Arsenal - A home grown legacy

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waynethickett

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I enjoy doing saves with my own team Arsenal but people often comment how easy saves are with such teams. So I am going to start a new save but set myself some new rules.

Rule 1: I am not allowed to buy anyone without first offloading someone from my squad.
Rule 2: Any incoming transfers have to be for the same value or less than the outgoings players - meaning I shouldn't dip into transfer budgets.
Rule 3: Aim to gradually increase the percentage of homegrown players every season.
Rule 4: I cannot get a player to sign a pre-contract deal for free unless I have announced a departure or successfully offloaded a player first.

I may add to these rules as the seasons go on but for now these will do.

I think it may prove to be rather difficult a few seasons in, also in order to get the younger players first team ready a great deal of rotation may be required so may result in unhappy players.
 
View attachment 290381
So the pre-season is about the worst I have ever had, I don't mind losing to Arsenal Under 21s it at least looks good for the future, but losing to a team called Latina is pretty poor.

We sign Jim Cassell as a coach and are drawn against Dnipro in the Champions League playoffs.

The first team squad for the season looks like this:

Goalkeepers: Szczesny, Ospina and Martinez

Defenders: Debuchy, Bellerin, Chambers, Monreal, Gibbs, Koscielny, Mertesacker and Gabriel Paulista

Midfielders: Coquelin, Bielik, Arteta, Oxlade Chamberlain, Rosicky, Diaby, Flamini, Maitland-Niles, Ramsey, Wilshere, Cazorla, Gnabry, Ozil and Zelalem

Attackers: Walcott, Sanchez, Welbeck, Akpom and Giroud
 
Community Shield

View attachment 290376The first half was a back to the walls job, but the second half was a lot more balanced. Played a mixture of youth and seniority and it was nice, despite the defeat, to see Akpom get on the scoresheet.

Akpom was injured for 7 weeks to 2 months with a broken toe.

Premier League

View attachment 290374It seems to be a regular occurrence facing City early on in the season, the result was far more enjoyable than the Community Shield a week earlier. Sanchez and Welbeck scoring their first goals in an Arsenal shirt, with Arteta and Cazorla adding the others.

Champions League

View attachment 290371A busy 22 minutes in the second half saw us win 3-2 away to Dnipro. Monreal and Sanchez getting on the scoresheet as well as Gabriel Paulista opening his Arsenal account. The away goals put us in good stead for the home tie against the far weaker team.

Premier League

View attachment 290370Danny Welbeck with the hat trick away from home makes us 3-1 winners against the solid looking West Ham. After the shocking pre season and Community Shield tie we have hit a vein of form.

Monreal injured for 5-7 days.

Champions League

View attachment 2903686-3 aggregate scoreline sees us through to the group stage of the Champions League. Alexis and Mesut showing the class to come from behind.

Capital One Cup third round draw, and unfortunately we are drawn away to the might of Man United, talk about unlucky.

The Champions League group stage draw pits us against Leverkusen, Sporting and Besiktas, slightly kinder than the Capital One Cup draw.

The bad luck continues as Oxlade-Chamberlain tears his hamstring in training and will be missing for 2-3 months, whilst Jack Wilshere is out for the next 9-11 days.

Premier League

View attachment 290362Charlie Austin played a blinder but his efforts were for nothing as Giroud scored our fourth to seal another away victory. Coquelin, Gabriel Paulista and Sanchez adding their names to the scoresheet.

August Awards

Player of the month: Danny Welbeck with Aguero in second and Alexis Sanchez in 3rd
Young Player of the Month: 1st Kane, 2nd Sterling and 3rd Besic
Manager of the Month: 1st Me, 2nd Van Gaal and 3rd Mourinho
 
I have decided on a new rule;

Rule 5: All first team squad must play 10 or more matches for Arsenal in a season, if they do not they are to be transfer listed.
 
Rosicky pulls his hamstring on international duty and will be missing for 2-3 weeks.

Wilshere suffers a gashed leg playing for the under 21s and will be out for 7-10 days.

Ramsey injured on international duty, fortunately it is only a bruised thigh but it means he will miss the Liverpool league match.

Premier League

View attachment 289902A good result against struggling Liverpool, Welbeck with two goals in the space of nine minutes.

Champions League

View attachment 289900Oh dear oh dear! A well balanced match but we run out losers after we concede a second whilst chasing the equaliser. Gabriel Paulista also picks up a stupid red card.

Zelalem tears his hamstring playing for the under 18s and will be absent for 2-3 months.

