Transfer dealings

The Summer deadline day has gone and Arsenal was very active in snatching at least 4 new players. The club had to really, after the trauma of the opening weeks of the season! It reminded me of the case where the crowd (fans) wanted blood and the king (Wenger) could only try to appease it, albeit unwillingly. The backbone of the Gunners team is getting major revamp and it will be interesting if that has any incidence on the beautiful football preached by the Gunners maestro

Arteta leaving Everton is a major blow to the Toffees in my opinion. The club or the manager understandably did not want to let their major playmaker leave. I already mentioned that this Everton team will struggle this season and without Arteta, the situation has gone from bad to worse. I won't go as far as point to relegation fears as some analysts have, but there will be many cases during the season where Everton will be a big lay; at least until they can reinforce during the winter transfer window. Such opportunities for backing against them will hopefully be not missed.

Hargreaves switching allegiance to the blue side of Manchester is interesting. There is no doubt that if he's fully fit, he's a very good player. Mancini has no money problems so it is logical for him to take the gamble on Hargreaves. It's a case of if he can play, he will be a great asset to a star-studded squad; if he can't play, so goes the Sheikh's money. Fireworks will be expected if he plays against the Red Devils.

Talking of Man Utd, the fact that they did not move for Sneijder could come back to haunt them. The Dutchman revealed there were talks but nothing concluded out of them. Tom Cleverley has shown glimpses of brilliance but the question is whether he can maintain his progression, his fitness, his high level of play during the whole season. Any failure to do so will extinguish any hopes of the Red Devils topping Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid for the European title.

There's always the January transfer window for clubs to turn their season around in case some transfers did not pan out. But overall, besides the Everton impression, teams in the EPL and in Europe look more or less at the level they have been at in the past weeks.