My second season as Arsenal manager is now underway – and after leading the Gunners to 4th place in the Premier League last time out, the pressure is firmly on me to consolidate our place among England’s elite.
In the previous chapter, I looked ahead to the 2022/2023 campaign by unveiling a couple of major signings – including the return of Hale End graduate Yunus Musah. We now have FIVE youth products in the first-team squad, as my plan to rebuild the team around our academy starts to take shape.
Today’s chapter will take us through the first three months of the new season, from August to November. This includes our first Champions League matches since 2017, as we look to qualify from a surprisingly tricky group that includes Roma and Bayer Leverkusen.
Oh yes, and there’s also the small matter of a winter World Cup in Qatar…
RESULTS: AUGUST TO NOVEMBER 2022
PREMIER LEAGUE
The new season began with a mixed bag of results. On the positive side, we won our first two away games – and after Chelsea shut us out FOUR times last season, Bukayo Saka finally scored my first goal against them in a hard-fought 1-1 draw! Unfortunately, we then crumbled to a 2-0 home loss against a Manchester United team who were hitting top form again under new boss Maurizio Sarri.
After that, we went through a spell where we created loads of chances, but just couldn’t convert them regularly. The draw at Burnley is probably the most frustrating result I’ve had on FM22 so far…
If I was on Football Manager Reddit, I’d probably post this with a title like “Pain.” or “This game is rigged!” or “I’M GONNA THROW MY EXPENSIVE COMPUTER OUT OF THE WINDOW!”
Our average xG per shot was a reasonable 0.12, so it wasn’t as if we were constantly shooting from the halfway line. We did actually create quite a few opportunities – but we were just so wasteful in front of goal. Perhaps I should’ve spent my summer budget on a top-quality finisher like Dominic Calvert-Lewin, instead of buying Declan Rice to protect what was already a decent defence?
Despite our struggles going forward, I stayed calm and made a few tactical tweaks. Sure enough, the goals started to flow again in October, starting with a respectable 2-2 draw at Anfield.
We then won four league matches in a row, including a 4-2 victory over PL newcomers Luton. After a slow start to this season, forward Reiss Nelson not only scored the fastest goal in Arsenal’s history, but he also got another goal and an assist – and finished with a perfect 10.0 match rating!
Unfortunately, we now had a different problem – we suddenly couldn’t defend to save our lives, and Aaron Ramsdale was conceding almost as many shots as he was saving. We might have got away with this against Luton and Brighton, but we weren’t so lucky against Frank Lampard’s Everton. Two goals from everyone’s favourite Brazilian diver Richarlison saw us suffer a second home defeat – my first against a team from outside the ‘Big Six’.
We kinda got back on track in November, with a couple of home wins over Southampton and Tottenham. In between those, however, we needed an injury-time strike from Saka to spare us a humiliating defeat at Norwich.
So here’s how the table looks as we head into the World Cup-enforced pre-winter break. We’re in 4th place just behind Manchester United and Liverpool, but Wolves and Chelsea are nipping at our heels. With the worst defensive record among the top seven, we really need to find a way to plug those holes.
Manchester City are on course for another title… but as you can see, they have actually lost a match! They were finally beaten 1-0 at home by Leeds on 15 October, after 49 successive Premier League games without a defeat.
That’s right; City only managed to equal Arsenal’s record from 2003/2004!
EFL CUP
Our EFL Cup run could have ended at the first hurdle against our big North London rivals. Nicolas Pépé‘s penalty gave us a narrow lead at Tottenham, who then scored a 93rd-minute equaliser to force a shoot-out. With the scores at 8-8, backup keeper Matt Turner finally made the first save, before teenage forward Omari Hutchinson sent us through.
Our reward was a Round 4 tie against Championship side Bristol City, whose excitable young manager was clearly absolutely thrilled to be given such a plum draw…
Nigel Pearson might have had his head in the sand, but his team didn’t. Despite an early Martinelli opener, City defended doggedly to keep our lead down to a single goal. The competition resumes in January, when we’ll face Watford in the Quarter Finals once again.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
We went through our Champions League group unbeaten, though not without a few scares.
After Martin Ødegaard gave us a very early lead at Leverkusen, a defensive mix-up in the second half saw us come away with only a draw. It nearly got even worse when we hosted bottom seeds Nice, who led 1-0 at half-time with a penalty. We did eventually come back and win 2-1, but having produced 4.22 xG from 38 shots, I was amazed it wasn’t a lot more emphatic.
And then we casually won 4-0 at the Olimpico. Saka and Emile Smith Rowe blew Roma away with three goals in the first half-hour, and the Serie A champions were so awful that even Lewis Cook managed to score a fourth against them late on!
We netted four more goals in the return fixture at the Emirates, including three in the first 16 minutes, though Roma at least made it a contest. A 4-2 win basically ensured our progression from the group, and after a 1-1 draw at Nice secured top spot, the home stalemate with Leverkusen didn’t matter.
So, a strong start to our Champions League campaign, but how far can we possibly go? We will face RB Leipzig in the Round of 16, which isn’t going to be easy, though it could have been a much tougher draw.
TACTICS & STATS: WHAT’S GOING ON?
I would appreciate some tactical advice here – specifically to address the defensive issues we have, especially when using the 4-3-3.
