOUTHAMPTON 0

We held a four point lead at the top from Liverpool heading into January. We had also won 16 games in a row. We started the new year in good fashion. The saints lucky it was only the four.

PREMIER LEAGUE

CRYSTAL PALACE 0 - Telles s/o 69

ARSENAL 1 – Nketiah 10

Just 65 hours later we headed to Crystal Palace. We were the better side but just lacked a clinical edge. Telles getting sent off allowed us to relax and we killed the game from there.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 6 – Tierney 3 Nketiah 10, 63 Saliba 20 Kroos 61 Odegaard 90

QPR 0 - Johansen s/o 37

Another red card meant another easy win. However QPR suffered more punishment than Crystal Palace. Vieria with another three assists.

CARABAO CUP SEMI FINAL 1^ST LEG

ARSENAL 3 – Pulisic 56 Nketiah 60 66

NEWCATLE 1 – Gonzalez 45(pen)

After three games in six days and with more to come I was able to rest players for the start of three cup matches in a row beginning with the first leg of the carabao cup semi final. Newcastle came out strongly but in the second half we showed our quality and built a healthy lead to take to St James’s Park in a weeks time. Aston Villa beat Man United 1-0 at Villa park in the first leg of the other semi-final.

FA CUP 3^rd Round

ARSENAL 2 – Smith-Rowe 55, 82

FULHAM 1 – Mitrovic 87

We hosted Fulham as we began our FA Cup campaign. I started the same back five as against Newcastle just shuffling the forward line. Fulham came with quite an attacking game plan but a brace from smith-rowe saw us record a routine win before Mitrovic pulled one back. No major casualties from the third round. Liverpool winning 4-1 at Leeds. We would face another home tie in the fourth round against Nottingham Forrest. Chelsea vs Liverpool and Everton vs Tottenham the pick of the other ties.

CARABAO CUP SEMI FINAL 2^nd LEG

NEWCATLE 1 – Isak 69

ARSENAL 0 –

Our run of 19 consecutive wins stretching back to October ended as Newcastle won a tight second leg 1-0. I actually played a strong team but set up quite defensive and Newcastle could only find the one goal. Aston Villa beat Man United 2-0 at Old Trafford meaning we would play them in the final having lost to them in the 4^th Round last season.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 1 – Odegaard 34

TOTTENHAM 0 -

We returned to league action for the first time in a fortnight with the small matter of the north London derby. A tight game saw only five shots on target settled by odegaards flicked rebound after Lloris had saved from Nketiah.

PREMIER LEAGUE

WEST HAM 0

ARSENAL 1 – Saka 44

We travelled to west ham for another London derby. A solid display by the defence saw us nick a another 1-0 after Saka bundled the ball in just before half-time. Only 45% possession by far our lowest of the season. Just a single shot on target as well in not one of our best displays.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 3 – Vieria 9 84 Saka 15

MAN UNITED 0 - Fernandes miss/pen 87

Having only scored three goals in our last four games we hosted Man United at the Emirates. Nketiah turned form goal machine to provider to lay off two on a plate for Vieria and Saka to give us an early 2-0 lead. De Gea was Uniteds best player as Ronaldo and Fernandes both scored only 6.0 ratings. 16 league wins in a row.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 3 – Nketiah 19 20 36(pen)

WOLVES 0

Our last game of a 10-match January saw us host Wolves. Just the five January goals for Nketiah but he made amends with a first half Hattrick. Wolves were still pushing for champions league places but were no match for us.

TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY

The January transfer window was busier for us than expected. I received good offers for both Rosier and Marquinhos so sold both. It did mean a slight shortage in central midfield so I yet again went to the Real Madrid graveyard and signed Isco on loan from Sevilla. At right back I have White as cover and will decide in the summer whether to promote Norton-Cuffy or buy someone.

There are no decent offerings on the pre-contract list so I will wait for next January.

IN

Isco - Loan

Out

Rosier 23.5m - Benfica

Marquinhos 24.5m – Bayer Leverkusen

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 1 – Nketiah 47

MAN CITY 1 - Alvarez 35

Our third home league game in a row saw us entertain Man City. City set up with a back five looking to frustrate which they managed but also had chances of their own and were good value for a point. It ended our 17 match winning streak but meant we were still unbeaten. Nature of the game meant no debut for Isco.

FA CUP 4^th Round

ARSENAL 3 – Jesus 9 30 75

NOTTINGHAM FORREST 1 – Broja 31

We eased into the fifth round with a dominant performance against Forrest. Isco started and performed well although we should have won by more. Liverpool won 2-0 at Chelsea, Spurs beat Everton at Goodson Park. The fifth round draw gave us another home time but this time against Man City. Man United travel to crystal; palace and Southampton host Newcastle.

PREMIER LEAGUE

WATFORD 0

ARSENAL 2 – Saka 23 Odegaard 90

Having collected just 2 points from their first 23 league matches Watford had gone and won their previous two games against Brentfort and Leeds prior to facing us at Vicarage Road. For them they saw the game as pure damage limitation. Only mustering one attempt to our 25. It would have been nice to win by more but I’ll take the win.

PREMIER LEAGUE

EVERTON 1 - Calvert-Lewin 75

ARSENAL 1 – Pulisic 60

Friday Night Football on the eve of our champions league game saw us travel to Everton. The toffees were midtable but had only lost once at Goodison in the league all season. Their good run continued as we put in a pretty poor display and despite taking the lead on the hour never looked like holding on and were a bit lucky to come away with a draw.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2^ND ROUND 1^ST LEG

ARSENAL 0

RB LEIPZIG 0

The champions League returned as we travelled to Leipzig in the first leg. I parked the bus and we kept the dangerous Leipzig forwards fairly quiet. I would back us to get the win at the Emirates.

PREMIER LEAGUE

ARSENAL 4 – Jesus 52 Saka 71 79 86(pen)

FULHAM 2 - Okafor 64 76

Our final game of February saw us host Fulham. After a poor first half we were dominant throughout the second but the pacey Okafor twice took advantage of the high line to draw Fulham level. Saka hitting good form.

Premier League Table

1. Arsenal P28 P76 GD56

2. Liverpool P27 P67 GD47

3. Tottenham P27 P55 GD20

4. Wolves P27 P53 GD16

5. Newcastle P27 P45 GD15

10 games away from an unbeaten season. Man United are sixth two points behind Newcastle. Chelsea and 9^th and Man City 10^th although there are only six points difference between 5^th and 10^th. Watford Burnely and QPR look set to be relegated. West Ham are 17^th with a 6 point cushion. In the Championship Leicester are closing in on 100 points while Brighton also look set to gain automatic promotion back to the premier league.

