A Tottenham rout looked on the cards against Luton after a one-sided opening on Saturday, but the manner of their eventual 1-0 win at Kenilworth Road felt much more valuable.
This was another box ticked for Spurs under Ange Postecoglou. Down to 10 men after Yves Bissouma was sent off on the stroke of half-time, Spurs showed a new-found resilience to score in the second half and then hang on for a win that leaves them top of the table going into the international break.
It was a moment of madness from Bissouma, who was shown a second yellow card for a dive.
Yet, Postecoglou was delighted with the response of his team, who showed real character to pass the latest test of their credentials.
Already this season, Spurs have dominated a ‘big-six’ rival (beating Manchester United 2-0), clocked up a thrashing on the road (beating Burnley 5-2), come from behind (beating Sheffield United 2-1), earned a deserved point at Arsenal (drawing 2-2), and overcome nine-man Liverpool (winning 2-1 after a 96th-minute own-goal).
Each scenario posed a different question, and here Spurs came through adversity in another sign they are building something under Postecoglou.
“You have 38 games in a season and not every game is going to be pretty, free-flowing ‘Ange-ball’,” said James Maddison. “Sometimes you have to dig deep and show grit and determination. People are always asking of top teams: do they have that side to them? The top teams all do, and we want to be a top team. I’m so happy we showed that.”
Richarlison was guilty of two dreadful misses early on, as Spurs failed to score with eight shots in the opening 19 minutes. It was one of their centre-backs who eventually broke the deadlock, Micky van de Ven continuing his fine start to life at the club.
Heung-min Son had told Van de Ven on the team bus before the game that he would score and, from Maddison’s pull back following a short corner, the Dutchman duly did.
Spurs remain unbeaten, have 20 points after eight games and are above Arsenal on goals scored. This is their best start to a League campaign since 1960-61, when they last won the title.
So much of their improvement has come from a solid defence. Van de Ven and Cristian Romero were superb, while full-backs Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro never shirked their duties.
Porro said: “We have to defend together just as much as we attack together.”
