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Jose Mourinho put the pressure on Arsene Wenger ahead of the new season saying that Arsenal should be competing for the title this term given their outlay.
He claimed Arsenal and Chelsea had spent similar amounts on players over the last three or four years, and challenged anyone who questioned that to “get their calculators out”.
We did exactly that, and the figures more or less back up the Chelsea manager’s claims. Over the past four years, Chelsea have spent £328.7m, and received £205.75m from players sold. That’s a net spend of £122.95m.
Arsenal’s net spend over the same period is £114.7m —including marquee signings Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil — which is just £8.25m less than their London rivals.
However, Mourinho did not point out the figures are skewed by cash received for players he let go when reshaping the squad.
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Chelsea banked more than £105m from the sales of David Luiz, Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku alone. And so far this summer, neither club has set the transfer market alight. Arsenal have invested £10m in Petr Cech and Chelsea’s biggest fee is the £8m paid Stoke for Asmir Begovic, though they are expected to up their bid for Everton’s John Stones to £26m.
