If you were to ask Erik ten Hag about Manchester United's summer transfer business so far, he would be hard-pushed to find too many positives.
The signing of Mason Mount from Chelsea and the arrival of Andre Onana are the two major pros. A deal for Inter's man is good business to replace David de Gea but United still need to address the void which he leaves behind in terms of the club's mentality.
The loss of De Gea is a huge blow and while nobody expected the Spaniard to be first choice next season, his experience in the United squad would have been crucial for the forthcoming campaign. Their pursuit of another striker is continuing to rumble on too with Atalanta's Rasmus Hojlund the top target to add firepower to the Reds' attack.
But, his Serie A club are hopeful of keeping their man and a substantial transfer fee will need to be submitted to purchase him. On top of this, United would still like to depart with several players to help boost their budget but it is currently proving to be a struggle to sell some of their assets.
All this means the Reds will come up against Mikel Arteta's side in position much worse than Ten Hag will have hoped for. Whereas, Arsenal will arrive stronger than they were at the end of last season and will relish in the positives of assembling a squad early doors.
Jurrien Timber, Declan Rice and Kai Havertz have already been added to a young team that did well to challenge Manchester City in the Premier League title race last term. While Ten Hag may have identified targets to improve his squad in a similar fashion to Arteta, the Dutchman has been let down by several factors out of his control including the ongoing takeover saga.
However, a wake-up call is just around the corner Stateside and it will soon become clear how much work needs to be done to get this squad ready for the Premier League title race. If nothing else, Saturday's fixture will show exactly how far off the title challengers United are and could force the recruitment team's hand with less than four weeks until the season starts.
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