Harry Kane was left bemoaning Tottenham’s lack of cutting edge as the hosts failed to kill off the 10 men of Arsenal in a 2-2 draw.
Francis Coquelin’s red card early in the first half gave Spurs the perfect opportunity to overturn a 1-0 deficit and, however briefly, move ahead of Leicester in the race for a league title. They had seemingly taken advantage, with Toby Alderweireld and Kane scoring within two minutes to establish a 2-1 advantage.
Tottenham went close twice in swift succession in the following minutes, as first Dier brought out a fine save from David Ospina before Kane fired wide.
The hosts were made to pay, Alexis Sanchez nicking an equaliser for the ten men, and it could have been worse had Kevin Wimmer not made a late tackle on Aaron Ramsey as the Arsenal midfielder burst through on goal.
With the draw providing a perfect opportunity for Leicester to extend their lead at the top of the table Kane admitted to regrets at the failure to kill the game off.
“We are very disappointed, we had them where we wanted them,” Kane told the club website. “2-1 down and with them down to ten men, we’ve just got to finish the game off. Get the third, the fourth and it’d be a very different changing room right now.
“But that’s football, we have to deal with it as best we can… Even after we went 2-1 up we had a couple of chances that we could have put away but we didn’t. When you’re playing top teams in the league they punish you and that’s what happened today.”
Spurs have the opportunity to bounce back in the league with relatively winnable fixtures against Aston Villa and Bournemouth to come in March, though they will be followed by a final seven games that pit Mauricio Pochettino’s side against the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United, Stoke and Chelsea.
Kane continued his own fine form against Arsenal, scoring his fourth goal in three league games against the north London rivals in spectacular style, curling a strike from the left-hand edge of the penalty area past David Ospina and into the far corner.
“Dele and I were chasing the ball down, he got there first and managed to do a lovely little backheel,” he said. “I felt I was on my own, got the ball out of my feet and just thought ‘why not’?
“As soon as I hit it I see it going towards that far corner, to see it go in caused a lot of emotions.
“We’re disappointed but we’ve got to move on, there’s a long way to go.”
