Hello, everyone. This is my first thread on these forums but certainly not the first FM game I've played (although my record goes back to FM 17 so you can say I'm not as experienced as some here may be).
So, for a bit of a backstory, this year's game frustrated me a lot ever since I bought it back in November/December, can't quite remember when exactly. I tried a multitude of different saves - various Journeyman challenges, one-team saves, Road to Glory's, you name it - but none seemed to work quite well, which I think is probably due to the fact that I'm simply **** at tactics. So after Attempt #100 at getting a save running, which was Derby County (and, as you can guess, it also didn't work), I decided to roll back a year and create a save similar to the one I had on FM 18, where I took control of my beloved Arsenal FC, with hopes to bring back their glory days. On my way I also took control of the Russian national football team, it being my homeland and all, and I had so much fun with it! Obviously it got stale after about 6-7 seasons in since I pretty much won everything at Arsenal, so when FM 19 came out I promptly deleted it (which I fully regret now).
This time around I'm taking the reins of both Arsenal FC and Russian national team from the start, with hopes to bring the big trophies back to both.
Before I begin, one disclaimer: I'm already a few games into the first season with both Arsenal and Russia so the first post is retrospective. The upcoming updates will be in "Live" format I guess.
Arsenal FC
One more disclaimer: I'll focus primarily on Arsenal in the first post because the team season starts before the international one. I'll post a separate update focusing on Russia right after this one.
The Club
As you may already know, Arsenal is in a bit of a turmoil after the last two seasons under Arsene Wenger. In real life Unai Emery took the job and finished the league in 5th, with the Europa League final place alongside Chelsea; so, already an improvement. I, however, aim to go straight back to the Top-4 in my first season because I think this squad is capable of doing so in-game. Speaking of...
The Squad
As I've already said, the Arsenal squad Emery inherited from Wenger isn't bad per se. It has a number of quality players in all positions, but also quite a lot of deadwood, high-earners and useless youth, so I plan to rebuild it next season.
This is (almost) how the squad looked like at the first glance, with the promoted youth. I crossed out my only two signings so as to not spoil them straight away. A few of these, most notably Ramsey (who picked up a knock after the first friendly I think), Maitland-Niles and Koscielny (whose injuries at the start are coded in), were injured during the pre-season and the start of the season so I had to manage, but even then the team looked solid for a CL spot contention so I only made one major signing. The other one is... well, I'll explain.
The Transfers
Out
I opted against selling half of my squad to raise money for better players, instead only getting rid of the Archbishop of Banterbury himself, Carl Jenkinson, with West Brom gladly taking him for 3 mil pounds, and also loaning out Elneny, who would be the worst pick in the centre-mid spot, with Roma agreeing to buy him for 17 mil pounds should he play 10 league games. The other selling was Dejan Iliev, a 23-year old Macedonian goalkeeper who would never step into the first team. Macedonian powerhouse Vardar Skopje took him for 125k, reuniting him with his motherland.
In
Aside from the pre-made signings, highlighted in red, I only added one first-team member to the squad.
Federico Chiesa - 20, ITA, LW/RW
Chiesa is a wonderkid on this game and I decided to bolster the depth of our attack for now since we only have the aging Mkhitaryan and Ozil, the injury-prone Welbeck and the loanee Suarez who can play on the wing. We had to pay a hefty amount for him but he's already proving to be a very good signing, with 4 assists in 10 games overall to his name, but it's his passing contribution to the game that really makes him stand out.
Just look at his match rating in the game against Tottenham. He didn't even directly contribute to the goals yet still got Man of the Match!
Now, you might be wondering why the **** did I sign Akinfenwa and who are the other two.
Adebayo Akinfenwa - 36, NGA, ST
The legendary Beast was signed from Wycombe Wanderers for 100k for one simple reason: in my FM 18 save I signed Akinfenwa for laughs and he turned out to be an absolute monster of a coach.
Now, my expectations for this mountain of a man aren't high in this game but I'll still gladly accept him in my coaching team should he go that path after retirement. If only the man had some pace...
Causso Darame - 19, POR, RW / Deon Moore - 19, ENG, ST
These two awful-looking youngsters were added for my Under-23 team. I've never signed players exclusively for my youth team, but decided to do so in this save because why not?
The Tactic
This is the tactic I decided to go with for at least this first season - a 4-2-4 formation with slightly customized instructions from the Vertical Tiki-Taka preset. Initially I had a Number 10 instead of a second striker but changed it to this for two reasons:
1. This is the golden tactic that helped me dominate everything in my FM 18 save;
2. This formation allows to use both Aubameyang and Lacazette, who I consider to be the two most important players in the current squad.
Pre-season, August and September
That's as far as I've already progressed in my save. I'm not gonna go into too much detail for every game in this update, only focusing on some highlights and issues.
Pre-season went smoothly, with just one blip being that first friendly against the Czech unit Pribram which ended in a 1-1 draw. They only have one actual player in their squad yet we still didn't look like unlocking their defense. Fair play to them. In the other games we managed to breeze through Albirex Niigata from Singapore and the domestic fallen 'giant' Leyton Orient, played a respectable 5-2 against the Croatian side HNK Rijeka and just barely won 1-0 against Lazio, with Eddie Nketiah scoring the only goal. With this positive atmosphere we stepped into the newly-opened 2018/19 Premier League season.
We won all three August games and also kept all three clean sheets! The obvious highlight here is the 3-0 dismantling of Manchester United at the Emirates which gave me hope for the season ahead. Other smaller highlights included Nketiah scoring 2 in 2, Monreal scoring in an extraordinary fashion against United and Torreira getting a straight red in the game against Burnley, which ruled him out for the next three league games.
We didn't start the month of September brightly, only managing two draws in two winnable games against Leicester and Crystal Palace. Thankfully, we didn't hit a wall and bounced straight back in the Europa League against Fenerbahce. What followed is the best game of the season so far, a 4-1 win in the North London derby.
