Out of the cup competitions and back in the groove. Tottenham performed as if to prove Antonio Conte’s point that the weight of expectation simply suffocates his players whenever there is any trace of jeopardy in the air.
As soon as it was gone, they all relaxed and performed, and Harry Kane led the crusade out of the doldrums with two goals in the first half to ease himself past the 20-goal barrier in the Premier League for the sixth time in nine seasons.
The second of them came from the penalty spot, his first since the one missed for England in the World Cup quarter-finals, in Qatar.