The weather may be hotter than Granit Xhaka’s temper, but there’s always a good time for Football Manager! So sit back, grab a cool beverage, and enjoy this second chapter of my new FM22 series with Arsenal!
My main goal in this series is to lead Arsenal to Premier League or Champions League glory – with a core of academy players in the team. Everything is explained in Part 1, in case you missed that.
Basically, I will be sticking to some rules that will make this save more challenging – and put greater emphasis on youth development. The main rule is that I must always have at least one academy player in the starting line-up (this limit will increase by one before each new season). I can also only sign players who are aged under 19, have British/Irish nationality, or were ‘homegrown’ at Arsenal.
Today’s installment will take us through the first half of the 2021/2022 season. Will this new era at the Emirates get off to a strong start, or will AFTV be calling for my head? Let’s find out…
RESULTS: AUGUST TO DECEMBER 2021
PREMIER LEAGUE
My first game in charge of Arsenal was a thrilling 4-2 win at Goodison Park, against Frank Lampard’s Everton. Norwegian midfielder Martin Ødegaard got us off to a flying start with this absolute screamer midway through the first half.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin turned the game around with a quick double to give Everton a 2-1 lead, but homegrown striker Eddie Nketiah and debutant right-back Takehiro Tomiyasu restored our advantage just before half-time. Another of our academy products – inside-forward Emile Smith-Rowe – secured the points after the break.
That was followed by a hard-fought 0-0 draw against European champions Chelsea… and then a surprise loss at Brighton. Bukayo Saka scored an equaliser before being sent off for a mindless two-footed challenge, and our remaining 10 men could not hold onto the point. Cheers, Bukayo.
We recovered brilliantly from that early set-back, and did not lose another match for over three months. We won nine league games out of 11, including a couple of home derby victories over Tottenham and West Ham. Our only slip-ups were away from home – a valiant 2-2 draw against champions Manchester City, and then a much-less impressive stalemate against mid-table Norwich.
After only scoring once against Watford (having 24 shots at goal, only 4 of which were on target), I made some tactical tweaks. We were much more clinical in November, bagging 11 goals in four straight victories to go into 2nd – behind only Liverpool, and just ahead of an undefeated Man City.
Unfortunately, we soon slipped back to 3rd, drawing our next two games before being outclassed 3-1 by Liverpool. Perhaps it was the old ‘Manager of the Month’ curse biting me in the backside… or perhaps we were getting a little cocky.
2021 ended with a couple of narrow wins, and then another frustrating draw at Leeds, where our finishing woes came back to haunt us. I have a few thoughts on why we’re struggling to convert our chances, but I’ll touch on those later.
Despite that, I am still quite pleased with how things are going. Even if Spurs and Chelsea win their games in hand, we’d still have a healthy cushion in the Champions League places.
Liverpool had their own slip-ups in December, which means City are now on top – and still unbeaten – but we’re only a couple of wins behind the ‘big two’. Could we actually launch a title challenge in my first season?
And oh dear, look at poor old Crystal Palace at the bottom! Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira somehow did an even worse job with the Eagles than me, and the only thing he got for Christmas was his P45. Hey, Paddy, how would you like to join my coaching staff?
Ah well, it was worth a try. Guess I’ll just give Moritz Volz the job instead…
EFL CUP
While our league form has been quite good, we’ve also made steady but strong progress through the EFL Cup. A couple of hat-tricks from Gabriel Martinelli and Nketiah swept past our first two opponents… but then we almost came unstuck in Round 4.
Blackburn gave us a scare after just 12 minutes, taking advantage of some sloppy lead to break the deadlock. Nicolas Pépé then turned the game in our favour, but Blackburn hit back to force penalties – and then took a 2-1 lead in the shoot-out. Fortunately, backup keeper Bernd Leno pulled off two vital saves, and long-serving midfielder Mohamed Elneny secured a 4-2 win.
