Chris Hatherall: We’ve a five-way Premier League title battle on our hands

There was over €1.3bn spent in the summer transfer market by Premier League clubs this summer but, other than squeezing interlopers Leicester out of the race, it doesn’t seem to have provided us with a clear favourite for the title in 2017 — and Arsenal certainly didn’t look ready to claim that mantle in the North London derby.

The Gunners, who spent €115m to strengthen their squad, are clearly better for it and a 1-1 draw means they remain unbeaten since the opening game of the campaign; but nevertheless Arsene Wenger’s side wasted a chance to go top of the table and missed a big opportunity to stamp their authority on a race which, 11 games into the campaign, remains anyone’s to win.

This result came 24 hours after Manchester City managed to follow up a Champions League victory over Barcelona with a stuttering 1-1 draw against Middlesbrough and so the advantage right now lies with rampant Liverpool and Antonio Conte’s Chelsea who, after performing so badly last season, are ironically under less pressure than their rivals.