Aaron Lennon's goal deep into added-time kept up Spurs' 100 per cent record and broke Blues' hearts at White Hart Lane.

The visitors thought they had done enough to at least take a point away from the capital when Lee Bowyer's 76th minute strike cancelled out a Peter Crouch header four minutes earlier.

They even had chances to win the game through Garry O'Connor and Roger Johnson late on before Lennon crashed home the decisive strike following a breakaway.

Boss Alex McLeish made two changes to the side which battled out a goalless draw against Stoke City at St. Andrew's last weekend, Lee Carsley and Sebastian Larsson replacing Keith Fahey and Kevin Phillips as Blues reverted back to the 4-5-1 formation adopted at Old Trafford on the opening day.

Harry Redknapp's rejuvinated men had bagged 14 goals in the process of winning each of their first four games - and they started brightly.

With just five minutes on the clock Lennon forced Joe Hart to claw away a powerful drive low down to the Blues goalkeeper's left before Tom Huddlestone's piledriver from the edge of the area was charged down by Stephen Carr.

At the other end a well executed half-volley from Larsson stung the fingers of Spurs 'keeper Carlo Cudicini while the Italian was forced to scramble down to his left to keep out a low effort from O'Connor.

England winger Lennon twice went close to breaking the deadlock midway through the half, seeing one chance blocked on the line by the dependable Carr before a tame shot was comfortably dealt with by Hart.

Blues continued to look sprightly on the break and almost caught out the home defence when Larsson raced inside from the right and sent a low effort fizzing agonisingly across the face of goal with Cudicini looking beaten.

But the visitors breathed a sigh of relief moments later as Defoe uncharacteristically skewed wide with only Hart to beat after latching onto Huddlestone's through-ball.

But they had kept the free scoring front man and his strike-partner Robbie Keane pretty quiet before that - and they continued to do so right up until the interval.

Luka Modric had the clearest sight of goal but could only fire a speculative shot wide from 20-yards.

Half-time: Tottenham 0 Blues 0

Skipper Carsley could have given Blues the perfect start to the second period when he headed James McFadden's cross wide at the front post after Spurs failed to clear a corner from the Scot.

The introduction of Peter Crouch for the injured Modric pepped-up the Spurs attack and a brave block from Franck Queudrue was needed to foil Defoe in a shooting position after a clever run and cross from Keane found the striker in space.

At the other end Blues felt they had valid claims for a penalty as Sebastien Bassong appeared to pull back McFadden in the area after the tricky Scot had skipped past two challenges.

But the home side were enjoying arguably their best spell of the game at that point and Hart had to be on his toes to push a firm header from Crouch around for a corner before another goalbound header from the lanky star was cleared away from danger by Johnson.

Defoe thought he'd finally found a way past the stubborn Blues rearguard on the hour but after connecting with Keane's corner at the back-post he could only scoop the ball over from five-yards.

Crouch then went even closer on two occasions in the space of 30 seconds, first sending a looping header against the bar before watching another header denied on the line by Carr and despite protesting the ball had crossed the line, referee Peter Walton waved play on.

But Crouch wasn't to be denied in the 72nd minute, rising highest to head Huddlestone's teasing free-kick into the far corner with Hart rooted to the spot.

Boss McLeish's immediate reaction was to send on Christian Benitez for Carsley and switch to 4-4-2.

And the move paid dividens straight away.

O'Connor shot was charged down by Benoit Assou-Ekotto but only into the path of Benitez, who managed to put enough pressure on the on-rushing Cudicini to push the ball away from the keeper and into the path of Bowyer, who crashed the ball home from close-range.

Benitez was posing a notably threat and, with nine minutes left to play, he hurried Vedran Corluka into a mistake and squared the ball for O'Connor to fire into the side-netting from an acute angle.

Blues were attacking with a renewed confidence and conjured another chance to grab a winner two minutes from time.

McFadden's free-kick was headed back across goal by O'Connor and Johnson got to the ball before Bassong, only to volley over.

However, with the game deep into stoppage-time, a slip from Stephen Carr on he half-way line allowed Alan Hutton to break free. The Scottish full-back found Lennon in space on the left and winger used his electric pace to cut inside Stuart Parnaby and fire an unstoppage strike into the bottom corner.

Full-time: Tottenham 2 Blues 1

Blues (4-1-4-1): Joe Hart; Stuart Parnaby, Roger Johnson, Franck Queudrue, Stephen Carr; Lee Carsley (c) (Christian Benitez, 74); Sebastian Larsson (Gary McSheffrey (90+1), Barry Ferguson, Lee Bowyer, James McFadden; Garry O'Connor. Subs (Not Used): Maik Taylor (gk), Kevin Phillips, Giovanny Espinoza, James O'Shea.

Goals: Bowyer (76)
Bookings: Carr (foul), O'Connor (foul)

Tottenham (4-4-2): Carlo Cudicni; Vedran Corluka, Sebastien Bassong, Ledley King (Alan Hutton, 46), Benoit Assou-Ekotto; Aaron Lennon, Tom Huddlestone, Wilson Palacios, Luka Modric (Peter Crouch, 50); Robbie Keane (c), Jermain Defoe (Roman Pavlyuchenko, 80). Subs (Not Used): David Button (gk), David Bentley, Kyle Naughton, Giovani Dos Santos.

Goals: Crouch (72), Lennon (90+5)
Bookings: Huddlestone (foul)