Premier League: Tottenham and Chelsea Prepare for a Battle for Superiority

There was a sense of it when the two clubs met in December, and the feeling was even more overt this past weekend.

For the first time in around 17 years, Tottenham Hotspur’s team is not inferior to that of Chelsea’s.

That Chelsea are still a side that contain so many remnants of Premier League and FA Cup-winning lineups, and with their more recent additions are preparing to contest a Champions League quarter-final, makes describing Tottenham as superior to them seem premature.

However, the evidence at Stamford Bridge last Saturday, as the two fought out a 0-0 draw, was that Spurs had their west London rivals’ number.

Coming away without three points might suggest otherwise, but Chelsea’s failure to take advantage of a Spurs team who have been battling to restore their bruised egos off the back of a humbling March spoke volumes for a team that are not the uncompromising force they once were.

It was particularly jarring, especially at a ground where Spurs have not won for over 20 years, to see Chelsea unable to capitalise on the hesitancies of a defence finding its feet in the absence of more recent central pairings.

At several points in the first half particularly, the combination of William Gallas and Younes Kaboul (flanked by Kyle Walker and Benoit Assou-Ekotto), found themselves disorganised and uncertain in dealing with Chelsea’s attempts to sneak through the channels and engage in mid-air battles through the presence of Dider Drogba.

Instead of punishing Tottenham’s uncertainties, Chelsea let them off the hook and allowed Harry Redknapp’s initially tentative team to begin imposing their own game on the home side.

The Tottenham defence grew more comfortable, while their more advanced team-mates threatened to take the lead just before the interval, as Luka Modric’s probing run down the left caught his suitors of last summer flat-footed, with Rafael van der Vaart coming awfully close to giving Spurs a half-time lead from the subsequent cross.

Chelsea would have their opportunities in the second-half and hit the woodwork through Juan Mata's free-kick, but they found it increasingly difficult to create many genuine chances. Comparatively, when Spurs attacked they looked like scoring, and really should have when Gallas missed a relatively simple header, while Emmanuel Adebayor and Gareth Bale also went close.

The draw maintained Tottenham’s five-point lead over fifth-placed Chelsea, and both revealed and underlined much about the state of both clubs right now.

Though still better than most, Chelsea are a team on a downward slide from the glories of the past decade.

Tottenham meanwhile are a very good team in the present, and are also one that have the potential to become even better, something evident in their much-improved overall form in the Premier League this season.

Yet these are also two clubs whose future fortunes could so dramatically veer one way or the other from here on out.

Unlike Arsenal, neither has the consistency of style or foundation that the long-term planning and stewardship the leadership of Arsene Wenger has brought the Gunners.

This is not to say Chelsea or Spurs cannot surpass them this season or next, just that aside from the unknown that is star Robin van Persie’s future, you have a pretty good idea of what Arsenal will be about next season.

This summer, Chelsea will be seeking yet another manager (it is unlikely temporary boss Roberto Di Matteo will be given the job full-time), while Spurs may have to do so too should Harry Redknapp become England coach (all the while a certain Madrid-based Portuguese man looms in the shadows).

The mystery over what comes next for these two clubs makes the season’s remaining months all the more exciting, for what both teams and their main players achieve will tell us much about their future prospects.

For Spurs, Champions League football is imperative in keeping their big stars like Bale and Modric, and maybe even Redknapp.

But in the still very much-on competition with Arsenal for third place, there is an opportunity to make a statement of intent by proving themselves a team correct to have aspirations beyond European qualification.

Chelsea remain very much part of this equation too, and share the need with Spurs to be in the Champions League as they seek to gain this much need enticement that, coupled with Roman Abramovich’s money, will be vital if they want to bring to try sign the players that will allow them to compete with the Manchester clubs.

But the season’s remainder is also something of a last hurrah for the Chelsea of old.

The likes of Drogba, Lampard, Ashley Cole and John Terry might not be done yet, but the following eight games (plus FA Cup and Champions League ties) present their last chance to prove why they are essential in taking the club forward.

They will look at Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs at Manchester United, and see two players who have earned the right to be considered important players for Sir Alex Ferguson, even this late into their thirties.

Past success is not enough, and nor is just talent, an all-round determination to be part of a team moving on is a necessity. And this might mean that a starting place and the wages you could once demand are no longer on the table.

Tottenham and Chelsea are not alone in having their futures entwined; you could just as easily throw Arsenal, Liverpool or any of the top seven into the mix.

But aside from the significance of their recent meeting, there is also, for the reasons outlined above, the suggestion that for more than most in the upper echelon of the Premier League, these two clubs have the most at stake now in regards to their immediate health.