Contrasting week for London's big three

What a contrasting week it has been for London's three biggest clubs in the English Premier League!

After living in the shadow of Arsenal and Chelsea for so long, Tottenham pulled off a mighty upset win over the Blues in the final of the League Cup to lift its first trophy in nine years.

In contrast, Chelsea's loss to Spurs casts major doubts over the future of manager Avram Grant amid signs the first cracks are beginning to appear in the Blues' long run of success during which time they have challenged the traditional dominance of Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool.

And Arsenal, while still top of the Premier League table and with a difficult away game against AC Milan coming up in the Champions League, faces the enormous task of trying to recover from the shattering blow of losing star striker Eduardo for the rest of the season with a badly broken leg.

Suddenly it's Arsenal and Chelsea that face worrying times and possibly trophy-less seasons while long-suffering Spurs' fans are rejoicing in the return of the 'glory, glory' days.

Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s it was Tottenham which ruled the roost in London but over the past 20 years - and particularly since Chelsea's return as a power in the late 1990s - it has slipped to a distant third behind the Gunners and the Blues.

But after two fifth-placed finishes in the past two years under popular Dutch manager Martin Jol, the good times appeared to be back for the Spurs.

However when it appeared to again self-destruct at the start of this season - sliding down the table amid a very public pursuit of Sevilla manager Juande Ramos to replace Jol - it seemed as if Tottenham was again descending back into mediocrity.

But suddenly the surprising decision to dump Jol in favour of Ramos - who speaks little English but who won five cup competitions including two UEFA Cups in less than three years with Spanish club Sevilla - is looking like a masterstroke.

In Ramos, Spurs have found a manager at the peak of his power and his tactical changes during the League Cup final proved crucial in Tottenham's come-from-behind 2-1 victory.

It was the first time one of the 'big four' of English football had lost a cup final to a team outside the 'big four' since Manchester United's loss to Everton in the 1995 FA Cup final and it was a disaster for new Chelsea boss Grant.

Like Ramos at Spurs, Grant was in the unfortunate position of taking over from an extremely popular predecessor in Jose Mourinho but his task was even more difficult because Mourinho, unlike Jol at Spurs, had delivered unprecedented success during his short but controversial spell at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho not only delivered two League titles - Chelsea's first in 50 years - but won two League Cups and an FA Cup and never a lost a cup final.

But he was dumped by Chelsea's powerful Russian owner Roman Abramovich because his team did not play with enough flair or style.

However under Grant, Chelsea's only plan seems to be to score first and then try to hang onto a 1-0 lead - a plan which backfired spectacularly against Spurs in the League Cup final.

As Spurs equalised through a Dimitar Berbatov penalty before taking the lead through Jonathan Woodgate's header at the start of extra time, Grant was left dumbfounded and waited too long to introduce his most potent attacking weapon Joe Cole into the action.

Suddenly Chelsea, which is nine points adrift in third place in the league, is facing a barren season with Manchester United looming large as potential stumbling blocks for it in both the FA Cup and the Champions League.

And after Eduardo's shocking injury against Birmingham last Saturday - which places even more pressure on Emmanuel Adebayor to deliver goals for Arsenal - United will also fancy its chances of overcoming Arsenal's three-point lead in the title race while the Gunners also face an uphill battle in the Champions League given their 0-0 draw at home in the first leg against reigning champions Milan.

So suddenly if you were a betting man you would have to say the most likely outcome of the 2007/08 season is that Spurs will lift one more trophy than either Arsenal or Chelsea.

And who would have tipped that only a week ago?