The Premier League Big Six - An Unbreakable Cabal

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.

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?

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.

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.