SOCCER ANGLES:Chelsea are closing in on the Double and Spurs have joined the Big Four – but overall, has it been a season of dropping standards, writes MICHAEL WALKER

SO IT goes to the last day of the season but the question that started to rumble around January and which built after Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United exited the Champions League prior to the semi-finals, has grown louder since: is this is the worst, weakest Premier League for some years? Anyone who witnessed the penultimate games featuring Chelsea at Liverpool and United at Sunderland will have needed less persuading than others about the merit of this notion.

Exactly where was the upstart energy and desire to destabilise either of the title challengers? The “weak” theory is buttressed by the thought Chelsea are about to win the Premier League – by beating Wigan at Stamford Bridge tomorrow – despite not being a great team or, some argue, even a very good one.

One week from now Chelsea are then expected to overcome Portsmouth in the FA Cup final to complete a domestic Double. How can a not very good team win the Double? Part of the notional answer lies in the Champions League but it also contains nuggets like this: Tottenham Hotspur 9, Wigan Athletic 1. What kind of strong league produces results like that? The recollection of that result cannot provide United with much confidence in Wigan’s chances of upsetting Chelsea’s assumed coronation tomorrow.

And yet the score at half-time in that match in November was 1-0 to Spurs. The second half was a freak show and 45 isolated minutes cannot be extrapolated over a season. Actually, what might be more relevant to tomorrow is an earlier result, from Lancashire, when Wigan beat Chelsea 3-1. The Blues had Michael Essien as well as all their other senior players in the team.

And imagine if Wigan were to park a bus across Stamford Bridge and frustrate Chelsea, squeeze a goalless draw out of the league season’s last afternoon. United could then win their fourth consecutive title by defeating Stoke at Old Trafford. This sense of near anti-climax would have to sneak off then. If that happened United would win with a points total of 85, their lowest of the last four seasons. Again this would be thrust forward as evidence of a slippage in quality.

But it would be only two points less than when United won the league two years ago. That happened to coincide with them winning the European Cup, too, so that probably could be described as a vintage year.

No one is saying that about this season yet Chelsea are one victory away from accumulating 86 points. We have, moreover, courtesy of Rafa Benitez and Harry Redknapp, a changing of England’s Champions League guard. Add Manchester City, United’s green-and-gold fans, Birmingham City, Wayne Rooney’s development, Darren Bent’s goals, Portsmouth’s crash and Fulham’s remarkable 63-game run from last July and we have ingredients for a stimulating season.

Stimulating and competitive. If results go as anticipated tomorrow, 13 points will separate first from fourth. It was 18 last year and while it was 11 points the year before that looks like a blip in the context of the seasons preceding it.

Now, though, it might be the start of a narrowing pattern. Spurs, as they proved at Eastlands on Wednesday night, are a squad evolving into a team capable of beating any other in the Premier League. Both organised and creative, Tottenham gave City a lesson in team construction.

Twelve months from now, provided they have not been overwhelmed by the number of fixtures, Spurs should be even more competitive. In Gareth Bale they have arguably the most improved player in England. Sprinkled across their starting XI and on to the bench at Tottenham is quality. At Eastlands Redknapp brought Bentley, Palacios and Pavlyuchenko into the game and could have called upon Bassong, Jenas or Gudjohnsen. The last is on loan but the other five outfield Spurs substitutes cost a combined €64 million. All of them can play. Yet all of them can expect to face increased competition for places because Redknapp is not a manager who stands still. Ask Robbie Keane.

Tottenham’s spending does not get mentioned as often as it might. But they know about it at Everton and Aston Villa. Theoretically, the bar should be raised by events at White Hart Lane but it is not hard to imagine creased brows on the faces of David Moyes and Martin O’Neill.

Then there’s Liverpool.

In 18 months at Spurs, Redknapp has assembled a better squad than Liverpool’s. One is on the rise, the other in decline. Liverpool have quality, just not enough of it. That could apply to the entire Premier League and watching Blackburn v Villa or City v Portsmouth this season, it has felt as if standards were dropping.

Occasionally Peter Crouch confirms that impression on his own – he is an England World Cup striker. But on Wednesday in Manchester, Crouch was part of a Tottenham team that made you think again.

Fatalistic Leeds fans hold breath

ON THE back page of Thursday's Yorkshire Evening Postwas the headline: "Time To End The Exile". Leeds United have been away so long that is how it seems to those who follow the club: exile.
The reality is it is only six years since Leeds were playing in the Premier League, eight since they were in Europe. Wolves went from 1984 to 2003 outside the top flight and they have not been in Europe since 1981.

But it's probably not the time to tell Leeds fans to count their blessings. Maybe by 5pm today they will be more inclined to listen as by then the "exile" should be over.

By then Bristol Rovers, who have conceded 38 goals in 22 away games this season, should have been beaten at Elland Road. After three years in the third division, Leeds will have achieved automatic promotion and will be back in the Championship.

To many it will not be the end of exile but merely a step in the right direction towards where Leeds United believe they should be. But it would be something.

The trouble for Leeds' large band of fatalistic fans is that it could also all go wrong today. Such is the top of League One not only Leeds, but the four clubs below them could all go up automatically.

They expect 38,000 at Elland Road but if Rovers go in front, that might not be a good thing.

"Why has it been so difficult?" Leeds manager Simon Grayson was asked on Thursday.

"It's Leeds United," was his reply.