Top Four or Bust for the Premier League's Elite Next Season

The 2012/13 Premier League final day saw Arsenal triumph in the race to finish fourth in the Premier League ahead of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur. 

The summer has already seen much change, with Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City hiring new managers and various transfers being completed and rumoured. 

For the new season to be a success for the likes of Tottenham and Liverpool, who finished outside of the Champions League places, they simply must finish in the top four.

Liverpool have splurged on the transfers of Luis Alberto, Kolo Toure, Iago Aspas Simon Mignolet and the much touted transfer of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, including this report from ESPN, Liverpool have made no qualms about their desire to challenge for the place where they believe they belong—the Champions League.

Tottenham, on the other hand, have had positive news for their top-four hopes, with Spanish newspaper Marca reporting that Gareth Bale is not moving to Real Madrid this summer and could remain at White Hart Lane. Following the signing of Paulinho, who The Guardian report will make his transfer official this week, Andre Villas-Boas will try to build on what was their best Premier League points tally. 

The potential rise of Liverpool and Tottenham will put pressure on an Arsenal side who are rumoured to have massive financial power this summer, with the Daily Mirror's John Cross putting the budget at somewhere around £70 million, and scraped into Europe's top club competition on the final day.

But with the managerial changes at the top three clubs, they will be relying on immediate success of managers who have something to prove, with only one of the three being able to finish regularly in the top four during his Premier League managerial reign.

While it is unlikely that these three clubs will fail, a poor start by one of them could open the door of opportunity to a growing and determined rival.

It would be no surprise to see one or two of these managers depart the club should they fail to attain the lucrative and much desired Champions League place, with failure losing the club money and esteem amongst their peers.

The Champions League is a dream for most clubs, but failure to qualify for the tournament could be a nightmare for these Premier League managers.