On August 23, England's legendary striker Alan Shearer updated his personal column, reassessing Arsenal's summer transfer window and discussing Chelsea striker Delap's future.

Arsenal still lacks a top-class striker

It's been just over a month since the World Cup, but the wait has felt long enough. I think we all love football, and a month without a match really is too long. So I'm very much looking forward to the new Premier League season getting underway.

I genuinely hope this season will be even more exciting than last season, because I felt last season was a bit dull, and I'm hoping this year will have plenty of highlights. Many aspects are unpredictable, but I believe the Premier League will witness genuinely fierce competition.

Many clubs have invested heavily this summer, and I think Arsenal's summer transfer activity has been quite good; perhaps they haven't achieved all of their objectives. They've been very sharp, clearly know what they need, and in my view, they've completed 95% of their business.

However, I still feel Arsenal lacks a top-class striker—perhaps not to completely dominate the Premier League, but to consistently compete for titles in the coming years. I don't know whether they tried to sign Alvarez, but signing a world-class striker may be on their radar.

Overall, Arsenal's summer signings have been very good; bringing in Guimarães and some other players are solid deals. Arsenal now have a squad capable of competing on four fronts. Even Saka has stayed, playing a key role in matches and performing particularly excellently in midfield.

Martinelli will add extra strength to the team. I heard Arteta say he contacted Premier League officials, hoping to expand the squad list for match days so he could have more players on the bench. However, I don't support this approach. The big clubs already have enough resources, and they want to expand their squad list and can afford to pay for a larger squad, but clubs like Aston Villa and Newcastle United, unfortunately, cannot do so due to financial restrictions, so I don't support this approach.

But overall, this shows just how strong Arsenal are and will continue to be in the future. I think they've had an excellent summer transfer window, and I believe they are again Premier League title contenders.

Delap needs to make an important decision

I think Delap joining Chelsea wasn't a wise decision in itself, because simply put, he cannot be a regular starter there. It would be far better if he could move to another Premier League club where he could get regular playing time, gain more experience, and have more minutes on the pitch.

Delap's next transfer is crucial. But I think the decision he needs to make now is perhaps the decision he should have made before joining Chelsea. As a result, he's wasted a valuable year of learning unnecessarily. But there's no doubt about it—he has talent, as we saw at Ipswich; the question is whether he can truly fulfill his potential.

For him, this will be a very important transfer and a crucial year, because he needs to play. Clearly, that's not possible at Chelsea. So wherever he goes, I hope to see a much-improved Delap this season.

Wherever he goes, first and foremost, he needs to be able to play and play regularly, though this will be difficult given he didn't play much last season and will certainly be frustrated. I don't think he'll move to one of the Premier League's "Big Six" clubs, so I think he could join a mid-table club with a chance of competing for European qualification. For example, clubs like Aston Villa or Newcastle United; it all depends on how much Chelsea wants as a transfer fee.

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