The Premier League Big Six - An Unbreakable Cabal

The Premier League Big Six - An Unbreakable Cabal

no photo

|

Getty

The Premier League is changing and whether that change is for the better or the worse, only time will tell, but it’s one that has been welcomed with open arms. But, even now one question still stands, can anyone ever break into Big Six’s hold on the league or will Leicester City be the lone ranger?

The 2019/20 season is supposed to be different. Not just because of the fact that Liverpool and Manchester City will battle each other in another head-to-head title clash. Not just because of the fact that Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester United spent absurd amounts of money on improving their squad. But because it was the one chance, the top nine has to break into the top six, despite it being a big boy tier.

It’s the main reason why the Premier League is considered to be one of the best leagues in the world, because of the big six. Six teams that dominate the league and quite naturally the top six places in the league, with the league title more often not an exchange between them. Their dominance has led to them getting the best players, the spots in the top European competition but change is always around the bend.

That’s something that has been proven brilliantly over the past decade or so, including a certain title win by a certain underdog side. Since then, the others have been on an upward grind with a myriad of things helping their upward trajectory. But the first and biggest helper? That can be only one thing and one thing only, it’s the league itself. Thanks to a multi-billion deal for their tv rights, the Premier League levelled the field quite brilliantly.

So much so that the teams placed between 7-9 earned more than Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid in TV rights alone the season before last. Last season’s results are not out as of yet, but the Premier League’s are with the 7-9’s earning somewhere between £127,165,114 and ​£123,328,078. It’s a lot more money and combined with the extra Europa League spot (a qualifier), it gives them a chance to compete and attract talent. But does it really make that much of a difference?

There have been surges of excellence from teams in the past, with Everton, Newcastle United, Southampton and even West Ham, but not one managed to sustain it. Everton started their 2006/07 so well, some had them down as title contenders, with a top-four all but guaranteed. They couldn’t sustain it and ending it by dropping as low as 12th place before finishing seventh. A quick look at Newcastle United’s 11/12 season and West Ham’s 15/16 season also shows you capitulation towards the mid-season mark or even a little after.

It’s virtually the same story, a team from outside the top six starts their season sensationally well, can’t handle the pressure of the top four or even top six and eventually fall short. Wolves are the only exception to that rule, with them never really challenging the top half of the table on the table, with them actually making a mid-season surge for 7th place. That’s exactly why many critics, fans and bandwagon jumpers genuinely believe that it’s open season on the top six spots in the 2019/20 season.

It all started with that certain title winner by a certain 5000/1 choice and there is a reason to be hopeful. Because there is a change afoot in the Premier League, as for the first time in a long time, three Big Six clubs are not settled. Arsenal may be a little ahead of the transitional curve but it’s not by much with Chelsea and Manchester United still on their baby legs. It pierces a hole in the vacuum, small enough to give teams hope that the moons and the planets have all aligned in their favour.

Then in walk-in players like Moise Kean, Youri Tielemans, Andre Gomes, and even Denis Praet, all Champions League or at least Europa League class players. Not men supposed to be playing for teams outside the top six and that gives them more hope. Yet while everything was supposed to point to a sign of change in the English top tier, it’s not started out that way and it won’t end that way either. Wolves have struggled to concentrate on both the qualifiers and the Premier League, Everton can’t get their new men to gel with the old and Leicester City are still trying to get their spluttering engine to start with Brendan Rodgers despite eight months under his tenure.

They will eventually struggle and fall well short of the Big Six boys, not because they want to but because it’s written in the stars. Because they simply do not have the depth, the big-game men and because that small hole in the vacuum? It comes with a startling amount of pressure, earth-shattering pressure that the Big Six were born under, much like Bane. That’s something teams below the top six have never experienced, at least since the birth of the new era. It’s the reason why and how the Big Six have managed to keep their positions in the top six places for the last three years.

Something that had never happened in English football, because while this may be arguably the best chance in years to break up the cabal, it’s one that will never be taken. Unless a Leicester City pop out of nowhere but this year a 5000/1 odd doesn’t even exist, with Sheffield United the closest answer at 2500/1 and that tells us everything.

Cricket FootBall Kabaddi

Basketball Hockey

SportsCafe

Get updates! Follow us on

Open all