Before the game, Spurs manager, Harry Redknapp, was calling for his side to show some backbone after two heavy recent defeats against Manchester United and Chelsea. Well they showed this in abundance against Preston as the gulf in class between the two sides was huge.

Redknapp said: “It was a good hat-trick. Robbie took his goal well. It [deciding which strikers to start] is a nice problem to have. This was a game a lot of people looked at and had it down as a potential shock.”

“But I thought we were dangerous and sharp going forward. That said, this was the type of game we would have lost 12 months ago. We’ve just had two defeats and we certainly didn’t want to be facing Burnley on Saturday on the back of three defeats.”

Spurs are still very much a team in progression. It is growing more clear as each game passes that Spurs are still some way behind the top teams in particular areas. The real test is reducing the gap in consistency between performances such as this and the ones that see them lose 3-1 to a Manchester United side that play for half an hour with only ten men.

Alan Irvine, the Preston boss, added: “Tottenham were very good going forward and certainly caused us problems. They showed the difference between the Premier League and the Championship. We could have taken the lead before they scored and we could have equalised when we were 1-0 down.”

“The scoreline gives an impression we were played off the pitch but I thought there were some good points to take from the game.”

Ironically this could have been the perfect game at the perfect time for this Spurs side. They were able to go into a match as the heavy favourites and were able to give a number of their first choice players a run out in a match that they were always going to win.

The next test for them will be how they perform in their next Premier League game against Burnley, who have shown no signs at all that they are out of their depth at this level.