Over the last four seasons, Arsenal have spent more than Chelsea and almost as much as both Manchester City and Manchester United.

A graph put together by The Swiss Ramble, shows that Arsenal have a net spend of £197m. Chelsea’s is ‘only’ £172m, while United’s is £342m and City’s is a whopping £389m.

While we’re not exactly close to spending as much as the Manchester-based clubs, we’re closing the gap and many are probably a little surprised that we’ve overtaken Chelsea in recent years.

Despite this, our accounts all remain in order and our cash balance is £226m – second in the Premier League to Manchester United.

Interestingly, 20% of our spending since 2007 has gone on transfers, while the rest has gone on the likes of repaying debts (13%), tax (3%) and increasing the above cash balance (26%).

As you can see, we’re looking in pretty good shape financially.

Our spending has increased but this is something we’ve all wanted for a long time. We’re now competing and I, for one, am happy to embrace this.