Arsenal legend Ray Parlour believes rivals will be believing that they can beat Manchester City to the Premier League title next season due to some significant departures in the playing squad.

Captain Ilkay Gundogan has already left the Etihad to join Barcelona, while Bernardo Silva has been heavily linked with a switch to Paris Saint-Germain and Parlour told JBI Training that it could give his former club, the Gunners, hope they can finish top next season:

“I’m hoping Arsenal can stop Manchester City from retaining their title. They are the big favourites to win it, which I understand because they have so much quality in their squad.”

“It looks like they will be a couple of midfielders short. Gundogan has joined Barcelona and there [are] a lot of rumours about Bernardo Silva leaving, which would be a big loss for them.”

You would back City to bring in reinforcements

Parlour is right to point out that the treble winners could be considerably weaker in midfield if they don’t invest in the transfer market this summer.

However, it is clear that Pep Guardiola’s side are willing to splash the cash based on the £80m (plus £10m in add-ons) bid they made for West Ham captain Declan Rice last month.

Signing a centre-back is the club’s priority

It does appear as if City’s main focus currently is recruiting Josko Gvardiol, and it could be a club record fee for a defender, with his club RB Leipzig demanding around €100m (£85m).

Even if the Premier League champions do manage to get a deal over the line for the Croatian international, though, strengthening the midfield is something that will have to be looked at.

Mateo Kovacic has already been brought in from Chelsea but fans would be hoping for at least one more addition in that area of the pitch before the window shuts in August.