Chelsea transfers show they have a ‘curse of big money’, unlike Man City

The two most successful English clubs of recent times meet this weekend as the Premier League returns with a vengeance.

Chelsea travel to Manchester City hoping to curb the momentum of the league leaders and reignite the title race.

City have been unstoppable of late, winning their last 11 successive top-flight games to build a ten-point lead at the top of the table.

However, they face a Chelsea who are confident after dispatching Tottenham in two games to reach the Carabao Cup final.

It’s going to be an intriguing match with some of the most expensive players in world football battling it out at the Etihad, live on talkSPORT.

However, in terms of money spent, City and Chelsea’s success in the market have followed very different trajectories.

Both clubs have spent huge amounts, but for Chelsea, their business has strangely shown that the more expensive they are, the less successful the signing.

Lukaku ranks first as the most expensive player to enter the club after he joined for a £97.5m fee last summer, but he did his best to make an enemy upon his return as he admitted he was “unhappy” with his situation and criticized how he was being used by Thomas Tuchel.

Kai Havertz is next on the list, and while he will forever hold legendary status for his Champions League final-winning goal, the jury is still out in private on the £72m German.

Before that, Kepa Arrizabalaga’s unanimous flop held the title as Chelsea’s most expensive flop.

The Spaniard arrived for £70m, but a series of poor performances under Frank Lampard saw him quickly exiled from the first XI.

Álvaro Morata, Christian Pulisic and Fernando Torres complete the six most important signings for Chelsea and all three, as we know, have been disappointed after their big moves, but the American has time to fix things.

But a little further down the list, Jorginho, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell and Mateo Kovacic have been mostly hits apart from a few mistakes by Werner.

Next comes Andriy Shevchenko.

The Ukrainian cost £30m and was one of the world’s best goalscorers at AC Milan but, like many Chelsea strikers over the years, he somehow lost his touch in front of goal on arrival.

Then you get to the cheap buys and some of them have been shown to be absolute pennies.

The recent signing of Edouard Mendy is perhaps the best of all.

The 6ft 5in goalkeeper arrived from Rennes for a modest £22m, and no one could truly say he had any idea if he was any good or not.

Watched by Petr Cech, Mendy has now achieved similar feats to the legendary Czech in just under two seasons at Stamford Bridge.

Olivier Giroud and Pedro were shrewd acquisitions and brought great value in West London, while we all know that some of the club’s most valuable players now – Mason Mount, Reece James and Andreas Christensen – came from the academy for free.

Cesc Fabregas was signed for just £25m when he was arguably at the height of his powers, and the same can be said for N’Golo Kante, who has a case to make that he was the heist of the century at just over £30m. of pounds sterling.

Meanwhile, Thibaut Courtois, Cesar Azpilicueta and Gary Cahill, notably, all cost a combined £22m and contributed to numerous West London titles.