Premier League

View attachment 289899We have dropped points in the league, but it is still an away point.

Sunderland part company with Gus Poyet.

John Carver steps down as the Caretaker Manager of Newcastle.

Capital One Cup Third Round

View attachment 289898A late first half penalty converted by Rooney saw us losing at half time, and in all fairness it should have been five or six to united by that point. A change in formation saw us winning two - one with only a few minutes left on the clock. After Fellaini's late equaliser we had nothing left and ended up losing 4-2 to United. Disappointing but not completely disheartening.

Gabriel Paulista injured for 2-3 days.

Calum Chambers and Mathieu Debuchy have had a falling out which means the tutoring has had to be stopped and we will have to monitor this to ensure there is no knock on effect on squad morale. If there are further issues I'm afraid the former Newcastle right back may be the first player to be shown the door.

Danny Welbeck and Hector Bellerin are somewhat surprisingly the first players to reach the 10 match safety barrier.

Premier League

View attachment 289897
This was one of those matches where you assume you are going to get done by a late equaliser but it never came,we scraped to a deserved win.

Rosicky fractured his cheekbone in an under 21s match and will be out for 3-4 weeks.

Champions League

View attachment 289896An early penalty dictated the result of this match. We threw everything, for the best part of 80 minutes, at the Sporting defence and they coped pretty well. We may be undefeated in the league so far but we have lost every cup tie so far. Not good enough.

Ozil suffered a torn hamstring and will now be missing for 2-3 months.

September awards

Player of the Month:1st Aguero, 2nd Dzeko, 3rd Sturridge
Young Player of the Month: 1st Lukaku, 2nd Robertson, 3rd Sterling
Manager of the Month: 1st Pellegrini, 2nd Monk, 3rd Mourinho
 
The board agree my request for improving youth recruitment.

Martin Jol takes over as Newcastle manager.

Premier League

View attachment 289547Another away match and two more points dropped, it isn't a defeat but we twice threw the lead away.

Kenny Jackett takes over as Sunderland's new manager.

Diaby injures his ankle playing for the under 21s, out for 3 weeks.

International duty claims yet another victim as Danny Welbeck sprains his ankle and will miss 4-5 weeks.

Coquelin sustains a chest injury in training and will miss 9-11 days.

Premier League

View attachment 289546Had to rely on Palace scoring our only goal, despite our dominance, in order to get three points today.

Koscielny tired but not wanting a rest.

we are now 8 league matches unbeaten, not a bad start, the same cannot be said about our cup performances so far.

Champions League

View attachment 289545A win in the Champions league is always nice, worried it may not be enough at the end of the group stage though, with the head to head beating goal difference in Europe.

Premier League

View attachment 289544We start this away match quickly and killed the game inside 32 minutes. The attacking players sharing the spoils between them.

October awards

Player of the Month 1st Sneijder (Man United), 2nd Azpilicueta, 3rd Noble
Young Player of the Month 1st Sterling, 2nd Lukaku, 3rd Can
Manager of the Month 1st Mourinho, 2nd Rodgers, 3rd Pochettino
 
Rule 1: I am not allowed to buy anyone without first offloading someone from my squad.
Rule 2: Any incoming transfers have to be for the same value or less than the outgoings players - meaning I shouldn't dip into transfer budgets.
Rule 3: Aim to gradually increase the percentage of homegrown players every season.
Rule 4: I cannot get a player to sign a pre-contract deal for free unless I have announced a departure or successfully offloaded a player first.
Click to expand...

Think I will try something like that with arsenal...
 
I'm surprised how well it seems to be going considering I have made no purchases and some of the younger players (hector bellerin especially) are performing consistently well. I will post another month or two this morning.
 
Premier League

View attachment 288954A good solid win with a hat trick for Olivier Giroud.

Champions League

View attachment 288953More dropped Champions League points, two games to spare and I am in third in the table.

Theo Walcott damaged his achilles tendon and will be out for 2-3 months.

Premier League

View attachment 288952Our ten match unbeaten run in the league comes to an end. Stupidly set up defensively and somehow managed to go in at half time level. Unfortunately the first half improved united's confidence and ruined ours. A shambolic performance and worrying as our next two league matches are Tottenham and Chelsea.

Ospina injured on international duty out for 5-8 days.

Akpom has tore ligaments in his knee and will be absent for 2 months.

Premier League

View attachment 288951Wow, simply wow! Efficient striking at its best. Welbeck added the fifth goal on 85 minutes.

Champions League

View attachment 288950A good and much needed win, qualification from the group stage is now in our own hands.

