Matt Law

The natural reaction is to gulp when the valuation of a Chelsea player becomes public knowledge. Liam Delap, £50m? You are having a laugh.

It is not always particularly significant when a manager says his player can be one of the best in the world.

Fulham, Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town are not the sort of company Chelsea want to be keeping this season. But it is the defensive records of those three clubs that are comparable to Xabi Alonso's side.

As recently as March, a giant mural of Estêvão Willian appeared on the side of a building outside Stamford Bridge as the teenager threatened to become Chelsea's number one poster boy.

As recently as March, a giant mural of Estêvão Willian appeared on the side of a building outside Stamford Bridge as the teenager threatened to become Chelsea’s number one poster boy.

This is how champions are supposed to play and, although the Arsenal home support have not seen a team defend their place at the apex of English league football for two decades, they knew it when they saw it.

Mykhailo Mudryk has been hit by a major setback in his attempt to rebuild his career on loan at Tottenham Hotspur after suffering an ankle injury.

Mauricio Pochettino has claimed that Chelsea should be stripped of their 2017 Premier League title and that it should be awarded to Tottenham Hotspur.

Chelsea received two written transfer requests from Enzo Fernández during an extraordinary saga in which the club were told that the midfielder's relationship with all his team-mates was broken.

Roberto De Zerbi, the Tottenham Hotspur head coach, has insisted he has no regrets over his handling of Richarlison's situation and cryptically claimed “we cannot forget the last 45 days”.