The Quarter Final against Watford was also a struggle, but a strong second half meant we came away 2-0 winners. That put us through to a two-legged Semi against…
…Chelsea, who have incidentally just sacked their manager Thomas Tuchel, despite being only a few points off the top four and having plenty of games in hand. Even without Roman’s roubles, it’s still the same old trigger-happy Chelski, eh?
Well, that was easy! Silent Stan wanted us to challenge for a domestic cup by 2026… and getting to an EFL Cup Semi Final seems to have won the big man over! Imagine how ecstatic he’d be if we actually won something!
TACTICS & STATISTICS
These are the tactics I’ve been using so far this season. I’ve usually turned to the 4-2-3-1 for home matches, and the 4-3-3 for trickier fixtures on the road.
For the first two months or so, I had two inside-forwards on the flanks, but this seemed to make our attacks a bit too one-dimensional. I switched the right forward to an inverted winger, which makes better use of Saka’s crossing ability and helps him pick out the striker’s runs more regularly. It also puts less importance on Saka’s finishing, which isn’t the best.
Ødegaard has been very impressive as our most advanced midfielder, though he seems to work better as an AMC rather than as a mezzala. He’s already on 4 goals and 7 assists with a 7.4 average rating, and I’ve a feeling there’s loads more to come from the left-footed Norwegian sensation.
However, I do have some doubts about whether we’re getting the most out of our attacking abilities. In 13 league matches where I started off with a 4-2-3-1, we created 27.33 xG, but only scored 22 goals. In contrast, we scored 11 goals from 8.16 xG in the seven games where we kicked off with the 4-3-3.
I don’t think it’s a personnel issue. All our attackers are matching if not exceeding their xG (except Saka, but as I mentioned, he’s not a finisher). For instance, Nketiah is on 12 goals from 9.51 xG and converts 18% of his shots into goals, which is pretty good. Even the much-maligned Alexandre Lacazette is comfortably outscoring his xG, netting every fifth shot he has at goal.
I’m led to believe that the roles in my 4-2-3-1 are too focussed on attacking narrowly. Nobody seems to be creating space out wide, as all our attackers are packing the box. This causes obvious issues when the opposition defends deep and sits tight to block our shots more easily. It also doesn’t help that I’m not giving the full-backs enough freedom to go forward (Tomiyasu especially).
One option is to reshuffle the attacking midfield line – and play Saka as a left-winger, Smith Rowe as an AMC, and Ødegaard as a right inverted winger. I’m not a great tactician, so I’m always welcome to any expert suggestions.
On the plus side, our defensive efficiency is very good – we have conceded 14 goals from 21.3 xGA, and our 6.5% opposition conversion rate is lower than every other team’s except Chelsea. First-choice keeper Aaron Ramsdale has kept a league-high 11 clean sheets and saved 86% of the shots he’s faced. I doubt Arsenal have been this solid at the back since the late 1990s!
Throughout the series, I’ll be tracking the match stats of all our academy players who make it into the first-team. Our homegrown front three of Nketiah, Saka and Smith Rowe have all enjoyed strong first halves to the season, bagging a combined 19 goals and 13 assists.
Eddie is our standout performer so far. Since signing a new four-year, £45,000-per-week contract in July, Nketiah has helped himself to 8 Premier League goals and usurped Lacazette as our starting striker. Of course, he’s had a few bad days here and there, but once he gets that consistency, the pacey frontman could be feared across the league.
Saka also signed a new contract recently, putting him on £100,000 per week for the next five seasons. While it’s take Bukayo some time to hit top form again after a difficult autumn, I’ve no doubt the flamboyant winger will justify his big pay rise soon enough.
As for Smith Rowe, he’s happy with his more modest £40,000 weekly salary right now, but his 29% shooting accuracy really needs to improve. Emile could do with upping his consistency too. He has won the PL’s Young Player of the Month award twice (in August and November), but has struggled with injuries and form in the other months.
