When it comes to Arsenal's summer transfer windows, the general consensus is that last year's was the 'best', certainly in recent memory as Mikel Arteta outlined his three-step plan in response to missing out on Champions League qualification and Edu Gaspar delivered.
"Obviously the physical aspect is very important," the Spaniard said when speaking to the club's official website. "After five weeks, the players need to get in good shape and the best possible condition to compete at the levels that the Premier League requires. Then mentally, we need to prepare the team with the ideas that we have, with the values that we have, with the ambition that we want to take into the league.
"Third, to get the cohesion of the team right, the understanding of the game, what we are looking for, our game model, our principles, and how we're going to develop that in the next five weeks to get to the Premier League in the best possible stage."
In terms of squad cohesion, getting deals done for Marquinhos, Fabio Vieira, Matt Turner and Gabriel Jesus at the beginning of July was key as aside from the Portuguese playmaker, the Gunners' summer signings all played some part in the first three fixtures of the pre-season schedule.
Then as Oleksandr Zinchenko arrived before the end of July, he was able to feature against Chelsea and Sevilla. As things turned out, all of this was beneficial for Arteta. He had his squad in place before the opener against Crystal Palace on August 5 and the win at Selhurst Park was ultimately the catalyst for a Premier League title challenge.
But fast forward 12 months and there's a strong argument that Arsenal have already eclipsed last summer's 'best' transfer window and that's despite Kai Havertz being the sole signing thus far and with deals in place for Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber to take the club's spending past £200million.
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Assuming the formalities are completed for the latter pair fairly soon, they will be in line to travel with the squad to Germany. Even if they don't feature against Nurnberg on Thursday, there's every chance they'll get some minutes in the USA and in the two remaining pre-season fixtures before the Premier League opener on August 12.
So in that regard, the Gunners are on course to match last year's effort. Although, where this summer trumps last summer's window is the other deals that have been completed such as new contracts for William Saliba, Bukayo Saka, Aaron Ramsdale and Reiss Nelson in the past two months whilst Gabriel Martinelli committed his future to the club back in February.
Furthermore, upon selling Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari to Bayer Leverkusen and Monza respectively, the north London outfit have recouped £27.4m in total across both deals. This is already more than that what they were able to make back last summer (£19m) when Alexandre Lacazette, Matteo Guendouzi, Hector Bellerin, Bernd Leno, Lucas Torreira and Konstantinos Mavropanos were the high-profile departures.
Realistically speaking, the prospect of Arsenal consistently spending north of £200million in future summer windows is slim but what tying down key players to long-term contracts and making significant strides to improving the player sales reputation this summer does is set a new standard from which future windows can be judged against.
What do you make of Declan Rice's value?
