Tottenham offered a powerful demonstration that Ange Postecoglou's brave, front-foot approach will earn results in the toughest of circumstances, as they ended a run of three straight defeats with a hugely entertaining 3-3 draw against Manchester City.
Spurs came to the Etihad without 11 first-team players and with growing skepticism about Postecoglou's uncompromising commitment to attacking football - albeit largely from outside the Spurs bubble - following the losses to Chelsea, Wolves and Aston Villa.
But Spurs continued their record as City's bogey team, albeit in a contrasting style to their positive results against the champions under previous managers.
All of Spurs' five League wins over Pep Guardiola's side in the last seven meetings have come with a defence-first, contain-and-counter setup but, just as he had promised, Postecoglou stuck to his guns and took the game to City on their turf.
Spurs rode their luck at times, with Jeremy Doku and Julian Alvarez both striking the woodwork and Erling Haaland uncharacteristically missing two big chances, but always carried a threat and were good value for a point in the end.
The biggest difference from the 2-1 defeat to Villa last weekend was that Spurs were clinical when opportunities came, with Heung-min Son opening the scoring with a superb breakaway goal, Giovani Lo Celso finishing smartly to make it 2-2 and Dejan Kulusevski heading home a 90th-minute equaliser.
The pitfalls of Postecoglou's approach looked set to be decisive when Yves Bissouma was caught in possession in the 81st minute, leading to a simple finish for Jack Grealish to make it 3-2.
But Spurs' commitment to attacking never allowed City to settle, and they equalised for a second time when the outstanding Kulusevski rose to meet Brennan Johnson's cross, sparking wild scenes in the away end.
Earlier, Lo Celso made it 2-2 with his second goal in as many games after Phil Foden and goals at either end by Son had put City ahead.
It was a measure of how depleted Spurs were that teenager Jamie Donley made a late debut in stoppage-time and for Postecoglou's patched-up side to match the champions without so many crucial players - including first-choice centre-backs Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven and creative hub for James Maddison - was hugely commendable.
Naturally, you wonder what they will be able to do when key players return in the New Year.
In the immediate term, they can look forward to Romero being available after suspension against West Ham on Thursday, while Pape Matar Sarr may return to the squad and Richarlison made a brief cameo at the Etihad after groin surgery last month.
Even with so many players missing for the foreseeable future, Spurs have now proven they can match the league's very best sides playing Postecoglou's way, which should give them enormous confidence going forward.
