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Laura Woods: Chelsea’s transfer strategy doesn’t seem planned

Blues transfer strategy nothing like Liverpool, Manchester City or Arsenal’s

Chelsea’s spending this summer does feel very reminiscent of Todd Boehly’s first season at the club.

So many players keep coming through the door – I think they’re up to 35 in two years now! I don’t like to put players down before they’ve kicked a ball but this style of spending does suggest another window where there is potential for a lot of money spent and a lack of direction.

What I’ve always enjoyed about the Jurgen Klopp era at Liverpool, the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City and the way Mikel Arteta operates at Arsenal is that their targets are exactly that: targeted.

The new players fit into a certain system or with a view to making the team play around them. With Chelsea it feels like another spree with no real planning or thought.

City clear favourites for Premier League title

There’s no doubt that Manchester City are still the ones to beat in the Premier League and have been for a very long time.

The muscle memory is there, they know how to do it; be it chasing the title down, defending it, going toe-to-toe with a team or being involved in a three-horse race.

They will always find ways to win and the sale of Julian Alvarez won’t phase them, I don’t think. Pep will have life after Alvarez already mapped out. Every time they sell a top player, the replacement or plan is even better.

Arsenal have been close to the title two years running now and with the heartache will come lessons learnt. I do still think they’re the closest challengers to City.

Can’t see Guardiola as a national coach

I expect this to be Pep’s last season at Manchester City, purely because he has one year left on his contract and there’s been a few reports suggesting he’ll be moving on.

He’s already spent longer in Manchester than he did at both Barcelona and Bayern Munich, and he has already pretty much completed football at the Etihad.

The question now is what would be next if he decided his time was up? He could end up as a national coach somewhere and I’d obviously bite his hand off to manage England.

I can’t see him as a national coach, though. The amount of commitment players need to give to him as well as the dedication and the understanding to learn his ways and his patterns of play. Then there’s the way that his players can start the game in one position and could have played a total of three different positions by the end of the game.

It usually takes a player a season to bed in at City under him. I don’t know how easy that would be to achieve when you only have the players for a limited amount of time – but he’s a genius so I’m sure he’d figure it out!

Arteta will get Arsenal to go again

I can’t even imagine how hard it would have been to pick up those Arsenal players after losing out on the title in back-to-back seasons.

We’ve always discussed Arsenal as this young squad, and they have been, but there’ll be nothing like losing out of two consecutive titles in the manner they have to mature them.

I always go back to Liverpool losing out on the Champions League and then winning it the next year. They done the same with the Premier League – teams and managers do learn a lot in defeat.

Arteta is a special manager. You can see that from the way the players respond to him. I’ve watched him transform Arsenal in the time he’s been there. He is constantly reinventing himself too, not just the team, so I’ve got no doubts he’ll find a way to motivate them and go again.

Keep an eye on Ethan Nwaneri

The Premier League always unearths new stars each and every season and the one I’m hoping will make a real impact this time around is Ethan Nwaneri.

He came off the bench the season before last when he was just 15 and became the Premier League's youngest ever player. Fast forward to today and he’s been heavily involved in pre-season at Arsenal and got an assist against Manchester United in America.

Nwaneri’s a real talent, has great guidance from Arteta and, considering Arsenal haven’t made a huge amount of signings during the transfer window, this could be his season to shine.

The Arsenal fans really like him, so keep an eye out!

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