Man City may have Liverpool and Arsenal reprieve after transfer wars

Manchester City have had their feet up this month while their two biggest rivals for the Premier League have travelled far for their pre-season obligations

Liverpool train in Tokyo this week

At least nobody can expect Manchester City to walk to the Premier League title this season. Nobody should ever have done, but six crowns in seven years gave the illusion that everything was easy for Pep Guardiola's side.

That fantasy was shattered last year as City struggled for months to find their form before finally scraping into third place at the end of a bruising campaign, firmly behind champions Liverpool and second-placed Arsenal. The reputation that City had built up over many year had taken a pummelling.

The board reacted, signing five new players for the squad this summer in addition to young talent Sverre Nypan and on top of a £175m spend in January. Vitor Reis will head out on loan for the season but Abdukodir Khusanov, Nico Gonzalez and Omar Marmoush add to the feeling of change at the Etihad.

Liverpool and Arsenal have not sat still though. Some of the most aggressive transfer windows seen by both this summer have seen significant strengthening to their existing groups, with Florian Wirtz's £100m arrival on Anfield in danger of being overshadowed by a sensational move for Alexander Isak while Arsenal have finally bagged the striker it was always claimed would complete them on top of a number of quality additions.

That doesn't appear to have done City any favours, and the scheduling for the summer certainly didn't look to have. Their break was interrupted early for a Club World Cup that many fear will have an adverse impact on the health of the players over the next 12 months.

“I try not to think about it, otherwise I will be so anxious,” Guardiola said in June. “We will rest the time the Premier League allows us to. And game by game, month by month, we will see.

"And maybe in November, December, January, ask me, Pep. I may say: ‘So listen, we are a disaster. We are exhausted. The World Cup destroyed us.’ I don’t know."

Not long after that though, City were eliminated. Al Hilal dumped them out in the last-16 to unexpectedly end their hopes of silverware (and even more money) and free up July in their calendars.

Nobody knows what good it will do, but the players have had four weeks off before returning to training to mean in total they have enjoyed more rest than they normally would. And while they have been resting, their two main rivals have been sweating.

City racked up the air miles travelling to the United States, but both Liverpool and Arsenal have done more with their pre-season tours to the Far East. It has not been easy in sweltering conditions on trips that are at least as much about commercial opportunities as they are the good of the players.

There is not long left to wait to see if City have closed the gap at the top, with a trip to the Emirates among the first five league fixtures of the season for Guardiola. Considering expectations going into the summer, despite the transfer wars that have been waged they look to be in a healthier position than they could have been.

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