Arsenal stats (1^st team)

Appearances (43 played)

Kroos 38(+1) Tomiyasu 36(+3)

Saka 35 (+2) Ramsdale 35

Saliba, Gabriel 33(+1) Odegaard 31(+3)

Partey 27(+1) Nketiah 24(+9)

Zinchenko 23(+13) Tierney 20(+16)

Jesus 20(+10) Martinelli 18 (+11)

Vieira 17(+17) Smith Rowe 17 (+14)

Elneny 13(+20) White 13(+9)

Pulisic 13(+6) Umtiti 9

Turner 8 Isco 1(+5)

Ndour 0(+6)

Goals

Very disappointing from Martinelli.

Nketiah 31 Saka 15

Jesus 14 Odegaard 10

Pulisic 8 Vieira 7

Saliba, Smith-Rowe 6 Kroos 4

Martinelli 3 Tierney 2

Tomiyasu Gabriel Elneny 1

Assists

Kroos 17 Vieria 13

Saka 12 Odegaard 9

Smith-Rowe 8 Martinelli 6

Tomiasu 5 Partey, Nketiah 4

Pulisic Jesus 3 Tierney Elneny 2

Umtiti Zinchenko Saliba White 1

Man of Match

Saka 8 Nketiah 6

Odegaard 4 Vieria, Jesus 3

Pulisic Tierney Ramsdale Smith-Rowe Martinelli 2

Turner Saliba Tomiyasu Elneny Kroos 1

Other News

The january transfer window for the premier league was quiet. Chelsea and Liverpool did no business at all while Man City only brought in an 18 year old Roony Bardghji on a free transfer. Brighton down in the Championship lost Caicedo and Lamptey to Brentford and Wolves. Man United signed centre back kumbulla.

There were mixed fortunes for Liverpool and Man United after the first legs of their champions league knockout ties. Liverpool beat Bayern Munich 5-2 at Anfield while Man United lost 2-0 at Atletico Madrid. PSG, Real Madrid Roman and Nice look likely to go through but Juventus vs Barcelona is delicately poised after the first leg finished 1-1 in Italy.

In the Europa League Man City needed extra time to get past Wolfsburg. Rangers are out after losing 2-0 home and away to Napoli. Celtic also departed to Club Brugge 3-2 on aggregate.

Domestically PSG comfortably lead the way in France. Likewise Bayern in Germany. Over in Italy things are much tighter with Juventus Milan and Roma separated by just 2 points at the top. Finally in Spain Real Madrid hold a whopping 16 point lead over Barcelona in second.

With so many players out on loan the depleted Under 21s have taken a hit this season and are currently lying in seventh in the league.

The under 18s are top of the south group with Omari Benjamin again leading the way with 17 goals. They are also still in both the cup competitions with the added help of the youth candidates to come in just a few weeks time.

March/April Fixtures

Aston Villa – (N) – Carabao Cup final

Manchester City – (H) – FA Cup 5^th Round

Chelsea (H)

Leipzig (H) – Champions League 2^nd round 2^nd leg

Bournemouth (A)

Burnley (H)

Aston Villa (A)

Brentford (H)

QPR (A)

ThanatosAFC · May 22, 2023

Anyone got some decent newgens coming through?

lomekian · May 24, 2023

After a couple of partial season experiments, I finally finished a season on this years FM with work and kids precluding me before.

Probably the 2nd best season I've had on any edition of the game since the original one in the early 90s!

Won everything, went unbeaten in the league and found a tactic and rotation approach that worked amazingly, which is a slightly tweaked version of what I think Arteta has got the team doing this season, but with better set-pieces, and greater defensive solidity.

Scored SO MANY goals, despite missing Saka and Jesus for a couple of months each. The signings I made, although cheap, were key. Main element was a desire for physicality or positional flexibility as I think this squad needs both.

Summer:

Vrsaljko came in on a free (as did a couple of others I then flogged in January who didn't impact much), to basically replace Cedric in the squad. Not much cop, but allowed me to rest others in the domestic cups, as I didn't bother registering him. Also brought in Quaresma (mostly for mentoring and to be on bench in LC & FA Cup).

Brought In Olivier Ntcham from Swansea for 925k mostly to be a bench option in domestic cups, but also to be a HG option beter than Matt Smith. Cheap wages tasty long shots, which is part of my tactic.

Hugo Veltesen - £3m. Was plannng to target him for a bosman in due course, but again moved early to stop Spurs getting him. Performed much better than expected and was key in the Europa League run

January: Added numbers to protect first 15 as fixtures stacked up

Zlatan! - 1.2m - Bought as a personal indulgence, a great mentor and some height to throw on up front if needed. Can't run, but an absolute demon off the bench in games we dominated. A goal a game in all comps purely as a sub coming on after 60-70mins. So good in the air, and occasionally belted one in from DLF. Performed far better than expected and improving the mentality of those around him too.

Jake Cooper from Milwall - 2.5m - a cups only option to beast it in the air against physical opponents. 4 goals in 6 starts, including against Brentford in the Fa Cup final where he shut down Ivan Toney

Roberto Gagliardini from Inter for £1.3m (listed/contract expiring)- basically resplaced Elneny who Man Utd bizarrely bought for 25m and played a lot. Great mentals and professionalism. Pretty meh like Eleneny, but randomly boshed one in from 30 yards in the Europa League QFs. Being listed meant he's on the same wages as Mo was.

Sivert Mannsverk from Molde for £3.7m - wasn't going to go for him yet, but had to buy him to stop Spurs getting him. Like him in real life, and I think he's a touch overrated on FM. Good preferred moves and apparently good personality. Basically he'll replace Gagliardini in the squad. Only had a handful of games, but was v solid.

Dani Ceballos - Free. Real Madrid released him, so I picked him up after Jan transfer window ended to boost my cup squad. Plan to sell him if I can, should be possible as on lower wages, but can cover Xhaka role to a degree if not.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain £3.4m - last minute of transfer window as needed someone who could cover right wing as Saka had a few knocks. Being home grown and givng sentimentality points was fun too! Was dirt cheap (though expensive wages at 100k). Turned out to be prescient as Saka got injured for the run-in, and The Ox stepped up as an assist machine, particularly in the Europa League.

