Arsenal
In:
Alexandre Lacazette Lyon £46m;
Sead Kolasinac Schalke free
Out:
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Liverpool £35m;
Gabriel Valencia £10m;
Kieran Gibbs West Brom £7m;
Lucas Pérez Deportivo La Coruña loan
If not for the general sense of dread around the club and growing doubts about Arsene'smental health decision-making, I would say they actually had a pretty good summer of business. They added a great finisher in Lacazette and a tough no-nonsense versatile defender/midfielder in Kolasinac and held on (in a rather shambolic fashion, but nonetheless) to their star man Sanchez. Fans were screaming at them to "get some bloody signings in," but I think their main problem lies in the increasing lack of trust in Arsene's decisions (from fans and possibly now players too) – had it been Conte or Simeone in charge with exactly the same squad and with no doubts about players' motivations and committment, we would now surely be talking about them as strong contenders for the title. As it is, I think purely on the basis of their overall lack of confidence and questionable management they will lose their place in top 4 and possibly sink even lower. But on paper their squad is great! Prediction: 6th
Chelsea
In:
Álvaro Morata Real Madrid £58m;
Tiémoué Bakayoko Monaco £39.7m;
Danny Drinkwater Leicester £35M;
Antonio Rüdiger Roma £29m;
Davide Zappacosta Torino £25.8m;
Willy Caballero Manchester City free
Out:
Diego Costa Atletico Madrid (we'll find out tomorrow)
Nemanja Matic Manchester United £40m;
Nathan Aké Bournemouth £20m;
Asmir Begovic Bournemouth £10m;
First thing we need to acknowledge when talking about Chelsea is that as Champions they didn't need to change all that much – just pad out the squad for the added CL games. They kind of did it in defence and midfield, not so much in attack, but, similarly to Arsenal, I think the main problem has not been the signings, but the lack of trust between Conte and the club's management that's been revealed during this window – it just makes me wonder how long Conte will put up with this. The string of rejections from potential signings (even Llorente and Barkley for fuck's sake!) also has got to sting, however I'm not sure this will transfer into the season once the dust settles. The biggest problem on the pitch for them will be the loss of Diego Costa, who was one of the key drivers of their push to the title and I think much will depend on how Morata settles at the club – if he manages to replace most of Costa's goals Chelsea will be just fine in terms of making top 4 or higher. However even if Morata plays well (so far signs are pretty good) their squad looks a bit thin up top – any injury or loss of form to the likes of Hazard, Pedro or Willian will be painful. Prediction: 3-4th.
Everton
In:
Gylfi Sigurdsson Swansea City £45m;
Jordan Pickford Sunderland £25m;
Michael Keane Burnley £25m;
Davy Klaassen Ajax £23.7m;
Nikola Vlasic Hajduk Split £8m;
Henry Onyekuru Eupen £7m;
Sandro Ramírez Málaga £5.3m;
Wayne Rooney Manchester United undisclosed;
Out:
Romelu Lukaku Manchester United £75m;
Gerard Deulofeu Barcelona £10m;
Tom Cleverley Watford £8m;
Gareth Barry West Bromwich Albion £1m;
I always think that buying more than 3-4 first-team players in one window creates a lot of turbulence and drags the results down, then by the time manager figures it out it's usually too late. Couple this with loss of Lukaku and Koeman's stubbornness and I think Everton fans will have a rather disappointing season. Prediction: 7th
Liverpool
In:
Mohamed Salah Roma £36.9m;
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Arsenal £35m;
Andrew Robertson Hull City £8m;
Dominic Solanke Chelsea TBD
Out:
Lucas Leiva Lazio £5m;
Divock Origi Wolfsburg £6m loan with January recall clause
Kevin Stewart Hull City £5.4m
