Football

Gritty Spurs won't stop fighting

Tottenham's Harry Kane. File Photo: Reuters

Harry Kane warned Chelsea that Tottenham won't stop fighting for the Premier League title after they closed the gap on the leaders with a gritty 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

With just 12 minutes left, Tottenham were in danger of wasting a chance to keep the pressure on leaders Chelsea as they laboured to break down Palace.

But Christian Eriksen's superb long-range strike clinched Tottenham's eighth successive league win to move them back within four points of Chelsea with five games remaining.

Rocked by Sunday's FA Cup semifinal defeat against Chelsea, Mauricio Pochettino's side took a long time to get going against Palace, but Tottenham striker Kane believes his side's hard-fought win underlined their determination to catch Chelsea.

"It's unbelievable. This is a tough place to come and we had to keep fighting. We knew our time would come and what a strike by Christian Eriksen," Kane said.

"We knew we had to bounce back after the weekend and what a performance by everyone. We had to dig deep and get a goal. It was a perfect win in the end.

"We can't focus on Chelsea. We have five tough games, we have to win them to have a chance and hopefully we can do that."

Eriksen conceded Tottenham were below their best and he was relieved to come to the rescue in the nick of time.

"We struggled with some parts of our game. We didn't have many chances but luckily we scored with the one we had," he said.

Pochettino saluted his players for refusing to be rattled by Palace and quickly turned his attention to Sunday's clash with Arsenal, which is likely to be the last north London derby at White Hart Lane before the stadium is rebuilt.

"The second half we played much better. It was difficult for us to move the ball and find space but we changed the shape at half-time and it was more fluid," he said.