Alvaro Fidalgo £450k, America (Mex) - bought him on a previous experiment as cheap cup cover for Odegaard as F Vieira was struggling with a few knocks and ESR got an injury towards the end of the window.

Tomas Lemar £6m - Didn't really need him, but I thought listed at that price, being so versatile, and potentially able to cover the way I use Zinchenko, it seemed like a sensible pick up. Didn't use him as much as I thought (partly because I somehow failed to register him for Europe like an idiot). Worst case scenario is he gets sold for a profit, but I think he'll see more game time next season.

Nelson Weiper - Mainz - £3.4. Brought in the 17 year old after having a look at him after reading a story online about his goalscoring exploits. Well rounded, good size although not exceptional at any one thing. Though it turned out he was exceptional at scoring goals. I realised I was onto something when scored SIX goals against an under strength and tired Man U in the league cup Q4. He got 4 in 120 mins of Fa Cup football, and 16 in 9 starts and 5 sub appearances in the Premier League, which was very welcome after Jesus got injured and Eddie couldn't play twice a week. Scores all kinds of goals, Headers on set pieces, dinks after beating the offside trap, rifles from tight angles, scrappy ones off his knee. Has improved a lot too, suggesting he has good hidden attributes.

Elsewhere, from the starting squad, Martinell, Saka, Odegaard, Jesus and Xhaka were all amazing, with the latter getting 13 goals and 20 assists in all comps as a Mezzala at LCM.

https://ibb.co/C81Zqwf

https://ibb.co/WWh8ZcR

https://ibb.co/bd2CbKj

Squad info in URLS above as I can't work out how to insert images without getting errors

Think best results were beating full strength Brighton 7-0 away and then 9-0 at home

Edited May 24, 2023 by lomekian

lomekian · May 24, 2023

On 22/05/2023 at 02:08, ThanatosAFC said:

Anyone got some decent newgens coming through?

Got this lad in my first intake. Shouldn't be a CB looking at his physicals, but might make a great DM
https://ibb.co/J2B9CZN

Edited May 24, 2023 by lomekian

hasdgfas · May 24, 2023

On 21/05/2023 at 20:08, ThanatosAFC said:

Anyone got some decent newgens coming through?

Yeah! A few are close. Nobody has yet broken into the first team, but here are a few on the fringes:

Lucas Tarabiyah I found in Argentina and picked him up for 4.8M. Loads of potential, quite technical, just not quite there physically yet.

Eric Browne was rated as the 7th best player in my 2023 youth intake, but he has developed VERY well and is showing a ton of potential. He's rapid. a bunch of development still to go mentally, would love if his passing went up a bit more, but the pace and acceleration will do a lot on its own.

Patrick Iroanya is very close to hitting the first team. He's also rapid with some pretty poor mentals, but I think he'll be good enough within a season or two.

Not as many as some saves I've had, but still a few.

yorkie87 · May 29, 2023

I’ve noticed not a lot of screenshots of tactics on here. Are they not allowed? Just after an idea of what tactics have been working in arsenal saves.

lomekian · May 31, 2023

On 29/05/2023 at 20:55, yorkie87 said:

I’ve noticed not a lot of screenshots of tactics on here. Are they not allowed? Just after an idea of what tactics have been working in arsenal saves.

Here's my main one - (I also use Zinchenko as a more traditional IFB (A) as well) - I'm struggling with screenshots!

Lomekian meets Arteta3.fmf

lomekian · June 1, 2023

Not sure why but my tactic seems to nuke Brighton, even though they've been boosted in the update. Played them 3 times: 7-0, 9-0, 12-1 all with their first team and with my season 1 starting 11 with only a couple of new subs.

Edited June 1, 2023 by lomekian

ThanatosAFC · June 3, 2023

@lomekian You've got a gem of a destroyer there, perfect BWM or DM with those mentals.

@hasdgfas Wow that Nigerian lad already looks good while he is only two stars right now, he will be dangerous.

yorkie87 · June 6, 2023

Is there anyone out there who’s enjoying this game? Please share your role and tactics. I’ve recently upgraded from FM21 and I can’t get a handle on this game whatsoever. Even when I win games I haven’t enjoyed how we played. If my mentality is too low I have lots of possession but don’t get goals. If my mentality is too high my players shoot from every angle and I have 35 shots with only 10 on target. I don’t get this new double dm pivot thing in a 4231 at all. It’s very frustrating.

Aizo4576 · July 4, 2023

I've started a save as Arsenal, and it's going pretty well so far. Just started season 2. Last year I finished 3rd (tied on points with City) in the league, won the Carabao cup and was UCL runner up but we're struggling more this season. My tactic feels pretty inconsistent.

My transfers have been a mixture of typical FM & realistic Arsenal.

Season 1 In: Declan Rice, Alex Scott, Ivan Fresneda (Jan), Caicedo (Jan), Archie Grey (Jan), Pepe (Loan)

Season 1 Out: Nelson, Tavares, Cedric, Biereth, Trusty, Partey (Jan), Tomiyasu (Jan)

Season 2 In: Marc Guehi, Arsen Zakharyan, Ashley Phillips, Alban Lafont

Season 2 Out: Pepe, Holding, Elneny, Balogun (loan), Phillips (loan), Patino (loan)

This is my current tactic, as I said its been inconsistent this season. Any suggestions?

Mobius · July 7, 2023

It's a shame this place is so dead...

I'm a little bored of FM lately but recent IRL signings have me tempted to see if anyone has done a transfer update with Rice/Havertz/Timber, as those 3 would make an already good Arsenal squad absolutely ridiculous ingame.

ThanatosAFC · July 7, 2023

43 minutes ago, Mobius said:

It's a shame this place is so dead...

I'm a little bored of FM lately but recent IRL signings have me tempted to see if anyone has done a transfer update with Rice/Havertz/Timber, as those 3 would make an already good Arsenal squad absolutely ridiculous ingame.

I've started a new save and set those 3 as future transfers.

ajw10 · August 2, 2023

Just finished the first season with a new update (which had us in the CWC which I deliberately threw. I decided to play a 4-3-3 with two of Havertz/Odegaard/ESR in the midfield in front of Rice as the DM.

Successful first season, the tactic had us scoring for fun.

