Hoddle, who needs a strong finale to the season to clinch a place in Europe, said: “I was delighted with our performance, which I thought was very, very good.

“We should be putting ourselves under pressure to get into Europe – and performances like that prove to me that’s capable of happening.

“Carlo Cudicini had a wonderful game and had to pull off some magnificent saves.

“As for Zola, the little man is a terrific player. He’s a smashing person and still at his best.

“His goal is the sort of thing you want to see in football, although – as a manager, you don’t want to see it at that moment.”

The bad news for Hoddle today was the torn hamstring suffered by centre-back Anthony Gardner – which could sideline him until April.

“Anthony’s torn his hamstring and will be out for six to eight weeks,” the boss confirmed.

“We’ve been aware of his problem and were trying to improve him. He’s not put three matches back-to-back and now he’s got a nasty injury. He was playing well but we keep losing him to injury.”

Tottenham were short on strikers today after Robbie Keane’s injury, the failure to sign Bolton’s Michael Ricketts and the departures of Les Ferdinand and Sergei Rebrov.

But Sheringham is still at White Hart Lane and Hoddle’s men took the lead when the veteran forward slid home his seventh goal of the campaign from Darren Anderton’s cross-shot.

Spurs survived a comedy goalmouth scramble on the half-hour, with Ledley King clearing off the line after Zola deflected the ball goalwards.

The Italian ace struck five minutes before the interval for the 12th goal of his wonderful season – after Boudewijn Zenden’s theatrical tumble following the slightest contact with Simon Davies won a free-kick.

Zola stepped up and hit a majestic 25-yard curler from beyond the left angle of the penalty area, arcing the ball over Kasey Keller and into the top right corner of the net.

In a quieter second half, Eidur Gudjohnsen – who scored that bullet overhead kick in the midweek

success against Leeds – kept Keller busy on Hoddle’s return to his old club.

Blues boss Claudio Ranieri acclaimed Zola’s pinpoint finish and Cudicini’s heroics between the sticks.

“Zola has a robot-controlled foot,” he said. “His goal was unbelievable because the ball went high, curled and then dropped. It was fantastic.

“Carlo saved two great chances today from Simon Davies and Gustavo Poyet, so we lost two points but Carlo gave us one.

“The English league is fantastic because every match is open. You never know what will happen until the match is over.

“My policy’s to always try and win, but it’s impossible to think we can win every home game.

“We didn’t start well today but our spirit was better in the second half. However, there was too much

confusion when we couldn’t find the right rhythm.”