Tottenham 3 West Ham 2
Teenage defender Anthony Gardner spared Tottenham's blushes two minutes from time with his first goal for the club to give them a dramatic derby win over 10-man West Ham.
It rounded off a remarkable final half-hour which brought five goals and a red card for Ian Pearce and at the end of it all Spurs were back in second place behind rivals Arsenal while West Ham were still rooted to the bottom of the Premier League.
The home side appeared to have failed to learn their lesson from midweek - when they surrendered a two-goal lead in the 3-2 defeat to Fulham - as they twice allowed West Ham to equalise until Gardner's late intervention clinched victory.
West Ham had only themselves to blame as Gardner was allowed to burst forward unchallenged and unleash a low drive which hit visiting defender Gary Breen on the leg and flew past David James.
The drama was a fitting finale to an exciting second half which sprang into life in the 62nd minute courtesy of the two talented youngsters who arrived at White Hart Lane together from Peterborough.
Matt Etherington got the better of Trevor Sinclair down the left and curled in a low cross for Welsh international Simon Davies to slide in ahead of Christian Dailly for his second goal of the season.
But the visiting fans had to wait until only the 66th minute before they were level.
Paolo Di Canio's corner was headed back to him by Gary Doherty. The cross was nodded down by Dailly and as Kasey Keller hesitated Frederic Kanoute rammed it home at the far post.
Spurs had been hoping that new signing Robbie Keane would become an instant hero on his debut and he did just that after 69 minutes when he won a crucial penalty.
Keane showed great skill to get past Ian Pearce in the box and was about to side-foot the ball past James when the defender took his legs from behind.
Referee Uriah Rennie awarded the spot-kick and showed Pearce the red card. It was left to Sheringham to show a cool head for the second home game running as he swept home a great penalty to restore Spurs' advantage.
Sheringham had done the same in injury-time to give Spurs a 2-1 win over Southampton and it looked like being a similar story but they were caught by a second equaliser after 76 minutes.
Di Canio showed magical vision with a quick free-kick into the path of Sinclair inside the right edge of the box and the England winger diverted the ball past Keller.
It was harsh on Glenn Roeder's 10-man battlers that they conceded the late goal to Gardner, especially as there were landmarks for four players: James was making his 400th league appearance, and Sinclair his 500th club appearance, captain Di Canio was making his 100th league start for West Ham, while club captain Steve Lomas made his 300th club appearance.
West Ham suffered an early setback when Tomas Repka came off worse in a challenge with Jamie Redknapp after five minutes and was carried off with an injury to his right knee, being replaced by Nigel Winterburn.
But while West Ham were playing with 10 men they almost fell behind as Keane unleashed an acrobatic half-volley which flew just over James' crossbar.
It was then Tottenham's turn to play hari-kari in defence as di Canio's cross a minute later was sliced by Gardner into the path of Joe Cole. The youngster steadied himself but fired his drive over.
Keane was eager to impress and did well after 23 minutes to feed Ziege down the left. His delivery into the box was much better and Sheringham was just denied at the near post by Breen, who conceded a corner.
There was another injury stoppage after half-an-hour when Perry was hurt in a challenge on Kanoute and had to be carried off on a stretcher. He was immediately replaced by Doherty.
Glenn Hoddle then made an unforced change for the second half as Ben Thatcher replaced Mauricio Taricco in a straight swap at left wing-back.
Having scored in each of their last 12 Premiership games, Spurs were in the hunt for the opening goal, and after 48 minutes Keane found space on the edge of the box but scuffed his shot wide.
However, the breakthrough eventually came 14 minutes later and then the action flowed thick and fast with the result in doubt right up until the death.