Spoiler

Corners are absolutely broken on this game, Gabriel and Saliba scored for fun. Trossard was a revelation as DLF, as was ESR as the left sided mezzala. Both deputised fantastically when Jesus and Havertz picked up injuries.

Nelson, Tierney, Nketiah and Turner are definitely leaving in this window and I'm fine with selling any of Jorginho, Vieira and Tomiyasu for the right price.

Need a winger, tempted to buy more of a project type like Neto than an expensive superstar. Gavi seems quite cheap too so I could get him, but I don't really have a spot for him.

KingLara · September 18, 2023

FM23 ARSENAL SEASON 2 REVIEW

I finally finished my Season 2 after having an over-extended break.

PREMIER LEAGUE

We won the Premier League at a canter. Retaining our title by 10 points after a stuttering end to the season having to juggle other competitions.

We were unbeaten for the first 33 games before losing 1-3 at Southampton before going on to also lose 2-3 at Leeds. Keeping tradition with winning the title at rival grounds we headed to anfield needing just a draw but managed a 4-3 win in a highly entertaining game. Pulisic and Odegaard with braces. We finished the season with 96 points seven better than the previous season.

Elsewhere, Liverpool, Wolves and Tottenham made up the top 4. Southampton finished fifth but will also be playing champions League football next season due to the new rules. The two Manchester Clubs finished 6^th and 7^th. United and City the right way around. Newcastle were 8^th and Chelsea 12^th. Watford, Burnley and QPR completed a three up-three down relegation. Leicester and Middlesborough won automatic promotion to the Premier League while Norwich beat Brighton in the Play off Final.

Table

1. ARSENAL P38 W30 D6 L2 GF99 GA33 P96

2. Liverpool P38 W27 D5 L6 GF 93 GA38 P86

3. Wolves P38 W25 D3 L10 GF66 GA42 P78

4. Tottenham P38 W23 D7 L8 GF64 GA38 P76

5. Southampton P38 W21 D4 L13 GF66 GA55 P67

Premier league stats

Goals – Isak, Nketiah 23 Saka 21 EL-Nesri (Man Utd) 20 Mitrovic 19

Assists – Salah 23 Saka 15 Kroos, Son 13 Rashford 12

AV Rating – Saka, Haaland 7.56 Odegaard 7.43 Salah 7.40 Rashford 7.34

MOM – Saka 10 Daamsgard, Son 7 lsak, Watkins 6

Clean Sheets – Ramsdale 17, Alisson 16 Domenech (Wolves), Leno 15 Lloris 13

Possession – Chelsea 60% Arsenal 58, Tottenham 57, Liverpool 56, Man City 55

X.G – Liverpool 1.97, Arsenal 1.88, Man City, Newcastle 1.65 Man United 1.64

Pass Accuracy – Chelsea 90% Tottenham 89% Arsenal 88%, Liverpool, Man City 87%

Season Awards

Footballer of the Year – Bukayo Saka

Players Player of the Year – Bukayo Saka

Young Player of the Year – Bukayo Saka

Golden Glove – Aaron Ramsdale (17)

Manager – Kinglara

Team of the Season – Ramsdale, Robertson, Gabriel, Saliba, Tomiyasu, Diaz, Milinkovic-Savic (man utd) Kroos, Saka, Nketiah, Isak

Arsenal in the Premier League

Home

P 19 W17 D2 L0 GF61 GA12

Away

P19 W13 D4 L2 GF38 GA21

Overall

P38 W30 D6 L2 GF99 GA33

Performance timeline

WDWWWWDWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWDWDWWWWDDWLWLW

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Having topped our Group with 14 points we faced Leipzig in the round of 16. I set up defensive in Germany for the first leg culminating in a drab goalless draw. It was a different story at Emirates and we raced into a 4-0 lead before half-time courtesy of a Pulisic hat-trick and Nketiah. Werner pulled one back on the hour but we eased through to a meeting with old foes Barcelona. Elsewhere Liverpool dumped out Bayern Atletico Madrid beat Man United. PSG beat Ajax 9-0 across the two games. Mbappe scoring a hat-trick in a 3-0 win in Amsterdam before netting another five ina 6-0 demolition in Paris. Messi with the other.

In the Quarters we faced Barcelona with the first leg at home. I wanted a win so it meant we could sit and counter in spain. Lewandowski scored first before Elneny preferred to partey alongside Kroos equalised. Martinelli got us the winner in the second half. In the second leg Lewandowski again opened the scoring but Jesus equalised and we seemed to be heading into the semis but Lewandowski scored form a corner in injury time to send the game into extra time. It meandered out into a penalty shootout and Lewandowski missed the opening penalty which turned out to be the only one missed sending into s semi final with PSG. Real Madrid would play Liverpool in the other semi.

The semis pitched my master tacticial tactical mind (if a say so myself) against the messi mbappe Neymar attack. We blew PSG away in the first half of the first leg at Emirates only to be caught twice by mbappe on the counter but still leaving us with a 4-2 cusion heading to Paris. The second leg saw us fail to have a single shot on target but we restricted them to just three as PSG’s front three were shunted and the game ended 0-0 to send us into the final. Real Madrid beat Liverpool 4-3 after extra time.

The final saw us produce one of our worst collective performances of the season. Having said that we were only two minutes asway from taking the game to penalties but Valverde grabbed Madrids winner in 118^th minute. Still an alround decent champions league run and a good springboard for the change of format next season.

Champions league stats

Goals – Mbappe 16, Laborde 12, Nketiah 10, Lewandowski, Benzema 9

Assists –Kroos, Neymar 8, Salah 6, Hakimi 5, Sarabia (Juventus) 4

AV Rating – Nketiah 7.98, Pulisic 7.93, Lewandowski 7.86 Laborde, Sarabia 7.82

MOM – Lewandowski, Mbappe 4, Pulisic 3, Nketiah, Laborde 2

Clean Sheets – Donnarumma 7 Alisson, Courtois 6, Ramsdale, Maignan 5

Possession – Sporting 60 Dinamo, Barcelona, At Madrid 59 Bayern 57 – (12^th - Arsenal 54%)

X.G – Bayern 2.16, Barcelona 2.06, Real Madrid 2.00, Liverpool 1.87, Arsenal 1.83

Pass Accuracy – Sporting 91% At Madrid 89 Gladbach, Barcelona, Bayern 89 - (14^th - Arsenal 87%)

FA Cup

Our Fa Cup journey began at home to Fulham. A decent side needed a second half brace from Smith Rowe to advance. Gabriel Jesus went one better in the next tie hitting a hat-trick as we eased past Forrest. Next up was Man City. Both sides went strong but city were certainly more physical with 27 fouls. Ben White struck the only goal in extra time. CItys best player on the day a certain Declan Rice. We strolled into a north London derby semi final with a first half onslaught in the quarters. Spurs were comfortably put to the sword in the semis offering little in attack. The final saw another London derby as we faced Crystal Palace who knocked us out in the 3^rd round at the Emirates last season. . We dominated the game but found Sam Johnstone in inspired form unable to get past him. We missed the first penalty in the shootout but Ramsdale made a good save from Jesse Lingard before Kelvin Amian missed to win us the cup. A good journey if a little fortunate to have every game drawn at home.

