WHILE the battle for the Premiership is all but over, two of Chelsea's leading lights are embroiled in a tussle that is too close to call.

With the Football Writers Association and the PFA both due to announce their player of the year next month, John Terry and Frank Lampard are neck and neck in the race for personal honours.

While Thierry Henry cruised through most of last year head and shoulders above anyone else, Chelsea's leading lights have matched each other stride for stride this season. As a result, the annual awards for excellence could go either way.

Supporters of Terry point to the first two months of the campaign.

After a host of foreign signings moved to Stamford Bridge in the summer, an opening-day clash with Manchester United was hardly the ideal way to ease them into the English game.

But, after being handed the captain's armband by Jose Mourinho, Terry played superbly to marshall his side to a morale-boosting 1-0 win.

Seven more clean sheets followed in the next nine games as Chelsea established a defensive platform that has formed the bedrock of their pursuit of the Premiership title. The Blues have conceded just 11 goals in 31 league games and Terry's imposing presence and impeccable reading of the game have been a major factor in their strength at the back.

The centre-half has also contributed at the other end, with his eight goals creating a headache for opposition defenders whenever Chelsea are awarded a set-piece.

But, as good as Terry has been this season, his team-mate Lampard has been that little bit better.

The 26-year-old has always possessed the necessary attributes for greatness - suddenly he has discovered how to piece them together week in, week out.

He has utterly eclipsed Patrick Vieira, Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard and, in the whole of Europe, only Zinedine Zidane can claim to be a better midfielder than Lampard.

But, while Zidane's talent is a flashy adornment at Real Madrid, Lampard's qualities provide the heartbeat of a Chelsea team that is more than the sum of its parts.

The midfielder's energy is boundless - his surges from box to box never stop - and his passing ranges from 40-yard balls to set his strikers free to one-touch lay-offs into the tightest of gaps.

He tackles, he harries and, as 17 goals this season have proved, he scores as well.

His second goal against Bayern Munich was the strike of a player at the top of his form and, if Chelsea do go on to win their first league title in 50 years, Lampard will the player who has done most to end the wait.