Arsene Wenger is not given to tub-thumping, so when he steps out of character, we do well to listen. ‘When you look at the top-quality players that come into the Premier League, we have all the best attacking players in Europe here,’ he said last week. ‘The big clubs here have huge financial potential and offensive power. All the best players play here.’ As the point sinks in, you find yourself ticking lists: Manchester United have signed Radamel Falcao and Angel di Maria to play alongside Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie. Chelsea have bought the prolific Diego Costa, Liverpool secured the tempestuous Mario Balotelli to contest his place with Daniel Sturridge and Rickie Lambert, Arsenal have signed Alexis Sanchez, while Manchester City gladly settled for Edin Dzeko, Stevan Jovetic and Sergio Aguero, who may just be the best of the lot.
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Premier League has plenty of top strikers like Chelsea's Diego Costa
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But there is a dearth of quality centre backs in the division
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Very few English central defenders are coming through
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Across world football, there aren't many top-class central defenders
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Frank Lampard needs to get over himself with his non-celebration
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It's no surprise that FIFA have rejected calls to publish their own report into alleged corruption in the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups
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Mike Ashley's 'tongue-in-cheek' assessment of Alan Pardew was no joke
He joined them because @placeholder decided that they no longer needed him.