Tottenham Hotspur squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Stoke City, thanks to Mame Biram Diouf’s late equaliser on a remarkable afternoon at White Hart Lane.
Hugo Lloris returned in goal for Spurs while Nabil Bentaleb made way for Ryan Masson following his poor show at Old Trafford eight days ago. Marko Arnautovic replaced Charlie Adam for the only change in Stoke’s starting XI.
Young goalkeeper Jack Butland mustered a good save in the 7th minute to disallow Christian Eriksen from sneaking his left-foot shot into the near post.
The hosts continued to dominate early play and deservedly claimed the lead on 19 minutes with Eriksen’s in-swinging corner headed in at the near post by defender Eric Dier.
Senegalese and former Manchester United striker, Diouf, was gifted the best possible opportunity to level scores for Mark Hughes’ side in first-half injury-time as Jon Walters headed a cross into his path but, in turn, headed straight into the arms of Lloris.
The miss was followed with a solid counter-attacking move by the ‘Lilly Whites’, orchestrated by a Ben Davies long-bursting run down the left to get on the end of a long ball. The Welsh full-back sent his cross to Chadli at the far post and the Belgian volleyed in via deflection.
8 – Tottenham have conceded more penalties than any other PL side since the start of last season. Gifted.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 15, 2015
Butland was called into another salvage mission seven minutes into the restart, reacting swiftly to deny a goal-wards half-volley from the Englishman Harry Kane from six yards.
While the Potters struggled to consolidate for English goalkeeper’s solidity between both sticks, the 22-year-old was again the saviour from a Mousa Dembele shot from 20 yards in the 70th minute.
The visitors were offered some glimmer of hopes eight minutes later when Toby Alderweireld brought down Marko Arnautovic just inside the Spurs penalty area and the Austrian got up to slot into the home side net.
Diouf brought proceedings back on even terms in the 83rd minute from a Steven Ireland assist.
