Chelsea boss Avram Grant vowed to keep fighting in the Premier League title race after losing ground following Wednesday night's thrilling clash at Tottenham.

Robbie Keane struck in the 88th minute to earn Spurs a 4-4 draw at White Hart Lane, leaving their opponents five points behind leaders Manchester United.

"We have one point. We wanted three. We are five points off the top, still in the race and we will continue fighting," said Grant.

The Israeli claimed he did not see Ashley Cole's challenge on Alan Hutton just before the break when the Chelsea full-back went studs-up and caught the Scotland defender just below the knee.

Spurs head coach Juande Ramos said: "The referee decided it was a yellow card, but we've seen tackles which were much less serious which have earned red cards, like Robbie Keane's this season. But we have to respect the official's decisions on things like that."

Cole's challenge was one of a number of talking points in an action-packed clash.

Didier Drogba's opener was cancelled out by Jonathan Woodgate's header, then either side of the interval Chelsea struck through Michael Essien and Joe Cole.

Spurs staged a comeback and levelled through Dimitar Berbatov and Tom Huddlestone but Blues midfielder Joe Cole, in front of England boss Fabio Capello, looked to have grabbed the win with a strike 10 minutes from full-time.

Despite Joe Cole's influence in midfield, Grant took him off for Michael Ballack. He had also withdrawn Salomon Kalou for Alex.

Grant said: "They played with three strikers, playing high ball and long balls, so I put Alex on as he's good at this.

"We wanted to play more in midfield, have one more in midfielder because we knew they would play direct balls. We wanted to pass the ball better. That's why we took him (Cole) off."

It invited Spurs to attack and Keane took advantage, curling into the top corner from the edge of the area after the ball had struck Ricardo Carvalho on the back.

Ramos said: "The team believed in themselves and scoring the goal to make it 3-2 quite soon after they scored made things a bit more open and possible."

Grant has an impressive percentage of victories but the perception is that he has failed in high-profile games - against Manchester United and Arsenal in the league, Barnsley in the FA Cup and Tottenham in the Carling Cup final. However, he defended his record.

"Every game in which we drop points is a big game," said Grant. "If we won, would it have been a big game? We lost against Barnsley and it became a big game. Every game we drop points is a big game.

"I can be happy only that, in the league, we haven't dropped that many points, otherwise there would have been more big games. Every game here is big. If we didn't win, we wouldn't be in this position.

"What is a critical game? Every game at Chelsea is critical. If we'd lost other games, we wouldn't be in this position. Every game we win is a normal game. Every time we drop points it is a big game."