Things are changing in the Premier League.

A couple of decades ago, England’s top flight was dominated by the big three: Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal. Then Chelsea joined the party, followed by Manchester City and, more recently, Tottenham Hotspur.

And, from next season, mostly because they now have an owner who is not short of a bob or two, I reckon Everton will be back among the elite after a prolonged period in exile.

Welcome, football fans, to the dawn of a new era – The Big Seven.

Of course, the huge positive about this is that it makes the top of the league much more unpredictable. Knowing at the start of the season that any one from seven teams is probably capable of winning the title adds a huge element of excitement.

However, the negative aspect of this situation – at least for those seven teams – is that there can still only be one overall winner. Not just that, but the number of Champions League places isn’t going up either.

As Arsenal and Manchester United found out this season, claiming one of those four golden tickets is far more complicated than it used to be. And it is only going to get harder as the magnificent seven get, well, more magnificent.

For a long time it was not only the title that was dominated by a select few, but also the Champions League places. Sure, there would be the occasional interloper who gate-crashed the party. But for the most part it was the usual suspects, year after year.

Those days are gone for good. Now it will be an annual mini-league between these top teams, with both the title and the European places permanently up for grabs.

Sure, some will invest more than others and have a good spell on the back of that. But again, that will be cyclical.

While one team will not win the Premier League every year, you can pretty much bet your bottom dollar that the title will always go to one of these seven

As Arsenal showed this season, it only takes a mid-season wobble to turn a Champions League slot into a Europa League one. And every team, no matter how much they have spent on players, is capable of having a run of poor form.

So what does the future hold for the top echelons of the Premier League?

Well, for starters I think we will see a surge in player investment over the next season or two among these seven teams.

Manchester City look likely to spend another couple of billion on players this summer as Pep Guardiola tries to buy back some of his lost credibility.

And I’m sure Arsenal and Chelsea, if not the rest, will be equally loose with the company chequebooks.

However, I suspect that spending will calm down when these seven clubs realise that, in such a competitive environment, no amount of cash will assure a team of the title or even a Champions League place.

I also believe we will never (or at least very, very rarely) see a team win back-to-back titles. Having so many high-quality outfits will make a title defence nigh on impossible.

Equally I don’t think we will again have the pleasure of another club doing a ‘Leicester’. When they achieved their mission impossible it was because the main contenders all had a bad season at the same time.

But as the number of main contenders has now increased, the likelihood of them all enduring a synchronised spell of crapness reduces substantially.

A resurgence in the importance of domestic cups is also on the cards. For a long time they have been seen as little more than a distraction from the primary goal of winning a Champions League slot.

But as it becomes harder for the Big Seven to secure those slots, the FA and League Cups will become increasingly important both as achievements in themselves and as routes into the Europa League. There was clear evidence that clubs are taking the FA Cup seriously again in this year’s contest. The League Cup will now follow suit.

And finally, there is the effect this will all have on the Europa League itself.

Many teams have treated it almost like an embarrassment, pretending they don’t really care about it so as not to look inferior to those in the grown-up competition. But in many ways the Europa League is now an easier route to the Champions League than finishing in the top four.

As Manchester United showed this season, taking it seriously can be very rewarding, even if you have to bore your way to victory.

In my opinion, and we all know I have the occasional tendency to get things slightly wrong, we are entering a completely new phase of the English game. Maybe not for football as whole, but certainly for the upper ranks of the Premier League.

The Big Seven will dominate the top flight, but collectively, not individually. While it won’t be one team winning the league every year, you can pretty much bet your bottom dollar that the title will always go to one of these seven.

Will anyone else ever break into this exclusive group? Sadly I can’t see that happening. Not unless the rules governing rich owners are substantially relaxed.

So while at face value things might get exciting over the next few years, the sport as whole is likely to be poorer for the dawning of this new reality as the gap between the haves and have-nots widens.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade