WHEN Tottenham take on Chelsea at White Hart Lane this afternoon, one of the sides in action will be a London outfit awash with cash, hoarding the best of young English talent and already suffering the backlash of an unsuccessful attempt to keep every member of an extensive first-team squad happy. The other will be Chelsea.

While Roman Abramovich's Russian Revolution has caused quite a stir on the King's Road, Martin Jol's Dutch Dynasty has evolved along much quieter lines in the north of the capital.

Yet, in its own way, the Tottenham manager's recent spending spree promises to be every bit as significant as Jose Mourinho's well-documented extravagance.

It might not lead to the Premiership title but, if Spurs can maintain their eye-catching start to the season, it promises to re-establish one of the country's leading clubs to their previous position within the English elite.

After years of persistent under-achievement, this could finally be the year when Tottenham live up to their obvious potential. And, like so much in the English game at the moment, the club's revival has been based on an injection of cash.

The club's sudden upturn can be traced to two pivotal moments. The second was the appointment of Jol as successor to the unpopular Frenchman Jacques Santini.

But, prior to Jol's appointment last November, the wheels of recovery had already been set in motion by chairman Daniel Levy.

Under the auspices of his company, Enic, Levy invested £15m into a new share scheme and immediately earmarked that money for the purchase of new additions to the squad.

An already hefty fighting fund was bolstered by another £14m this summer thanks to Spurs' appearance in a pre-season tournament in South Korea, the sales of Fredi Kanoute, Simon Davies and Thimothee Atouba and the compensation package that saw former sporting director Frank Arnesen join Chelsea.

The result has been the purchase of six new players, including Dutch legend Edgar Davids, to flesh out a squad that already boasted five England internationals - Paul Robinson, Ledley King, Anthony Gardner, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe - and the likes of Robbie Keane and Pedro Mendes.

Convincing wins over Portsmouth and Middlesbrough underlined Tottenham's potential and, while this week's draw with Blackburn temporarily halted the club's early progress, Chelsea will enter this afternoon's game expecting one of their toughest tests of the season.

They will also travel to White Hart Lane expecting Jol to field his strongest starting line-up. The Dutchman was widely criticised for making wholesale changes at Ewood Park on Wednesday night and, when even Mourinho is struggling to maintain a happy camp in an era of squad rotation, the Spurs boss can ill afford to create enemies within his own dressing room.

Assuming he keeps his tinkering to a minimum in the next nine months, there is every chance of Tottenham making a return to Europe next season. With Arsenal and Liverpool looking far from impenetrable so far, they could even do an Everton and sneak into the top four.

Beyond that, the longer term looks like being even more inviting. With around £25m still to spend, Spurs should be one of English football's biggest players in the transfer market for some time to come.

And, as Chelsea have shown in the last three years, a spell of sustained investment can reap almost instant rewards.