The Premier League Big Six: Who They Are, How It Started and Is It Still Relevant?

The Premier League's Big Six have dominated English football for years, but recent seasons have raised questions about whether the term still reflects reality.

Ask any football fan who are the Big Six in English football and they will reel them off without hesitation: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham. 

The term has been part of English football's vocabulary for over a decade. But the 2025-26 season produced a final table that raises serious questions about whether that list still makes sense. Chelsea finished ninth. Tottenham finished seventeenth. Is the Big Six still relevant in 2026? The answer is more complicated than it used to be.

Which clubs are in the Premier League Big Six?

The traditional six are Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. These clubs have historically combined the largest revenues, the biggest global fanbases, the most consistent top-four finishes and the greatest influence over how the Premier League operates commercially.

Their collective weight was underlined most starkly by the 2021 European Super League proposal, in which all six signed up to a breakaway competition before withdrawing within 48 hours amid widespread fan backlash. This all but confirmed how the six think of themselves relative to the rest of the division.

Where did the term Big Six come from?

The concept predates the Premier League itself. In the 1980s, English football had a Big Five consisting of Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. These clubs dominated television coverage, drove the formation of the Premier League in 1992, and held disproportionate commercial power over the Football League.

After the Premier League's formation, the grouping shifted. Manchester United's dominance under Sir Alex Ferguson in the 1990s established the template for what a modern superclub could be. Chelsea's transformation following Roman Abramovich's 2003 takeover added a sixth genuine heavyweight. Manchester City's Abu Dhabi-backed rise from 2008 completed the current configuration. The term Big Six solidified around 2011, when it became the norm for those six clubs to occupy the top positions and the European qualification spots.

How dominant were the Big Six between 2010 and 2020?

Between the 2009-10 and 2019-20 seasons, the top six positions in the Premier League were occupied entirely by Big Six clubs in seven out of eleven seasons. 

The other four seasons saw one outsider break in, with Leicester's title win in 2016 being the most dramatic. Champions League qualification was almost exclusively a Big Six preserve across the decade, with the occasional exception proving the rule.

Financially, the gap widened significantly during this period. The Big Six's collective commercial revenues far exceeded the rest of the division, driven by global shirt sales, pre-season tour income and sponsorship deals built on sustained European competition. The rich got richer and the top six positions reflected it.

Are Newcastle United now part of a new Big Six?

Newcastle's Saudi-backed takeover in October 2021 transformed their financial standing overnight. They have qualified for the Champions League and consistently finished in the top half of the table ever since. In 2025-26 they finished eighth, outside the European places entirely, which somewhat tempers the argument. 

In terms of ownership resources and long-term ambition, Newcastle now operate in a different financial bracket to most Premier League clubs. Whether that translates into sustained top-six finishes remains to be seen. One Champions League campaign and a couple of high finishes don’t equal the consistent decade-long presence that defines the traditional six, at least, not yet. 

Has Aston Villa broken into the top group?

More convincingly than Newcastle. Under Unai Emery, Villa finished fourth in 2023-24, earning a first-ever Champions League place. In 2025-26 they finished fourth again, won the UEFA Europa League, and qualified for the Champions League through two separate routes. Their revenue and global profile have grown considerably as a result.

Villa's back-to-back top-four finishes and a European trophy give them a stronger claim than any club outside the traditional six. Whether one good manager and two strong seasons constitutes a structural shift rather than a cycle is the question their supporters will be hoping is answered over the next few years.

Could the Big Six become the Big Eight?

The 2025-26 season made the strongest case yet. Chelsea finished ninth, Tottenham seventeenth. Bournemouth, Sunderland and Brighton all qualified for Europe ahead of clubs who would previously have considered that their birthright. The term Big Six increasingly describes history as much as present reality.

The biggest question is whether the Big Six is still relevant at all. After 2025-26, the honest answer is that it is relevant as a shorthand for financial power but increasingly unreliable as a guide to who will finish in the top Premier League places.

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