Guileless Spurs fail to unlock green door

There is no doubting the effort and application of Jacques Santini's unbeaten side but their inability to earn three points against struggling Norwich highlighted the lack of creativity for which the Spurs of old were renowned.

Under the club's new two-tier managerial structure, sporting director Frank Arnesen has handed Santini a host of tigerish and energetic players but has yet to provide him with the creative quality that will lift them beyond the ordinary.

Spurs secured another clean sheet with a defensive performance that bodes well for the immediate future but, livewire England striker Jermain Defoe apart, there is nobody else capable of carving open opposition defences.

Norwich were there for the taking. Without a win or a clean sheet to their name, Spurs should have wrapped the game up in the first half. They dominated proceedings yet failed to make the most of them. Defoe, fresh from his England heroics against Poland, hit the post with a long range shot and then had another effort cleared off the line. His strike partner Freddie Kanoute was also denied by a fabulous saving tackle from Adam Drury.

In the second half, the tide turned and it was Norwich who looked more likely to steal the points.

In Darren Huckerby they possessed the kind of striker Spurs so desperately lack. Moroccan defender Nourredine Naybet has been outstanding since arriving at White Hart Lane, steadying the new-look back four with leadership and calmness.

But he was run ragged by the trickery and pace of Huckerby who, at 28, is surely not too long in the tooth for an England call-up. Along with Defoe and Norwich goalkeeper Robert Green, he was the pick of the 22 on display - causing the Spurs defence all kinds of problems in front of the watching England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Indeed, but for a fabulous challenge by Ledley King, Huckerby would have sealed all three points for the visitors.