2009/10 to 2017/18

Arsenal played all nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18 in the Premier League. Their best finish was 2nd, in 2015/16. They won three major trophies: three FA Cups. Over those nine summers they paid £354.2m in transfer fees and took in £247.2m, a net spend of £107m. In 115.football they get City’s £900m instead.

Arsenal spent the decade as the Premier League's most reliable nearly-men. Nine seasons, nine top-six finishes, and never lower than fourth until 2016/17. Second in 2015/16 was as close as it got to a title. The consolation came in the FA Cup, won three times in four seasons between 2013/14 and 2016/17.

The frustration was in the departures. Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Touré left for Manchester City in 2009. Samir Nasri followed in 2011, the same summer Cesc Fàbregas went back to Barcelona, and Robin van Persie joined Manchester United a year later. Mesut Özil (£42.4m) and Alexis Sánchez arrived eventually, but by then the core had been rebuilt twice.

With £900m in the bank in 2009, nobody has to be sold. Keep Fàbregas and van Persie together, add the next Özil years earlier, and that run of thirds and fourths starts to look like a title challenge.