Tottenham vs West Brom match report: Leicester one win away from Premier League title after Dawson equaliser

Tottenham 1 West Brom 1

Craig Dawson celebrates his equaliser for West Brom (Getty)

If Eden Hazard is to be believed, Tottenham can expect an ambush at Chelsea next Monday which will end their title ambitions, but having failed to overcome West Bromwich Albion at White Hart Lane, the harsh reality for Spurs is that their dream may be over before they even arrive at Stamford Bridge.

Craig Dawson’s 72nd minute header saw the West Bromwich defender cancel out his first-half own goal and deny Spurs the victory required to turn the heat back onto Premier League leaders Leicester.

Mauricio Pochettino’s team are still alive in the title race, but their hopes are now hanging by a thread.

Three more points will secure Leicester’s first-ever league title and they could win it at Manchester United on Sunday.

By then, Spurs could be without Dele Alli for three games if the Football Association decide to punish the England midfielder for violent conduct as a result an apparent off-the-ball punch into the ribs of Albion midfielder Claudio Yacob.

So a bad night for the North London club, who must now hope for a miracle if they are to win their first title since 1961.

Craig Dawson bundles the ball into his own net (Getty)

There will have those within White Hart Lane who felt that Swansea City’s half-hearted performance while going down 4-0 to Leicester on Sunday did little to uphold suggestions that the Premier League is the most competitive in Europe.

Swansea performed as if they were halfway through their summer holidays, but there was the small consolation for Spurs in that West Brom have hardly played any better in recent weeks.

Since defeating Manchester United at The Hawthorns at the beginning of March, Tony Pulis’s team have taken just one point from five Premier League games, scoring just once during that miserable run.

With Pulis barking instructions like a Sargeant Major from the technical area, Albion were never likely to go through the motions in this game – and Pulis was certainly not holding back on the touchline – but their form should have been enough for Spurs to realise that patience and superior quality would eventually consign the visitors to another defeat.

Spurs wanted to strike hard and strike early, though, perhaps sensing the need to keep anxiety levels to a minimum by killing off any prospect of Albion resistance.

Delle Ali clashes with Claudio Yacob after a nasty looking incident (Getty ) (Getty)

And the opening moments were a blur of Tottenham chances, with Albion’s stand-in goalkeeper Boaz Myhill twice forced into important saves, from Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane.

The game was just four minutes old when Myhill dived low to keep out an Eriksen free-kick, but the former Hull keeper went one better two minutes later when he tipped Kane’s strike onto the far post after the forward had been released following a one-two with Alli.

It was all Spurs and Eriksen went close again on 11 minutes with a free-kick which skimmed the crossbar after Stephane Sessegnon had bundled Danny Rose over on the edge of the penalty area.

But West Brom were able to weather the early storm and they began to frustrate the home side, with Yacob, in particular, relishing his task of upsetting the Spurs midfielders and their rhythm with cynical blocks and dubious challenges.

Having been on the receiving end of one too many of Yacob’s challenges, Alli squared up to the Argentine in an open display of the newly-crowned PFA Young Player of the Year’s refusal to be bullied out of this or any other game.

But while West Brom were able to stifle Spurs for brief periods, Pochettino’s team possess so much flair and resilience that it was only going to be a matter of time before they broke through.

When it came, though, the opening goal owed as much to luck as judgement, with the unfortunate Dawson attempting to prevent Jan Vertonghen from converting Eriksen’s cross, only to bundle it past Myhill with his stomach as he slid across the six-yard box.

While the scoreline remained 1-0, Tottenham were always vulnerable to West Brom hitting them on the counter-attack, but so limited were the visitors in terms of imagination going forward, that threat appeared to be a diminishing one.

The set-piece ability of Craig Gardner was West Brom’s greatest weapon, but the midfeilder’s one effort on goal was saved by goalkeeper Hugo Lloris on 52 minutes.

It was a game in which the second goal would be decisive. A West Brom goal would change the mood of the stadium and inject tension, but Spurs would pull clear with a second.

And the home side went agonisingly close to scoring that second on 57 minutes after Eriksen had ghosted past Yacob on the left before pulling the ball back for Erik Lamela.

Standing on the penalty spot, Lamela side-footed the ball goalwards, but his effort curled away and hit the post, with Kane arriving too late to convert the rebound.

Albion survived another scare and they almost punished Spurs six minutes later, but Salomon Rondon wastefully headed wide from six yards after rising to head Gardner’s cross.

Tottenham’s failure to kill Albion off gave the visitors hope and Lloris had to be at his best to tip a close range Rondon shot over the bar on 71 minutes.

But from the corner which followed, Dawson outjumped Eric Dier to head Gardner’s delivery into the net.

It was a hammer blow for Spurs and one which they will struggle to recover from.

TEAMS

Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1): Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Dier (Mason, 75), Dembele; Lamela (Son Heung-min, 85), Alli (Chadli, 90), Eriksen; Kane.

West Bromwich Albion (4-1-4-1): Myhill; Dawson, McAuley, Olsson, Evans; Yacob; Sessegnon (Sandro, 90), Fletcher, Gardner, McClean; Rondon.