Charlton Athletic 2 Tottenham Hotspur 3: Below Chelsea the Premiership is becoming an egg-and-spoon race, often using real eggs. Two of the champions' less distant pursuers shared a yolk or two at The Valley on Saturday without ever suggesting they were capable of offering a serious threat to Chelsea's grip on the title. After leading Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 early in the second half Charlton managed to lose 3-2 and ended looking shell-shocked.
"We showed again today that we can play against the top teams," declared Charlton manager Alan Curbishley, which was a little generous since Tottenham have not warranted the description for 20 odd years.
Still, Curbishley was entitled to search for the odd crumb of comfort given that his side again achieved the quality of passing and movement that has distinguished their impressive start to the season. Even now Charlton have taken 15 points out of a possible 21 and in losing still achieved a level of attacking performance which had distinguished their home defeat by Chelsea a fortnight earlier.
Against that, Tottenham took much credit for spotting and pursuing a route to salvation when all seemed lost. They accepted their chances at crucial moments whereas Charlton scorned chances which would have put the match beyond Tottenham.
Much of Charlton's early-season surge has been due to the consistent finishing of Darren Bent, a fact confirmed by the alacrity with which the former Ipswich striker took his two goals on Saturday. Both were created by shrewd passes, from Danny Murphy after 25 minutes and Jerome Thomas after 48, which caught the opposition's offside trap in a state of disrepair.
In between times, Bent miscued a much simpler chance wide after Alexei Smertin had left him to score from kindergarten range yet his departure with a fat eye, following a clash of heads with Paul Stalteri 20 minutes from the end, deprived Charlton of the best means to rescue the game after being pulled back to 2-2.
What it boiled down to was the luxury enjoyed by Martin Jol, the Tottenham manager, in being able to summon from the bench a goalscorer of quality.
Robbie Keane now plays second fiddle to Jermain Defoe but continues to show a healthy propensity for seizing the orchestra leadership. His late goal had brought a point at Aston Villa and now he struck even later, with 10 minutes left, to bring them all three at Charlton.
The circumstances were bizarre. With Mido prostrated by cramp on the right Charlton pressed home an attack on the left. Convention demanded that someone kick the ball into touch to bring the Egyptian striker treatment but Tottenham were equally oblivious to Mido's plight as Aaron Lennon gained possession before setting up Keane for an exchange of passes with Defoe and a typically emphatic finish.
Naturally Jol contended afterwards Keane was an essential part of his plans. "If Robbie wants to play for us he will," he insisted.
By then the soft goal scored by Ledley King, who stuck out a leg as a free-kick from Pedro Mendes brushed the head of Mido and saw the ball gently ricochet beyond the reach of Stephan Andersen, had implanted seeds of doubt in Charlton minds. These were duly confirmed in the 64th minute when Teemu Tainio's clever little reverse pass let in Mido for a narrow-angled shot through Andersen's legs.
