And those three teams all responded by bringing in new big-name managers this summer in the hope of a quick turnaround.
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On Sunday, Liverpool face Arsenal in the club’s first Premier League match of the season, and ahead of the game, the Reds have received some potentially massive news, which may – in theory – give Jurgen Klopp’s team the upper hand.
“At some stage [the rise in transfer fees] has to stop but as long as football continues to develop and becomes more popular you would say more money will come in”.
There have been Arsenal transfer rumours this summer that have linked the club with at least two of the players that ended up signing for our Premier League rivals Manchester United. “It’s the same problem for both teams”.
“He’s a legend”, Klopp said of Wenger.
The match will take place at the Emirates Stadium in London.
“Mertesacker, Gabriel and Koscielny, who is not ready, are out of the game”. The Gunners kick off their campaign at home tomorrow without the injured duo of Per Mertesacker and Gabriel, while Laurent Koscielny is set to be rested following his worldwide exploits for France at Euro 2016.Wenger is expected to name an inexperienced partnership of Calum Chambers (21) and new signing Rob Holding (20) at centre-half.
Up front, Arsenal will have a makeshift look, too.
Olivier Giroud is 5/1 favourite to open the scoring on Sunday.
Probable XI: Petr Cech; Hector Bellerin, Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Nacho Monreal; Granit Xhaka, Santi Cazorla; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott; Alexis Sanchez. Meanwhile, Daniel Sturridge and James Milner are racing to be fit in time.
Arsenal are in talks to sign German defender Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia, but Wenger stated that he did not expect any more signings before the Liverpool game. “Sometimes it works marvellously very quickly, sometimes it takes time”. For a manger who is so focused on instilling the required fitness and understanding of his high-octane counter-pressing philosophy, that time could be crucial. However, having added Rob Holding for £2m and Takuma Asano for an undisclosed (but nearly certainly peanuts) fee, it appears Arsenal will not be spending anything close to the fee stumped up for Xhaka any time soon.
Arsenal then scored two goals within a minute in the second half.
Prediction: Liverpool may not be at its best at the start of the campaign, but Arsenal’s problems are severe and the atmosphere at the club far from positive. It’s free to play and the best team each week wins £1,500, as well as monthly prize of £4,000 for the best individual. On the field, Arsenal’s makeshift defense may well struggle with an attack that will be full of pace and running.
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“You can still make fantastic buys at a normal, reasonable price, we saw that with N’Golo Kante last season”.
