Chelsea and Arsenal must spend big or they can kiss goodbye to their title chances
Gunners have made just two major summer signings whilst Chelsea have lost six of their title-winning side
SIR ALEX FERGUSON always said you have to strengthen when you are at your strongest.
If his Manchester United side won the Premier League, Fergie used to sign two or three top players in the summer just to freshen things up.
That is how you stay at the top for a sustained period of time.
At Blackburn, when we won the title in 1995, we did not strengthen and were made to pay with a seventh-place finish the following year.
I fear Chelsea might have made the same mistake this summer.
Yes, they have signed some good players in Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoue Bakayoko, but they started yesterday’s Community Shield without any of them.
And they have also let six of last season’s title-winning squad leave, including John Terry and Nemanja Matic, with Diego Costa seemingly soon to join them.
There is no doubt they look short, which showed in yesterday’s penalty shootout defeat to Arsenal.
What doesn’t help is the fact that their best player, Eden Hazard, is set to miss the start of the season due to a fractured ankle.
Chelsea have 13 or 14 very good players who will match anyone. But with Champions League football this season, they are going to need more than that if they want to compete on all fronts.
They would need a lot of luck with injuries to get through the campaign and be successful with the squad they have at the moment.
I think they still need at least two or three new additions between now and the end of the transfer window.
With last season’s top scorer Costa set to depart, how the Blues fare this year will also largely depend on the form of Morata and Michy Batshuayi.
Neither were particularly impressive at Wembley and, when Costa does go, they will be the only two recognised central strikers at the club.
The Blues paid a lot of money for Batshuayi last summer and he had a positive end to the season, which should stand him in good stead this time around.
But it’s still a big ask for him or Morata — whose confidence was hardly helped by missing a penalty in yesterday’s shootout — to replace the goals Costa has scored for Chelsea in the past three years.
I also really don’t understand why they sold Matic.
One, they’ve let him go when Bakayoko is not yet fit. And two, they have let him join a title rival.
Away from Chelsea’s woes, I am no more optimistic about Arsenal’s hopes this season. It’s nice for them that they won yesterday — another trophy following their FA Cup success over the same opposition in May.
But I still don’t think it gives them any advantage, psychological or otherwise, over Chelsea in the league.
And it will hardly stop any criticism that will come towards manager Arsene Wenger and Arsenal if they stutter midway through the season.
One positive I think they can take from the Wembley game is the performance of Alexandre Lacazette.
He looked sharp, his link-up play was good and the ball stuck to him.
The Frenchman will give them something different this season, going in behind, with a bit of pace.
But Lacazette and yesterday’s goalscorer, Sead Kolasinac, are their only two signings this summer.
That is not enough for the Gunners if they want to be challenging for the title, which is ultimately what their supporters want.
It is also going to be interesting to see how the situation regarding Alexis Sanchez plays out. Arsene is adamant that his star man is staying. But if you are the Arsenal board, and you see that a player worth more than £50million could leave for nothing next summer, that must be very hard to take.
Still, even if Sanchez does stay, I don’t see Arsenal winning the league.
They will have their brilliant moments again, as they have had for a long time.
But I don’t see them being able to sustain that for a whole season.
Watching on this summer, it looks like there might have been a power shift from London to Manchester.
We talk about Chelsea and Arsenal not strengthening enough but last season’s second-placed side Tottenham have not signed anyone yet.
They fell short last year yet they have done nothing to try to rectify that.
Meanwhile, both Manchester United and Manchester City have splashed out millions to try to wrestle the title back.
City hired Pep Guardiola to win the Champions League and the Premier League, so he has to claim some silverware this season.
And I think they will be battling it out with United for the title come May.