Cracking The Premier League's Big Four, Which Teams Can Do It?

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

In very recent times the Premier League "Big Four" have dominated the Premier League. Well with recent injections of money to some of the teams outside of the Big Four, this season is shaping up to be on of the best and closest yet.

The idea of this article will be to write about the teams that have got what it takes to finally crack the Big Four.

Everton:

Everton are considered to be the best team outside the Big Four, consistently finishing fifth or sixth in the league. This season with the correct transfers which is David Moyes gets right Everton could posess a serious threat to the teams above them.

What I think that Everton are missing is a holding midfielder which hasn't been filled up since Lee Carsley left the club. Stephen M'Bia has been linked with a move to Everton ever since the beginning of last season. A price tag of about eight million could tempt his current club Rennes to sell him.

I also think that a striker is needed to make Everton a bit more stable when an injury happens. It was very unfortunate that Yakubu suffered that injury but he should be back and scoring goals.

Louis Saha has suffered injuries pretty much his whole career and that is why a striker is needed. Michael Owen and Jo are two names being thrown about for that striking role.

The last position that I think needs to be looked at is right back with Tony Hibbert just not cutting it for me. Kyle Naughton would give the Everton backline a bit of a spark and would add speed on the other flank.

Aston Villa:

With Gareth Barry leaving the club to join money bags Manchester City and Ashley Young expected to leave the club, those two players will need to be replaced.

Aston Villa have recently been moving up the table and finishing in the UEFA Cup places (now named Europa League). Manager Martin O'Neill has done a great job at Aston Villa and is now looking at taking the club to the next level.

I forgot to mention that the backline will need looking at as well with Martin Laursen's retirement so that is where I will start.

It was a sad end for Martin Laursen who had to retire due to injury and Wilfried Bouma expected to do the same thing so two names have been thrown up which are David Wheater and Sylvian Distin. I know those two names are not the names that you would expect to improve a team but these two are decent defenders and will come pretty cheap.

Now in the midfield there is a huge gap which Gareth Barry has left and soon to become even bigger with the departure of Ashley Young. There have been a number of rumors going around who should replace Ashley Young, those names are David Bentley, Steven Defour, and Stewart Downing.

It was reported that Aston Villa offered Ashley Young for David Bentley's signature but nothing has eventuated. My choice for replacing Ashley Young would be Stewart Downing as he would come cheap since Middlesbrough are in the Championship and he is currently injured, but of course that is if Ashley Young leaves the club.

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