Keane eyes a new year and a fresh start

ROBBIE KEANE will be tucked up in bed long before the new year is rung in next week, but if the Tottenham striker did sneak out to raise a glass to the end of 2007, he could hardly be blamed.

It has been a traumatic 12 months for the Ireland captain, perhaps the most tumultuous of an already eventful career. Certainly no other Premier League player can claim to have lost both a club manager and an international coach and endured a very public humiliation with the national side, while simultaneously producing the best form of his professional career, all in the space of a calendar year.

Then again, for a man who continually operates at extremes, perhaps we should expect no different. Keane’s well-chronicled eccentricities were encapsulated in a madcap 15-minute period in the second half which sealed the fate of the 157th north London derby.

First, the Tallaght man somehow contrived to slam against the crossbar from five yards after being picked out by Aaron Lennon’s floated cross, a blunder which became even more unfathomable seconds later when Keane’s sumptuous back-heeled pass teed up Dimitar Berbatov for Spurs’ equaliser.

And then, five minutes later, the crucial moment. Keane showed no hesitation in seizing the ball when Toure’s challenge on Berbatov yielded a penalty, but his shot bore all the hallmarks of a man feeling intolerable pressure: snatched, tight and too close to Manuel Almunia, who guessed right and saved well. Keane was substituted three minutes later; within 120 seconds, Spurs were behind.

Arsene Wenger was gracious enough — as winners tend to be — to pick out Keane’s performance for special praise, while the 27-year-old was doing his best to remain philosophical.

“We are disappointed because we felt we came and took the game to Arsenal,” he said. “For long periods we were the better side and when we got back into it I thought there was only one team going to win and that was us. Unfortunately I missed a penalty and they went up the other end and scored. That’s how football can change quickly.”

And so Tottenham’s hoodoo in the north London derby stretches ever on. They have two more chances to banish the jinx next month in the Carling Cup semi-finals: victory in either tie might just convince Robbie Keane that 2008 will be a year to enjoy rather than endure.