We finished 4th last season after flirting with the top spot until January and have undoubtedly strengthened before the season ahead. Salah looks to have provided another dimension – a player who loves running in behind the defensive line – and this has improved not only the attack but midfield as well, as Coutinho can now move into the midfield 3. Can and Henderson now look healthy after playing through injuries for most of last season, Wijnaldum is now fully settled and Ox will provide new energy and competition, so I expect some improvement in midfield compared to last season even without Keita. In defense, I think once the dust settles and pecking order emerges in both full-back positions between Moreno, new boy Robertson, Milner (if the first two fail to convince), Clyne, Trent and Gomez, we should be at least not weaker than before and we might even improve. As everyone here knows, our one real point of weakness in the squad is at CB, where we are just about OK if both Lovren and Matip are fit, but the back-up options are not very convincing. The fitness of Matip and reintegration and form of Coutinho will be key this season. Prediction: 3-4th
Manchester City
In:
Benjamin Mendy Monaco £52m;
Kyle Walker Tottenham Hotspur £50m;
Bernardo Silva Monaco £43.6m;
Ederson Benfica £34.9m;
Danilo Real Madrid £26.5m;
Out:
Kelechi Iheanacho Leicester City £25m;
Nolito Sevilla £7.9m;
Fernando Galatasaray £5.5m;
Aleksandar Kolarov Roma £4.5m;
Pablo Zabaleta West Ham released;
Gaël Clichy released;
Jesús Navas released;
Willy Caballero Chelsea free;
Bacary Sagna released;
City has spent eye-watering £130M upgrading their full-back positions and also improved at GK. Bernardo Silva will add another option in an already crowded attacking midfield. Is that enough? I will go against popular opinion and suggest that big improvement at full-back and a bit more depth at other positions might not necessarily be enough to jump from distant 3rd place to Champions. Like us, they are short of quality at the CB with aging and injury-prone Kompany the only truly reliable defender and they are even more stretched in defensive midfield with Fernandinho pretty much all alone covering for the whole team of attacking midfielders (OK, they also have Delph, but the point stands). I can see them blowing many teams away, but they won't dominate with the consistency of Barca or Bayern. Prediction: 2nd
Manchester United
In:
Romelu Lukaku Everton £75m;
Nemanja Matic Chelsea £40m;
Victor Lindelof Benfica £31m;
Zlatan Ibrahimovic free agent
Out:
Wayne Rooney Everton undisclosed
Last season I predicted that United would struggle to integrate Pogba and Mkhitaryan and that Mourinho had an an unenviable choice between using a tactical formation he distrusts and shoehorning key players into less-than-ideal positions. Unfortunately midway through last season he has already managed to find a working model and then used this summer to fill the 2 key missing spots in that new system with quality players: Lukaku and Matic. Lindelof so far seems like a dud, but Mourinho's defense will be strong regardless; in his defensive system individual qualities of defenders don't matter as much, they just need to be good at following instructions. This United side has a clear model of play, a strong spine and top-class quality in key positions: GK, CM, #10, CF. They are one great winger short of a fully mature Mourinho side and many people were surprised they didn't go for Mahrez on the deadline day – but I think this is because Mourinho has another player in mind to sign in the future and with Mkhiatryan nominally starting on another wing and roaming all over he needs a more conventional winger who will stay on the outside and hug the touchline – like Perisic or Bale, when he plays on the left. Mourinho still has some kinks to work out, but I have to say United look very strong. Prediction: 1st
Spurs
In:
Davinson Sánchez Ajax £42m;
Serge Aurier Paris Saint-Germain £23m;
Fernando Llorente Swansea City £12m;
Juan Foyth Estudiantes £8m;
Out:
Kyle Walker Manchester City £50m;
Kevin Wimmer Stoke City £18m;
Nabil Bentaleb Schalke £16.8m;
