by Alvinbeo

Created on: August 28, 2009   Last Updated: August 30, 2009

The Big Four is a term, which is almost a clich which is used to collectively describe the 4 biggest football clubs in the Barclays Premier League (and thus in the whole of England and Britain). The 4 clubs which are being referred to here are Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool. These are the clubs that constantly occupy the top four positions in the Premier League year in year out and thus perennially featuring (very strongly since the beginning of the 21st century) in the very prestigious UEFA Champions League. Lately, there have been a few teams in the division who have been looking to challenge and break the sheer domination of the "Big Four" team in the division. The teams that have either shown in the past or have shown that they have the capacity, resources, and capabilities to do just that are Manchester City, Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, and Everton. The following paragraphs would assess the aforementioned teams and at the end a verdict will be reached on which one of these teams are the best equipped to challenge and dominate the stranglehold of the "Big Four" elite clique.

First and foremost, we are going to start with Manchester City. This is a club which has been living far too long under their more illustrious neighbor's imposing shadows. The name of their city-rivals would not be mentioned here otherwise many readers would feel that their intelligences have been insulted. Jokes aside, this is also a club which has recently earned a somehow proud nickname of "Nouveau-Riches" thanks to the recent takeover made by the Abu Dhabi United Group which catapulted them to become arguably the wealthiest football club in the world.

The very first reason why Manchester City is capable of challenging the dominance of the "Big Four" is simply due to their sheer bottomless coffers. The modern climate of football simply requires clubs to be very well off financially. Especially in light of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, the fine line separating between success and failure and even existence and extinction has been thinner than ever for football clubs. Thus, it is imperative for football clubs to be very strong financially to stay competitive in the current economic climate, let alone attempting to finally break the dominance of the "Big four". As far as this criteria is concerned, Manchester City fulfills this in abundance, and thus they should have no problems bringing in the necessary staff, which simply means the necessary players

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