Chelsea's Danish substitute Bjarne Goldbaek produced a ferocious finish to maintain his team's 12-year unbeaten run at Tottenham and match the quality of another strike from footballer of the year David Ginola.

But the point which Goldbaek's 25-yard blast earned - just six minutes after he had replaced Dan Petrescu in the 66th minute - was not sufficient to take Chelsea's championship challenge to the final weekend of the season.

Catching leaders Manchester United and Arsenal is now beyond them even though they have, like the top two, lost just three league matches all season.

But this was Tottenham's night as they responded pluckily to manager George Graham's pessimism that they are maybe four or five years away from really challenging the leading powers in the Premiership.

Indeed, after falling shambolically behind to an early strike by ubiquitous Uruguayan Gustavo Poyet - his 14th goal of an injury-ravaged season - they went on to look the more likely winners after Steffen Iversen's 38th-minute equaliser.

When Ginola swept on to a moment of ill-advised arrogance by Frank Leboeuf to fire a glorious effort for his seventh goal of the campaign - and his third in the last five games - it looked as though Tottenham would score their first home win over their London neighbours for 12 years.

Earlier, South American ace Poyet had headed Chelsea in front in only the fourth minute, and Tottenham's anxiety was evident as memories of their embarrassing 6-1 beating by the Blues last season came flooding back.

John Scales, finally back from an assortment of injuries and playing his first Premiership game for more than six months, looked desperately ill at ease - and his discomfort spread to rest of the back four, especially when Tore Andre Flo was left unattended on the end of Graeme Le Saux's free-kick to glance a header just wide of the far post.

Poyet, whose goal tally is amazing considering he missed three months of the season with knee trouble, had found similar space and time to rise in front of Iversen and nod home Gianfranco Zola's free-kick.

Yet Chelsea failed to emulate Arsenal's positive attitude at White Hart Lane last week and looked content to contain Tottenham's somewhat limited reprisals which mostly petered out tamely on the edge of the box.

But even the demanding Graham could not have faulted his team's brave persistence, and although Iversen and Chris Armstrong were often let down badly by lack of basic technique in the danger area they never stopped working.

Ginola also allied work-ethic to his nimble footwork and after a slack clearance by Leboeuf he took Tim Sherwood's pass and rifled in a low drive which tested the nerve of Chelsea's rarely-used reserve goalkeeper Kevin Hitchcock.

Gradually Spurs built up a solid territorial advantage, and their reward came seven minutes before the break when a simple short-corner ploy between Mauricio Taricco and Ginola ended with the Frenchman lifting the ball into the near-post area where Iversen side-footed a volley past Hitchcock.

A Steffen Freund volley and an Iversen drive both flew straight at Hitchcock as Spurs discovered growing confidence. But they were indebted to Ian Walker for a save with his shins just before the break after Flo left Scales for dead with a change of pace just inside the box and sent in a low cross-shot which went out off the goalkeeper for a corner.

Zola's substitution by young Finn Mikael Forssell early in the second half robbed Chelsea of the touch of genius the little Italian can sometimes produce, and apart from a first-time shot well over by Poyet when Le Saux made a left-wing run to supply the cross they seldom looked like exerting any firm authority.

In fact, there was a touch of desperation in the lunge by Albert Ferrer which felled Ginola and produced the game's first booking just before the hour, and Tottenham were given every encouragement to push on for a much-needed victory.

When Leboeuf foolishly tried to run the ball out of defence in the 65th minute, Darren Anderton's well-judged intervention put Ginola in possession 30 yards out to hold off Ferrer, swerve neatly past the exposed Marcel Desailly and shoot low beyond Hitchcock.

But just when Spurs were beginning to count the points to end a run of three consecutive defeats, Chelsea sub Goldbaek produced his thundering finish.

The Dane, whom Chelsea signed for a song when his more illustrious compatriot Brian Laudrup defected back to Copenhagen, lashed his fifth goal of the campaign - but that was only enough to cement third place in the table for the Blues who were glad to see late efforts by Iversen and Anderton miss the target by inches.

Teams:

Tottenham: Walker, Carr, Campbell, Scales, Taricco, Anderton, Freund (Clemence 82), Sherwood, Ginola (Dominguez 87), Iversen,Armstrong.

Subs Not Used: Baardsen, Sinton, King.

Booked: Dominguez.

Goals: Iversen 38, Ginola 64.

Chelsea: Hitchcock, Ferrer, Leboeuf, Desailly, Le Saux, Petrescu (Di Matteo 65), Wise, Morris (Goldbaek 65), Poyet, Flo, Zola (Forssell 54).

Subs Not Used: De Goey, Duberry.

Booked: Ferrer, Desailly, Poyet, Di Matteo.

Goals: Poyet 4, Goldbaek 73.

Att: 35,878.

Ref: D Elleray (Harrow on the Hill).