‘Liverpool’s record-breaking summer has surely made title a formality’

Liverpool were heavy favourites to retain the Premier League crown this season from the moment they won their 20th title at a stroll in the spring.

Arne Slot’s first season as head coach proceeded with Liverpool virtually unchallenged from Christmas onwards, sealing the formalities with four matches left and ending 10 points clear.

Liverpool’s reaction to that was to embark on the biggest summer spending spree in European football history – £415m spent on recruiting a stellar collection of talent.

The previous record was the £400m spent by Chelsea in summer 2023 – and Liverpool would have spent £35m more had a deal for Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi not collapsed as the window closed.

If Liverpool were tipped as champions before this blockbuster outlay, surely title number 21 is now a formality?

It is early to make such a defining judgement, but it is even harder to look beyond Liverpool as champions as the window closes than it was before.

As the window closed on Monday, Liverpool had broken the previous British transfer record – potentially twice. They signed Germany international Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen for an initial £100m, rising to a possible £116m.

Then they blew that out of the water when ending the summer’s biggest transfer soap opera by landing Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak for £125m, which the Magpies say could jump to £130m with add-ons.

Liverpool, top of the Premier League with maximum points from three games, had only one hitch on deadline day, when the Guehi move fell down because the Eagles could not find a suitable replacement.

Liverpool’s other big-money incomings were £69m striker Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt, full-backs Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen and Milos Kerkez from Bournemouth for a combined £70m, along with Italian teenage defender Giovanni Leoni from Parma for £26m plus add-ons.

It amounts to the most concerted and expensive squad strengthening by any team in recent summers, although Liverpool did deal shrewdly with big sales such as Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz, Jarell Quansah, Caoiminh Kelleher and Ben Gannon-Doak, recouping £187m.

Put simply, it is a recruitment drive that looks to have blown Liverpool’s rivals out of the water, irrespective of the ambitious efforts of Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea.

Slot won the title after keeping his powder dry financially a year ago, but he will now be expected to deliver one of the major prizes, namely the Premier League or Champions League, after such unprecedented cash backing.

Arsenal have been the Premier League’s nearly men of late but made their intentions clear to change that narrative with spectacular splashes of their own this summer.

These included, at last, the arrival of a recognised striker in £64m Viktor Gyokores from Sporting in Portugal, plus midfielder Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad for £60m. Then, in a stunning coup, they snatched England international Eberechi Eze as he looked poised to complete a £60m switch from Crystal Palace to Tottenham.

The pressure on Mikel Arteta to break a barren sequence of five years without silverware is now huge. There are no excuses. He must succeed.

It was ominous, however, that Arteta took a cautious approach on Sunday against a Liverpool team who had looked vulnerable during previous wins. The result was another Anfield defeat – leaving the Gunners without a league win there since 2012.

The old doubts could have been banished with a statement result. Arsenal, instead, were too passive.

Manchester City responded powerfully to a poor campaign last time out with a stellar signing to close the window, capturing Paris St-Germain’s Champions League-winning goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

It is tough on James Trafford, who joined City despite lengthy interest from Newcastle United, in the hope of challenging Ederson, only to now be displaced by a superstar.

City also brought in Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan and Rayan Cherki from Lyon – but a stuttering start to the season, with defeats by Spurs and Brighton, suggest some of the flaws that undermined them last season remain.

Manager Pep Guardiola will look to Donnarumma, a hugely significant signing, to provide some much-needed stability.

Chelsea’s revolving door has continued to spin this summer with a flurry of arrivals and departures, but Enzo Maresca still does not have a squad that look capable of challenging for the title, despite their Club World Cup victory.

Joao Pedro brings serious quality in attack after a £60m move from Brighton, while Alejandro Garnacho has a point to prove following his acrimonious £40m exit from Manchester United, but Chelsea have a top-four look rather than a title sheen.

Elsewhere, Newcastle United have been in the headlines almost every day this summer as a result of Isak’s one-man rebellion, the club’s owners finally capitulating to his wishes and lowering their long-touted £150m price tag to pack him off to Anfield.

Manager Eddie Howe has made some smart acquisitions with a new-look attack of Nick Woltemade, signed in a club record deal worth £69m from Stuttgart, and Yoane Wissa, who also had a rebellion of his own before getting a £55m move from Brentford.

These are Newcastle’s wins, along with the £40m deal to bring Jacob Ramsey from Aston Villa and winger Anthony Elanga’s £55m switch from Nottingham Forest.

Howe, however, has suffered a huge loss in match-winner Isak, whose late departure also had a knock-on impact with Newcastle stumping up £55m for Wissa, after starting the bidding at £25m earlier in the summer.

Spurs suffered disappointment when a deal for Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White broke down before Arsenal snatched away Eze, but manager Thomas Frank still has strong new attacking resources in Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons, with PSG’s France striker Randal Kolo Muani, who had been on loan with Juventus, arriving before the deadline.