Teenage playmaker Charlie Patino has started all four of our EFL Cup ties, and made four substitute appearances in the league. His passing accuracy and average ratings have been solid so far, but he needs a more sustained run of league football. My plan to loan Charlie out to a Championship club in the second half of this season is probably the right way forward.
A few more youngsters have also featured in the EFL Cup this term, though none have made a huge impression. Midfielder Miguel Azeez (19) and wide forwards Marcelo Flores and Omari Hutchinson (both 18) probably need to go out on loan too – most likely to League One clubs.
WHITE’S WRONGS
Unfortunately, one major issue has developed over recent months – I’ve fallen out big-time with our new £50million centre-back. Things have not been alright with Benjamin White.
Ben had a pretty awful start to the season, posting an average rating of 6.33 across his first two games. That led to him losing his starting place to Rob Holding, who has been consistently solid playing alongside alongside Gabriel, frequently getting match ratings in the high 7s.
In fact, Rob’s form was so solid that after the North London derby, Ben would not play another league game for two months. This obviously led to a huge row about his playing time, turning some of his new team-mates against him (though a few fringe players did take White’s side).
I have actually been easing White back into the team recently, but a couple of shaky games against Burnley and Leeds haven’t exactly filled me with hope. Halfway through the season, White on a 6.89 average rating, which isn’t exactly terrible, but compared to Gabriel (7.29) and Holding (7.42), he looks woefully out of place.
Looking at their player profiles, there isn’t an obvious reason why Holding should be performing better than his more illustrious colleague. White is clearly the better ball-player – as a graduate from the Bielsa School of Defending, that’s hardly a surprise – and is mentally pretty solid too. The only area where Holding has an obvious edge is in the air.
White’s issue certainly isn’t his passing – which is very accurate, like with ALL centre-backs on FM22 – and his tackling and heading stats look okay too. The one consistent theme I have noticed is that he often looks “nervous” or “anxious” during matches, and even a few calming words from the touchline don’t seem to help matters.
White’s player report suggests that he is “fairly professional” and “enjoys big matches” – and his “reserved”, “media-friendly” media-handling style suggests that he has a good temperament. The only thing I can think of is that Ben is perhaps not good at handling pressure, and that my demanding team talks might be putting him under unnecessary duress.
I’ll try taking a gentler approach with White in future, but if his form continues to stutter, then I have a serious problem. I can’t afford to have anyone who turns into a quivering wreck as soon as the referee blows the first whistle.
While I’m here, let’s have a look at Holding’s recent match stats. I want to turn your attention to the EFL Cup win over Watford, in which Rob completed 142 passes and won 34 headers. Those numbers are insane – insanely unrealistic, I mean.
During the real-life 2021/2022 Premier League season, Chris Wood won the most aerial duels (205). FM doesn’t record headers in the same way as the PL records aerial duels, in that not all of Holding’s headers were contested with another player. But if Holding was to replicate his Watford stats in just SIX league matches, he would win 204 headers, almost equalling Wood’s aerial duels record for an entire season!
This ties into my biggest complaint about FM22’s match engine: that it generates such ridiculous player stats. How often do you see a centre-back make 34 headers in a game? That would drive concussion experts mad! Or what about producing passing stats that would make Andrea Pirlo look as accurate as Dick Cheney?
Football Manager prides itself on being a simulation, right? But how are these statistics in any way a realistic simulation of top-flight football? Of course, things get even sillier the lower down the pyramid you go, where even National League teams can play flawless possession football by just passing the ball back and forth between the goalkeeper and his defenders! But Lord Bendtner knows you don’t need to hear me rant about that for the 17th time in this game cycle!
Aww, screw it! [Sigh] It’s just a game, Christopher. It’s just a game.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter. I’ll be back next time in Part 3, where we’ll wrap up my first season at Arsenal, make my first signings… and meet a new generation of potential Hale End stars.
Fuller FM 
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