Nobody looked like scoring in the first 60 minutes, however Dele Alli managed to open the scoreline in the 61st. But Tottenham's hopes for a NLD win at the Emirates didn't last long, and Sead Kolasinac levelled the score in the 71st minute. It should be noted that it was at this point that I employed a very attacking variation of my tactic, putting everyone forward in desperation, and boy did they go nuts. Lacazette pulled us ahead in the 82nd and Mkhitaryan all but confirmed our win in the 85th. Lacazette then decided to rub a bit more salt into the Spurs' wounds by bagging himself another goal outside of the added time.
We then easily beat Championship side Millwall in the Carabao Cup, with Aubameyang getting himself a hat-trick, before rounding the month of September off with a solid win against Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Lucas Torreira scoring a beautiful free-kick from the left side of their last third.
This great 9-game unbeaten run was also highlighted by the performances of two certain youngsters.
Eddie Nketiah - 19, ENG, ST
Nketiah had to step up after Aubameyang injured himself in the Burnley game, and with Lacazette also injured since pre-season, the young English striker didn't fail to deliver. Right now he's the second top-scorer in our team, only behind Aubameyang, with 3 goals in 3 league starts and a hat-trick against Fenerbahce in the Europa League. This guy is surely going places, I just hope he's going with us.
Joe Willock - 19, ENG, CM
Now this is a more surprising one. Willock was promoted along with Nketiah to the first team during pre-season, and with two lengthy injuries to both Ramsey and Xhaka he had to fill that AP spot. Willock has already bagged himself 2 assists in 8 league games and one against Fenerbahce, but I would've never thought he'd be one of the stars in the current squad.
Now, you might be wondering why is Kolasinac not in the first-team squad, despite playing a few games for us this season. Well...
After coming back from a lengthy pre-season injury and playing two games, Kolasinac was an unfortunate training casualty and has been ruled out for 7-9 months initially. He's now already out for only 4-6 months despite less than a month passing from his injury, but I don't think he'll be able to play until the very end of the season which is a big shame.
League Table
The league table will be posted in the next update because it's not accurate if you only count the games played in September.
October
Next update will bring you the October games. As you can see, I've already played two of them but I'm not going to spoil them just yet. A big away trip to Manchester City, who are currently leading the pack, is ahead of us, as well as a trip to Italy in the Europa League, a league game against Brighton at home and a Carabao Cup 4th Round draw against Chelsea, at home too.
Coming up next, however, is a separate post about my tenure as the Russia manager so far...
The national football team of my homeland is a weird one - even if you don't count the times of the Soviet Union, Russia has produced a number of quality footballers, the likes of Valery Karpin, Viktor Onopko, Andrei Kanchelskis, Igor Akinfeev, Andrey Arshavin and, more recently, Alexandr Golovin. If you look at the history of our European and international performances, however, things take a slightly darker turn. Russia didn't qualify from the group stage of Euro 96 and didn't even get to the final tournament of the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. Then came eliminations from group stages of 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004, and Russia again failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.
What came next, however, may be the single best thing to happen to Russian football so far - the heroic performance at the 2008's Euros, where Russia not only got to the knock-out stages for the first time in their history, but also managed to get a legendary 3-1 win against Netherlands in the quarter-finals, and even though they were beaten by Spain in the semis, the boys did the nation proud with their bronze medal campaign. It was this campaign that saw the likes of Arshavin, Zhirkov and Pavlyuchenko, amongst others, leave Russia to play for foreign teams.
The honeymoon didn't last. For the next ten years Russia again embarrassed itself in the major competitions, failing to get into the groups for the 2010 WC, and failing to get out of the groups during Euro 2012, 2014 WC and Euro 2016. Their relatively recent antics at the 2018 World Cup, which was hosted by Russia as well, were overshadowed by the allegations of doping.
So in steps me, to try and bring back the good ol' glory days of 2008, and maybe even go further...
The Squad
A few things have already happened to the squad. I've already played 4 of the 6 games that are scheduled for this year, experimented with tactics, experienced one of the most fascinating results on FM so far and got upset because of one retirement. But first off, here's how the squad looks like right now.
Very much an aging squad, it has its fair share of stars, like the young Golovin, the WC hero Dzyuba, the Miranchuk twins and the hot prospect Chalov. However, one big name is missing.
That's right, Igor Akinfeev, a mainstay in goal for God knows how long, decided to retire on the 1st of October, which is a shame because I wanted him to play one last major tournament, the 2020's Euros.
The Tactic
A variation of my Arsenal tactic, it in itself has two variations - one we employ at the beginning of the match and one we switch to if we have gone behind, with players going forward to try and score.
The Results
So far we have had some of the craziest performances in this save with Russia, and the obvious highlight here is the 5-3 win against Belgium in a friendly.
This is the exact reason I decided to make an attacking variation of the tactic because after going 1-0 down and going mental attacking, we scored 3. We did let Youri Tielemans score his two first international goals, but replied with two massive ones from Dzyuba and Chalov, who also bagged his first goal for Russia.
November
Coming up are the last two games of the calendar year, both in our Nations League group against Sweden and Turkey. We did show what we're capable of in the last 3 games (nevermind the France result) so I'm hoping for a positive outcome here as well.
I'll be watching ths closely. I tried to have a go at managing my home nation of Australia but it didn't work out so i went job hunting. I ended up at Zenit and i'm doing very well domestically (which could be a little unsuprising). My first 4 games in Europe have been challenging however and i have thought about taking over Russia at some point too if it eventuates.
One question with the Russian Premier League. Does it always have the massive amount of sponsorship money every year?
I'll be watching ths closely. I tried to have a go at managing my home nation of Australia but it didn't work out so i went job hunting. I ended up at Zenit and i'm doing very well domestically (which could be a little unsuprising). My first 4 games in Europe have been challenging however and i have thought about taking over Russia at some point too if it eventuates.
One question with the Russian Premier League. Does it always have the massive amount of sponsorship money every year?
