Premier League 2017/18: How are the ‘big teams’ shaping up before the kick off?

PL
Kolkata:
After a gap of nearly 2 months, the best football league of the world, the English Premier League is all start from tomorrow with London giants Arsenal kick starting with Leicester City at the Emirates stadium. All the teams have strengthened their squad to fight for the title. Here we take a look at how the big five of the league has utilized the transfer market.

Arsenal: The Reds of London are the recent champions of the prestigious FA Cup and the FA Community shield which they won last Sunday against rivals Chelsea. Coach Arsene Wnger and the club have been quite busy in the Transfer Window when they made a record signing of centre forward Alexandre Lacazette from Olympique Lyon for £47.70m. On a free transfer from Fc Schalke they also bought left back Sead Kolasinac and right back Joel Campbell on a loan from Sporting CP.
Goalie Wojciech Szczesny who ended his loan spell at AS Roma was sold to to Juventus of £10.98m while centre forward Yaya Sanogo was sold to Ligue 1 side Toulouse on a free transfer.

Chelsea: The Premier League Champions of the last season was very busy in the transfer market when they made some star signings. The Blues bought Alvaro Morata for £58.50m from Real Madrid, Tiemoue Bakayoko from Monaco for £36.00m and Antonio Rudiger for £31.50m from AS Roma. Along with them, the London club also bought many players on loan.

Midfielder Nemanja Matic was sold for £40.23m to Manchester United, while Nathan Ake was sold to Bournemouth for £20.52m while Juan Cuardado was sold to Italian giants Juventus for £18.00m

Liverpool: The Merseyside side Reds remained trophy-less the previous season; however they kept remained pretty busy in the transfer window when they bought right winger Mohamed Salah from AS Roma for £37.80m. They also bought left back Andrew Robertson from Championship side Hull city. As per departures are concerned they sold Lucas Leiva, Kevin Stewart and Andre Wisdom.

Manchester City: The ‘Noisy Neighbours’of Manchester made some unbelievable signings as they made every attempt to strengthen their defence. After spending £160.50m on only defence the team looks entirely set to become a serious threat to achieve the crown and also make some mark in the UEFA Champions League.

Left back Benjamin Mendy was bought for 51.75m from Monaco while right back Kyle Back was bought for 45.9m from Spurs. Goalie Ederson was bought for 36m while right back Danilo was bought for 27m

As for those who departed, a star would be young forward Kelechi Iheanacho who moved to Leicester for 24.93m. Centre forward Enes Unal moved to Villerreal CF for 12.6m while Nolito left for Sevilla for 8.10m

Manchester United: The ‘Red Devils’ who were the champions of last season’s UEFA Europa League looked all set to increase their firepower when they signed Everton’s big man Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian striker moved to the Manchester side for a whooping sum of £76.23m. They also signed midfielder Namanja Matic from Chelsea for £40.23m and central defender Victor Lindelof for £31.50m from Benfica.

Club’s record highest goal scorer Wayne Rooney departed from the club when he joined Everton on a free transfer. Right winger Adnan Januzaj was sold for £7.65m to La Liga side Real Sociedad. Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Timothy Fosu-Mensah were sent on loan.

Apart from these big five, there are a few underdog teams who were busy in the window.

Everton: The Merseyside Blues or the ‘Toffees’ were on a mission to bolster their squad and they did it by signing defender Michael Keane for £25.65m, galie Jordan Pickford for £25.65m, attacking midfielder Davy Klaassen from Ajax for £24.30m and United’s all time record goal scorer Wayne Rooney.

As for the exits are concerned a big loss would be star forward Romelu Lukaku and left winger Gerard Deulofeu who went back to Barcelona for £10.80m.

Leicester City: The ‘Foxes’ who were the League champions of the season 2015-16 failed to register their spot in the top 10 last season will look to provide some serious competition for the top stars. Kelechi Iheanacho was the top buy when the 20 yr old striker moved from Manchester to the Liberty Stadium for £24.93m. They also bought midfielder Vincent Ibbora and defender Harry Maguire.