For Spurs any improvement was always going to come from the development of their young players rather than transfers. Daniel Levy is as always playing a long-term game and he was not about to open a checkbook in a hurry to "capitalize" on last years title-chasing run, nor has Pochettino demanded that he did by all accounts. They kept their core, shuffled around some defenders and back-ups and that's about it. The only unpredictable factor is the Wembley move, which – despite Pochettino going out of his way to insist otherwise – does seem to have an effect, potentially robbing Spurs of their key strength of home advantage. They will probably lose some points compared to last season because of that, but they also will never fall far away from the pack. Prediction: 4-5th
In:
Alexandre Lacazette Lyon £46m;
Sead Kolasinac Schalke free
Out:
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Liverpool £35m;
Gabriel Valencia £10m;
Kieran Gibbs West Brom £7m;
Lucas Pérez Deportivo La Coruña loan
If not for the general sense of dread around the club and growing doubts about Arsene's
Chelsea
In:
Álvaro Morata Real Madrid £58m;
Tiémoué Bakayoko Monaco £39.7m;
Danny Drinkwater Leicester £35M;
Antonio Rüdiger Roma £29m;
Davide Zappacosta Torino £25.8m;
Willy Caballero Manchester City free
Out:
Diego Costa Atletico Madrid (we'll find out tomorrow)
Nemanja Matic Manchester United £40m;
Nathan Aké Bournemouth £20m;
Asmir Begovic Bournemouth £10m;
First thing we need to acknowledge when talking about Chelsea is that as Champions they didn't need to change all that much – just pad out the squad for the added CL games. They kind of did it in defence and midfield, not so much in attack, but, similarly to Arsenal, I think the main problem has not been the signings, but the lack of trust between Conte and the club's management that's been revealed during this window – it just makes me wonder how long Conte will put up with this. The string of rejections from potential signings (even Llorente and Barkley for fuck's sake!) also has got to sting, however I'm not sure this will transfer into the season once the dust settles. The biggest problem on the pitch for them will be the loss of Diego Costa, who was one of the key drivers of their push to the title and I think much will depend on how Morata settles at the club – if he manages to replace most of Costa's goals Chelsea will be just fine in terms of making top 4 or higher. However even if Morata plays well (so far signs are pretty good) their squad looks a bit thin up top – any injury or loss of form to the likes of Hazard, Pedro or Willian will be painful. Prediction: 3-4th.
Everton
In:
Gylfi Sigurdsson Swansea City £45m;
Jordan Pickford Sunderland £25m;
Michael Keane Burnley £25m;
Davy Klaassen Ajax £23.7m;
Nikola Vlasic Hajduk Split £8m;
Henry Onyekuru Eupen £7m;
Sandro Ramírez Málaga £5.3m;
Wayne Rooney Manchester United undisclosed;
Out:
Romelu Lukaku Manchester United £75m;
Gerard Deulofeu Barcelona £10m;
Tom Cleverley Watford £8m;
Gareth Barry West Bromwich Albion £1m;
I always think that buying more than 3-4 first-team players in one window creates a lot of turbulence and drags the results down, then by the time manager figures it out it's usually too late. Couple this with loss of Lukaku and Koeman's stubbornness and I think Everton fans will have a rather disappointing season. Prediction: 7th
Liverpool
In:
Mohamed Salah Roma £36.9m;
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Arsenal £35m;
Andrew Robertson Hull City £8m;
Dominic Solanke Chelsea TBD
Out:
Lucas Leiva Lazio £5m;
Divock Origi Wolfsburg £6m loan with January recall clause
Kevin Stewart Hull City £5.4m
We finished 4th last season after flirting with the top spot until January and have undoubtedly strengthened before the season ahead. Salah looks to have provided another dimension – a player who loves running in behind the defensive line – and this has improved not only the attack but midfield as well, as Coutinho can now move into the midfield 3. Can and Henderson now look healthy after playing through injuries for most of last season, Wijnaldum is now fully settled and Ox will provide new energy and competition, so I expect some improvement in midfield compared to last season even without Keita. In defense, I think once the dust settles and pecking order emerges in both full-back positions between Moreno, new boy Robertson, Milner (if the first two fail to convince), Clyne, Trent and Gomez, we should be at least not weaker than before and we might even improve. As everyone here knows, our one real point of weakness in the squad is at CB, where we are just about OK if both Lovren and Matip are fit, but the back-up options are not very convincing. The fitness of Matip and reintegration and form of Coutinho will be key this season. Prediction: 3-4th
