I am certain the reasons socrates gave about Xhaka are correct regarding the struggling to sell part of the equation. But LTG, are we struggling to buy? Tavares came for around £8m, Lokongo arrived for about £10m, and now White is here, with reports saying £50m. £68m spent already, allegedly, with unless I’ve forgotten someone (entirely possible) nobody yet out the door on a permanent deal.

Some of us discussed Arsenal being one of the wealthiest clubs in football a few days ago. We also have one of the richest owners. So we should be able to compete with almost everybody, and outspend the huge majority. I’m not another Swiss Ramble (I only recall ever reading one of his reports) so don’t know the in and outs of where the £68m has come from. The club’s own resources or Kroenke’s?

Perhaps it is the club’s own money, or if it’s KSE’s perhaps it will have to be paid back in due course (maybe with interest). But with his obvious unpopularity and the support for Ek’s takeover bid, as well as wanting to get back into the Champions League, is it feasible Stan is finally putting some of his own money in? If so, does that make Arsenal the latest financially doped club?

If you look Roma have signed 3 players now including the wolves keeper and are being linked with Telles the United defender. They obviously have money but aren’t prepared to spend much on Xhaka ? Why ? because if the fee is 20m plus a 3 year contract the total cost is a 40 million pound commitment for 3 years of Granit *%^@*** Xhaka. I can understand why we wouldn’t get a bite.

I probably didn’t explain myself very well. What I meant was that when we try to sell then clubs ‘haven’t got enough money’ and the market is depressed but when we try to buy then the price goes up with little sign of a depressed market.

Some poor challenges from Chelsea in the first half. Partey has gone off injured and now Tierney in some discomfort after a bad challenge from Zouma. Can someone tell Chelsea it's a friendly?

Can someone tell Arsenal that it’s a friendly. They want to charge £7.99 to watch it.

Plumbing new levels of awfulness. Just seen the Bellerin ‘backpass’ which put us 1-2. Truly horrible.

I didn’t see Partey get injured, did it look bad??

Good game for the neutral but boy our defending is hopeless. Chelsea must have been through on goal 6 or 7 times, mainly due to our poor positional play or individual errors.

Bright spots were Nketiah and Willock when they came on. Tavares and Lokonga looked decent.

Leno is a great shotstopper and brilliant 1v1 but his decisionmaking with the ball at his feet is terrible.

Hard to say, he tried playing for a few minutes after the knock but was eventually taken off. Could've just been a precaution, but there were a number of unnecessarily bad challenges from Chelsea.

Totally agree on Elneny needing to be as far away from the team as possible now. Lokonga must be ahead of him and I think Azeez should be as well.

Holding struggles with a high line and i don’t think he’s good enough to start for a team with top 4 ambitions

Also we’ve still got an absolutely massive squad that still needs quality additions and lots of players to leave. Currently I think we’re battling spurs for 6th

Hi Rich,

I think getting rid of surplus players is the big issue. They are frankly earning more money than they are worth and teams don't want to have to pay a fee and take on board their large salaries. The trouble is we can't just give them away any more than we can magic up interest in them at the fees we are asking.