Will The Big Four Be On Top Of The Premier League?

The Big Four—Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal—all have certain departures and hiccups which may or many not make them weak this season. Will the others capitalize?

The Premier League era and the hegemony of the Big Four has, if anything, only spawned more non-believers.

Only once in the last six seasons has a team other than Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool finished among the top four. Through much of this decade, the question of who will come fifth has assumed a strange sort of importance.

This season, however, could be different.

It is a promise football writers have made every season, a promise players, managers, referees and the unyielding fates have conspired to render laughably void almost every time. Why exactly could this season be different?

For a start, the Big Four have added little to their squads over the summer transfer window. There is a degree of sameness to last season in Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool’s squads; and Manchester United’s through the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo and to a lesser extent Carlos Tevez, looks weakened.

All four clubs have questions left to answer.

—Is the talented but injury-prone Italian Alberto Aquilani a like-for-like replacement for the Real Madrid-bound Xabi Alonso in Liverpool’s midfield?

—Can Eduardo da Silva fully put behind him the horrific ankle injury that kept him out of Arsenal’s first team for a season and a half, and compensate for the loss of goals that the departure of Emmanuel Adebayor may bring to his club?

—Will Michael Owen ever be the old Michael Owen again, and where will Manchester United’s goals come from in the absence of the frighteningly prolific Ronaldo?

—Can Carlo Ancelotti slot into Premier League management seamlessly, or will his tactics, honed and perfected in Italy, implode at Stamford Bridge?

These questions must be answered early in the season, which leaves Liverpool and Arsenal the toughest possible examinations.

Liverpool’s first four opponents consist of two clubs with ambitions of storming the top four Bastille — Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa — and two of the Premier League’s most physical sides — Stoke City and Bolton Wanderers — while Arsenal’s first three away games feature Everton, Manchester United and Manchester City.

United, ahead of the Arsenal game, starts its season with two relatively sedate fixtures against promoted sides Birmingham and Burnley.

Chelsea, on paper, has the least intimidating start to the season of the Big Four, with only the derby at Fulham on the second weekend of the season sticking out as a potential banana skin fixture from its first four matches.

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