London is Red

Arsenal have capped an amazing 2013/2014 season with a 2-0 win over Newcastle and their first Premier League title in 10 years. Arsenal finished the season on 91 points a 12 point gap between them and 2nd placed Manchester City. Earlier this season they won the UEFA Super Cup after last seasons brilliant 2-1 victory in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich with a penalty shootout win over fierce rivals Tottenham. In December they picked up their 2nd piece of silverware after defeating Corinthians in the final of the illustrious Club World Cup. At the end of February they defeated Swansea City in the final of the Capital One Cup and of course this Sunday finished the Premier League season with a win. Fans of the club are certainly celebrating what has been the most successful season at the club since the Invincibles side. They should also be excited ahead of this summer as Arsenal announced back in January the biggest free transfer in club history as Dortmund star striker Robert Lewandowski has agreed to join the Gunners on July 1st as his contract expires at Dortmund.

I have decided to start up this thread 2 years into the save. I wanted to be sure I would stick with it and so far I have. I am enjoying this save and feel I shall update you guys on how the first two seasons have gone.

2012/2013



These were the players I signed for my first season. As you can see I spent a hefty amount on Stevan Jovetic and Asier Illarramendi. I also signed young striker Neal Maupay from OGC Nice and loaned in Mattia De Sciglio as back up due to Sagna's long term injury and on deadline day I signed Simone Pepe after Theo Walcott broke his leg and was out for most of the season.



The league finished like this with Manchester United winning the title just like in real life. We did finish 2nd and I was happy with that as I just wanted to finish top 4. Outside of the Premier League we were knocked out of the Capital One Cup and FA Cup early but managed to win the Champions League against Bayern Munich.

2013/2014



As you can see to mount my title challenge I splashed out 51m en route to my Premier League title. I signed Simone Pepe on a permanent deal after playing well during his loan spell and Paul Pogba from Juventus as my most expensive transfer. Toby Alderweireld and Viktor Fischer joined us from Ajax for a combined fee of just under 20m. Sebastian Corchia joined as a replacement for the departing Bacary Sagna and I also jumped at the chance to sign Keisuke Honda on a free transfer and on deadline day once again I signed Matuidi on a loan deal to provide cover in midfield. Outgoing sales saw Gervinho, Mikel Arteta and Bacary Sagna leave the club along with all of the deadwood.



As you can see we won the league quite easily. We also won the UEFA Super Cup, Club World Cup and Capital One Cups. We crashed out of the Champions League in the semifinal against the team we defeated last season in Bayern Munich. Paris St-Germain ended up winning the final 5-3 after being down 3-0 at halftime.

Going in to the new season I have already signed Lewandowski on a free transfer and I will be looking to offload Podolski, Mertesacker, Fabianski and Simone Pepe as they will all be surplus to requirements. I also might get rid of either Honda or Cazorla.

First Three Signings Arrive!



I've completed my first three signings of the summer transfer window and they are all defensive players. First up was Jan Kirchhoff from Bayern Munich for just £8m. He will be replacing fellow German Per Mertesacker who has left the club for Real Madrid for £18m. I believe this is a good deal as not only is Kirchhoff younger he is on lesser wages and we made a £10m net profit from the CB's.



Next up was left back Luke Shaw who joins us from Southampton for £12m and Lukasz Fabianski. He will go right in to my senior squad and be rotated with Kieran Gibbs as we have sold Natxo Monreal to rivals Chelsea for £13m. Again he is younger, English and he is on lesser wages. I have high hopes for this young player in the future and can see him establishing himself as our starting left back in a couple years time.



Finally another full back as I snapped up Alexander Ulrich from Schalke 04 for £3.5m. He has great potential and I hope he will be able to fulfill it at Arsenal. He will probably start the season out in the reserves and possibly go on loan during the second half of the season.

We have also sold Simone Pepe for £10m to Wigan Athletic. He was surplus to requirements with both Theo and Ox doing well last season and while he did show some flashes of brilliance his age (30) was against him.

Here is a round up of my transfer activity for the summer. Towards the end of the summer I realized I needed another midfielder as we had a couple injuries so in comes Javi Garcia from Man City on loan. I am very happy because this summer we made a good profit on transfers and that is what I want to happen. My main aims for this save are as follows.

- Sell older players (nearing 30)
- Promote youngsters from the academy / other clubs
- Keep a decent wage structure
- Eventually form an all British side

As you can see some of these are pretty steep and the fact that right now I have Cazorla, Walcott and Jovetic all wanting huge wages next season could prove difficult as I try and either sign them on lesser wages or find replacements for them. I could just sell Cazorla and keep Honda and Wilshere for AMC but the other two spots are going to be quite difficult.



We didn't have a good start to the season as we lost the Community Shield to Chelsea and we lost the opener against Manchester United 1-0. We followed those two losses up with two good wins against QPR and Liverpool including Lewandowski scoring his first two goals for the club. Theo Walcott also scored two goals in those two games. It is still early so there is no real point in posting a league table but I believe we sit in 5th after the first month.

September 2014

Before I get on with the matches this month, the Champions League group stage draw was made at the end of August and we were drawn in a fairly straight forward group alongside, Shahktar Donetsk, Anderlecht and APOEL. I expect to qualify from this group easily with Shahktar right behind us.



As you can see here we had a perfect September with 5 wins and 4 clean sheets. We advanced in the Capital One Cup after a narrow 1-0 win over Southampton and now we will face West Ham United in the 4th round. Also we saw off APOEL in the Champions League 4-0. Paul Pogba was easily our player of the month as he once again proves to be a huge signing in midfield after scoring 2 goals this month.



Still early in the league but the league table is already taking shape. Stoke City has once again started the season brightly. They did the same thing last season but started to fall apart after December when they were top of the table. QPR, Derby and Swansea occupy the drop zone.