The month of October started with our trip away to the Czech unit Jablonec in the Europa League. As you can see, they had no chance whatsoever, only registering 3 shots none of which were on target. Nketiah bagged himself a brace while Lacazette, Welbeck and Aubameyang all scored a goal each to secure a 5-0 win. This was Welbeck's second outing and his first goal since his injury in late August, and I'm quite happy for the man.
Next up was a league game away at Goodison Park, where we managed to get a win against Everton. They scored a pretty early goal, courtesy of Richarlison, but we managed to hit back five minutes later after Aubameyang's effort. I went all-out attacking but until the 84th minute I thought the match was predestined to end in a draw. But Aubameyang had different thoughts, scoring one from the tight angle after an outrageous ball from Sokratis' free kick. As you can see from the stats, they really gave us a game didn't they?
However, we were on the receiving end in our biggest game yet - the away trip to Manchester City, where the Citizens proved just how much better they are than us just yet. Aguero was unstoppable, defending was shocking. We did get one back to save ourselves from total embarrassment thanks to Chiesa, but couldn't do a full comeback and the game ended 3-1 to the home team, our first loss this season. This was Chiesa's first goal for the club in a competitive game, hopefully more will come.
We bounced straight back from the disappointing result at the Etihad in our away game against Atalanta in the Europa League. Ramsey had his first start after his nasty pre-season injury and proved to be the difference, scoring the 4th goal, getting a 9.0 rating and taking home the MotM award. Lacazette opened the scoreline while Mkhitaryan got himself a lovely brace.
The disappointment came back, however, in the league game against Brighton at home, where we redefined the word 'impotence', wasting numerous chances to score a goal, with Mkhitaryan getting an awful 6.3 rating this time.
Last game of the month was the Carabao Cup 4th Round draw against Chelsea at the Emirates, and even though we won quite comfortably, the stats don't lie: Chelsea had a few chances to claw it back. Thankfully Pedro and Higuain didn't wear their goalscoring boots to work that day. Iwobi opened the scoreline after Christensen dwelled on the ball for a bit too long, allowing Lacazette to dispossess him (which, for some reason, didn't register as a mistake). Nketiah rounded the day off after a lovely move by Willock and a good assist from off-the-bench Welbeck.
League Table
So, overall, it was a decent month in terms of results, if you don't count that Brighton game. We sit 3rd in the league, one point ahead of Chelsea, but due to our result against Man City both them and Liverpool have now pulled away considerably. The surprising form of Manchester United and especially Tottenham amuses me though, while Brighton are somehow sitting 7th after 10 league games.
In the Europa League things are going as one would expect. 3 wins in 3 with a great goal difference, I reckon we can finish top after the next game should results go our way.
Injuries
Unfortunately we did suffer some casualties along the way:
Bellerin broke his toe in the game against Atalanta and has been sidelined for the next 2 months. Oof.
Something was going on during that particular training day. Aubameyang gashed his upper leg after colliding with Xhaka and will now miss the next 2 weeks. Fortunately we do still have the prolific duo of Lacazette and Nketiah up front, and I trust Welbeck to do good things off the bench.
Other news
Mesut Ozil came knocking at my door demanding game time. Since I don't and likely won't use a Number 10 in the foreseeable future, and since Ozil is currently the highest earner at the club by a long mile, I decided to accept his transfer request and made a reasonable offer of 30 mil + 150k in selling team wage contribution to other teams. Only Inter were interested, countering my offer with 13.75 mil, all up front. Nobody else was interested so I went with it. Contract talks with Inter are still ongoing.
Other bit of news is I gave Akinfenwa his Arsenal debut! He did come off the bench against Chelsea when we were already 2-0 up and he did only play about 7 minutes, but hey, he didn't make any glaring mistakes so it's all good.
November
November will see us play 3 league games against Newcastle and West Ham away and Watford at home, and also 2 Europa League games against Atalanta at home, that can potentially secure our place in the knock-out rounds, and Fenerbahce away. With Bellerin out and only Lichtsteiner as a capable back-up (although Maitland-Niles did come back from his lengthy injury), I hope the Swiss veteran can provide just as well as his Spanish counterpart.
We started off the month of November with the away trip to Newcastle. You could say this game mirrored the one we played against Everton in October because the performance was quite similar, with the only difference being that we opened the scoreline through Iwobi and not the opponent. Alas, Yoshinori Muto did level it just before half-time. And yet again we had to wait until the 84th minute to score our winner, with Guendouzi coming off the bench to score the rebound after Xhaka's free kick.
Our best performance yet came up next, in the Europa League tie against Atalanta at the Emirates. Poor Etrit Berisha was no match for Dat Guy Welbz who scored 4 goals! He obviously took home the MotM award, but was just slightly off the perfect 10, instead getting a 9.9. Berisha, on the other hand, got an embarrassing 4.6. The other two goals from us came from Nketiah and Guendouzi in the first half, while Pasalic managed to get an early consolation goal when we were 3-0 up.
We then played bottom-of-the-league Watford, and despite the stats, it was a dominating performance all around. I decided to give Welbeck his first PL start and yet again he duly delivered, rounding off the scoreline. Aubameyang scored from the spot while Nketiah added to his goals. Surprisingly the MotM award went to Sokratis of all people! Even though he did get another bizarre assist, I wouldn't have thought!
The away trip to London Stadium awaited us next, in the most challenging game of the month... on paper. In reality we showed a masterclass yet again, especially in defense because this time it was a lot closer, and I expected another Everton performance. Mkhitaryan opened the scoreline in the 44th after an assist from Welbeck, while Lacazette and Welbeck himself scored the other two.
