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.

That’s not the case for Arsenal who for the second year in a row have a feeling that if they are ever going to end their title drought it ought to be now; and that makes a home draw against Spurs feel more unsatisfactory than normal.

In reality it was the right result given the balance of the match — and on balance it isn’t a bad result for either side — but on a day when both sets of fans were waiting for their heroes to really stamp their mark on the Premier League table it proved a frustrating experience.

Looking at the title race now there is little to choose between any of the contenders, right the way down from first to fifth, with perhaps Chelsea and Liverpool enjoying the role of dark horses while Arsenal and City search for the consistency that would move them to the next level.

City who spent more than all their rivals at €208m, have strangely lacked a ruthless streak so far, especially at home, while Manchester United (second in the big-spending table) look little better than the misfiring teams of Louis van Gaal and David Moyes despite the arrival of the Special One, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Paul Pogba.

Spurs, who signed cheques for €84m, have gone seven games without a win after this result at the Emirates even though they performed admirably for long periods and had chances to snatch a victory which would surely have ignited their season.

Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to go three at the back, a formation which is growing in popularity since Conte introduced it at Chelsea, looks an interesting development while Arsenal’s strength on the bench — they could bring on Olivier Giroud, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Aaron Ramsey — suggests they will at the very least last the race this time. But that doesn’t mean to say either look convincing contenders.

Tottenham went into this game having failed to score a goal in open play for more than seven hours, and that run continued despite Harry Kane’s second-half penalty.

It must be a concern for Pochettino that his side are so reliant on the striker for goals — during his absence because of injury Tottenham scored only 13 times in 903 minutes, five of them in an EFL Cup tie against Gillingham.

They missed chances again at the Emirates and that lack of cutting edge could seriously hamper their dreams of winning a championship for the first time since 1961.

Arsenal, too, can be guilty of waywardness in the final third but their real issues remain at the back.

The arrival of Mustafi has certainly made a difference but Tottenham still managed to cut through them several times at the Emirates and hit the woodwork twice; no team will arrive in North London without a belief they could score against Wenger’s team.

The overall feeling, as Wenger admitted, was that Arsenal ended the game more disappointed than their rivals.

“Spurs go home happy, we go home and are not happy. We wanted to win the game, but overall it is not mathematically a disaster,” he said.

Not mathematically, no. But the Premier League is crying out for a team to justify the money spent last summer by taking a serious hold on the title race and showing significant improvement in the process.

Arsenal, who go to Manchester United next, can probably claim they have fulfilled the second part of the equation but they haven’t been able to achieve the first.

With a five-way battle for the title ahead and competition growing, it seems nothing is guaranteed, no matter how much you spend.