Chelsea really are like the little baby brother who cries for attention, aren’t they? It’s quite amusing, actually. And Morgan Rogers doing his “I’ve joined the biggest club in London” schtick was funny too.

Mate, pull the other one, it’s got bells on. The club you just joined finished 10th, you act more like a trading platform than a football club, and this “we’re bigger than you” nonsense is exactly what you  do when you know it isn’t actually true. You crack on. Everyone knows it isn’t true.

What I will say, is that Arsenal need to ‘crack on’, because even I’m starting to get a bit ‘hmm…’ with our lack of movement. I’m in a few WhatsApp GCs and it does feel like a few groups are starting to get restless. I get it, we’re champions, and we don’t want to just over-pay for players. Arsenal tend to do things ‘the right way’ when it comes to how our club is run; we don’t set up dodgy deals between other sides in financial trouble so we can cook the books. So we have to do it the right way, and that means we cut our cloth accordingly, but it does feel as though the cloth we’re cutting is a little dated. Sure, we’ve got Tzolis to be announced, which will be great, but there needs to be more, because everyone is starting to make their moves.

Or are they?

Let’s have a look at which teams are stronger or weaker at this point – Wednesday 22nd July 2026 – in the transfer Window. I’ll go from top to bottom, based on the Premier League. The biggest club in London will be towards the bottom of this list, for that reason, plus I won’t include every club, as it’ll take me ages.

Arsenal

Trossard out. Let’s say Tzolis is in, because it could get announced any day now. Meslier in. I would call that at best ‘on par’, assume Meslier isn’t replacing Kepa. So we haven’t really shifted the needle there.

Man City

Elliot Anderson in for a crazy fee. Mathys Detourbet (yeha, me either)  in from Troyes. Jeremy Monga in from Leicester. Out has gone John Stones, Nathan Ake and Bernardo Silva. I’d say City are actually weaker at this point.

Man United

Tielemens, Andrey Santos and Karl Darlow. Out has gone Casemiro (who I believe had a decent finish to the season), Rasmus Hjoland and Jadon Sancho. I would say they’ve bumped their midfield up for sure, so you have to say they look a little stronger. But not a ton in my opinion. Plus they won’t be playing one game a week this season I doubt.

Aston Villa

The other club gaming the system, have lost Rogers, Tielemens, but have gained an impressive-looking Manzambi, Joao Gomes from Wolves, as well as Modou Kéba Cissé, who is clearly one for the future. We know we have Saliba out for the start of the season, but they’re missing Amadou Onana after an ACL, so I wouldn’t say they are stronger. Gomes replaces him, does Manzambi replace Tielemens? That’s a tough one. There’s noise about Villa getting Garnacho (of course there is), or even Nicholas Jackson. I don’t think that makes them stronger.

Liverpool

Jeremy Jacquet joins to replace Konate, so there’s a question mark there. Victor Munoz joins from Osasuna as a left winger, but the fee suggests that’s a bit like Tzolis from Genk for us. They’ve lost Konate, Salah and Robertson, so I’d say they’re hardly massively improved.

You then have to go all the way down to 10th to find Chelsea, then 17th to find the Scum. So let’s give them a little sentence or two. Chelsea have signed Rogers (see what self-confessed Chelsea fan Paul Merson feels about that here), Palestri to replace Cucurella, a right winger Geovany Quenda from Sporting for €50million, then a young Brazilian from Corinthians for €10million. They’ve lost Santos to United and Cucurella to Real Madrid. I’m not really sure if, having spent nearly £170 million this summer, they’re even better than the 10th-place finish last season. Xabi Alonso might be a good factor; not being in Europe might help, but to have them as Arsenal’s ‘main’ rivals is, well… a bit weird if you ask me.

Then there’s the Tiny Totts, who have spunked £200million and I would say certainly have improved their team, but then again they nearly got relegated, so that was going to be hard not to.

So having looked at those other six clubs and where we are, whilst we’re all not happy about the lack of movement, I personally am not completely losing my sh*t. However, I think by the end of next week, when we’re knocking on the door of August, if we’re talking about only seeing Tzolis in pre-season training so far, I think it’s fair for some serious questions to be asked. Our kick-off to the season is not an easy one, we will be without key players who went deep into the World Cup, so the club needs to arm Arteta with the tools needed to succeed.

Right, I’ll leave it there, because I need to get out for a run before the day starts to hot up too much and I melt. See you all tomorrow. Be good.