Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, and Manchester United all aggressively pursued new hires during the offseason with varied degrees of success as they try to close the gap on Manchester City and Liverpool at the top of the Premier League.
If any of the four are to stand a chance of competing with champions City and stalwart contender Liverpool in the title chase, they all have very little room for mistake.
But even if the top two continue to distance themselves, another close competition is anticipated for the final two lucrative Champions League spots.
AFP Sport examines how the race for the top four is progressing.
The Chelsea
Blues manager Thomas Tuchel has shown indications of feeling the pressure during his club's frenetic summer. Tuchel is tasked with making sure Chelsea's new era gets off to a flying start.
As part of the Stamford Bridge "house-cleaning," that also included the dismissal of all of former owner Roman Abramovich's lieutenants, Tuchel was given more authority as the German worked with new co-owner Todd Boehly to restructure his team.
Initial reactions have been varied, with Boehly toying with the idea of signing Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo before Tuchel balked at the idea of managing the volatile player.
After moving from Manchester City for £47.5 million ($57.8 million), Raheem Sterling became Chelsea's first acquisition of the Boehly era. However, the England international has been the only addition to the attack, and Tuchel now appears to be in danger of starting the season without a natural striker after Romelu Lukaku was returned to Inter Milan on loan.
Instead, Chelsea has concentrated on finding replacements for lost center backs Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger, who joined Real Madrid and Barcelona, respectively, on unrestricted free transfers.
The Blues spent £33 million for Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli, and Marc Cucurella from Brighton is supposedly close to a £50 million deal with the club.
After Chelsea's 4-0 preseason loss to Arsenal, Tuchel became irritated with the uneasy quartet of Cesar Azpilicueta, Marcos Alonso, Timo Werner, and Hakim Ziyech and questioned his team's dedication.
The Manchester United team
Ronaldo's demand to quit Old Trafford has overshadowed Erik ten Hag's first preseason as United boss.
Since moving from Ajax in May, the meticulous Ten Hag is believed to have impressed his team with his attention to detail and rigorous training sessions.
However, how the Dutchman handles the fallout from Ronaldo's bombshell will determine whether he can rescue United from their dreadful sixth-place finish from the previous campaign.
The Portuguese striker missed United's preseason trip of Thailand and Australia due to "family circumstances" and has stated that he wants to play for a Champions League team.
Ten Hag would not have chosen to start his time in Manchester by losing a player with Ronaldo's deadly instincts in front of goal, but he may gradually believe that losing such a demanding superstar would be addition by subtraction.
Ten Hag's problems have been made worse by United's failure to sign his main target, Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong.
Instead, they chose the Argentinean Lisandro Martinez, the Premier League's shortest center back at 5 feet 9 inches, the Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen, and the Dutch left-back Tyrell Malacia.
With the current state of the competition, a return to the top four cannot be certain.
Arsenal and Tottenham
After their struggle for dominance in the area came to a dramatic end last season, Tottenham and Arsenal have been locked in a frantic arms race in north London.
Tottenham knocked Arsenal out of the top four in the penultimate game of the season after reeling in Mikel Arteta's side with a blistering run that included a 3-0 win over the Gunners.
Antonio Conte's response to achieving what he described as a "miracle" in qualifying for the Champions League was to demand Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy loosen the purse strings, a request which has so far yielded the signings of Richarlison, Yves Bissouma, Djed Spence, Ivan Perisic and Fraser Forster.
Arsenal has spent over £100 million on new players in an effort to recover from the painful disappointment of how the previous season ended.
Oleksandr Zinchenko, a defender from Ukraine, and Gabriel Jesus, a striker from Brazil, were acquired by Arteta from his former club Manchester City in transactions totaling £75 million.
Fabio Vieira, who cost £34 million to acquire from Porto, is hailed as a future star.
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