Cristian Romero made his first Tottenham appearance in over three months since recovering from a thigh injury, and almost gifted the Cherries an opener inside the opening 20 seconds when he surrendered possession to Evanilson, but Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario spared the Argentine’s blushes with a brilliant save.
The north Londoners had Vicario to thank again for maintaining parity in a nervy start for the hosts, making another fine stop to deny Justin Kluivert.
Spurs were struggling to match the intensity of the Dorset outfit, and had their first sight of goal when Kepa Arrizabalaga made a routine stop to gather Dominic Solanke’s header from Pedro Porro’s cross.
Ange Postecoglou’s side were gradually building their way into the contest, but it was Bournemouth who struck first with a wonderfully crafted opener.
Milos Kerkez was the architect after intercepting Porro’s pass and making a surging run down the left before playing a sublime cross towards Marcus Tavernier, who clinically slid the ball home.
Andoni Iraola’s side thought they had doubled their advantage six minutes after the restart following a stunning free-flowing passage of football which was finished by Kluivert, but was subsequently ruled out for offside.
Son Heung-min was one of the players introduced by Ange Postecoglou ahead of the second half and came within touching distance of an equaliser after a trademark run inside from the left, but saw his deflected strike hit the post before going behind.
The Cherries, though, continued to threaten, and Vicario did well to keep out a speculative effort from Kerkez down the left-hand side.
Spurs should have restored parity moments later when Pape Matar Sarr horribly miscued his close-range effort, and the hosts were left to rue their wastefulness as Bournemouth doubled their lead.
Kluivert maneuvered his body superbly and slipped in Evanilson, who applied a delightful lobbed finish over Vicario.
However, Postecoglou’s side earned a lifeline when Sarr’s cross-shot clipped in off the post to halve the deficit and spark hope of an unlikely comeback.
Kluivert was inches away from reclaiming Bournemouth’s two-goal lead when his angled strike hit the post, and Tottenham were looking sluggish heading into the closing stages.
It looked like the visitors were cruising to three points, but Kepa inexplicably gave Tottenham a chance to equalise when he hauled down Son inside the box.
The South Korea captain coolly dispatched the subsequent penalty to earn the hosts a point.
The result leaves Iraola’s men without a win in three PL matches, but moves them up one place in the table to eighth.
Meanwhile, Spurs avoided breaking an unwanted club record of the most home defeats in a 38-game season, and remain on seven for now. They stay in 13th and eight points adrift of the top half of the table.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Marcus Tavernier (Bournemouth)