3^rd Round – Fulham (H) 2-1 – Smith Rowe 55, 82

4^th Round - Nottingham Forest (H) – 3-1 – Jesus 9, 30, 75

5^th Round - Man City (H) – 1-0AET - White 108

QF – QPR (H) 3-0 – Kroos 10 Isco 18 Vieira 39

SF – Tottenham (Wembley) – 2-0 – Pulisic 19 Jesus 38(pen)

Final - Crystal Palace (Wembley) 0-0AET (Arsenal win 7-6 on penalties)

Carabao Cup

Our carabao cup campaign started away at now championship side Brighton. We needed penalties to win after a goalless draw. Back to back comfortable home wins over Everton and Blackburn saw us into a semi final with Newcastle. We comfortably won the first leg before falling to a 1-0 at St James Park but it still meant we were in the final against Aston Villa. Tierney gave us the lead inside 2 minutes. We had an x.g of 4.32 with 29 shots on goal and 14 on target but old gunner Martinez produced an inspired display with an 8.4. However, Martinelli grabbed the winner in the 111^th minute and another trophy was secured.

3^rd round – Brighton (A) – 0-0 (Arsenal win 3-0 on pens)

4th round – Everton (H) – 4-3 – S-Rowe 3, 68 Vieira 31 Lokonga 41

QF – Blackburn (H) – 4-1 – Vieria 1, 31 Jesus 21 78

SF 1^st Leg – Newcastle (H) – Pulisic 56 Nketiah 60 66

SF 2^nd Leg – Newcastle (A) – 0-1

FINAL – Aston Villa (Wembley) – 2-1AET – Tierney 2 Martinelli 111

OVERALL SEASON STATS

	Played	Goals / CS	Assists	MoM	Av rating
Ramsdale	55	26	0	3	7.19
Tomiyasu	54(+5)	1	7	2	7.12
Kroos	54(+4)	7	23	3	7.36
Saka	51(+4)	23	19	10	7.38
Saliba	49(+3)	7	2	3	7.25
Odegaard	46(+5)	14	13	5	7.31
Gabriel	46(+1)	1	1	0	7.18
Partey	39(+5)	0	4	0	6.99
Tierney	35(+17)	3	4	2	7.16
Nketiah	33(+17)	35	5	7	7.22
Jesus	32(+15)	19	5	3	6.94
Zinchenko	29(+20)	0	1	0	6.94
White	27(+11)	1	1	1	6.94
Martinelli	26(+16)	7	6	3	7.10
Vieria	24(+24)	10	16	3	7.27
Elneny	22(+29)	2	3	1	7.03
Smith-Rowe	21(+20)	6	8	2	7.09
Umtiti	10(+2)	0	1	0	6.77
Turner	9	1	0	1	6.93
Isco (Loan Jan)	6(+14)	1	2	1	6.95
Kirk	1(+1)	0	0	0	7.20
Ndour	0(+8)	0	0	0	6.73
Diamond (regen)	0(+1)	0	0	0	Unrated
Lokonga (Sold Nov)	4(+1)	1	1	0	7.40
Marquinhos (Sold Jan)	0(+4)	2	0	0	7.07
Rosier (Sold Jan)	5(+8)	0	2	0	6.88

Final Bits

Bayern and PSG won their leagues easily. A different story in Italy where the top five were separated by just seven points. AC Milan finishing 1^st. Real Madrid won the league losing just one game amassing 105 points. They were denied a treble by losing the Spanish cup final to Valladolid.

Napoli won the Europa League beating Inter in the final having knocked out Man City along the way. An own goal in the final was enough for West Ham to beat Lyon to win the Conference League.

Looking towards next season my main transfer target is Jude Bellingham. 105Million release clause will get him but he isn't too keen and will only discuss offers after the Euros. I don't expect many outgoings but Odegaard currently isn't happy so I have allowed to let him go if a 100 million pound bid is made. I also plan to use more of the youngsters, especially the regens.

Edited September 24, 2023 by KingLara

oze07 · September 23, 2023

Im just starting a save with arsenal, using the update (giving fm24 a miss, untill 25 is out). Im using rice as a BBM, just wondered how others are using him, and also prob would need an understudy for him aswell?

ArsenalFC · October 30, 2023

Playing with Lyon on the beta, but just noticed this transfer fee, holly molly

Aizo4576 · November 2, 2023

Has anyone worked out how they’re going to use Timber in FM24? He’s finally coming back from injury for me but he’s a bit of an odd one.

not good enough in the air for CB, not good enough going forward for FB, not good enough passing for DM…

Tullekunstner · November 2, 2023

Timber looks like a useful squad option for me, but not good enough for me to give him a set position. He can rotate in at CB, DM, or RB whenever you have injuries or need to rotate.

I realize most people in this thread is probably Arsenal fans, so maybe not the right place to ask, but am I the only one who feels like Arsenal's player is a bit overpowered this year? Like the whole starting XI is amazing, even players like Havertz would walk into any midfield in the world in-game.

Mobius · November 6, 2023

Havertz has always been overrated in FM

Arsenal players got a boost in the FM23 January update because they were doing so well. I agree they are very good in FM24, and I don't mind at all

Edited November 6, 2023 by Mobius

hasdgfas · November 6, 2023

On 02/11/2023 at 09:00, Tullekunstner said:

but am I the only one who feels like Arsenal's player is a bit overpowered this year? Like the whole starting XI is amazing, even players like Havertz would walk into any midfield in the world in-game.

