It does not seem long since we were watching the final of Euro 2024 in Berlin
but the Premier League is back this weekend, and I cannot wait for it to get started again.
Manchester City is still the team to beat but there is a lot of transfer business left to be done,
and it could make all the difference at the top of the table.
There are so many ifs around what could happen before the transfer window shuts on 30 August
but one of them could decide the title race because if
Arsenal sign a top striker then I would back them to go on and win the league.
When Mikel Arteta’s side went so close last season, they had the best defense in the top flight,
conceding only 29 goals in 38 games, but they have just gone out and signed another quality defender, Riccardo Calafiori.
Arsenal: Arteta happy with Calafiori deal
It is the kind of thing City do, when they have got two fantastic center halves then go and bring in a third or fourth,
and it means the Gunners will be strong if anything does happen to Gabriel or William Saliba.
They are looking to bring in another midfielder too, and are in talks about signing Spain’s Mikel Merino from Real Sociedad,
but it is up front that I feel is the one position they can improve and maybe get that crucial extra edge that means they finish first, not second.
Arteta said his team needed to be ‘almost perfect’ in their run-in to beat City to the title last time,
and they almost were. They had one league defeat from the start of 2024, against Aston Villa in April, and that proved to be a killer blow for them.
They are not far away from being a title-winning team and they have the quality already,
but if there is one thing they are missing to become champions, it is a goalscorer.