Manchester United and Arsenal stood apart from this week's spending craze, confident in the knowledge that their existing squads are set to fight out the finish of the English Premier League title race and leave Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool in their wake.
An early narrowing of the title race to a couple of serious contenders looked unlikely at the start of last month, when only five points separated the top five, but the cracks have opened quickly.
Five points is now the gap from leaders United to Arsenal in second, with City three points further back, having played a game more, and Chelsea 10 points behind United.
The twists and turns of the first half of the season seem to have been left far behind and, unless United collapse, Arsenal are the only team with any hope of catching up.
United's previous runs in the second half of the season give an indication of the standard they are likely to set. It is a misconception that they always step up the pace after halfway, but usually they finish strongly.
In each of the past six seasons they have amassed at least 40 points in the second half of the campaign, and overall they have managed 40-plus in 12 of the 18 Premier League seasons.