As they watch Jose Mourinho and his men
celebrate a first Premier League title in five years, the
chasing pack will know the task of overhauling them will
be tough.

Manchester City
For Manchester City, this might have been viewed as an
opportunity for catharsis. Tottenham have been the
favourite punching bag of Manuel Pellegrini's men over
the last two seasons - conceding 15 goals in three games
while scoring just twice - and at times in the first half it
seemed as though the visitors were in the mood to
exorcise the frustrations of Chelsea's inevitable Premier
League title coronation earlier on Sunday.

In the main, however, this entertainingly chaotic clash
that ebbed and flowed only served to highlight why City
have allowed themselves to be knocked off their
domestic perch with little more than a whimper.
With Vincent Kompany injured, Eliaquim Mangala's poor
positioning and decision-making drove Martin Demichelis
to despair with frightening regularity, while no one in
the City midfield appeared all that interested in
defending until Sergio Aguero gave them something to
protect with a brilliant finish on 29 minutes. The visitors
created enough chances on the counter-attack to kill
Tottenham off but their persistent and glaring
vulnerabilities in defence produced a match that, on
another day with another Harry Kane, they might well
have lost.

This lack of cohesion and intensity has been a common
theme for City and it will surely be the starting point of
the lengthy and painful inquest the club will conduct this
summer. Manuel Pellegrini afterwards insisted that he
would be heavily involved in the process, though Txiki
Begiristain and his superiors must still decide whether
the Chilean is to be part of the solution.

As he reflected on the match in the White Hart Lane
conference room, Pellegrini was again keen to stress his
headline achievements at City - while firing a not-so-
subtle shot at Jose Mourinho. "Chelsea this year did
exactly what we did last year - they won the Premier
League and League Cup," he told reporters. "We did
exactly the same last year scoring more goals in another
style... we scored 158 goals, 101 in the Premier League
and that style is important to try to continue."

Yet overhaul is far more likely than continuity at the
Etihad Stadium this summer . The Premier League's
oldest squad needs a significant injection of young legs
as well as far more elite quality to supplement the
spectacular talents of Aguero and David Silva. Uefa's
Financial Fair Play restrictions mean City must further
trim their £205 million wage bill in order to make those
additions and the high earners likeliest to depart - Yaya
Toure, James Milner and Samir Nasri - will also need to
be replaced. It is make or break time for Begiristain.
On the pitch, there is no reason why City cannot once
again be Chelsea's leading challengers next season. They
will retain a core that boasts a title-winning pedigree and
the interchanges between Aguero and Silva at White Hart
Lane on Sunday provided further proof that they can still
count on two elite match-winners.

Manchester United
Manchester United will be watching their local rivals'
rebuilding plans with interest. Louis van Gaal expects his
developing side to mount a genuine title charge of their
own next season and a promising performance without
several key players at Stamford Bridge last month
suggests they are capable of competing with the
champions on equal terms, though lacklustre defeats to
Everton and West Brom will rightly temper the optimism
around Old Trafford.

Van Gaal is still trying to make sense of a hugely
unbalanced squad with glaring weaknesses in several key
areas. Robin van Persie and Radamel Falcao are too
similar at this stage of their careers: one-paced, faded
poachers short on confidence and long on fitness issues.
Record signing Angel Di Maria is still yet to find his place
on or off the pitch in Manchester and an expensively-
assembled midfield is still far too reliant on Michael
Carrick for incision and purpose. United's inexperienced
defence badly needs a leader like Mats Hummels and star
man David De Gea may need replacing if no contract
extension is agreed, Real Madrid come calling and Victor
Valdes cannot re-discover his Barcelona form.

Arsenal
Of all potential challengers, Arsenal are building from
the most promising base: A talented core coming into its
prime and garnished with the elite talents of Alexis
Sanchez and Mesut Ozil. The sparkling Chilean will be
truly frightening if he follows the trajectory of most
foreign imports that embark on their second Premier
League campaigns and the German can reasonably hope
to be healthier, even if the Gunners' wider injury
problems show no sign of abating.

But they remain tantalisingly short of championship
quality in most areas, as Thierry Henry cuttingly
observed on Sky Sports after watching his former club
comfortably stifled by Chelsea. "They need a goalkeeper,
they still need a centre-back, they still need a holding
midfielder and, I’m afraid, they need a top, top-quality
striker in order to win this league again," the Frenchman
soberly insisted. Arsene Wenger will have to overcome
his natural caution in the transfer market this summer if
he is to make the improvements required.

Chelsea
All of the chasing pack face a tough task. Attritional they
may be, but Chelsea are not 13 points clear by accident.
Mourinho will look to strengthen what is already a
winning hand in the coming weeks and months and on
suspects he and his men will not relinquish their hold on
the Premier League as limply as City have done in 2015.
If Jose Mourinho decide to strengthen his squad then it's over.