Debate: Who will push one of the "Big 4" out from the Champions League spot?

We must now presume that the sale of Xabi Alonso was as debilitating as many, including Steven Gerrard, believed and that its effects will continue throughout the season.

And now it gets interesting because it is not only Liverpool who have been found wanting of late. Manchester City, the team it was presumed would fill the fourth Champions League spot were any of the elite to falter, are on a pedestrian run of five straight Premier League draws. A Carling Cup tie at home to Scunthorpe United aside, they last won a game in September.

So there is a chance, a very real chance, of change. If ever there is a season in which clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, even Sunderland, should have an eye on the January transfer window and a tilt at greater glory in the second half of the season it is this one.

The dynamic of English football may yet be altered. Perhaps for one year only, perhaps for longer. Who can say? We will never know what would have unfolded had Everton not lost to Villarreal in the Champions League qualifying round in 2005-06, whether the financial boost of reaching the group stage would have left them better equipped to take on stumbling Liverpool and Arsenal teams in recent seasons, whether our big four would have become a big five.

So we can only speculate on what might happen if a cash-poor Liverpool fail to make it into the Champions League next season, and their place is taken by an upwardly mobile Villa or Tottenham.

With Manchester City continuing to throw money at the problem, the big four could quickly expand to six or maybe more, because once the hegemony of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool is broken, the Champions League will seem considerably more attainable next season, and the season after that.

If ever there is a month that could define the ambition of a club it is January 2010. Martin O’Neill, the manager of Aston Villa, will hope he has got his first punch in early by securing the signature of England winger Stewart Downing in the summer when he was still injured. It seemed controversial at the time but does not look foolhardy now.

Meanwhile, Harry Redknapp will no doubt return to Daniel Levy, his chairman at Tottenham, with another appeal to add the one player, probably a centre half, who will make a difference (with Harry, there is always a final player needed, although this time he may be right).

The most intriguing element will be if a club such as Sunderland are still in contention. The owner, Ellis Short, has traditionally backed his managers with enough money to survive but set his sights on a top 10 finish before the season started. Will he have the resolve for a final push if Steve Bruce can take this team even higher?

Roy Hodgson at Fulham could also be in the frame, but it is doubtful whether his club can financially sustain a tilt at the top four, considering qualification for the Europa League has already caused problems.

The cynic inside us predicts the same top-four finish as there has been since 2005-06, with not even Manchester City capable of breaking that stranglehold.

Yet nothing in the way Liverpool are playing suggests a team capable of nonchalantly
shrugging off this malaise. They are already fragile but, even when their form picks up as it surely will, it is hard to imagine the remainder of the season running faultlessly.

There is a real opportunity for an outsider this season and, more importantly, if not now, when?