Spurs are foiled by French

ERIK LAMELA’S resurgence continued in Monaco but a late Stephan El Shaarawy header denied Tottenham victory. It may have taken two seasons to find any consistency, but the £30million club-record acquisition from Roma is at last fulfilling his promise. For much of the game it looked like Mauricio Pochettino’s men would follow their 4-1 defeat of Manchester City with another win, especially when the Argentinian winger began and ended the move that gave Spurs a deserved lead in the 35th minute. His wonderful footwork put through Nacer Chadli, who burst forward and played the ball across to Dele Alli. His strike was blocked but the ball fell kindly for Lamela to tap home. However, Spurs were made to rue a number of missed chances 10 minutes from the end when home sub Nabil Dirar sent in a fine, right-wing cross to El Shaarawy, whose header stumped Hugo Lloris after taking a slight deflection off Kieran Trippier. Pochettino refused to blame his keeper, saying: ‘Hugo is an unbelievable goalkeeper but it is difficult from my position (on the sidelines) to know if we made some mistakes. ‘In football, this happens.’