Well I'll just tell you what I did. Currently sat at the top of the league and still in all competitions come February with this team.
Sold:
- Mannone
- Almunia
- Rosicky
Got £6 mill in total from those sales
The budget was something like £40 mill so I had £46 mill to spend.
Bought:
- Afellay for £1.7 mill, transfer-listed by Barca. BRILLIANT buy
- Ansaldi £6.5mill, from Rubin. Versatile defender who can play anywhere across the back
- Borja Valero £13 mill, from Villareal. I needed another playmaker to fill in for Arteta because he gets injured/tired alot. This guy will sit back deep and get alot of assists
- Mandanda £11.25 mill, buy out clause from Marseilles. WORLD CLASS keeper
- Verratti, £1.5mill from Pescara. Just because he was amazing for me in FM10 so I thought I'd get him
Still have £9 mill left which I'm saving for youth signings/regens.
People always sell Chamakh or Park but they've been great for me. If you play Chamakh as a target man, he'll hold the ball up well and get a lot of assists and just generally make a nuisance of himself. He's FAR better on FM than he is in real life. Djourou is also far better, keep him because he develops nicely.
My advice for playing with Arsenal is to not rely on RVP and find a way to win without him because you'll probably be without him for 50% of your games. Playing Walcott as a poacher on his own has seen him score 12 goals in 15 games for me in the league, so maybe try that.