Look to Everton, Manchester City and Aston Villa for the Big Four challenge

There has been a monopoly of the Big Four places ever since the inception of the Premiership (aka Premier League) back in 1992.

The main 'culprits' of this monopoly have been Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, with Chelsea joining that centre stage after the arrival of the Russian billions saved them, by literally hours, from a Leeds United-type collapse. And now they have developed into a team simply oozing quality.

Although in real terms the only teams to actually win the title have been United, Arsenal and Chelsea, Liverpool have sold enough red wigs to there foreign legion of fans and no short measure of soul-selling in recent years to the highest bidder to allow them to invest huge amounts (some £400m since they last won the league title) to keep themselves as the worst big spenders. Ass a result they have pretty much finished in the top four most seasons over the last 15 years, with one or two exceptions.  

Other teams that have flirted with the top four but nothing really consistent - Blackburn, Leeds, Newcastle and Everton have all had Top Four finishes but have failed, for whatever reason, to sustain the challenge. However, it must be noted that Everton are again giving it a good shot, and if it weren’t for such horrendous refereeing decisions they would be a clear third in the league.