Poch optimistic after West Brom draw

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino refused to blame his wasteful stars after they missed the chance to go top of the Premier League.

Dele Alli scored an 89th-minute leveller to spare Spurs’ blushes and earn a 1-1 draw at West Brom after Nacer Chadli’s late strike against his former club looked to have given the hosts victory.

Spurs also lost Toby Alderweireld in the second half to add to their woes and he is a major doubt for Tuesday’s Champions League trip to Bayer Leverkusen.

The visitors dominated the first half and Ben Foster’s star show twice denied Alli and Christian Eriksen and Ben Davies.

Arsenal’s 3-2 win over Swansea also dropped Spurs down to third as they remained one point behind leaders Manchester City, who drew 1-1 with Everton.

Pochettino said: “We missed the opportunity to achieve three points but in the same way it was a difficult game. When you show your skill and are much better than the opposition during 45 minutes and create five or six big chances but don’t score you leave the score open.

“The Premier League is the best league in the world because it’s always difficult.

“I am happy with the performance, it’s true we can talk about being more clinical but the team played very well in the first half.

“It’s always difficult to play here and we were a little bit unlucky but Foster too because the keeper is man of the match which you can see.”

Alderweireld was carried off in the second half after a collision with Salomon Rondon and Pochettino admits the defender’s injury is a worry.

Pochettino said: “With Toby we need to wait 24-48 hours. He got a heavy knock in his leg. We will see what happens, now it is very painful. We need to know the problem.

“It is very difficult (for him to go to Germany). But we don’t know, we need to assess him tomorrow with a scan or whatever the doctors want to do.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, it was hard for me to see from the bench. All I said was, ‘How are you?’ And he explained he had pain. It is a big area: knee, leg, all.”