Chelsea about to be champions, but are Spurs the best?

Chelsea took a massive step closer to the Premier League title last night. A comfortable 3-0 win over Middlesbrough means they can be champions this Friday with a win over West Brom. A draw or defeat in this game will only delay the inevitable by a few days. Similarly a draw for Chelsea on Friday followed by a draw in the Spurs vs Manchester United on game on Sunday will also hand the blues the title. There are many permutations at play here but it is 99.9% certain Chelsea will be champions.

Spurs put up a great fight there is no denying that. Everybody however knows this, even my cat, Rufus knows this! All I have been hearing over the last 2 months is how Spurs are the greatest team ever to have walked this earth! They have been good but not great. Spurs beating Bournemouth and Watford 4-0 in the last month was okay. Going on a 9 match winning run was impressive. Chelsea however went on a 13 match winning run. They beat Everton 3-0 away and both Manchester City and Southampton in the last month. That was much more impressive. And of course Chelsea beat Spurs 4-2 in the cup while even resting both Costa and Hazard until the last quarter of the game.

Chelsea deserve to be champions by a long way. Spurs however have what they believe to be two strong arguments for their superiority. A league table has been produced and shown by nearly every media source in the world right now. It was shown last night by the MNF team on Sky Sports also. It shows Spurs as the best team over the last 2 seasons. It’s true they have accumulated the most points without spending much money.

This was produced just before the Spurs game at West Ham. That means Chelsea are already in 2nd place after their victory last night. This Spurs ‘love-in’ comes to an abrupt halt if you do a 3 year league table;

This would be a fairer table if you take into account Chelsea’s ‘year off’ last season. Incredibly Chelsea would head this 3 year table despite finishing 10th last season! Even worse for Spurs is that if Arsenal win their game in hand they would swap places and Spurs go down to 4th. So really you can do what what you want with statistics but it doesn’t change the fact that Spurs have still not won anything. Chelsea on the other hand are about to win their second league title in 3 years together with the League Cup and maybe even the FA Cup this season too!

Spurs second argument comes from the transfer market. Apparently Chelsea have ‘bought’ the title! Yes that boring argument is still floating around. To be fair it is not just Spurs fans who say this. Let’s have a closer look at this. Here is another 3 year table. This time it is for net spend and for the 15 teams that have been in the Premier League for that period of time.

*figures are in £millions

Impressive figures by Spurs of course and even better by Southampton, (although most of their players seem to end up at Liverpool!). However Chelsea’s net spend at £13 million per season is probably the most impressive. If you look at the potential return of 4 major trophies in that period that takes some beating. Would you prefer to be a Spurs fan knowing your club has spent so little but won nothing or a Chelsea fan! I think the answer is obvious!