John Terry ripped into Tottenham's history after Jamie O'Hara claimed the north London club were historically bigger than Chelsea.
The Blues legend made a brutal joke at the expense of Tottenham's trophy cabinet, which had its first addition in 17 years when they won the Europa League last season.
Ahead of Saturday's derby, he phoned in to O'Hara's talkSPORT show after the host argued that Chelsea only became big when they 'bought the league' after Roman Abramovic took over in 2003.
'What on earth is he on about this morning, O'Hara?' Terry said. 'Even using those two words together, "Spurs" and "globally", should never be in the same sentence ever again.
'They're still doing their pre-season tours around north London, absolutely ridiculous.
'I've been invited to the game by Tottenham at the weekend. It's a 5:30 kick-off, they've asked me to get there at 5:29 and they've said they'll take me around the trophy cabinet and they'll have me in my seat by kick-off,' he joked.
'That's how miles off it they are.'
O'Hara and his co-host Gabby Agbonlahor saw the funny side, though the former stood firm in his opinions.
He had said earlier on Friday: ''Everyone sees Tottenham as a cup final in London. Chelsea treat it as a cup final.
'On recent success, Chelsea have obviously become a big club because of the investment that they got from Roman Abramovich.
'They bought the league, they bought a load of amazing players, and fair play to them.
'Chelsea weren't bigger than Tottenham before.'
And replying to Terry's voicenote, he said: 'Listen, JT, he played in the era when they were big. They had Roman Abramovich and he was unbelievable.
'But before then, they were nowhere near as big as Tottenham. They weren't!'
The debate has arisen ahead of Tottenham's clash with Chelsea att 5.30pm on Saturday and will be hotly contested in pubs across London.
Nowadays, seeing Chelsea with their five Premier League titles and two Champions Leagues, it might seem a bit of a moot debate. But is it?
Before Abramovic's arrival in 2003, Chelsea had won 10 elite-level trophies. Tottenham's total was 16.
Expand that to total trophies won and Chelsea's tally sat at 15, while Spurs were already on 27.
Moreover, we can get a good handle on how many points the two clubs have historically accrued, though different websites have slightly varying data.
In the all-time table for the Premier League and Division One combined, Chelsea have accrued 5,431 points - only eight points more than Tottenham's haul of 5,423. And that's in four more games (3,635 - 3,631). The margins are remarkably tight, with the figures taken from worldfootball.net.
Using another website, football365,we can see how many of those points were earned since the beginning of the Roman Abramovic era.
Since Abramovic arrived, Chelsea have picked up more points than any team: 1,663. Tottenham falter quite a way behind on 1,402.
But what that tells us is that before Abramovic arrived, Spurs were some way ahead of their London rivals. Until June 2003, they had collected 4,021 points, compared to Chelsea's 3,768.
Obviously, there are other factors to this. Before Roman Abramovic's arrival, Chelsea average a higher attendance; subsequent stadium expansions and moves have helped Spurs exceed that.
But, given that Tottenham had won more elite titles, more trophies in total, and more points before Abramovic arrived, perhaps O'Hara has a point after all.