And finally we had perhaps the most surprising result in the away tie to Fenerbahce in the Europa League, which we only needed to draw to secure the first place in our group. It wasn't until the 60th minute that Aubameyang scored the first goal of the game, but Victor Moses levelled it 12 minutes later. We replied almost instantly after Lacazette's goal, with another Welbeck assist, and soon after Lacazette made it 1-3. Moses then bagged himself another goal to make the last minutes all the more exciting, and as the 90th minute rolled Jailson levelled the score yet again to make it 3-3. Off-the-bench Guendouzi had other plans, however, securing our win in the 94 minute after a great free kick. Boy what a game.
League Table
We are still 3rd, still only 1 point above Chelsea, but we now have a comfortable 9 point lead over Bournemouth in 5th and we've also slightly reduced the space between us and Man City, who are now 2nd, still unbeaten though. Liverpool are top after 13 games. Tottenham have climbed up while Manchester United have dropped down below 10th.
We have successfully and quite easily (sans that second Fenerbahce game) qualified from our Europa League group and are now mentally preparing for the upcoming knock-out rounds ahead of our last group game against Jablonec at home.
Other news
This month saw no injuries, thankfully.
Mesut Ozil agreed to a contract from Inter Milan and will start the new calendar year in Italy. He's leaving on the 3rd of January for 13.75 mil pounds + we pay 150k of his wages for the remainder of his would-be Arsenal contract, which will run for 2,5 more years after his departure. He has since been dropped to the Under-23s to help them in their league. Speaking of...
Look at how good my Under-23 team is! With 10 games left they are top with a comfortable 8 point lead over West Ham's youth team.
My Under-18s are also doing well, still unbeaten and also top with a 4 point lead over their North London rivals.
Can I just take a moment to appreciate how great Welbeck truly is? After a lengthy injury at the end of August and a long time spent outside the bench, he's now becoming one of the first-team players. 7 goals and 3 assists in 9 games across all competitions, man's a machine! I might even think about extending his contract come the end of the season, who knows...
And finally, I've been offered a new 2,5-year deal with quite a significant wage hike! I didn't expect it to come this quick but I guess ol' Kroenke trusts in me and my management. Hopefully I'll be able to prove him right (although to be honest I do want him to sell the club to someone actually willing to give me money for transfers).
December
December will be a tough and busy month for us with no less than 9 (!) games played across all competitions, including our last EL group stage game at home against Jablonec, the Carabao Cup Quarter Final draw away to Aston Villa and SEVEN league games, including a derby at home against Chelsea and a very challenging trip to Anfield.
Now, let's switch to...
Russia
We had two last games of our Nations League B group stage, away against Sweden and at home against Turkey. The board didn't actually care that much about our performance here, but I still felt that we needed to do well, at least to boost our worldwide reputation.
We comfortably beat Sweden on their land, and their early-ish sending off didn't help. Zobnin scored a great goal from distance early on in the game, opening his account for the national team, and Smolov made it 0-2 in the 69th (nice) minute.
We then had what I thought to be the easier of the two games, the home draw against Turkey, but they didn't hesitate to remind me why exactly they're currently above us in the world rankings. Kaan Ayhan scored his first two goals from Turkey, both from the direct free kicks, but we replied right before half-time after a great strike from Cheryshev. Arda Turan then caught our defense off-guard to make it 1-3, and even though we managed to get another one back after Anton Miranchuk scored an interesting goal off the crossbar after our free kick, we weren't able to get a draw, which meant my first competitive loss as the manager of Russia.
But it didn't matter! We're through to Nations League A on goal difference! Ukraine, Bosnia and Ireland qualified with us while Croatia, Poland, Iceland and France all went down a division. So far so good. We do have the Euro qualifiers draw coming up in December, but that will be shown in the next update. As for the games themselves, we don't play another one until March so I guess the boys can go help their respective clubs without thinking too much about their national duties for now.
The very busy month of December started out with a fairly easy win against Huddersfield at home. Nketiah scored two back-to-back goals and Chiesa rounded it off with the effort from a tight angle.
We followed it up with an even easier win away at Cardiff, who had a man sent off 24 minutes into the game. Nketiah opened the scoreline yet again, while Aubameyang scored two penalties. We also had an Ainsley Maitland-Niles goal, his first in his first start after quite a lengthy injury. Sean Morrison then scored an own goal 10 minutes before full-time whistle. Very solid performance.
A disappointing result against Chelsea came next, with us unable to repeat our October performance in the Carabao Cup. Higuain scored the only goal of the game 4 minutes in, and despite us having a lot of chances we couldn't level it, with Aubameyang getting an embarrassing 6.3 rating for not hitting the back of the net numerous times.
Our last EL group stage game came next, at home against Jablonec, which ended in a comfortable, if a bit underwhelming, fashion. Dat Guy Welbz got the PotM for his performance, scoring a brace which included a goal mere 23 seconds into the game, while Lacazette scored from the spot. Jablonec managed to score a good consolation goal from distance in the 89th minute thanks to the complacency amongst my defenders.
The most frustrating result away to Southampton happened next, in a game which we should've won by 2 or 3 goals, but ultimately only managed to get one point from it, thanks yet again to Aubameyang missing absolute sitters. Chiesa scored a couple minutes before half-time, and Southampton deserved nothing out of this game yet still managed to level it after Willock's poor first touch in the middle of the pitch and a quick counter which ended in Austin putting one behind Leno.
Frustrations didn't end there as we had a miserable time away at Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup quarter final. The Championship outfit actually outshot us and it was pure luck that we didn't concede, saving ourselves from embarrassment. Nketiah ultimately proved his importance yet again, scoring our only goal, while Akinfenwa got a red card for a stupid two-footed tackle only TWO minutes after coming onto the pitch. Brilliant, but at least it's a win after all.
The worst home performance in a win came next, in our league game against Bournemouth, who are surprisingly in contention for Europa League games next season right now. And they showed us why in the second half, scoring twice through Gosling and Wilson and almost managing to get a point from this. We, however, did get the all-important win in the end, thanks to Mkhitaryan and Nketiah, as well as Simon Francis who ricocheted the ball into his own goal.
