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Phil Thomas

Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton… one got Drinkwater, the next got drink-driver and the third are simply turning to drink, with another season that promised bubbly and delivered cheap cider

Another transfer window come and gone... another that leaves Emirates supporters both fuming and utterly flummoxed

IT’S the post-transfer window question that has got football fans across the land grinning knowingly – or ordering another pint to drown their sorrows.

What’s the difference between Chelsea, Everton and Arsenal?

 Chelsea signed Danny Drinkwater on deadline day...
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Chelsea signed Danny Drinkwater on deadline day...Credit: Instagram, @chelseafc
 ...Everton brought in "drink-driver" Wayne Rooney this summer...
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...Everton brought in "drink-driver" Wayne Rooney this summer...

One got Drinkwater, the next got drink-driver…the third are simply turning to drink, at the prospect of another season that promised bubbly and delivered cheap cider.

Another transfer window come and gone, and another transfer window that leaves Emirates supporters both fuming and flummoxed.

Still, in times of crisis, at least you can rely on Arsenal for something.

Ladies and gents, the foot-in-your-mouth, wrong comment at the wrong time award goes to…

Not Arsene Wenger’s frankly ludicrous insistence that Alexis Sanchez will be 100 per cent committed to the cause this season.

Compared to the utterances of chief executive Ivan Gazidis, Wenger’s becomes a statement of fact.

 ...while Arsenal brought yet another sense of optimism only to come crashing down early
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...while Arsenal brought yet another sense of optimism only to come crashing down earlyCredit: PA:Press Association

For Gazidis – and it’s difficult to believe he kept a straight face when saying this – has insisted Arsenal had a good transfer window.

He is adamant they have emerged from it stronger and with greater strength in depth.

Convinced that they have proved it isn’t all about the money.

If he’d said it isn’t all about the glory, it would have been more realistic.

True, signing Alexander Lacazette and Sead Kolasinac added quality. Although if Wenger doesn’t pick them, that’ll count for little.

Yet selling Alex Oxlade-Chamblerlain, to a Liverpool side many see as their biggest challengers for the top four?

 Arsenal have endured a horror start to the 2017-18 season under Arsene Wenger
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Arsenal have endured a horror start to the 2017-18 season under Arsene WengerCredit: Reuters
 Arsenal were thumped 4-0 at the hands of Liverpool in their last game
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Arsenal were thumped 4-0 at the hands of Liverpool in their last gameCredit: Rex Features

Losing Gabriel, Kieran Gibbs and Lucas Perez, none of them vital, but all of whom would have had parts to play in a squad that isn’t the biggest?

It makes Gazzette dello Sport’s claims that Arsenal had the worst transfer window of any of Europe’s leading sides more realistic than Gazidis’ tosh.

And that’s without considering the fact that Sanchez – distraught at missing out on a move to Manchester City – has now apparently picked up an ankle injury on duty for Chile.

If he recovers to face Bolivia tomorrow, what odds on him aggravating it and having to sit out Saturday’s game with Bournemouth?

But never mind Sanchez’ itchy feet. Ignore the social media row created by another last-year-of-his contract star in Mesut Ozil’s digs at all and sundry.

As far as Gazidis is concerned, keeping both was a “clear statement of our ambitions,” and they “have the quality to compete for the title.”

 Arsene Wenger must be wondering why he opted to stay on at the club
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Arsene Wenger must be wondering why he opted to stay on at the clubCredit: Rex Features

Really Ivan? The team which has lost two of its three games this season?

The team which needed a get-out-of-jail, last second goal for the solitary – many would argue undeserved – opening win over Leicester?

The club which can’t – or won’t - sign players, can’t get those already there to commit to new deals, and lets some of those players simply slip through its fingers?

Never mind random drugs tests for players. Any more comments like that from Gazidis, and they’ll introduce them for club owners and officials too.

No wonder chairman Sir Chips Keswick admitted he preferred horse racing, after his horse Double Treasure added another £7,000 or so to his £1.7bn fortune at Newton Abbott on Saturday.

To be honest, at this moment in time he probably prefers tiddlywinks and dominoes as well.



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