Stoke City secured a second season in the Barclays Premier League with an impressive 11th place finish at the end of 2009/10. Manager Tony Pulis again exceeded expectations by confirming the Potters' place in the top flight with a handful of matches to spare a year after they placed 12th.This is Pulis' second spell in charge at the club. He originally parted company with the Potters at the end of the 2004/05 season. Dutch manager Johan Boskamp stepped in but left at the end of the season after a mid-table finish.

Boskamp's departure came as former-chairman Peter Coates was completing a takeover of the club and he reappointed Pulis who, after leading the club to eighth in the 2006/07 season, guided them to promotion.

Prior to their promotion, Stoke had not competed in the top flight since the 1984/85 season.Their most recent trophy was won in 2000 when their first overseas manager, Gudjon Thordarson, guided them to The Auto Windscreens trophy. It was the Icelander who led them to promotion into the First Division in 2001.

Heritage

There is some doubt over when Stoke came into existence. It is reported that a club was formed in 1863 by former pupils of the Charterhouse School, but there is little evidence of matches being played.A report in The Field magazine on 1868 stated that a club had been formed in Stoke-on-Trent and that its founder member was ex-Charterhouse School pupil Henry Almond.

So it is possible that matches had been played over the previous five years but the first on record played by Almond's team was in October 1868 and consisted mainly of railway employees. The team was called Stoke Ramblers.

The club turned professional in 1885, and became owners of their stadium, the Victoria Ground, around 1919. The club's most celebrated player Stanley Matthews made his debut in the 1930s and helped the club achieve promotion to the top flight in 1933.

Stoke mounted a serious title challenge in the 1946/47 season but missed out on the final day. Matthews, at the age of 32, opted to join Blackpool two matches earlier.The club won its first major trophy in 1972 when beating Chelsea 2-1 to win the League Cup. They played a staggering 11 matches before achieving this feat.

The Potters have enjoyed sustained spells in the top tier of English football, while also residing in the Second Division, notably for a ten-year period in the 1950s and early 60s. Under Tony Waddington they remained in the First Division between 1963 and 1977, and it was in that period that they won their only major trophy.

Stoke had been back in the top flight for six successive seasons before they were relegated in 1984/85. The Potters remained in the Second Division for the rest of the decade. Between 1980 and 1990, the club had five managers and five chairmen.

Under Alan Ball, the club were relegated to the Third Division in 1991 and he failed to earn them promotion the following season. Lou Macari, though, steered them back up in time for the 1992/93 season, and made it two promotions in two campaigns by taking the club up to Division One that season.

Stoke consolidated their position for five seasons before relegation in 1997/98. Four seasons in the Second Division followed, until Thordarson took them back up.

Tottenham Hotspur have been in the Premier League since its inception and have lit the competition up with their flamboyant style of play. With Jurgen Klinsmann and Ilie Dumitrescu, the team was built around goals, but points were harder to come by. Relegation was only narrowly avoided in 1998, but fans' relief was short lived as their next manager was a legend from fierce north London rivals Arsenal - George Graham.

He led the team to a League Cup victory in his first season - Spurs' first trophy since the Premier League began. However, it wasn't until Martin Jol took over in 2004 and started building a team for the future - firmly placing his faith in youth - that Spurs began to climb the table. They only narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification in the 2005/06 season and secured another fifth place finish the following campaign.

But a slow start to the 2007/08 season saw Jol replaced by Juande Ramos. The Spaniard repeated Graham's trick of winning the League Cup in his first season by defeating Chelsea in the final at Wembley Stadium and also lifted the club up to 11th place in the league.

Ramos was sacked in October 2008 with the team bottom of the Barclays Premier League on just two points. He was replaced by Harry Redknapp who sparked a remarkable revival leading the side to an eighth-place finish and the Carling Cup final where they lost on penalties to Manchester United.The 2009/10 season was Tottenham's most successful yet in the Premier League as they saw off a strong challenge from Manchester City to finish fourth, qualifying for the Champions League for the first time.

Club Heritage

Boys from Hotspur Cricket Club and the local grammar club formed Hotspur FC in 1882. The name was changed to Tottenham Hotspur in 1884. Three years later, they played their first north London derby, but the match was called off after 15minutes "owing to darkness" - Spurs were beating Arsenal 2-1.The club turned professional in 1885, but didn't join the football league until 1908. In the meantime, they became the only non-league team to win the FA Cup (in 1901) since the formation of the Football League in 1888.

Spurs became perceived as a big club when Bill Nicholson took over in 1958. He won his first match 10-4 - a sign of what was to come. In his 16 years at the club, Spurs won eight major trophies - becoming the first club in the 20th century to complete the league and cup 'double' in 1961 and the first British team to win a major European competition in 1963.

Further league success eluded Spurs and, following Nicholson's retirement, they even spent a brief stint in the Second Division in 1977/78. Their ethos of playing attacking football continued though - players that wowed the White Hart Lane faithful include Ossie Ardiles, Glenn Hoddle, Paul Gascoigne and Gary Lineker.