No doubt our worst game in December was the away trip to Anfield. I will admit, I didn't expect to get a lot from this one, considering Liverpool look good for the title already, but our performance was truly pathetic and I feel we could've easily conceded more if we were less lucky. Somehow all 5 goals were scored in the first half.
We reversed the roles in our last December game at home against Fulham, which this time ended 4-1 in our favor. Both first half goals were scored in a bizarre fashion, with Chiesa scoring a rebound after his own shot while Aubameyang slide-tackled the ball into the net. In the second half Nketiah bagged himself a brace, but we just couldn't keep a clean sheet, allowing Lazar Markovic of all people to score Fulham's only goal, which of course was Markovic's first goal of the season. Typical.
League Table
We dropped down a spot, finishing the calendar year in 4th, 2 points behind Man City who, for some reason, completely threw their form out the window. Chelsea capitalized on that, climbing to 2nd, while Liverpool retain the top spot, now 4 points clear. We're also 7 points ahead on Man United, who regained their strength after hiring Manuel Pellegrini from West Ham as their manager. Our main rivals Tottenham are still way off the pace and could finish the season in mid-table mediocrity if they continue their poor performance. They did sack Pochettino so we'll see who they'll get to replace him in hopes of reviving their battle for a top-6 spot.
I don't think I need to say much about EL. We easily breezed through the group, dropping no points and finishing with a whopping +19 goal difference. Fenerbahce qualify as well, while Atalanta and Jablonec can now focus primarily on their domestic competitions.
We will play Dynamo Kiev in the First Knockout Round, while our group compatriots Fenerbahce will face Zenit Saint-Petersburg, the other team I support. Interesting.
Injuries
We only had one injury to a first-team player this month. It is a bitter one however...
Nacho Monreal pulled his groin in the game against Fulham and will now miss the next week. And I wouldn't be as disappointed if not for the circumstances - our next game is Burnley in the league... in 3 days! And, just a reminder, Kolasinac is still injured as well! This leaves me with only Tolaji Bola as a natural back-up, and even though he performed well in our competitive games when called upon, I don't think he's ready for a PL start yet. You can probably guess which position I'll try to strengthen in the upcoming January window.
Other news
Speaking of transfers, I did already make a few and am currently in the process of negotiating contracts with a couple more players. This all will come in the next update though so stay tuned!
As for the other 'other news', well, let's take a look at Nketiah shall we:
This guy is a legend in the making. We're just entering 2019 and he's already scored 18 goals across all competitions, including 10 in 17 league games! These are some insane stats for a 19-year old and I hope he keeps progressing. This isn't all though.
That's right, Eddie Nketiah is the European Golden Boy! An award previously given to the likes of Mbappe, Sterling, Pogba etc. is now in the hands of one of our own! I'm absolutely delighted for young Eddie, who was also chosen as Player of the Month and Young Player of the Month in the league.
Can't not mention Chiesa as well, after his bright start he did have quite a mediocre run of form so I'm pleased to see him playing well again.
January
January looks to be just a tiny bit less busy than December, with 7 games, 4 of them in the league. Our first FA Cup draw, a game away against League One Scunthorpe in the 3rd Round, awaits us, as do the away trip to Man United in the league and a triple-header against Leicester, with two of those games in the Carabao Cup Semi-Final.
And don't forget about the transfers! Hopefully I will pull them off...
A pretty routine win in the league away against Burnley started the month of January for us, with two quite late goals from Chiesa and Aubameyang.
Our FA Cup 3rd Round game away to Scunthorpe came next, and we didn't start brightly at all, conceding just 4 minutes after the game started, and we actually couldn't find a way through until the end of the first half, when Nketiah equalized. After a harsh team talk my team finally decided to show who's boss. Willock scored 6 minutes after the whistle, getting his first ever senior goal for Arsenal, and Nketiah made it 1-3 8 minutes later. Mkhitaryan rounded off the score at the death, and we came out comfortable winners in the end, getting Crystal Palace in the next round as the result.
Our first game against Leicester this month was the first leg of Carabao Cup Semi-Final, where yet again we went down a goal quite early in the game, but made amends in the first half after both Mkhitaryan and Welbeck scored one each before the whistle. Welbeck then scored another one in the 58th and the game then ended.
A very challenging league game away at Old Trafford awaited us next and we did as well as we could, although could actually get a late winner. United were ruthless, but so were we, scoring just 5 minutes before full-time. Unfortunately they scored right after kick-off, making it 1-1, and Nketiah could've made it 1-2 but hit the post with his effort. A respectable draw.
Our second home game against Leicester this season, this time in the league, ended with the same scoreline but different suspects. And yet again we conceded very early after Demarai Gray's shot, and it wasn't until 66th minute that we could level, thanks to Jonny Evans' own goal. We went berserk, pushing everyone forward, and it paid off after Ramsey and Iwobi rescued an important win.
The last Leicester draw was away at King Power Stadium, where we were miserable, and it was pure luck (and a bit of tactical genius-ness) that helped us get a draw. Vardy and Gray scored against us again this month, and yet again it was an own goal that started our comeback, after which Lacazette bagged a brace to make it 3-3 right before the end of this ridiculous game.
It was then time for a Crystal Palace double-header, which started in the FA Cup 4th Round, where we looked great and could've easily scored 2 or 3 more, but Aubameyang suddenly forgot how to score tap-ins. He also missed a penalty, which proved to be the most important factor. Benteke managed to equalize about a minute before full-time, giving his side a replay at Selhurst Park.
Crystal Palace came back to the Emirates in the league, this time embarrassing us fully and grabbing all 3 points after Milivojevic's brace. A change of tactics is coming. Nketiah managed to get one back before half-time but no comeback was in sight this time, despite, again, having loads of chances. And again, our striker didn't score a penalty, Lacazette this time.
League Table
Disclaimer: I played one February game and forgot to screenshot the league table prior to it so no picture this time, sorry.
