Newcastle United players celebrate and, inset, Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly
Newcastle United players celebrate and, inset, Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly
£4.25bn. That was the record-breaking sum Chelsea's owners stumped up to acquire the club in 2022. For context, it was nearly 14 times what Newcastle United's consortium paid to take over the relegation-threatened Magpies a few months previously.
Fast forward to the present day and these sides are now level on points ahead of a heavyweight showdown at St James' Park. It is not quite a winner-takes-all clash, but Newcastle could land a huge psychological blow in the race for the top five by defeating their rivals on Sunday.
That would be a sobering thought for those at the top at Chelsea following a £1.2bn spend on new signings since their buy-out. After all, unlike those at the top at Newcastle, Chelsea's owners inherited a side who had just finished third in the Premier League; who had won the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup; who had reached the finals of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup and the quarter-finals of the Champions League. To think that was seen as a fairly standard season in the Abramovich era.
Whatever about the club's trophy prospects, at the very least, there appeared one surefire bet for Chelsea's new owners: the Blues finishing in the top four. In fact, Chelsea had only missed out on playing in the Champions League on three measly occasions between 2003 and 2022.
Digging deeper, as part of a wider trend, where the clubs with the biggest wage bills have traditionally picked up the most points, Leicester City and Everton were the only upstarts to previously disrupt the so-called big six in that same period before falling away. However, there has been a marked shift since then - even in a PSR world.
It was just a few weeks after Chelsea's takeover that co-owner Todd Boehly predicted that the 'big six will become the big seven with the Saudi deal for Newcastle'. In truth, it has gone far beyond that.
Newcastle finished fourth in 2023, Aston Villa followed suit last season and the Magpies, the Villains and Nottingham Forest are among the upstarts now battling it out with Chelsea for a seat at Europe's top table.
"One of the frustrating things as Chelsea owner is that the Premier League has become so competitive," Boehly told Bloomberg last month after seeing the Blues miss out on qualifying for the Champions League in 2023 and 2024. "But one of the great things about being in the Premier League is it has got so competitive. The depth of the quality of teams is unlike any other league in Europe or the world."
This season has proved that. It is not a healthy situation, but all three promoted sides have come straight back down once again after finding the gap too difficult to bridge. Manchester United currently lie in 15th while Spurs are languishing in 16th. Bournemouth and Brentford are flying in eighth and ninth respectively. Just four points separate Manchester City in third and Aston Villa in seventh with three games to go.
Chelsea may have previously won the Champions League twice, but Newcastle have more recent experience to fall back on during the run-in after holding their nerve to qualify a couple of seasons ago. The know-how of veterans like Dan Burn may yet prove significant when Newcastle face the Premier League's youngest side on Sunday. "We've got huge belief that we can get over the line," the Geordie vowed to NUFC TV.