Havertz was rated by the Chelsea researcher, so anything there is different from the overall Arsenal ratings, which are strongly affected by their results last season. They'll have been given "Champions League level ratings", which is a decent bump up

hasdgfas · November 6, 2023

Also, for those who have upgraded to FM24 and want to discuss Arsenal, here you go!

Ventricity · November 6, 2023

Havertz isn´t that good in fm24, considering his huge wages. Timber has developed well for me and is very useful as a squad player.

Ødegaard is insane, a bit too good. Together with Rice and Saka who are absolute world class in game. Saliba is also good, but I would rather boost him at the expense of said three players in terms of reality. Jesus stats I disagree with a bit, as he is one of the best driblers in the club in real life and the game don´t reflect that.

Too good: Ødegaard, Rice, Saka, Vieira, Jorginho

Underrated: Saliba (even if his potential is high, his stats make him a bit too rounded), Jesus, Smith-Rowe.

The rest is pretty spot on. Overall i´m very happy with the Arsenal squad.

KingLara · January 4

FM23 Arsenal Season 3 Review

One last dance before FM24

PRE-SEASON

TRANSFERS

IN

Jude Bellingham 105m

Out

Granit Xhaka (Fiorentina) 17m

Cerdric (Montpellier) 5.5m

Trusty (Troyes) 1.5m

Pepe (Crystal Palace) 12.5m

Flores (Barcelona) 22m

Balogun (Nottingham Forrest) 2.2m

A slew of loans and small transfers

There was only one man I wanted for my team and that was Jude Bellingham. I matched the release clause and he joined us after the Euros. Departures were quite simple.

Elsewhere, Havertz went to PSG for a whopping 182m. Dembele joined Man City. Brandon Soppy and Renato Sanches also made the move. Citys neighbours United spent 44m to sign Watkins from Villa as well as Kumbulla. Chelsea signed Guedes and a still at Benfica Enzo Fernandes. Chelsea brought in Tapsoba and an Out of contract Kyle Walker. Spurs and Newcastle were busy but unproductive. Finally Real Madrid raided Bayern for three players as Gravenberch, Goretska and Coman made the switch for a combined fee of 176m.

Matches

After a strong side beat our affiliate club Milwall in the pre-season opener we travelled to the USA to play three more games. We won all of them but only scored four goals. We returned for an Emirates Cup semi-final against Real Madrid but lost 2-0 to two late goals. We easily won the 3^rd play off though thumping Ac Milan 4-0. We rounded off Pre-season with another 4-0 win at AZ. Mika Biereth doing his first team hopes no harm by scoring a hat-trick.

Milwall 3-1 (Saka, Kroos Nketiah) . Colorado 2-1 (Ideho, Pulisic), San Antonio 1-0 (Biereth), LAFC 2-1 (Smith-Rowe Pulisic) Real Madrid 0-2, AC Milan 4-0 (Saka Odegaard, Martinelli, Nketiah, AZ 4-0 (Green Biereth 3)

Squad

GK – Ramsdale / Turner

DL – Zinchenko / Tierney

DR – Tomiyasu / Norton-Cuffy

DC – Gabriel / Umtiti

DC – Saliba / White

DM/CM – Kroos / Patino

DM/CM - Bellingham / Partey / Danilo

CAM – Odegaard / Vieira / Ndour

LW – Martinelli / Pulisic

RW – Saka / Smith-Rowe

ST – Jesus / Nketiah

Community Shield

Our Competitive Season got underway with the Community Shield against Liverpool. Neither side were at their best but an early naby keita goal condemned us to defeat at Wembley. We would get a quick chance for revenge when we travelled to Anfield on the third week of the Season.

Arsenal 0-1 Liverpool

PREMIER LEAGUE

Attempting to win three titles in a row we hosted West Ham on the opening weekend of the season. Jesus opened the scoring after ten minutes but just two minutes later Gabriel got himself sent off and two second half goals saw us lose at home. We got back to winning ways at Leicester before Saliba this time got himself sent off in a 5-2 drubbing at Anfield. After a win against Crystal Palace we travelled to Man City and this time I shut up shop in a goalless draw. Jesus missing a late penalty for us to nick it. However Ederson getting man of the match shows that we gave a good account. But just seven points from the first five matches saw us lying in 10^th at the end of August.

However we would go on to win our next ten games including victories at Chelsea and Spurs (a last minute winner from Saka) and a martinelli inspired 3-0 win over Man United at The Emirates. We would go on to score 32 goals conceding just 5 with Pulisic hitting a hat-trick in a 7-0 win over Middlesbrough.

December started with our run ending in poor style losing 4-0 at Aston Villa. The rest of December was positive though winning five of our six games with the only blemish a goalless draw at Everton. Liverpool were also going well and although we led the table by three points they weren’t out of it.

The new year started with a comfortable win over Norwich before we suffered another defeat this time conceding an injury time winner at old Trafford to lose 3-2. We drew the next game at West Ham before going on to win the following four including a 6-0 thrashing of Everton at the Emirates and an excellent 2-1 win at Newcastle.

Aston Villa followed up their 4-0 win over us at villa park by holding us to a 1-1 draw at the Emirates. We dispatched Spurs 2-0 in the North London derby and a 5-1 win at Fulham saw us end March 7 points clear with a game in hand over Man united and Liverpool. A favourable fixture list in April saw us win all four games by a two goal margin with the premier league title wrapped up with a 4-2 win at crystal palace.

The potential crunch Liverpool clash ended up as a dead rubber and a 2-2 draw. We also drew at Wolves in the next game by the same scoreline before rounding off the season with a 5-1 over a ninth place Man City at the Emirates.

Table

1. ARSENAL P38 W28 D6 L4 GF105 GA43 P90

2. Man United P38 W25 D4 L9 GF79 GA42 P79

3. Liverpool P38 W22 D11 L5 GF88 GA39 P77

4. Fulham P38 W21 D4 L13 GF69 GA57 P67

5. Brentford P38 W19 D9 L10 GF51 GA38 P66

Premier league stats

Goals – Haaland 28, Mitrovic 27 F. Torres (Chelsea) 23 Scamacca 21 Calvert Lewin 20 – =6^th Odegaard 18

Assists – Saka 13 Perreira, R. James, Odegaard, Salah 11

AV Rating – Odegaard 7.42 Mitrovic 7.39 Saka 7.38 Haaland 7.36 F. Torres 7.35

MOM – Mitrovic 11 F. Torres Calvert-Lewin 9 Haaland 7 Saka 6

Clean Sheets – Pickford Alisson Raya Areola 15 Ramsdale 13

Possession – Tottenham 58%, Arsenal 57%, Liverpool, Chelsea 56% West Ham 55%

X.G – Arsenal 2.08, Liverpool 1.80, Man United 1.79, Newcastle 1.50, Chelsea 1.46

Pass Accuracy – Tottenham 89% West Ham 88% Arsenal, Chelsea, Southampton 87%

Season Awards

Footballer of the Year – Martin Odegaard

Players Player of the Year – Martin Odegaard

Young Player of the Year – Jude Bellingham

Golden Glove – Jordan Pickford (15)

Manager – Kinglara

Team of the Season – Pickford Dalot, Van Dijk, Saliba, Tomiyasu, Martinelli Kroos, Bellingham, Saka, Haaland Mitrovic

Arsenal in the Premier League

Home

P 19 W16 D2 L1 GF63 GA15

Away

P19 W12 D4 L3 GF42 GA28

Overall

P38 W28 D6 L4 GF105 GA43

Performance timeline

LWLWDWWWWWWWWWWLWWDWWWLDWWWWDWWWWWWDDW

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Our Champions League campaign started with a home game with Marseille. The new format proved testing to some teams but not us as a relatively kind draw saw us win all eight group games scoring at least three each time.

The new format meant no major casualties exited although Bayern only scraped through in 20^th.

Marseille – (H) – 4-0 – Odegaard 13 Saka 65 Nketiah 79 Balogun 90

Villereal – (A) – 2-3 – Martinelli 4 Saka 22 Odegaard 41

Benfica – (H) – 3-1 – Odegaard 9 Pulisic 49 Saka 84

Legia – (H) 6-1 – Martinelli 5 49 71(pen) Vieria 35(pen) 43 Bellingham 56

Napoli - (A) – 0-3 – Bellingham 9 Saka 27 Jesus 90

Bayerrn - (H) – 3-2 – Odegaard 1 Martinelli 70 Pulisic 81

Young Boys – (A) – 4-6 – Pulisic 3 Martinelli 21 64 Nketiah 30 Zinchenko 81 Dymond 90

Apol Limassol – (A) – 1-5 – Smith Rowe 10 Nketiah 18 34 39 Vieria 29

Table

1. ARSENAL P8 W8 D0 L0 GF33 GA11 P27

2. Liverpool P8 W7 D0 L1 GF19 GA5 P21

3. Real Madrid P8 W6 D2 L0 GF24 GA6 P20

4. PSG P8 W6 D2 L0 GF16 GA5 P20

5. AC Milan P8 W6 D1 L1 GF16 GA6 P19

6. Inter P8 W5 D2 L1 GF19 GA6 P17

7. Gladbach P8 W5 D1 L2 GF13 GA8 P16

8. Barcelona P8 W4 D3 L1 GF16 GA4 P15

9-16 – Ajax, Hertha Berlin Dortmund Benfica Roma Porto Napoli Juventus

17-24 – Real Sociadad Rangers Tottenham Bayern PSV Marseille Wolves Villereal

25-36 – Southampton Celtic Nice Copenhagen Jablonec Salzburg Young Boys Qarabag Legia Partizan Antwerp Apol Limassol

Wolves and Spurs were both knocked out in the play off round to Italian opposition. Spurs beat Napoli 2-1 at home before losing 5-0 in Naples. Wolves also won the first leg at home 1-0 before losing 4-0 in Turin. Meanwhile Bayern beat Dortmund 2-0 both home and away to progress

The second round saw us face Herta Berlin. We drew a nervy first leg in Germany before a Jesus Brace overcame them at The Emirates. Liverpool almost pulled off another of their great European comebacks. Having lost 3-0 to bayern in Germany they managed to win 4-1 at anfield to take it to extra time before running out of steam and losing 7-4 on aggregate.

Hertha Berlin 1-1 Arsenal – Odegaard 14

Arsenal 2-0 Hertha Berlin – Jesus 6. 24

2^nd Round

Roma 4-3 Gladbach – Gladbach 0-1 Roma – Roma through 5-3 on aggregate

Bayern 3-0 Liverpool – Liverpool 4-4 Bayern(aet) – Bayern through 7-4 on aggregate

Porto 0-0 AC Milan – AC Milan 3-0 Porto – AC Milan through 3-0 on Aggregate

Juventus 1-0 Barcelona – Barcelona 0-2 Juventus – Juventus through 3-0 on Aggregate

Benfica 2-2 Real Madrid – Real Madrid 3-0 Benfica – Real Madrid through 5-2 on Aggregate

Napoli 3-0 Inter – Inter 2-0 Napoli – Napoli through 3-2 on Aggregate

Real Sociedad 0-1 PSG – PSG 2-1 Real Sociedad – PSG through 3-1 on Aggregate

Quarter Final

The Quarters saw us face PSG. I went slightly damage limitation for the first leg in paris but two assists from 182million man Kai Havertz saw us lose 2-0 despite dominating possession and having a decent 1.55xg. Neymar and Raphina with a goal in each half. Having rested nine of the eleven for the league fixture I expected us to come out and and blow them away at the Emirates, which we did but a combination of wastefulness and bad luck saw us squander a 3.87XG to only score once. Soler pulled one back at the end to get a draw as we pushed for the second. A disappointing end.

PSG 2-0 Arsenal

Arsenal 1-1 PSG – Jesus 65 – (Jesus miss/pen 10)

Napoli 0-2 Real Madrid – Real Madrid 2-0 Napoli – Real Madrid through 4-0 on Aggregate

Roma 3-0 Bayern – Bayern 3-2 Roma – Roma through 5-3 on Aggregate

Juventus 1-3 AC Milan – AC Milan 3-0 Juventus – AC Milan through 6-1 on Aggreagte

Semi Finals

Real Madrid 3-0 PSG – PSG 3-3 Real Madrid – PSG win 6-3 on Aggregate

Roma 1-0 AC Milan – AC Milan 1-2 Roma – Roma through 3-1 on Aggregate

FINAL

Roma 0-2 Real Madrid

FA Cup

Our defence of the FA Cup began at Hull a comfortable 5-1 win saw us ease into a fourth round date away again at Huddersfield. Circumstance meant we played a stronger side than I usually would have. Braces from Nketiah and Ndour saw us comfortably through 4-0. Our third straight away game saw us travel to Middlesbrough. I again played a strong side and we eased through Gabriel opening the scoring before setting up a nervy last 20 minutes by getting himself needlessly sent off. The Quarter finals saw us finally drawn at home this time to Man City. Both sides played near full strength teams. We raced into a 5-0 lead at half-time before taking our foot off the gas in the second half to finish 5-2. We got the toughest of the semi-finals playing Liverpool whilst Chelsea met West Ham. Our defence stood firm as Liverpool had over double our xg but a lovely Jesus dink sent us into the final against Chelsea who beat West Ham 4-3. Feran Torres hitting a first half hat-trick. The final was a tight game unfortunately settled by a 93^rd Rahim Sterling winner. Chelsea committing 26 fouls with only 1 yellow card but overall played better than us.