Despite only 2 wins in 4 league games this month we still sit comfortably in 4th, 6 points ahead of Man United and just slightly behind Chelsea and Man City. Liverpool are running away with their first PL title this season it seems.
Injuries
I completely forgot to screenshot the injuries this month, my apologies. Chiesa picked up a serious knock during the game against Man United which ruled him out for a month. Welbeck also sustained a thigh strain during our FA Cup game against Crystal Palace, sidelining himself for 3 weeks. Finally Lacazette twisted his knee after our loss against Crystal Palace, which ruled him out just for 4 days.
Transfers
Ah yes, the January transfer window was upon us! Just two players were signed for the first-team, while three more were added primarily for the Under-23s.
Kieran Tierney - 21, SCO, LB/LWB
The Scottish sensation Kieran Tierney was brought in from Celtic for 35 mil pounds, potentially rising to 55 mil, as the new first-team left-back. Don't think much needs to be said about this bloke, Tierney is a good player at his young age and will hopefully take the captain's armband from Koscielny to lead us to our glory.
Callum Hudson-Odoi - 18, ENG, RW/LW/CAM
Hudson-Odoi, a wonderkid from Chelsea, was picked up on loan to provide cover for the Number 10 role. Wait, Number 10? Didn't I say I don't intend to play with a Number 10? ..Yeah, well, the tactics were reworked, you'll see in the next update (this is also the reason Suarez was promoted back to the Senior Squad).
Peter Crouch - 38, ENG, ST
Two-meter Peter is here! Another banter signing from me, Crouch signed a 1-year deal with us to partner with Akinfenwa for the Under-23s. And who knows, he might get a game or two with us.
Yet again, two signings exclusively for our youth side, so don't think much of them. Signed for a collective fee of 55 grand. Fun fact which I learned about in the press-conference dedicated to these signings: Jaidon Anthony actually came through the Arsenal academy! So it's a nice reunion with his boyhood club.
These aren't the only signings already made and agreed, however since the other ones are all pre-contract agreements, they will all be revealed in the next Summer update.
Other news
I completely forgot to post the Euro-2020 Qualifiers group that we got.
Overall it doesn't look too bad, apart from France (and maybe Sweden, although we did win twice against them already). We should beat the other 3 minnows so hopefully the battle for top-2 will be exiciting.
February
February looks quite tough on paper, with no less than 4 away in a row, 2 of them in the league (I did play one of them just to test out the tactic, the result will be revealed in the next update). We have our EL 1st Knockout Round games against Dynamo Kiev back-to-back, the Carabao Cup Final against Liverpool and the league game against Man City at home, where we'll hopefully get some revenge. Also (if I remember correctly) youth intake day will happen at the end of the month so stay tuned!
February 2019
Tactic
First off, since we began the year of 2019 quite poorly results-wise, getting two unnecessary draws and an embarrassing loss at home, I decided that February will be the month of tactical experimentation. Lo and behold, everyone, this was the tactic we used for the month:
Yup, I brought the 3-5-2, or as the game calls it, 5-2-1-2, back in the Prem. This was the reason behind Hudson-Odoi's loan deal, he'd provide backup for Mkhitaryan and Suarez while Chiesa would learn the position since all of the stats necessary are already there. With that in mind, let's get to the results.
A crazy beginning to the month of February, the away North London Derby, which ended with 8 goals scored! And we absolutely dominated the first half, scoring 4 of our goals inside 31 minutes! Second half was quite a shaky affair though, and we could easily throw it away, but Tierney secured our win with his first goal for the club. Eriksen did sneak a 3rd Spurs goal just before the end, but that was it.
We followed one extraordinary away performance with another extraordinary away performance, getting one over Palace in the FA Cup 4th Round replay. And again, the first half was all us, with 3 goals from Aubameyang and Holding. Batshuayi did find a way through in the 56th minute, but Scott Dann scored an unlucky own goal to give us the 3-goal advantage again. Palace did get a goal back however, courtesy of Sakho, but in the end we went through quite easily.
I was dumbfounded by this particular performance and game overall. Look at the times the goals were scored - all 4 in just 20 minutes! We played better than Wolves but couldn't find a way through and get all 3 points.
The 1st leg of the EL 1st Knockout Round was the last away game in this streak, and again it ended in a high-scoring draw, except this time the goals were a bit more spread out. The two youngsters, Nketiah and Willock, gave us the lead early on, but the second half was all Dynamo Kiev, who managed to get a draw thanks to Shepelev and Kadar. We got our away goals though so that was all that mattered.
The FA Cup 5th Round draw was yet another NLD, this time at home, and this time it was a much quieter game where we got the important win thanks to Tierney, who yet again scored a goal against our main rivals. I have a suspicion this guy is the future Arsenal legend, at least for the fans.
Despite the respectable draw that Dynamo got in the 1st Leg, they had absolutely no chance in the home game. Aubameyang demolished their defensive efforts, scoring four times including one from the spot, while Sokratis finally opened his goal account for us. Overall, easy game easy life.
And then the disappointment struck. I knew it was coming, but to lose in the final, even if it was just the Carabao Cup, and in such a fashion was ugly. We started strong but folded soon after the second half started, and Milner's goal in extra time didn't let us decide the winner on penalties. Crushing defeat.
The lads knew that we had to bounce back in the important league game against Man City, and they did just that. After the disappointing results against Wolves and Dynamo Kiev, and the defeat against Liverpool, I switched back to the 4-2-4 and this tactical change worked. City, despite their statistical domination, couldn't find a way through, and even their goal was scored by us.
League Table
As you can see, we do have a game in hand over our closest opponents Manchester United, and if we win that we will be 6 points ahead, retaining our comfortable lead over them while also leapfrogging Man City who are just 2 points ahead of us now. Chelsea are not too far either, however Liverpool, who have already qualified for the Europa League this season, do seem like the only title contenders for now. Tottenham seem to be destined for a mid-table finish (in fact they didn't win a single game last month!), although their European hopes for the next season are still alive. Down at the bottom things do look interesting as no side is willing to give up their PL place.
