But he was tipped to lose his place to compatriot Marquinhos at PSG and has returned to Stamford Bridge for a reported fee of around £32 million.
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Chelsea spent almost £60m on the final day of the window, including £34m on former defender Luiz and £23m on left-back Marcos Alonso from Fiorentina.
Alcacer, who turned 23 on Tuesday, joined Barcelona from Valencia in a 30 million euros, five-year deal, the Catalan side announced.
Perhaps it is a sign of the times that the once great hope of English football, with more than 150 games for Arsenal and some 34 senior worldwide caps should be farmed out on loan rather than trying to battle for his place and drive the Gunners on towards a sustained title bid.
Tottenham also signed France Under-21 winger Georges-Kevin Nkoudou from Marseille for £11 million, with Cameroon forward Clinton Njie going the other way on a season’s loan.
Offloading top earners is tough with the wealthier parent clubs, like Manchester City, often having to subsidize the wages for a player on loan.
Manchester City’s out-of-favour England goalkeeper Joe Hart was set to complete a move to Torino in Italy.
Wilfried Bony pitched up at Stoke City, French centre-back Eliaquim Mangala signed for Valencia and defender Jason Denayer joined Sunderland.
Fees paid by Premier League clubs passed one billion pounds ($1.31 billion) for the first time, according to financial analysts Deloitte, and local media said Bundesliga clubs have spent over 500 million euros ($557.40 million), another record.
English champions Leicester City broke their transfer record with the £29.7 million capture of Sporting Lisbon’s Algerian striker Islam Slimani, who agreed a five-year contract.
There were 330,000 tweets about him, followed by Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere, who was sent out on loan to Bournemouth. Liverpool has offloaded Mario Balotelli to French club Nice, two years after signing the troubled striker.
Another England worldwide, Jack Wilshere, was hoping to tie up his future with a loan move to Bournemouth, after Crystal Palace also confirmed their interest in him.
“This, when considered with a new overall spending record, as well as the fact this summer saw a new record for the highest fee paid for a player by any English club, are further indicators of the ever-increasing purchasing power of the Premier League”.
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Over the next three years, the Premier League will make 8.3 billion pounds ($10.9 billion) from broadcasters eager to televise the most unpredictable of Europe’s top leagues – a windfall that has risen 70 percent since the last set of three-season deals.