3^rd Round – Hull (A) – 1-5 – Biereth 2, 78 Pulisic 9 Patino 25 Jesus 55(pen)

4^th Round – Huddersfield (A) – 0-4 – Nketiah 19, 59 Ndour 55, 89

5^th Round – Middlesbrough (A) – 1-3 - Gabriel 15 Partey 40 Jesus 65 – Gabriel s/o 74

QF - Man City – (H) – 5-2 – Pulisic 2 Odegaard 9, 44 Jesus 18 Bellingham 35

SF – Liverpool – (N, Wembley) – 1-0 – Jesus 57

FINAL - Chelsea – N, Wembley) – 0-1

CARABAO CUP

Our Carabao cup campaign began and ended in the 3^rd Round. I played a decent fringe side but we were comprehensively beaten.

3^rd Round – (A) West Ham 4-1 – Nketiah 79

SEASON STATS

GK

Ramsdale had a solid season but dipped from the previous campaign with a -17 average rating and conceding 10 more goals with a whopping 9 less clean sheets. Neither Turner nor Hein were given much of a chance to stake a claim.

	Played	Conceded	Clean sheets	Assists	MoM	Av rating
Ramsdale	52	57	17	0	1	7.02
Turner	3	6	0	0	0	6.60
Hein	3	5	1	0	0	6.97

Defence

Overall the defence was also solid. Tomiyasu with a decent return as well as Saliba but I would expect better from the others. Not enough goals. I was happy with Cuffy though with it being his first season with the first team.

	Played	Goals	Assists	MoM	Av Rating
Tomiyasu	49 (+5)	2	8	1	7.12
Saliba	44 (+1)	2	1	2	7.15
Zinchenko	38 (+8)	1	4	1	6.88
Gabriel	35(+6)	1	1	0	7.05
White	35 (+5)	0	1	0	7.05
Tierney	15 (+12)	0	3	1	6.93
Norton-Cuffy	9 (+7)	0	0	0	6.90
Umtiti	4 (+5)	0	0	0	6.76
Foran	2	0	0	0	7.10
James (regen, loan Jan)	1	0	0	0	6.6

Midfield

Good numbers for the midfielders with Odegaard clearly the standout. Bellingham with at least a 7 in every competition he played. Surprised by Partey making 23 appearances off the bench.

	Played	Goals	Assists	MoM	Av Rating
Kroos	46(+3)	4	13	1	7.20
Odegaard	45(+2)	25	15	6	7.43
Bellingham	44(+2)	6	13	2	7.20
Vieria	11(+23)	9	5	1	7.22
Danilo	9(+7)	0	5	0	7.12
Patino	9(+6)	1	8	1	7.53
Ndour	6(+7)	2	0	0	6.91
Partey	5(+23)	1	0	0	6.88

Forwards

Martinelli was a bit below par but happy with the rest of the players. Smith-Rowe suffering the same problem as Partey and not starting enough. Conway making it onto the season stats after coming on for the last 11 minutes in the final game of the season. Great prospect though.

	Played	Goals	Assists	MoM	Av Rating
Saka	45(+1)	20	18	9	7.36
Martinelli	32(+18)	14	8	4	7.22
Pulisic	30(+17)	19	7	4	7.22
Jesus	30(+11)	23	6	3	7.24
Nketiah	27(+16)	21	8	4	7.15
Smith-Rowe	5(+24)	2	5	0	6.95
Dymond (regen)	1(+5)	4	0	1	7.20
Conway (regen)	0(+1)	0	0	0	N/A
Biereth (loan Jan)	2(+2)	2	0	0	6.97
Balogun (left Jan)	1(+4)	1	0	0	6.65

Final Bits

Middlesbrough Norwich and Leicester were relegated. Man City finished 9^th and Spurs 11^th. Watford won the Championship finishing on the same points as fellow promoted side Brighton while Sheffield United beat Stoke 1-0 in the play off final. Samuel Bamba on loan from Dortmund II with the goal.

An early Rodrygo brace saw Real Madrid beat Roma in the Champions League final in Munich. Roma with an X.G of 0.09.

Man United made it all the way to the Europa League final only to lose to Atalanta. Midfielder Ederson with the goal. Man City and West Ham both made the semis but lost. West Ham won the first leg 2-1 in Italy but lost 2-0 at home to a Leandro trossard brace. United won 2-0 in the first leg at Old Trafford before losing 3-2 at the Etihad. A haaland Hat-trick not enough on this occasion.

Newcastle suffered more trophy heartache as they made it to the conference final only to lose 12-11 on penalties to Lazio after a 1-1 draw. No other English representation.

PSG, Bayern Napoli and Real Madrid won their respective leagues. Madrid were run the closest winning by just 3 points from Barcelona. A 1-0 victory at Barcelona in May the crucial clincher. They also won the Spanish Cup beating Villareal 1-0 in the final to complete a treble.

The under 21s won their league by 11 points and reached the quarter finals of the papa johns trophy but failed in the other three competitions. The under 18s romped to the north division league by 18 points. 22 goals fore Pearce Dymond before beating Norwich 3-0 in the final. They reached the second round in the uefa youth league but lost on penalties to Marseille. Birmingham knocked them out of the cup in the quarters of the north division cup but round things off nicely by being victorious in the fa youth cup beating Norwich 5-3 after extra time. Lots of talent in the squad. At one point winning 21 consecutive games.

Summary

Happy with the three league titles but no European trophy and just one fa cup and one league cup are disappointing returns. Maybe I will return for one more season if I get bored of FM24.

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