is the Premier League's big six era truly over glancing at the current league table and seeing just how far Man United and Totum have fallen you'd probably think so however the answer is more complex and open-ended than it seems let me explain starting by giving you a brief history of how the term has evolved while important in today's football discourse the term big six is essentially just a label a social construct that mirrors the constantly changing dynamics of power and prestige in English football it represents a variation of an idea that is never fixed continually
evolving as traditional Giants Decline and underdogs emerged to challenge the established order the big six for instance was popularized by Sky Sports in the early 2010s only after Manchester City clinched their first league title and tot burst onto the Champions League scene in 2011 which they followed up with 11 consecutive top six finishes even if silverware did not follow suit before this The Narrative centered around the big four which itself evolved from the big two of arson benger's Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United who together took home every league title from 1996 to 2004
Liverpool re-entered the conversation with their trophy successor in the early 2000s while Chelsea's re-qualification for the Champions League in 2003 and their subsequent takeover by Roman Abramovic paved the way for the unprecedented spending that solidified their status looking further back to the mid99s the landscape of Premier League royalty featured Arsenal Liverpool Manchester United Tottenham and Everton all AR fresh from their Glory Days in the 1980s and instrumental in kickstarting the Breakaway from the football league in hindsight the current labeling of the big six is unlike any of its predecessors that primarily considered a club's history
on Pitch achievements and trophy successes if those were the sole criteria then clubs like City and certainly Tottenham wouldn't be included in the mix instead a fourth element has emerged which is the financial Prestige of clubs in today's increasingly commercialized football landscape this makes the big as much about financial performance as it is about League performance by the way if you're enjoying the video so far subscribe so that you don't miss out on our future videos from 2010 to 2014 the big six ruled with an iron fist aside from Leicester City's miraculous title winning season
in 2015 to 16 the dominance of the big six truly went unmatched well into the early 2020s Lester success while extraordinary effectively acted as a reset for the big six clubs that season was notable for being the first time in recent memory that all of these clubs experienced disappointing campaigns leading them to revamp their squads and invest significantly to reclaim their status the final league standings in the subsequent season painted a bleak picture from a competitive standpoint here the big six occupied the top six spots followed by Seventh Place Everton who finished eight points behind
them and are whopping 15 points ahead of Southampton in eighth who themselves were only six points clear of Watford in 17th Place in fact in the three years following Lester's title win in 2016 none of the chasing pack managed to even get close to the top six meanwhile at the opposite end of the spectrum City celebrated becoming the first topf flight team in English History to exceed the 100 point Mark in a single season and the following year both the champions league and Europa League finals featured all Premier League matchups dominated by the top six
then when Lester looked poised to crash the top four again in 2019 to 20 with Liverpool racing ahead for the title and City comfortably in second theonas was on the rest of the big six to reclaim what they felt was theirs in the end Brendan rogers's team collapsed in the final stretch of the season and finished fifth if fate they would repeat in The Following Season the 2010s were without a doubt the peak of the big six power axes yet as a bald Dutchman from United once said eras come to an end and it wasn't
long before most of these clubs ran into real adversity fast forward to today and the big six are now facing more challenging tests on the pitch against the rest of the league while the Doom and Gloom hanging over clubs like United and Spurs illustrate a particularly drastic season of change the decline in their performance has certainly not happened overnight in fact the big six have only finished as the top six just once in the last five seasons recent surprise packages in the top four include Newcastle who finished fourth in the 2022 to 23 season and
secured a return to the Champions League after a 20-year absence Aston Villa followed suit in The Following Season by edging out Tottenham to claim the last Champions League spot a competition in which they have now automatically qualified for the Knockouts if Nottingham Forest continue their current trajectory until the end of this season it will Mark the third consecutive season in which Outsiders have broken into the top four let alone the top six additionally Newcastle Villa and even Bournemouth could yet Force themselves into the remaining top four to six positions come the end of the campaign
this shift has been fueled by the evolving tactical side of the game that looks radically different from just a decade ago Pep Guardiola may not have invented playing out from the back but his influence at city has popularized this approach inspiring the rest of the league to weave it into their identities take brenford and Brighton for example both consistently punch above their weight yet their passing tactics are distinctly unique brenford are known for their more direct and fastpac style while Brighton focuses on the fluid pass and move approach thus with its rise in unexpected upsets
brought about by the diverse ball playing Styles and goal scoring opportunities they create the premier league has become more competitive and unpredictable than ever before as mid to bottom half table clubs Clos the gap on the big six on the pitch the question arises are any of them closing the Gap off of it the shift in dominance is evident with television money from the League's lucrative broadcasting deals starting to flow to the other 14 clubs and the profit and sustainability rules creating a More Level Playing Field traditionally smaller clubs are adopting smarter recruitment strategies while
years of Financial and managerial mismanagement are catching up to some of the bigger clubs at United the club's Reckless spending in recent years combined with the indecision surrounding Eric ton Haag from anas's takeover last January to his long awaited firing in October has significantly set them back as for Tottenham while Daniel Levy has done a commendable job of building a stable football club both structurally and financially almost every decision he has made since 2019 has backfired and led to their current struggles to watch our videos on the crisis playing United and Spurs click the first
two links in the description or the cards in the top right corner but let's be clear the big six clubs are referred to as such not only because they typically finish in those places but because they boast the financial power to absorb setbacks and still compete for Europe each season in the last decade their annual revenues have steadily increased by 68.6% despite a temporary stagnation during the pandemic the last non Big Six Club to break into the Premier League's top six earners was Newcastle all the way back to the 2007 to 8th season in contrast
the chasing Pack's average revenue has doubled in the last decade but still only represents 47.8% of the big six's average the Gap in absolute terms is widening with the big six averaging 700 million e in Revenue over 360 million more than the chasing pack the separation was 250 million a decade ago consider Chelsea's recent spending power in the transfer window compared to Newcastle despite the latter benefiting from their wealthier Saudi Arabian majority owners and competing in the Champions League last year take Arsenal as another example despite missing out on lucrative UFA broadcasting deals during their
six-year absence from the Champions League between 2017 and 2023 they still earned 360 6 and 388 million e in 2021 and 2022 respectively this illustrates just how resilient big six clubs have become even after 6 years away from the competition the Gunners remained over 110 million EUR ahead of leester their closest Challenger during that time thus for a big six Club to fall towards the chasing pack it requires a perfect storm one of them must miss out on Champions League football ball for several successive Seasons while facing significant mismanagement and one of the chasing pack
must qualify for that competition in successive Seasons themselves but this is a challenge in itself with none of the other 14 clubs having achieved backtack qualifications for the Champions League in over 20 years so what do you think based on our interpretations of the big six through our on and off-pitch lenses do you think their dominance is still an existing reality or a thing of the past let us know your takes in the comments below if you enjoyed this video hit that like button and subscribe to the channel for more football news stories and insights
also don't forget to hit notifications so you never miss a beat and with that we'll see you in the next video