Youth Intake
The new young recruits have joined the club! Alas...
Only a couple of them, most notably Chris Roberts, seem to have any potential. Hopefully next year we'll invite better-looking youngsters.
Other news
I won the Manager of the Month award, for the first time since August, while Kieran Tierney managed to grab the Young Player of the Month for his efforts in February.
Unfortunately, some bad news came from Southend, where our promising youngster Bukayo Saka is playing out on loan. Saka pulled his ankle ligaments at the end of the month and was ruled out for almost 2 months, which is a shame because he started his stint at Southend very well, scoring 5 goals in 6 games already. At just 17 that is immense at the League One level, so hopefully he'll come back stronger than ever.
March
Only 5 games await us in March, and only two of them are league games. We also have back-to-back games against Villarreal in the 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League and the FA Cup 6th Round draw against Everton.
This isn't all, however, as we're back to our international duties in March, playing the two games against Estonia and Andorra in our Euro 2020 Qualifiers group.
Haha, yeah I am from Russia. Been studying English since the 1st grade which is the reason why I can basically use it as freely as my native language. Thanks for the compliment and for checking out my topic! Good luck with your Sunderland save as well.
We started March brightly with a comfortable away win against Brighton in the league, with Lacazette opening the scoreline in the first half, while Welbeck scored an outrageous goal from beyond the realm and Guendouzi finished it off from the bench.
We almost lost our next game, the 1st leg against Villarreal in the 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League. We actually went behind after Pavon scored at the end of the first half, but managed to level it right after the whistle. 5 minutes before full time Villarreal went ahead again but got a draw after all, with Chiesa scoring at the death. Very much a not ideal performance, and considering this was the home leg, I actually dreaded travelling to Spain because, well, you know how it happens in this game - your opponent suddenly becomes an invincible goal-scoring machine.
Thankfully it didn't happen this time, with Villarreal helpless against us in the away leg. Aaron Ramsey, who's unfortunately leaving us for Juventus at the end of the season, scored our first, and we doubled it before half-time through Nketiah. Mkhitaryan rounded it off only 2 minutes into the second half, and we kept a clean sheet for the remainder of this game to progress to the Quarter Finals.
Speaking of quarter-finals, we just barely survived the battle of Goodison Park in the FA Cup 6th Round. I didn't want a replay, and it seems that Iwobi shared my thoughts, saving us from a pointless game at home on the 83rd minute. Another shaky performance but at least we got the win in the end.
We finished the month of March with an incredible win at home against West Ham. We were ruthless, especially Aubameyang who somehow scored his only March goals in this game. But the good part is that he scored not once, but twice. Nketiah bagged his 28th goal of the season before Torreira scored an outrageous free kick from about 30 years out, leaving poor Fabianski on his ***. Iwobi also scored another one for himself. We did lose our concentration slightly, allowing Arnautovic to get one back and almost conceding another one in the very end, but overall it was a great game to watch.
League Table
We are still 4th, but this time around we have 2 games in hand over Manchester United and Chelsea and 3 over Manchester City, so if things go our way, we can climb all the way up to 2nd, which I'm very happy with. Tottenham continue their mid-table adventures, while I can probably congratulate Liverpool on their first PL title already - a 14-point lead with just 6 games left, it's un-bottleable at this point IMO.
Other news
My Under-18s team has secured its place in the U18 Premier League final! Their opponents from the North will be the Under-18s team of Manchester United, so wishing them all the luck in the world.
The Under-23s all but guaranteed their trophy, sitting 10 points above West Ham with just 4 games to go. One win, and it's done, so hoping for the best here as well.
We've had a few small injuries scattered throughout the month, with Xhaka being the most notable absentee after he twisted his ankle and got sidelined for about 3 weeks. Also, Sead Kolasinac is almost back from his lengthy injury! He did decline quite heavily but might feature in a few games since Tierney gets jaded after every single match he plays.
April
The penultimate month of our 2018-19 campaign will see us play a whopping number of TEN games! And there might still be additions to the schedule if the EL and FA Cup results go our way. Regarding those, we drew Marseille in the EL Quarter Finals, while our FA Cup Semi Final opponent will be the Championship outfit Middlesbrough, who are surprisingly still in it (although they had an easy-ish run-in to be fair, save for the 3rd Round game against Chelsea). We have an easy run of games in the league, with our only real challenge on paper being the away trip to Stamford Bridge.
Russia
We started our Euro 2020 Qualifiers campaign with an unconvincing home win against Estonia, who we should've buried to be honest. Alas, it wasn't to be, and we only scored once at the half-hour mark thanks to Cheryshev's effort.
We followed it up with a demolition job - Andorra, with their 4 real players, stood no chance. 6 different goalscorers netted 10 goals over the course of 90 minutes, including a rare hat-trick from Roman Zobnin and a brace from newcomer Suleimanov. France only managed to score twice against them at home, so you can clearly see who's the real boss here.
These results leave us comfortably in the lead, with a much better goal difference than France.
International duty is now put on hold until June, when we'll play two more qualification games, this time at home against Sweden and away against France, which is the one I don't look forward to the most. Hopefully we'll give a good account of ourselves and really consolidate our top-2 spot in the group.
The penultimate month of our first season started off with a home game against Newcastle, where, despite our dominance, we barely managed to get the precious 3 points. Thankfully, Aubameyang finally found his goalscoring form again and bagged a brace to rescue win.
The FA Cup Semi Final against Middlesbrough came next, and this time we won a bit more convincingly, yet again thanks to Aubameyang's brace and a rare goal from Joe Willock.
The Quarter Finals of the Europa League where upon us next, and we ran Marseille out of the park with a truly dominating performance and a clean sheet for once. All our goals were scored before half-time, and Nketiah could've made it 4 but missed his penalty unfortunately.
A pretty boring and scrappy win against Cardiff in the league was next on our list, with Lacazette converting Tierney's cross into the only goal of the game 25 minutes in. Still, 3 points is 3 points.
