Five more points were within reasonable grasp, and with the benefit of hindsight, Martin Jol will believe that deep down an early opportunity of securing fourth place was thrown away. Instead it will go down to the final week and maybe beyond that if Spurs hold onto their advantage and remain above Arsenal in the league while the Gunners' await their Champions League final against Barcelona.
Spurs and England striker Jermain Defoe has come into the side and played in every one of Tottenham's last three games, starting at Everton a fortnight ago. Robbie Keane's penalty just before half-time decided the outcome, but "had it not been for goalkeeper Richard Wright, Spurs would have scored twice more within five minutes of the restart" pointed out Paul Forsyth in The Sunday Times. Defoe should have done much better with his close-range effort.
On failing to increase that slender lead, Martin Jol afterwards told the club's official website: "We made it hard for ourselves a bit by not scoring the second or third goal. We created so many chances, with Jermain Defoe, Robbie Keane, Jermaine Jenas (who was denied by Wright after Defoe had played him through the middle with a neat pass) and, later on, Danny Murphy, so we should have won by several more goals."
Robbie Keane, Tottenham's stand in skipper praised the Everton keeper for his part in denying Tottenham goals from open play: "We had the chances to wrap the game up but their keeper made some good saves. Jermain Defoe had two great shots that ended with magnificent saves and Jermaine Jenas also had a chance."
In the next two games against Manchester United, Jol, still without Mido to add a different dimension to Tottenham's attack, changed the tactics, but unfortunately going all guns ablazing from the backline forwards backfired slightly and they found themselves trailing 2-0 early on in the game.
"Jermain Defoe and Michael Dawson, twice, spurned chances" commented Russell Kempson in The Times, before "Spurs were punished for their woeful misses." (The Sun) Edwin van der Sar also made some decent saves and the club's official website was more sympathetic to the joy of watching Spurs dominate Alex Ferguson's side, who then, still had an outside chance of nicking the championship. "Tottenham gave everything and really rattled United in the opening stages but Manchester United ran out 2-1 winners despite Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane combining to dissect the United rearguard," it said.
Afterwards, Martin Jol added: "We didn't score a couple of goals which is what we needed. It was a shame because before they broke on us we had five chances."
Robbie Keane agreed: "If we had scored the first goal, who knows, we might have won it because we played well and had something like four or five chances in the space of ten minutes but no luck."
Then again misses from Defoe were in evidence at Arsenal last Saturday. Spurs now clearly craved the presence of someone like Mido who could stay forward and poach anything from close-range. Two good opportunities fell to Defoe in the first 45 minutes.
"Spurs dominated the first half and they could have had a two- or three-goal advantage," commented Brian Glanville in The Sunday Times. For Defoe's first chance he received a pass centrally from Aaron Lennon, but with Edgar Davids in lots of space to his left, he opted to shoot himself instead, only delivering a weak effort. Then after Michael Carrick had put Defoe through, the little man smashed his effort into Jens Lehmann's face.
Martin Jol after the 1-1 draw that clinched European football for the club next season, said: "We created three or four great chances in the first half with Aaron Lennon, Jermain Defoe and Teemu Tainio. I think Jermain and Robbie did well and Jermain has probably had eight chances in his last three matches."
Mido looks like he will certainly miss Sunday's crunch game against Bolton at the Lane on Sunday, so Spurs have no other option but to continue minus an out and out targetman in the side. It has worked before for them, so let's hope now that it all comes good over the next two games. Furthermore, with the club still to make a reasonable bid for on-loan Mido, it would be interesting if the Egyptian does return to Serie A who the club will bring in as his replacement in the summer.