Spurs throw away their title chance in one defining week

London: Just as Tottenham are beginning to be spoken about as genuine title contenders, they fail to beat Wolverhampton, one of the Premier League's relegation candidates at home, and then lose away to the leaders.

As harsh as it may sound, their hopes of winning the league this season have gone because of their failure to make more of what has been a defining week in their campaign.

Every season has defining moments and Tottenham's might just have been the one minute at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday when they could have scored a winner, but ended up conceding a goal that left them with nothing. But this last week has really been crunch time for Spurs and, although their fightback at City after going two goals down was impressive, ultimately they failed to deliver when the pressure was on. As a result, they are now eight points behind City, five adrift of Manchester United and, simply, out of the title race.

A week ago, City were in a mini-crisis, but they have responded by taking six points from six against Wigan and Spurs. Tottenham haven't been able to measure up, but I don't think it's fair to say that manager Harry Redknapp's team have blown it, because they have not been in as dominant a position as the Manchester clubs.

Tottenham had a chance of competing for the title this season, but that has now gone, yet they are clear favourites to finish third and claim Champions League qualification, so that means they have made progress following the highs of last season's Champions League campaign.

Best opportunity

When you are chasing a title, it is all about finishing first, however, and that has proved to be beyond Tottenham. Yes, they could have won at City had Jermain Defoe converted Gareth Bale's inviting injury-time cross, but you cannot overlook the fact that their big players did not turn up in the first 60 minutes.

If Tottenham build on what they have, however, then there is no reason why history will say this was their best chance to win the league — they can still challenge in future years. They do not need superstars to transform them into potential champions because they already have those in Bale and Luka Modric. What they have to do now is identify the players who can improve their squad and be relied upon to make a difference when things aren't going to plan, players who can give them the reliability when the big stars aren't doing it.

They are not easy to find, but they somehow managed to buy Bale and Modric for ‘two and six' and the pair of those are now worth more than £40 million (Dh228.4 million) each. If Spurs can keep those two and hold on to Redknapp as manager, then they are capable of challenging again next season. They will benefit from the experience of this campaign and be stronger and better for it, but losing Harry, perhaps to the England job, would be a major downside.

One thing that Tottenham and the rest have to accept, however, is that City will only get better next season and so will United. By their own standards, United have been woeful for the past 18 months.

Successive seasons

I can't recall Sir Alex Ferguson's team being so bad for two successive seasons. At times, they have been at the bottom of the scale, but United are United and they are still just three points off the top, having been so unimpressive at times this season.

Despite being so bad, their experience of winning has seen United win the title last season and reach another Champions League final, so they can never be overlooked. I cannot see any way that they will not improve next season, so that is the challenge that Spurs face.

— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2012