Awful loss away against Watford in a performance I'd rather forget about. Cleverley scored a stunner.
We travelled to Stade Orange Velodrome for the return leg of the EL Quarter Finals and again left Marseille no chances. Surprisingly, it was Rob Holding that got the MotM award.
This was the must-win game and we blew it 15 minutes before full-time whistle. Both teams were equal and both could've won but it was a draw ultimately after Azpilicueta scored his 2nd goal of the season in the 76th.
Another awful performance, this time at home against Everton who deserved nothing from this game but were simply more clinical than us. At least Welbeck got another goal, delighted for him.
We then hosted Southampton and got the 3 points this time around after Mkhitaryan's and Welbeck's goals.
And finally, rounding the month off was another boring and scrappy win, this time away to Huddersfield. Mkhitaryan converted a penalty, and that was the only goal of the game.
League Table
The table looks interesting. Despite missing out on 7 points this month we somehow climb up to second place, with 5 points separating us and 5th-placed Manchester United. Liverpool have run away with the league title after all, fair play to them. Tottenham have an outside chance of getting a European place, but with them playing Liverpool away at Anfield I highly doubt it. Leicester and Bournemouth play each other in the next game, so if one of them wins, that's game over for Spurs. Surprisingly, no one is relegated yet, although Burnley have the highest chances of going down to the Championship.
Other news
With the schedule being hectic and the games coming thick and fast, both of my first-team full-backs, Bellerin and Tierney, are in need of a rest, and while Tierney has adequate backup in Kolasinac and Monreal, only Lichtsteiner can substitute Bellerin, and with the most important games coming up, I doubt I can take this risk, even though Lichtsteiner did well when he had to step up.
Danny Welbeck got a new contract with the club, tying him down for 3 more years after his impressive performances this season. This helps our home-grown quota as well, so it's all good. He also agreed to a slight wage cut, which is always nice.
Lichtsteiner announced his retirement later this year. Weirdly, he decided to hang up his boots in November. A quick run in the MLS?
Both of my youth teams have won their respective leagues! The Under-23s still have 2 games left, while the Under-18s defeated Manchester United in the Final. Glad to see these news, especially since I do intend to focus on my own youth later down the line.
May
We're closing the season off with at least 5 more games - the remaining two league fixtures away against Fulham and at home against Liverpool, the Semi Finals of the Europa League against recently crowned Bundesliga champions RB Leipzig and the FA Cup Final against Manchester City. A chance at two trophies and a top-4 spot, it's ours to bottle now.
So, my first season in charge of Arsenal has finally finished. Coming into the month of May we had a chance at two trophies - the Europa League and the FA Cup. Did we win any of them? Both? None? Did we manage to hold on to our Top-4 spot?
Well, take a look yourself. Abysmal record of no wins in 5 games unfortunately means we don't get our hands on any of the trophies we could still win. Embarrasing 7-4 defeat to RB Leipzig on aggregate, with the home game being an unnecessary draw while they crushed us in Leipzig. The FA Cup was also lost to Man City in the Final. But to **** with the trophies, we couldn't even get at least 3 points in our remaining league games! While it's okay that we lost to champions Liverpool, even if at home, we all but embarrassed ourselves during our trip to Craven Cottage, only getting a measly point against Fulham.
League Table
And yet, we retained 2nd place! Finishing 22 points behind rampant Liverpool, on the same amount as Man City and just 1 and 3 points ahead of Chelsea and Man United respectively. Art imitates life I guess since no one wanted the precious automatic CL spot. Tottenham did just miss out on a European spot in the end, finishing 2 points behind Everton, while Bournemouth of all teams claims the Europa League group spot for the next season.
On the other end of the table, it's Huddersfield, Burnley and Watford who got relegated to the Championship, while Norwich, Leeds and Swansea climb up a level and will compete in the Premier League in the 2019/2020 season.
Season Review
I have mixed feelings about the season overall. We had a bright start and never really witnessed a massive dip in form before May, but on the other hand, a lot of the results that should've gone our away didn't. Tactics-wise things looked alright, but yet again we could've and should've played a lot better (e.g. January's games against Crystal Palace). I was especially disappointed with Aubameyang towards the end of the season who only scored 6 in his last 16 games.
On the bright side of things, we had a major breakthrough of several youngsters, most notably Nketiah, who did finish as our top scorer with 34 goals in all competitions! For a 19-year old lad, in his first real season with a senior squad, and in the league as competitive and ruthless as PL, I say it's a great achievement and hopefully he can retain this form for years to come. Other honorable mentions go to Joe Willock, who was consistently good throughout the whole season, and Tolaji Bola, who hasn't featured a whole lot but still maintained a 7.40 average rating in his 8 games for the first team, including a great performance in his PL debut.
The same, however, cannot be said for other, arguably more notable, youngsters in our squad, like Matteo Guendouzi, Federico Chiesa and Kieran Tierney, who, despite getting a decent avg rating, didn't really impress me a whole lot and had a lot of questionable performances, especially Chiesa. I do have trust in them, they're still young, so here's hope that their form will improve in the next season.
A few contracts are running out, including veterans Cech and Lichtsteiner, who are both retiring this year, Aaron Ramsey, who's obviously on his way to Italy after a decent season with us, and a few youngsters who will hopefully find a new home somewhere else. Of those youngsters an honorable mention goes to Gedion Zelalem, who made a major contribution to winning the U-23 Premier League, with 7 goals and 10 assists in 30 games. Other players whose contracts will not be extended are Julio Pleguezuelo, Joseph Olowu, Nathan Tormey and Mark McGuinness.
So, this leaves us with the most important question - who do we buy in the Summer? Well, Stan Kroenke generously gave me just under 100 million pounds to spend, and one signing is already on their way to our club. But of course, nothing will be revealed until the next update, so stay tuned! Also in the next update will be the results of our international games with Russia.
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