Is Cech the signing of the summer for Arsenal or will Arsene look to strengthen again?

The long-awaited transfer of Petr Cech from Chelsea to Arsenal was finally done

It's early days yet, but somehow it still feels like we've opened all the birthday presents without quite getting what we hoped for. ?ech will be a master-class addition, I'm sure, but I can't resist the notion that he's meant to be that one signing that defines the summer transfer window.

Last year, it was Alexis; the year before it was Özil. Buying from Real Madrid, then Barcelona, and then Chelsea surely has to count for something, right? They're three of the most rapacious clubs around, after all.

While ?ech's transfer-fee might not compare to those of Alexis or Özil, his weekly wage packet does. At £100k per week, he'd be in our top-five most-expensive players, behind Özil, Alexis, and Walcott. Will he then become our marquee signing of the summer?

?ech will be, after all, the fourth-most expensive player in the squad, costing the club some £7.8m a year in wages and amortisation (his transfer fee spread over the length of the contract: £5.2m a year in wages plus £2.5m a year resulting from the £10m transfer fee being spread over the contract's four years).

For comparison's sake, Özil costs £16.3m, Alexis £13.8m, and Welbeck £9.2m. ?ech might add twelve to fifteen points if John Terry is to be believed. Will that be enough to rein in Mourinho's Little Pony, or will we have to continue to buttress and upgrade?

After all, the maths are remarkably simple, at least as far as the table is concerned. We finished twelve points behind Chelsea. If we take Terry at his word, Cech's arrival on its own should be enough to see us finish level on points with Chelsea.

If I may add a corollary to Terry's treatise, it's logical to assume that Courtois will drop at least a point if not more without the challenge of ?ech on the bench. On its face, then, the signing of Petr is the rock on which Arsenal builds its campaign. Done. Dusted. There's nothing else to do but play out the season and let the cold, hard maths to which football has been reduced play out.

Other targets

It's hard to resist a certain sinking sensation as we hear stories of other desirables landing elsewhere. Kondogbia traded guaranteed Champions League play with AS Monaco for the hinterlands of Inter (eighth place in Serie A) over a move to Arsenal.

Vidal looks likely to join Real Madrid after failing to defeat Barcelona in the Champions League. Schneiderlin seems to be using us as a pawn in his chess match with Manchester United (who have yet to qualify for the Champions League group stage).

Have we missed out on the action, or are we playing a dangerous waiting game? While it might be true that Coquelin will address many of our needs in the defensive midfield, we still face a glaring question up top.

While Giroud has shown that he can deliver (and outperform his £8.4m transfer fee), we do still need someone who can compete it not out-perform him. The biggest names being floated are Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuaín.

However, each would command a transfer fee upwards of £35m. Without worrying about weekly wages, would either of them prove to be four times as good as Giroud has been? Unlikely.

Twice as good? It's a possibility. Benzema and Higuaín have each benefit(ted) from Real Madrid's profligacy, which means that their statistics (and salaries) have been inflated by playing for such flat-track bullies (the same might be said for Özil and Ángel di María).

On one hand, signing Cech inspires all sorts of splashy headlines. After all, it's not every day that someone leaves Chelsea for Arsenal. If anything, it's the other way 'round. On the other hand, we have to wonder if this will stand as our "signal of intent" or if we'll see other business before the transfer window closes.