If there was ever fear that silly amounts of spending would leave the Premier League this past January has done wonders to push those fears into the future.  Here are the spending totals for the recent window, percentages are of total spending in the league :

Arsenal – €0, 0%

AstonVilla – €27.5m, 10.22%

Birmingham – €4.4m, 1.64%

Blackburn- €5.05m, 1.88%

Blackpool- €1.5m, 0.56%

Bolton- €2.75m, 1.02%

Chelsea- €88.5m, 32.89%

Everton- €0.3m, 0.11%

Fulham- €0.6m, 0.22%

Liverpool- €67.5m, 25.09%

Man City- €37m, 13.75%

Man United- €5m, 1.86%

Newcastle- €6m, 2.23%

Stoke- €2m, 0.74%

Sunderland- €7m, 2.6%

Tottenham- €5.4m 2.01%

West Brom- €0, 0%

West Ham- €7.1m, 2.64%

Wigan- €0.7m, 0.26%

Wolves- €0.77m, 0.29%

(data provided by Transfermarkt)

Manchester City’s place in the top 4 spenders is not surprise, Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner signals support for a new manager, and Liverpool are flush with cash to spend on striking options.  Perhaps most surprising is Chelsea’s appearance on the transfer board, Abramovich has finally opened wide his wallet after several seasons of quiet and the smell of panic buying is in the air.  Chelsea’s season has been disappointing, with a brilliant start fizzling out and threatening the Blues perennial access to the Champions League.  A loss of Europe’s top competition would be disastrous both to Abramovich’s ambitions for a European Cup and to Chelsea’s finances.

Will the big money signings make the difference?  No one will know until the season is over, but we certainly know that if they do not make the difference there will be serious fireworks at Stamford Bridge next year.