Competitive and clever signed in the summer on a free transfer it was the Finn's cute reverse pass after Charlton sloppily lost possession

Competitive and clever, signed in the summer on a free transfer, it was the Finn's cute reverse pass after Charlton sloppily lost possession outside their penalty area that led to Tottenham's equaliser The ball found Mido completely free. "If we could have held on to our two-goal lead for a few minutes longer, I think we would have got the result we deserved."Anyone who was here today will have seen how we have got ourselves a good start," he claimed "But that confidence has also caused problems. We are losing the ball in dangerous areas because of their eagerness to do well."It took Charlton 15 minutes to get going and, in danger of being overrun, they began to bypass midfield, longer passes having an unsettling effect on Tottenham's defence. The approach worked so well that Spurs were caught flat-footed, vainly appealing for offside as Danny Murphy's exquisite through ball found Darren Bent sprinting through the middle to beat Paul Robinson.Three minutes after the restart, Jerome Thomas threaded a pass of perfect weight through the Tottenham defence and Bent gave successful chase, taking too much time for Curbishley's liking, but finally shifting the ball on to his right foot and curling it past Robinson.That seemed to be the decisive blow, but much to Curbishley's disappointment Charlton slipped back into their old careless ways.

Pedro Mendes floated in a free-kick that Mido jumped for but missed, the ball bouncing in off King's shins.A fluke goal but one that transformed Tottenham, whose general play benefited from the introduction of Teemu Tainio. "We needed to get ourselves together at that point, settle down," he said Instead, Charlton allowed Tottenham to come at them. Yet Tottenham are a sterner proposition these days and Charlton were left to rue lapses in concentration."It's one of the things we've got to work on," their manager, Alan Curbishley, said. "After being two down I would have settled for a draw," Martin Jol, the Tottenham head coach, said, "but with Keane I felt we could win it." Jol speaks in riddles. No, Keane is not a supersub, a modern-day equivalent of the original holder of that title, David Fairclough. Yes, he will benefit from two games for the Republic of Ireland over the next 10 days, come back with improved match fitness. But there are no guarantees. Jol has made it clear that Keane and Defoe do not go together as an attacking partnership "If they both play with Mido, one has to be on the left But they all come to me and say they want be in the middle.

It's a nice problem to have, keeping them happy."For 50 minutes on Saturday, he had other problems to contend with. At that stage Tottenham seemed destined to lose their first Premiership away match of the season to Charlton, who had out-thought them and often out-fought them. Not enough, though, to ensure that the Irishman can now expect to spend more time on the pitch than the bench, where he again started on Saturday. With 10 minutes of a rip-roaring game left Robbie Keane worked a classic one-two with Jermain Defoe and crashed in the winning goal for Tottenham. Television pictures suggested it might have been legal...Goal: Clemence og (82) 1-0.Arsenal (4-4-2): Lehmann; Lauren, Tour?Campbell, Cole; Hleb (Bergkamp, 60), Fabregas, Gilberto, Pires (Van Persie, 70); Ljungberg (Flamini, 87), Reyes. Substitutes not used: Cygan, Almunia (gk).Birmingham City (4-4-2): Taylor; Tebily, Cunningham, Upson, Clapham (Forssell, 87); Pennant, Johnson, Clemence, Gray; Heskey, Pandiani (Lazaridis, 55). Substitutes not used: Vaesen (gk), Painter, Aluko.Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).Booked: Birmingham Clemence; Sent off: Birmingham Cunningham (25).Man of the match: Taylor.Attendance: 37,891..

But Taylor dived to his right to block Robert Pires's kick, and the Frenchman drove the rebound into the side netting.From then on, Taylor continued to deny a succession of Arsenal efforts, notably diverting a Ljungberg shot over the bar and tipping a close-range Pires effort onto the post. But with 82 minutes played, a leg-weary Julian Gray miscued a clearance and Francesc Fabregas swiftly transferred the ball to the man who was about to break a goalkeeper's heart.The final twist of the knife came after 87 minutes, when Olivier Tebily's headed goal from Jermaine Pennant's corner was disallowed because the ball had gone out of play before reaching him. Like an honest batsman, Cunningham walked, passing his captain's armband on to Matthew Upson.Within two minutes the home side appeared set to capitalise on their numerical advantage when a grounded Damien Johnson halted Ljungberg's charge in a flurry of legs and the referee pointed to the spot. "I thought he was outstanding today," he said, before adding, in a reference to Taylor's equally fine performance in the World Cup qualifier against England last month, "I hope he doesn't play for Austria and Poland."The England manager Sven Goran Eriksson chose this match to attend shortly before announcing his squad for those two upcoming matches, and would have been heartened by the displays of Arsenal's centre back Sol Campbell and left back Ashley Cole, who appeared to be playing Birmingham virtually on his own for the opening period.After just three minutes, Cole was on hand to clear the ball off the line after Emil Heskey's shot had been parried by Jens Lehmann, and thereafter he became a major source of Arsenal's enterprise.Arsenal's hopes rose dramatically when Ljungberg, sent through on goal by Gilberto, was levelled by a steam-shovel tackle from the Birmingham captain Kenny Cunningham that could have come from his old days as one of Wimbledon's Crazy Gang. "He just knew he's had possibly his best game ever, the game of his life, and unfortunately it's ended like that and been spoilt."It's hard enough coming to Arsenal with 11 men. But to hold out for more than an hour with 10, and then lose out when you are eight minutes away was cruel."The Arsenal manager Ars? Wenger also paid tribute to the visiting custodian. And despite much fervent activity they looked increasingly likely to draw a blank until the young Dutchman's late intervention.Birmingham's manager Steve Bruce reacted with the wry smile of an old pro who has seen this sort of thing happen many times before But it clearly hurt."What could you say to Maik?" he asked.