View attachment 288949It has to be my worst Champions League campaign ever, looking at the other teams in the group.

Aaron Ramsey damaged his elbow out for 9-11 days.

Premier League

View attachment 288948This performance reminded me of the City away performance in real life. We defended solidly and Chelsea threw everything at us. Four goals in the first 32 minutes killed us off, we are starting to kill games early which is nice. Chelsea's first defeat of the season.

November Awards

Player of the Month: 1st Long, 2nd Giroud, 3rd Bellerin
Young Player of the Month: 1st Bellerin, 2nd Perez, 3rd Kane
Manager of the Month: 1st Van Gaal, 2nd Martinez, 3rd Jol
 
Zelalem injured playing for the under 21s, out for 4-5 weeks with a sprained ankle.

Premier League

View attachment 288759A solid victory against a good team. Welbeck continuing his high scoring form.

View attachment 288757An away victory always nice.

FA Cup third round draw sees us drawn at home to Premier League side Crystal Palace.

Champions League

View attachment 288756We qualify in second place following a convincing away win.

Coquelin has damaged his shoulder and will miss 10-12 days.

Premier League

View attachment 288755Aston Villa were poor but we were quality, how we only scored one goal ourselves I will never know.

Laurent Koscielny has torn his hamstring and will be missing for 2-3 months.

The draw for the Champions League sees us facing Bayern Munich. The first leg will see us play at home.

Premier League

View attachment 288750A late late late goal from Alexis sees us scrape another away win, the results are coming thick and fast now.

QPR part company with Chris Ramsey.

Premier League

View attachment 288749A very exciting first half was balanced out by a swift and dull second half, but we rack up another victory.

Zelalem injured once more in an under 18s match and will be missing for 4-5 days.

Premier League

View attachment 288748The 100% win record for the month is blown in the final fixture of the year, Leicester hold us to a draw.

Diaby becomes the first player transfer listed after he requests it in the hope for first team football. Unfortunately his contract expires at the end of the season so he will probably leave for nothing.

Arteta suffers a slipped disc in training and will miss 2-3 months.

Giroud comes third in the French player of the year behind Pogba and Ribery.

December awards

Player of the Month: 1st Welbeck, 2nd Balotelli, 3rd Aguero
Young Player of the Month: 1st Berahino, 2nd Kane, 3rd Sterling
Manager of the Month: 1st Mourinho, 2nd Me, 3rd Pellegrini
 
The rules make it rather interesting. The coming seasons will be a nice challenge.

Good luck with the champions league. :)
 
Not going too badly, considering the challenging rules.

Whatever tactic you're using, you're certainly getting the most out of the attackers. How many goals have Welbeck and Alexis registered now?
 
This looks interesting, will be following for sure.
 
View attachment 288546This is the formation I use. With a very fluid shape and attacking mentality. I do need a more defensive formation for away matches on occasion. Considering moving the ozil position in behind the striker and the sanchez position back to a third centre back, in order to create a more solid defensive tactic.
 
Premier League

View attachment 288544We didn't deserve to get anything out of this match but also didn't deserve to concede 4. Not good enough.

FA Cup

View attachment 288541A further three goals for Sanchez and a comfortable victory sees us through to the next round.

Roy Keane gets the QPR job.

FA Cup fourth round draw sees us face off away to Fulham.

Players who still have not passed the 10 match mark this season: Zelalem, Maitland-Niles, Ospina, Rosicky, Walcott, Gnabry, Akpom, Martinez, Bielik, Debuchy, Monreal and Diaby.

Premier League

View attachment 288539It was Welbeck's turn to get among the goals this match and West Ham were pitiful, not even registering one shot on target.
 
Very interesting. Is it a downloaded one from the workshop? I'm using the Almost Unbeatable tactic and it's working well - 3 DC, 2 WB, 2 MC, 1 AMC, 2 ST.

Keep it up, shall be following your progress being an Arsenal fan.
 
I saw it on a post somewhere, I use my own instructions but I liked the shape of it. When it works it is fantastic but it can lead to some big defeats when it goes wrong.
 
Premier League

View attachment 288483I don't often feel sorry for the AI but I did during this match, two own goals and two red cards from QPR give us a nice four goal victory.

Zelalem twisted his ankle in training and will be out for 12 days to 2 weeks.

Debuchy has requested a transfer after I fail to keep my promise to play him more often.

Martinez injured in training out for 2-3 weeks with groin strain.

Man United make a £4 million bid for Debuchy - rejected as far too low.
 
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