Premier League's lesser lights flex financial muscle on transfer deadline day

The shifting sands of the Premier League moved yet again on Transfer Deadline Day as the big six opted to ‘stick’ while those below them continued to spend and flex their new-found muscles.

For fans of Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and even Chelsea and Tottenham, it was a quiet 24 hours with not a single player brought in; and instead the likes of Stoke City and Everton showed why the difference between the bottom four and top four is closing at a rate never seen before.

This is a season that has already seen clubs as small as Bournemouth sign the kind of players only available to the Premier League elite in days gone by and on deadline day it was Stoke who spent the most, paying nearly €24m, a club record, for defensive midfielder Giannelli Imbula from Porto.