I usually operate with a half-back, who drops deeper than a typical defensive midfielder and help us maintain solidity when we launch counter-attacks. He protects the centre-backs, who move wider while the wing-backs bomb forward, turning this 4-3-3 into what’s effectively a 3-4-3.
With his excellent tackling ability and tactical knowledge, Rice should have been the perfect fit for this role… but while his first few performances for Arsenal has been steady, our defensive record has not. We’re still conceding chances at a rate of 1 xGA per game, and our opposition shot conversion rate is an alarming 13% (more than everyone else except Southampton)!
In this situation, it would be easy to blame the goalkeeper. The stats certainly don’t do Ramsdale any favours, as he makes fewer saves per game and has a lower save percentage than most of his peers. But he’s a resilient guy, and I’m going to support him during this slump. Besides, it’s not as if I can just simply sign a better British goalkeeper to replace him!
I think our issues lie somewhere between Ramsdale and Rice. I noticed that we’re particularly vulnerable to long balls over the top, so I went back into the data hub and looked at our defenders’ aerial stats. Oh, look – there’s Benjamin White winning barely 70% of his headers! And can you guess who’s our only centre-half with an average rating below 7.00?
I really don’t want to keep making White a scapegoat, but it’s hard to ignore all the evidence mounting up against him. He’s constantly nervous (no matter what I try to relax him) and regularly underperforms in big games (despite apparently having a high Important Matches rating). It’s getting to the point now where I’m seriously considering selling White next summer, even if it means recouping less than the £50million we paid Brighton in 2021.
In terms of our homegrown players, I’ve been very impressed with Yunus Musah‘s productivity and consistency. In 16 matches so far, the American mezzala has not had a single rating below 6.8 – his highest was an 8.4 at Brighton, where he scored twice after the break to turn around a 2-1 deficit.
Meanwhile, Nelson has hit top form after a slow start to the season, grabbing 7 goal contributions in his last eight matches. While his most effective performances have come as a right-winger, his dribbling skills and clinical finishing also make him a very handy inside-forward.
Smith Rowe has had to perform to a very high standard just to maintain his starting place on that left wing ahead of Nelson. Emile’s decision-making has certainly improved, and he is already into double figures for goal contributions. Meanwhile on the right, inverted winger Saka has scored seven goals since being switched to an ‘Attack’ duty – although that’s had the side effect of reducing his creativity, with just one assist so far.
That, in turn, might be hurting Eddie Nketiah‘s performances. Our top scorer from last season has only found the net ONCE so far – against Newcastle in our second away game – and is underscoring his xG by 3. Eddie’s profligacy has seen him lose his starting place up front to Gabriel Martinelli, who had been rather more clinical with 8 goals in 17 games.
Midfielder Miguel Azeez and forward Marcelo Flores have continued to appear sporadically for the first-team, though their recent outings have offered little to write about. Just like last season, the plan is to loan them both out to an EFL team for the latter half of this campaign. With Azeez now out of his teens, it’s especially important to him that he gets more first-team football.
I also gave 19-year-old centre-half Taylor Foran his debut in our final Champions League group game against Leverkusen, filling a defensive hole after Pablo Marí was sent off. Foran managed to keep Patrik Schick quiet for 30 minutes and secure us a creditable 0-0 draw, which bodes well for his future. He too can expect to be sent out on loan again very soon.
2022 WORLD CUP
Lastly, here’s a quick summary of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where several Gunners were in action.
Musah, Turner and on-loan Middlesbrough striker Folarin Balogun were all part of the United States team that was eliminated at the Group Stage. Takehiro Tomiyasu (Japan) and Omar Rekik (Tunisia) were also knocked out early, though Kieran Tierney‘s Scotland surprisingly made it to Round 2, where they only narrowly lost to Argentina.
That left just two Arsenal players standing. Nketiah, Saka and Smith Rowe might not have made it into the England squad, but Ramsdale and Rice had – and they both played key roles as the Three Lions roared through the tournament. Ramsdale shut out both Brazil and Belgium in the knockout rounds, and Rice then scored a Semi Final winner against the Netherlands, setting up a Final showdown with Germany…
Hey, that scoreline looks familiar! Just like the Lionesses did very recently, the Three Lions defeated their Teutonic opponents 2-1, thanks to a 94th-minute winner from Tammy Abraham! He didn’t quite celebrate his goal like Chloe Kelly did, but hey – maybe SI can add that celebration on FM23.
Although Rice was too tired to play in the Final, Ramsdale extended his ever-present record and was later voted as the best goalkeeper at the World Cup. Remember, this is the same guy who conceded two goals at home to Luton just a few months ago! Football’s a funny old game, eh?
Also, have a guess who England’s starting left-back for the World Cup Final was.
That’s right… it was Ainsley Maitland-Niles. The very same guy who I sold to Lyon for £10million on deadline day because he thought he was more important to the team than Tomiyasu. No, I’m not angry – YOU’RE angry!
But who cares about that glorified utility man anyway? Gareth Southgate has led England to World Cup glory! I can almost forgive him for the Hungary debacle earlier this year… almost.
As the Queen prepares herself to knight Sir Gareth Southgate, we’ll leave the story there for now. Please join me again next time, when the Premier League season resumes – and the Gunners go for glory in the EFL Cup.
Until then, thanks for reading!
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