Manchester City
In:
Benjamin Mendy Monaco £52m;
Kyle Walker Tottenham Hotspur £50m;
Bernardo Silva Monaco £43.6m;
Ederson Benfica £34.9m;
Danilo Real Madrid £26.5m;
Out:
Kelechi Iheanacho Leicester City £25m;
Nolito Sevilla £7.9m;
Fernando Galatasaray £5.5m;
Aleksandar Kolarov Roma £4.5m;
Pablo Zabaleta West Ham released;
Gaël Clichy released;
Jesús Navas released;
Willy Caballero Chelsea free;
Bacary Sagna released;
City has spent eye-watering £130M upgrading their full-back positions and also improved at GK. Bernardo Silva will add another option in an already crowded attacking midfield. Is that enough? I will go against popular opinion and suggest that big improvement at full-back and a bit more depth at other positions might not necessarily be enough to jump from distant 3rd place to Champions. Like us, they are short of quality at the CB with aging and injury-prone Kompany the only truly reliable defender and they are even more stretched in defensive midfield with Fernandinho pretty much all alone covering for the whole team of attacking midfielders (OK, they also have Delph, but the point stands). I can see them blowing many teams away, but they won't dominate with the consistency of Barca or Bayern. Prediction: 2nd
Manchester United
In:
Romelu Lukaku Everton £75m;
Nemanja Matic Chelsea £40m;
Victor Lindelof Benfica £31m;
Zlatan Ibrahimovic free agent
Out:
Wayne Rooney Everton undisclosed
Last season I predicted that United would struggle to integrate Pogba and Mkhitaryan and that Mourinho had an an unenviable choice between using a tactical formation he distrusts and shoehorning key players into less-than-ideal positions. Unfortunately midway through last season he has already managed to find a working model and then used this summer to fill the 2 key missing spots in that new system with quality players: Lukaku and Matic. Lindelof so far seems like a dud, but Mourinho's defense will be strong regardless; in his defensive system individual qualities of defenders don't matter as much, they just need to be good at following instructions. This United side has a clear model of play, a strong spine and top-class quality in key positions: GK, CM, #10, CF. They are one great winger short of a fully mature Mourinho side and many people were surprised they didn't go for Mahrez on the deadline day – but I think this is because Mourinho has another player in mind to sign in the future and with Mkhiatryan nominally starting on another wing and roaming all over he needs a more conventional winger who will stay on the outside and hug the touchline – like Perisic or Bale, when he plays on the left. Mourinho still has some kinks to work out, but I have to say United look very strong. Prediction: 1st
Spurs
In:
Davinson Sánchez Ajax £42m;
Serge Aurier Paris Saint-Germain £23m;
Fernando Llorente Swansea City £12m;
Juan Foyth Estudiantes £8m;
Out:
Kyle Walker Manchester City £50m;
Kevin Wimmer Stoke City £18m;
Nabil Bentaleb Schalke £16.8m;
For Spurs any improvement was always going to come from the development of their young players rather than transfers. Daniel Levy is as always playing a long-term game and he was not about to open a checkbook in a hurry to "capitalize" on last years title-chasing run, nor has Pochettino demanded that he did by all accounts. They kept their core, shuffled around some defenders and back-ups and that's about it. The only unpredictable factor is the Wembley move, which – despite Pochettino going out of his way to insist otherwise – does seem to have an effect, potentially robbing Spurs of their key strength of home advantage. They will probably lose some points compared to last season because of that, but they also will never fall far away from the pack. Prediction: 4-5th
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