A GOOD day for Chelsea, another encouraging one for Tottenham and 90 minutes in which Heurelho Gomes at last looked an international goalkeeper. Gomes, whose future at White Hart Lane has been in doubt, and Michael Dawson, who shouldn’t have been playing, were outstanding for Spurs, securing the draw they deserved after looking the better side for most of the game.

United, Liverpool and Arsenal all dropped points yesterday, offering Luiz Felipe Scolari and Co the chance to profit this afternoon, but the home crowd here were much more interested in Spurs’ continuing revival under Harry Redknapp who, having taken over a team rock bottom, with two points from eight games, has galvanised them to such effect that they have harvested 17 from his first nine.

While Sir Alex Ferguson spoke of his “frustration”, Redknapp praised Gomes and Dawson but rued the misfortune that has deprived him of both his best centre-halves and the influential Jermaine Jenas, all injured. He is eagerly awaiting the January transfer window.

Redknapp thought his luck was out when Ledley King withdrew, troubled again by his chronic knee condition. Bad soon became worse when Jonathan Woodgate was helped off after only 10 minutes with a recurrence of the back injury that has troubled him since his time at Real Madrid. He is to consult a specialist today.

Dawson, drafted in late as King’s replacement, had a stormer, ably assisted by Vedran Corluka, who switched from right-back to centre-half after Woodgate’s withdrawal.

Some billed it as Dimitar Berbatov’s return to White Hart Lane, but the Bulgarian was never more than a sideshow. He worked harder to engineer his transfer to Old Trafford than he ever did on the pitch towards the end of his spell as a Spurs player and the residual ill-feeling towards him was reflected not only in the home fans’ ritual booing but also in the fact that he was the only United player who did not have a pen picture in the match programme. He had been deemed a doubtful starter, as had Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick but, as tends to be the way of things with Ferguson’s medical bulletins, they were all false alarms. Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra, both suspended, were the only notable absentees.

The first half was Tottenham’s, the tone set when David Bentley’s 25-yard volley demanded a spectacular reaching save from Edwin van der Sar. The crowd were still applauding the strike when they were silenced by the sight of Woodgate going off. Substitute Tom Huddlestone took up his customary midfield station, with Corluka moving inside and Didier Zokora filling in on the right side of the back four.

With barely 10 minutes gone, Spurs were already without their two best centre-backs, but the spirit instilled by Redknapp is such that heads no longer drop in adversity. Quite the opposite here. Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Co were forced to rotate possession without troubling Gomes. Van der Sar, on the other hand, was called into urgent preventive action again when Aaron Lennon tested him from distance with a shot that went through the legs of Nemanja Vidic, complicating the save. The Dutch keeper failed to hold on to the ball but Roman Pavlyuchenko was unable to profit at close range.

Tevez, on a solo run, fired over from a tight angle, but United were huffing and puffing to no great effect and Spurs would have had the lead their superiority warranted had not the diving header with which Modric met Zokora’s right-wing cross on the 18-yard line flown inches over.

United needed to stir themselves and did so. Berbatov broke away and the biggest cheer of them all greeted the tackle with which Dawson dispossessed him on the edge of the penalty area. Ronaldo volleyed handsomely past Gomes, but only after handling the ball to control it, and Ji-Sung Park’s shot was too straight to stretch the keeper.

Spurs had a better chance when Rafael brought down Lennon and Bentley stepped up to take a 25-yard free kick that brought a stunning response from Van der Sar.

Sensing valuable points slipping away, Ferguson made a double substitution, calling up the old guard, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, in place of Tevez and Fletcher. The changes saw Ronaldo move in to the middle to partner Berbatov, but it was Vidic, the last-minute hero against Sunderland last weekend, who threatened to break the stalemate again, his header from a Giggs cross demanding Gomes’s careful attention. With United applying mounting pressure, the Serb’s centre-back partner, Ferdinand, also lent his weight to the attack, heading on to the roof of the net at the near post from a Giggs corner

Park, with a rasping drive from 25 yards, had Gomes happy to tip the ball over his crossbar, then Modric went desperately close with a shot from the edge of the D that was deflected over by Ferdinand. Giggs’s free kick seemed to have won it in the 90th minute but Gomes pulled off a gobsmacking one-handed save.

Redknapp said: “I went out to Holland recently and met the goalkeeping coach at PSV Eindhoven. He told me, ‘Don’t worry about your goalkeeper, he’s world class’. At the time, I wondered if he’d been drinking, but I brought in Tony Parks to work with him and Tony has restored his confidence. If he keeps that up, we haven’t got a problem in goal.”

TOTTENHAM: Gomes 8, Corluka 8, Dawson 8, Woodgate 6 (Huddlestone 10min, 6), Assou-Ekotto 7, Lennon 7, Zokora 7, Jenas 6(O’Hara 62min), Bentley 7, Modric 7, Pavlyuchenko 5 (Bent 54min, 5)

MAN UTD: Van der Sar 7, Rafael 7, Ferdinand 7, Vidic 7, O'Shea 6, Park 6, Fletcher 5 (Scholes 69min), Carrick 6, Ronaldo 6, Berbatov 6, Tevez 6 (Giggs 69min)