What Are the Premier League Big Six?

**TL;DR: **The Big Six is the informal label for the Premier League's six wealthiest, most-supported clubs: Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Tottenham Hotspur. The grouping has loosened in recent years as Newcastle, Aston Villa, and Brighton have pushed up the table, but the term still gets used for fixture context, finance, and the European places.

Anyone who follows English football for a season or two will hear the phrase Big Six thrown around constantly. It's shorthand for the clubs that historically expect to finish in the top six and challenge for European football. The label isn't an official designation - the league doesn't recognise it - but it's stuck because for a long stretch of the league's modern era it described the actual league shape.

The Six Clubs

The Big Six is consistently:

• Manchester United
• Liverpool
• Manchester City
• Arsenal
• Chelsea
• Tottenham Hotspur

The clubs vary wildly in trophy hauls and squad budgets, but they share three things: huge global supporter bases, large stadiums, and revenues that put them comfortably in the top tier of English football. We've published predictor's guides for each one - how to predict Manchester United, how to predict Liverpool, how to predict Manchester City, how to predict Arsenal, how to predict Chelsea, and how to predict Tottenham.

Where the Label Came From

The Big Six emerged in the late 2000s and 2010s when these clubs consistently dominated the top of the table. Before that, the Big Four was the more common phrase, covering Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool. Manchester City's rise after their 2008 takeover and Tottenham's improvement under Harry Redknapp and later Mauricio Pochettino expanded the group.

By the mid-2010s, these six clubs were occupying the top six places almost every season. Champions League qualification, Europa League slots, and the league title were essentially split between them year after year.