There has been a lot of talk about the so-called Big Six this season and to what extent it still exists – but Liverpool and Arsenal, financially speaking and on the pitch, continue to be its standard-bearers.
Save for a collapse of biblical proportions, Liverpool will win the league this season. Arsenal meanwhile will likely equal their own record for the number of consecutive 2nd-place Premier League finishes.
| Season | Winner | Runner-up |
| 1998–99 | Manchester United | Arsenal |
| 1999–00 | Manchester United | Arsenal |
| 2000–01 | Manchester United | Arsenal |
| Season | Winner | Runner-up |
| 2022–23 | Manchester City | Arsenal |
| 2023–24 | Manchester City | Arsenal |
| 2024-25 | [Liverpool] | [Arsenal] |
It’s a dubious honour for the Gunners but one that reinforces that, despite the creditable efforts of Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, Brighton and a smattering of others this term, cash is still king.
There may be the odd outlier who gets into the Champions League either by investing smarter or going for broke, but then those clubs – like Aston Villa – come up against the Profit and Sustainability Rules.
Who knows, there may come a time when the block of uber-ambitious, well-funded clubs looking to break the Big Six oligopoly can do so sustainably, but we aren’t there yet.
Only seven teams in world football generated more revenue than Liverpool in 2023-24, a season in which they didn’t have lucrative Champions League.
Despite a seven-year absence from that competition, Arsenal only ever dropped as low as 11th in the list of the clubs with the highest turnover in the world in that time. Now, they are up to 6th.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images
There is still such a substantial gap between the haves, the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal, and the have-nots primarily because of the Big Six’s respective global profiles and brands.
They can sign bigger sponsorship deals, sell more merchandise, and entice customers at a higher price point for stadium ‘experiences’, i.e. not your run-of-the-mill general admission ticket.
It’s reflected in their enterprises values too. Liverpool are worth somewhere in the region of £4bn to FSG, who paid jut £300m to acquire the club in 2010. Stan Kroenke’s Arsenal meanwhile are valued around £3bn.
Photo by James Gill/Danehouse/Getty Images
And yet, as is the case across the Premier League, neither club is especially profitable. Liverpool lost £57m last season and have only generated a surplus in one of the last five campaigns.
Arsenal meanwhile are even further down the scale, having lost almost £350m since they last finished a financial year in the green.
So how do these clubs justify their huge enterprise values? The key, many football finance experts believe, is in the United States.
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Arsenal and Liverpool turn down Premier League Summer Series
The value of the Premier League’s TV rights in the US has exploded in recent years, with the last four-year deal worth nearly £2bn all told.
It is by far and away the league’s single biggest growth market and, as US-owned clubs, Liverpool and Arsenal are keenly aware of the commercial opportunities this brings.
Richard Masters and his deputies at Premier League HQ know this too and want to leverage the division’s biggest brands to strengthen their appeal across the Atlantic.
One way they have have chosen to do this is through the Premier League Summer Series, an officially-endorsed pre-season tournament in the States featuring top English clubs.
In 2023, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Brighton, Fulham and Brentford took part, earning price money believed to be between £2-8m each.
The tournament was scrapped in 2024 because of logistical issues, but they wanted to come back with a bang in 2025, so they invited Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United, the Premier League’s biggest names.
However, as has now been confirmed by the various bodies responsible for organising and staging the tournament, only United have accepted, alongside Bournemouth, West Ham and Everton.
Why US pre-season tour has sparked PSR row, where Liverpool and Arsenal are going instead
While the Summer Series eventually got approval at Premier League shareholder meetings, there was some dispute around the event.
Some clubs felt that, as the Premier League itself was funding the prize money, it was unfair that they were effectively financially backing some clubs and not others, especially in light of PSR.
One solution is that, while the participating clubs would receive hard cash, the other clubs would receive an equivalent credit that would offset the difference from a PSR perspective.
Arsenal don’t have any PSR issues and nor do Liverpool, so this wouldn’t have been a problem for them per se.
While it is unconfirmed, Liverpool are believed to be headed to Japan and Hong Kong this summer. The Gunners are also rumoured to be headed to the same region.
