I personally would be inclined to look at overall manjor trophies won - i.e. including European trophies (the European Cup/CL, ECWC, and UEFA Cup/Europa League BUT not any of the shitty glorified Super Cup friendlies). I don't really see why we should limit trophies to the domestic game when European trophies are widely counted as major trophies, too.
That wouldn't alter our position in relation to Villa or Everton, because each of us has won one. But Spurs won the ECWC in 1963 plus two UEFA Cups and I think we have to give them credit for that, while Chelsea have won 4. So, assuming we don't do a Devon Loch in the title race, we'll overtake Everton this season as we'll have 16 major trophies to their 15. We'll still be four short of Villa.
Meanwhile, we'd be 8 major trophies behind Chelsea and one behind Spurs. But that would be subject to adjustment if any of the three of us wins the CL or if one of them wins the FAC.
It takes sustained trophy success over a period of years to make a dramatic change to the picture. Before winning the FA Cup in 1997, Chelsea had only four in their history - and pedants like me would have called it three, disallowing their League Cup from the era when there was no Wembley final, it didn't confer a European place on the winners and not all teams entered it.
Most people 20-odd years ago would have been dismissive of the prospect of Chelsea overtaking Spurs in terms of honours won. However, they've pulled well clear now. We've made a decent start over the last 7 or 8 years at moving up the list and we can hope to kick on, making further progress in the years to come.
