As of this writing, every team in the Premier League with the exception of Alexander Isak Derby opponents Liverpool and Newcastle United have played two matches in the 2025/26 season thus far.
So it’s still early enough to take a bird’s eye view of the full campaign to come and start thinking with a glass half empty approach. Even the perennial disappointments have high expectations in the Big 6 with all that these Premier League powerhouses invest into their squads.
With those Wednesday Addams-tinted glasses on, let’s take a look at the absolute worst-case scenario for each Big 6 club in the Premier League for the 2025/26 season, whether it’s something as shocking as relegation to another season without a single trophy.
Manchester United
Yes, Manchester United have to think about relegation. They finished a couple of spots ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, but they have failed to impress in either of their games to start the season. And oh by the way, they lost to that Spurs team in the Europa League Final.
It will take time for the new attacking additions to gel, and it’s honestly hard to see a team that just added three of European football’s most purely talented goal-scorers in their roles finishing in the bottom three of a Premier League that includes the likes of Wolves, West Ham, Leeds, and Burnley.
But Manchester United have shown very little growth under Ruben Amorim and have concerning holes in the midfield and even defense that weren’t patched up yet this summer.
There’s still time for another midfielder or a replacement for the eminently disappointing Andre Onana to come through the pipeline before Sept. 1 hits, but Manchester United are probably going to have to make do withh the squad they currently have.
While I don’t seriously think Manchester United will go down this season, there is no worse case than relegation, and Man United are unconvincing enough that relegation is something that has to be on the back of their minds, and any Man United fan who says that the thought hasn’t crossed their minds once isn’t being completley honest with you.
Tottenham
For Tottenham, the worst-case scenario is basically something similar to what happened last season but without the saving grace of having won a European trophy for the first time in 41 years.
Winning the Champions League is a lot harder than winning the Europa League, and while that’s a statement so obvious I doubt anyone reading this would seriously dispute it, if I may, what drives that point home further is the simple fact that you won’t get to face a Bodo Glimt in the semifinal – let alone a despondent Manchester United in the Final.
Tottenham have a much better manager in Thomas Frank, but aside from Joao Palhinha and Mohammed Kudus, they haven’t beefed up their already depleted squad nearly enough in the summer market for the grueling Champions League campaign ahead.
With a more difficult schedule, thanks to the Champions League, Spurs could be headed for a real grind that Frank himself may not be able to spare them from with his tactical genius, especially if the key pieces fall like dominoes across what should have been Frank’s well-stocked chess board.
Tottenham have been awfully impressive through the first two games of the season, but, well, that’s two games. Spurs could end up in a situation where they fizzle out, finish well outside the European places, and come up empty-handed in all the cups with no European football to look forward to in 2026/27.
Chelsea
Chelsea have huge expectations for themselves after winning the Conference League, clinching a Champions League place for the 2025/26 season by virtue of nicking a position in the top five of the Premiership, and then dominating PSG in the Club World Cup to take that tournament home.
The Blues beefed up again this summer transfer window, and there’s not a whole lot standing in the way of the Blues being one of the big surprise teams in European football this campaign after proving their salt against the Champions League winners in the United States.
But Chelsea just lost Levi Colwill to injury and already had serious question marks defensively before they lost their best center back. Chelsea have a great midfield, but are Joao Pedro and Liam Delap really enough goal-scoring wise to compete with the superstars of Real Madrid, Barcelona, and PSG in the Champions League? Or even Liverpool and Arsenal’s weapons at home?
Chelsea barely made the top five in the 2024/25 season, and just as they’d like to think that they are a squad on the rise, it also isn’t far fetched for them to take a tumble outside the Champions League places if clubs like Tottenham, Aston Villa, or even Brighton turn up the heat in 2025/26.
Manchester City
Manchester City pretty much already suffered their worst-case scenario in the 2024/25 season, melting down and only recovering sufficiently enough by the end of the campaign to avoid the sheer calamitous scenario of not even qualifying for Champions League football at all.
The Citizens captured two star playmakers in Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki, and while they hope for bounce-back seasons from the star tandem of Premier League Player of the Season candidates Phil Foden and Erling Haaland, what if those two young stars falter again? What if Cherki and Rejinders fail to gel? What if the defense implodes again?
Manchester City probably won’t fall outside the top five after managing to survive that scare last season with an inferior squad, but because they were so close to the nightmare becoming reality last season, there’s no guarantee that it won’t happen this season either.
Realistically, fourth or fifth is the basement for Manchester City, but as the Rodri injury was a harsh reminder for fans of the club, when you rely on a select few stars as City do with Haaland and Rodri, all it takes is for one of them go down and the whole house of cards flies away in the wind. The unthinkable scenario of Manchester City missing out on Champions League football is still on the table.
Arsenal
Getting into the top two of the Premier League table from the 2024/25 season, it’s a little more difficult to argue the case for Arsenal falling all the way to sixth or seventh in 2025/26.
However, the worst-case scenario is, like with the other clubs on this list, simply a scenario that this fanbase is already familiar with from the last few seasons. Basically, it’s another season without trophies.
Arsenal have made real progress under Mikel Arteta, but since this fanbase is so deprived of real silverware and something tangible they can hang their hat on, another season bereft of a shiny trophy will feel like the thousandth cut that sends this fanbase into collective death throes.
The Gunners were agonizingly close to tasting a Champions League Final last season, as they were Gianluigi Donnarumma’s heroics away from upending both Real Madrid and Qatar FC en route to what would have almost assuredly been a first-ever Champions League trophy.
Arsenal improved their squad significantly this summer by bringing in a top No. 9 in Viktor Gyokeres and an even better No. 6 in Martin Zubimendi, but they have so many inconsistent stars – of which Gyokeres may be one of them, too – that it’s possible the injury bug or a combination of a few key players laying eggs and slumping at the same exact time dooms them to that dreaded number zero in the trophies column again.
Liverpool
The worst-case scenario for Liverpool is a repeat of the 2021/22 season in which the Reds are arguably the best team in all of European football, dominate the Premier League and Champions League, and then somehow come up empty-handed because they get outlasted by teams that are simply that much better – and more fortunate – than they are.
That’s what happened in 2021/22 when the Manchester City juggernaut edged past them again in the Premier League and then Thibaut Courtois went Super Saiyan mode and turned in a Champions League Final performance for the ages that was one part Iker Casillas, two parts Manuel Neuer, and three parts Lev Yashin.
Given how easily Liverpool dominated the Premier League last season and the fact that they were closer than anyone to knocking eventual winners PSG out of the Champions League, it’s impossible to envision a team that also added Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz to that crew flopping in 2025/26.
So for Liverpool, a flop is simply the disappointment of the absence of excellence rewarded in the form of silverware. Basically, it’s the same worst-case scenario as Arsenal with the added sting of the knowledge that Liverpool were truly an incredible team that simply went uncrowned because other teams caught lightning in a bottle.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2011. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has contributed to sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. Joe’s work has appeared in ESPN, Bleacher Report, and Sports Illustrated. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling, respectively.