The Big Four Saga in English Premier League
Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool have long been dubbed as the “Big Four” in English Premier League. Since 1996/97, these four clubs have completely dominated the top four spots in English football and have consistently qualified for the UEFA Champions League as well.
However, their dominance was once broken quite recently in April 2010 where both Manchester United and Arsenal were eliminated at the CL quarter-final stage.
Ever since Blackburn Rovers won the trophy in 1994-95, only three clubs have won the English Premier League. These include Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Out of the following eleven occasions since the Rovers won, Manchester United won the crown on nine occasions and Chelsea won it in three different years. Plus, what is amazing is that Manchester United has never finished below the top three spots in the League since 1990 when the EPL came into being.
Arsenal has never finished outside the top five except for just these two occasions. Even Liverpool is without an English Premier League title since 1990. However, they have always finished in the top four since then. To add to that, in the last four seasons, the Big Four have made it to the Champions League semi-final stage on three occasions.
In 2003-04, Arsenal did not lose a single match in the EPL with people calling them the “Invincibles”. This feat has not been achieved since Preston North did it in 1888-89. Chelsea has the record for the most points earned in a single season in the 2004-05 season with an amazing score of ninety five.
In the last six seasons, Liverpool won the Champions League in 2005 and Manchester United won it in 2008. As the Big Four have completed the league in the top four positions in the last five seasons, it means that all of them qualified for the last three seasons for the Champions League. As a result, the financial benefits have been good for them.
These benefits have made these clubs increase their revenue and this has been the reason why there is such an evident gap between the Big Four and the rest of the clubs in the League. Kevin Keegan, Newcastle United’s manager claimed in 2008 that because of this reason, the EPL is in danger of slowly becoming one of the greatest but the most boring leagues in the world.
In response to this comment by Keegan, Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive of the English Premier League said that there is a lot of tussle going on at the bottom, middle and the top of the league and this competitiveness makes it an interesting affair.
In 2010, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool FC and Aston Villa battled for the fourth position in the UEFA Champions League. Manchester city were victorious over Aston Villa which eliminated them. Tottenham Hotspurs defeated Manchester City and claimed their rightful fourth place in the Champions league.
Journalists Marcelo Pantanella criticized the growing powers of the Big Four by calling the EPL the second worst thing about modern football. According to Marcelo, Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Spanish League being the worst at the moment.
According to him, the EPL in 1992 was formed to find out the best team in England. However, this tag only comes with a debt of 500 million pounds. It’s true because a team can only win if its management can buy the best talent. According to Marcelo, whichever club had the money holds the power to buy the best players and will therefore win the EPL.
Out of the Big Four, Chelsea is debt free at the moment. However, Manchester United is under a debt of 716.5 million pounds, Liverpool is struggling against a debt of 351.4 million pounds and Arsenal is up against 203.6 million pounds.
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