How did Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham fare in the headline ‘big six’ matches during the 2025-26 Premier League campaign?
We’ve crunched the numbers and put together a ‘big six’ mini league based on their head-to-head results against one another.
The concept of the ‘big six’ just about limps on after Tottenham narrowly escaped relegation, but if the likes of Aston Villa keep qualifying for the Champions League (not to mention the likes of Sunderland, Brighton and Bournemouth making it into Europe) we might have to retire it for good.
Those six clubs – the ones that tried to break away into the so-called ‘European Super League’ a few years back – still largely boast the biggest revenues and expenditures when it comes to wages and transfers, so it’s not an entirely arbitrary, out-of-date idea.
Last year, in their title-winning campaign, Liverpool had the best record in these games, stepping up in the big games, a key reason for their title triumph as they did the league double over Manchester City and held chasers Arsenal to draws home and away.
It was only after securing the title with a resounding 5-1 victory over Tottenham that last season’s Liverpool finally lost a game to ‘big six’ opposition, losing 3-1 away to Chelsea after a week of celebrations.
Normal service appeared to be resumed as they won their first five outings of the 2025-26 Premier League campaign, including a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Arsenal.
But things took a swift and dramatic turn from there, with subsequent defeats to Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City (alongside further shock defeats to Crystal Palace, Brentford and Nottingham Forest).
They showed their pedigree in a hard-fought goalless draw in the return fixture against Arsenal. Four points from the eventual champions was a decent return, but ultimately their overall decline in ‘big six’ outings can neatly summarise the colossal drop-off for Arne Slot’s Reds this season.
Liverpool succumbed to a pair of defeats to their rivals Manchester United and ended up with just nine points from their 10 ‘big six’ games, the second-worst record.
Unsurprisingly, it was Tottenham – who ended up 17th – that registered the worst record of the lot.
They managed just one win and six points from their ‘big six’ outings under Thomas Frank, Igor Tudor and Roberto De Zerbi this season. Still, those six points are essentially why they won’t be in the Championship next season.
Those six points include four taken from Manchester City, and they ultimately stayed up by taking just two more points than West Ham.
Manchester City finished seven points behind Arsenal in the overall table, but you wonder if Pep Guardiola rues dropping five points to his perennial bogey team – a Spurs team that finished 17th, no less. Had they beaten Tottenham twice, they’d have made it to the final day against (a hungover) Aston Villa with their destiny in their own hands, and you think surely they’d have made it over the line.
Meanwhile, Arsenal’s narrow defeat at Anfield back in August, thanks to Dominik Szoboszlai’s long-range free-kick, brought an end to their long unbeaten record in such ‘Big Six’ fixtures.
Before that, they’d gone 22 matches without defeat (13 wins, nine draws) in the league against their fellow ‘big six’, including a 1-0 victory away to Manchester United on the opening weekend of this season.
It’s been something of a reversal since then, with Mikel Arteta’s Gunners sealing their first title in 22 years by regularly notching routine wins over the rest of the league, while dropping further points against Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea.
The champions only had the third-best record in the ‘big six’ mini league this season. We somehow doubt that keeps Arteta up at night, given how the rest of their campaign transpired.
Manchester United ended the season with comfortably the strongest ‘big six’ record in the Premier League, having registered statement victories over Liverpool (twice), Chelsea (twice), Arsenal and Manchester City – three of them in the sensational turnaround of form enjoyed under Michael Carrick.
Ultimately, Manchester United’s failure to challenge for the title this season is down to their inability to dispatch teams in the bottom half of the table under Ruben Amorim.
It’s a stark difference to last season, when the Red Devils had the worst record in the ‘big six’ mini league, having mustered just one win from the 10 matches in 2024-25.
Here’s how the ‘big six’ head-to-head table stacks up in full so far in 2025-26, with each team placed in order of their points-per-game:
1. Manchester United
Played: 10
Won: 7
Drawn: 1
Lost: 2
Goals For: 17
Goals Against: 12
Goal difference: +5
Points: 22
2. Manchester City
Played: 10
Won: 5
Drawn: 3
Lost: 2
Goals For: 17
Goals Against: 10
Goal difference: +7
Points: 18
3. Arsenal
Played: 10
Won: 4
Drawn: 3
Lost: 3
Goals For: 16
Goals Against: 11
Goal difference: +5
Points: 15
4. Chelsea
Played: 10
Won: 3
Drawn: 3
Lost: 4
Goals For: 10
Goals Against: 13
Goal difference: -3
Points: 12
5. Liverpool
Played: 10
Won: 2
Drawn: 3
Lost: 5
Goals For: 10
Goals Against: 15
Goal difference: -5
Points: 9
6. Tottenham
Played: 10
Won: 1
Drawn: 3
Lost: 6
Goals For: 11
Goals Against: 20
Goal difference: -9
Points: 6
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