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He also talks about Barcelona’s move for Rodri, Myles Lewis-Skelly’s future amid interest from Chelsea and Manchester United, and looks ahead to the Community Shield.

I’ll begin this week with Barcelona’s pursuit of Rodri, who showed once again that he is the best player in that role after an outstanding World Cup. As I’ve said many times, when Pep Guardiola explained that you would not see the very best of Rodri until the World Cup, he was absolutely right. I thought he was brilliant for Spain, and it would be a massive blow for Manchester City if he were to leave.

City are going to play hardball, and I do not blame them, because I think he has one year left on his contract. So they may keep him for another season and then allow him to go in the summer. But from the outside, it looks as though he wants to join Barcelona. It would be some coup for them, because I think he would be fantastic there. That style of football suits Rodri perfectly. Barcelona play in a similar way to Spain, and many of their players are in the national side. He would slot straight into their midfield and make things happen.

One player who has left Barcelona this summer is Ronald Araujo, after completing a move to Liverpool. His biggest issue will be staying fit after suffering plenty of injury problems last season. He has missed a lot of football, but he is someone with natural talent. Liverpool needed to go into the market for a defender, and they have got one.

Obviously, Giovanni Leoni is coming back, but he is still a young player learning his trade. So I think having Araujo alongside Virgil van Dijk is brilliant. Hopefully he can just stay fit and produce some of the form we saw from him at Barcelona.

Another player being linked with a transfer is Myles Lewis-Skelly. We all knew him as a left-back, but I thought he was outstanding after moving into midfield for Arsenal. He can play in several positions, and you can understand why a club like Manchester United would be linked with him. They want to strengthen in midfield, and he could also be a long-term successor to Luke Shaw at left-back. And you can see why Chelsea are keen on him as well, because they have lost Marc Cucurella, and he would fit straight into that gap.

But if I were Arsenal, I would not be selling Lewis-Skelly to a rival, that is for sure. They are likely to go deep in the cup competitions and are the favourites to win the Premier League. So you are going to need your squad, and Lewis-Skelly is exactly the sort of player you would want to call upon.

If I were him at 19 years old, I would probably stay for at least one more season. I would be thinking to myself that I am with the Premier League champions, so I would want to stay there and fight for my place. I would want to say to Mikel Arteta, ‘I’m good enough to get into this team.’ And that is how he has to be thinking. It looks like Arsenal want him to stay and Lewis-Skelly wants to stay too, which is probably the best thing for both sides right now.

We also saw a rare swap deal this week, with Brennan Johnson joining Everton and Dwight McNeil moving to Crystal Palace. I have to say, it was crazy for Palace to lose Johnson. I have not spoken to anyone at Palace about it yet — I think I might do that very soon — but I do not get it, because Palace paid big money for Johnson. He was on huge wages though, so that may have been part of their thinking. It has not really worked out for him there so far, and the new manager has probably seen him in pre-season and thought, ‘It’s not going to work for me.’ They have obviously strengthened as well, with the signing of Evann Guessand on loan from Aston Villa, and they are looking at other players in that area too. I know they also tried to go for Dwight McNeil previously, but the deal collapsed at the last moment. McNeil’s wages are probably lower than Johnson’s, so that is the biggest benefit to Palace in this deal.

Looking at the matches coming up, we have the Community Shield this Sunday. I was at the game last year when Palace beat Liverpool on penalties, and you could see that neither side was treating the match like a friendly. I understand that nobody wants to get injured a week before the Premier League season starts, but it is a chance to add another trophy to the cabinet. Both Arsenal and Manchester City will be going for it, and it should be an entertaining game. So I completely agree with what Viktor Gyokeres said when he rejected the idea of the match being a friendly. It is all about winning now, and that can only build confidence going into the new season.

This is also the opening weekend of the EFL season, and it will be interesting to see whether West Ham can get off to a fast start in a meeting between the relegated Premier League sides against Burnley on Sunday. A lot of attention will also be on Lincoln City after winning promotion, and they have a very tough opening game away at Middlesbrough, who have spent quite a bit of money in the transfer window.

Sheffield United are also taking on my old club Birmingham City — can they get themselves into the promotion mix this season? A lot of money is being spent in the division, and the play-offs now go down to the team that finishes eighth.

One team I feel could do well this season is Norwich City. I think they have a good manager in Philippe Clement, along with some very good, exciting players and quite a few internationals. They could be a real force in the division this season.