Mourinho says disputes with owner Abramovich are a thing of the past

The challenge facing Fiorentina this season is finding a way to breach the top three teams in Italian football.

There is a reliance on Terry, though, with Branislav Ivanovic, Kurt Zouma, Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta the only other first-team defenders in the squad. “I thought it was quite a good thing what he did”.

Gary Cahill resumed his central defensive partnership with Terry but was unconcerned about their form and instead maintained that they should be judged from Saturday, when the league season begins and they bid to be the first side since Manchester United in 2008/09 to successfully retain their title.

He may well have the system to do it all over again, as long as nobody comes in for the likes of Jose Fonte or Shane Long, as there is surely a limit to how many good players the team on the south coast of England can sell.

However, now those restrictions have gone and Wenger has the spending power to finally compete.

And after Arsenal’s win on Sunday, Mourinho shook hands with the Arsenal players after they had collected the shield but missed Wenger when the Frenchman walked behind him.

We’d like to think that Wenger and Mourinho are just playing out a little bit of pantomime for the benefit of the fans and the media, to get a bit of excitement and healthy antagonism going to fire up the starts to their respective campaigns. We have the Premier League to concentrate on now.

Wenger said: “He did well and maybe he had an influence on the Chelsea players as well”.

With a world-class goalkeeper backing up a settled defence and a midfield that bristles with guile and inventiveness, the only weak spot is up front, where Arsene Wenger must choose between the not particularly prolific trio of Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck.

There is more speculation surrounding Benzema and Arsenal this week as papers in Spain report that Real Madrid are about to buy another striker.

“I only have one piece of advice for this season”. The manager knows it better than anyone.

Last season, Fiorentina made it to the semi-finals of the competition, but the manner of their exit – a 5-0 aggregate defeat to Sevilla – is believed to be one of the key reasons why Montella lost his job. The Blues only conceded 32 goals on their way to the title, the best record in the division.

Whilst the club signed Petr Cech, this isn’t likely to bridge a 12 point gap on it’s own. Wenger would like to add another midfielder to allow the skills of the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla to flourish further.

“Preseason is false in many ways because you’re changing the team, everyone’s getting minutes, everyone is trying to get fit and you’re training hard”, Cahill said.