Goalkeeper Maik Taylor has said Birmingham City's players must take heart from their performance against Arsenal and use it as a catalyst to securing their Barclays Premier League status.

Blues produced a battling performance to hold the league leaders to a 2-2 draw despite playing with ten men for all but three minutes of the game, following the sending-off of defender Martin Taylor.

The point maintained Blues' position just above the relegation zone and Taylor, who produced some superb saves to deny Arsenal at the start of the second half, said he hoped the squad could reproduce that effort when Carling Cup winners Tottenham Hotspur visit St Andrew's on Saturday.

"We've got to build on that Arsenal performance," he said. "We've got a difficult run-in against all the teams in the top half of the table and we've got another massive game this week and another tough one against Spurs. Sometimes, we manage to get results against these teams, so bring it on.

"The point we got against Arsenal is massive. We were pretty confident going into the game. We expected a difficult game but we took a lot from the West Ham performance the previous week and we knew they'd be a little bit tired after their midweek exertions [in the Champions League where they drew 0-0 with AC Milan].

"We felt that if ever there was a good time to play Arsenal, this was it but going down to ten men after three minutes made it more difficult.

"Other teams around us would have thought 'great, this is going to be a hatful' and that it would damage our goal difference but the lads showed a lot of character "People might think we are one of the favourites to go down but we are not thinking about it like that at all. We know we are in a relegation dogfight and we have to scrap. We have to approach every game in the same manner and it will be decided in May."

Taylor was disappointed with the way in which Arsenal scored their equaliser at the start of the second half. The goalkeeper appeared to be fouled by Emmanuel Adebayor as he attempted to claim Cesc Fabregas' corner and Theo Walcott volleyed home the loose ball.

"I thought at the time that it was a foul and I still believe it was," Taylor said. "I expected a bump but he absolutely pole-axed me so, before I got my bearings, the ball was in the goal. "I thought it was a foul but the referee hasn't given it. In this day and age, when goalkeepers are protected, you expect a foul.

The days are gone when strikers could just smash into you. They put us on the rack for the ten minutes after that. Tiredness with ten men was starting to tell. We kept going to the very end and got a good bit of fortune at the end with the last-minute penalty [converted by James McFadden.]

"The point has given the dressing room a big lift. Any result against Arsenal is a massive lift for everyone. A lot of teams around us will look at that."

Team-mate Liam Ridgewell added: "To play against Arsenal with 11 men is hard enough because they pass the ball around so well, so it is even harder with ten men for 87 minutes. To get such a good draw will be fantastic for team morale. Everyone will be looking forward to the Tottenham game this week now."

Meanwhile, Spurs assistant manager Gus Poyet has warned his team against complacency after their victory over Chelsea at Wembley secured European football for next season.

They play PSV Eindhoven in the last 16 of the Uefa Cup a week tonight but Poyet said: "It's our job to make sure we are ready for Saturday. I know the players may be looking at the Uefa Cup but it's important not to lose momentum in the league."