Liverpool star Fabinho has hailed the transfer business of the club's Premier League rivals during the summer transfer window - but notably omitted Manchester United from his praise.
Arsenal confirmed the signing of highly-rated Portuguese midfielder Fabio Vieira from FC Porto for a reported fee of £30million plus add-ons. His arrival comes in a busy summer transfer window for the club following on from the additions of Sao Paulo teenager Marquinhos, striker Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City and US goalkeeper Matt Turner. Meanwhile, Arsenal have high hopes of signing City's utility player Oleksandr Zinchenko.
For Tottenham, the £60m signing of Brazil international Richarlison from Everton has been the most eye-catching transfer of a busy summer transfer window so far, with Spurs seeing five players join their first-team squad – including the loan signing of Barcelona defender Clement Lenglet.
Holding midfielder Yves Bissouma has joined in a £26million from Brighton while experienced wide player Ivan Perisic has arrived following the expiration of his contract at Italian giants Inter, while Fraser Forster has joined as a backup goalkeeper after leaving Southampton. Midfielder Pape Matar Sarr has also joined the first-team squad for the first time after his loan spell at Metz ended.
At Chelsea, Raheem Sterling has joined in a £50million transfer including add-ons from Manchester City before Kalidou Koulibaly became the Blues second summer signing after transferring from Napoli in a £33.8million (€40m) deal. Chelsea are also hopeful of signing both Jules Kounde and Prisnel Kimpembe from Sevilla and Paris Saint-Germain respectively this summer.
Liverpool have also been busy in the summer transfer window as they announced the stunning capture of Nunez from Benfica in a deal worth up to £85million before completing the signing of the Portuguese Carvalho, 19, who almost joined the Reds from Fulham in the January transfer window. Calvin Ramsay has also been added the squad after joining the Reds from Aberdeen last month.
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Yet Fabinho has notably neglected to mention United, who have signed Tyrell Malacia, Christian Eriksen and Lisandro Martinez this summer, alongside the arrival of their new boss Erik ten Hag.
Fabinho told The Athletic: "City are obviously the favourites and it’s tough to fight against them to win the Prem.
"You can play one of your best seasons like we did, score more than 90 points and it still doesn’t mean you win the title. We know that if we want to win it we’ll need to be almost perfect. City are always buying new players, always reinforcing their team. This summer was no different with [Erling] Haaland joining them. I think it will be a really good battle with them, but not just them.
" Tottenham have bought some good players, Arsenal too with Gabriel Jesus going there, Chelsea too. Everyone has been reinforcing because everyone wants to beat City. That means the Premier League will be at a really good level this season."
