I am seeing a lot of fans write us off this season due to a “lack of transfer activity” and missing out on Vinicius Jr.

Despite lots of injures last season, we dragged ourselves over the line and won the league. We were also a couple of penalty kicks away from winning the Champions League. This all whilst key players were clearly running out of steam.

We have kept 95% of the league winning squad together. The only key departure being Leandro Trossard, who has been replaced by the exciting Christos Tzolis. The issue of overplaying Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi has also been resolved through the brilliant recruitment of Bruno Guimaraes.

Add in Viktor Gyokeres having a year of Premier League under his belt, Myles Lewis Skelly coming on leaps and bounds, and Eberechi Eze having a year of Mikel Arteta coaching in him. Simply put, we are stronger than we were 12 months ago.

Now let’s look at out rivals…

Pep Guardiola has left Man City. The experienced Bernardo Silva, John Stones and Nathan Ake have also gone. Rodri will be next. That’s not just losing a couple of squad players. it’s losing some of the key leaders of the Pep era, as well as the man himself.

Liverpool have lost Mo Salah. He single handedly won them the league 2 seasons ago. Ibrahima Konate has also gone. Cody Gakpo could be next. Throw in a new manager and Virgil van Dijk being nearly 40 and they could be set for a few years of rebuild.

Then we have Chelsea. They have done what Chelsea do. Sell a lot. Buy a lot. New manager, 11 new players. Their fans will hype them up again. And again it will take new players time to settle, a new manager time to impart new ideas. Building relationships takes time.

Manchester United are an interesting one. Michael Carrick stabilised them last year but how far can he take them? Their midfield still looks weak, and Bruno will need to have another unplayable season for them to compete. Unlike Arsenal, they do not have players who can take the onus of their star man.

So yes, we might not have done the business sow would have wanted (yet). But we are also the only top side not to have lost key players.

Rodri, Salah, Cucerella. These are huge players to lose. Not easy to replace.

We are ready to go again….

Keenos