Job done
The 60,161 fans, including the noisy 9,000 Portsmouth supporters, inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday afternoon were not treated to an FA Cup classic and that's because Spurs simply turned up, did what they needed to and got out of there.
The home side barely got out of first gear against a well-organised Portsmouth side but in truth they rarely needed to and Spurs find themselves in the fourth round of the grand old cup competition after being able to rest most of their key players for the north London derby next weekend.
Hugo Lloris, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Cristian Romero, Matt Doherty and Clement Lenglet all got a rest while watching on from the bench and Eric Dier sat behind them after being rested from the whole squad.
Antonio Conte went one step further and handed 33-year-old Ivan Perisic extra days off, away from the squad to rest up his body after returning early from the World Cup following that third-place play-off win with Croatia and starting every game for Tottenham since.
READ MORE: Tottenham player ratings vs Portsmouth: Harry Kane edges close to record as Sarr and Gil impress
The only key players who were put through their paces once again were the attacking trio of Son Heung-min, Harry Kane and Bryan Gil with the simple explanation from assistant boss Cristian Stellini ahead of the game that there were no alternatives.
With the Arsenal game being more than a week away their inclusion was not the worst thing as the trio got more pitch time to increase their game time as a unit and the chance to boost their confidence ahead of the visit of the league leaders.
Spurs managed to continue to put the 10-game 'concede first' curse behind them with back to back clean sheets, despite Conte changing the entire backline.
Fraser Forster and the defence handled everything that came their way, the goalkeeper having only one early save to make in his third start in a Spurs shirt, as Portsmouth managed just the three shots all afternoon, with that one acrobatic effort on target from Reeco Hackett-Fairchild.
Conte told his Spurs players at half-time to get forward in increased numbers and as expected against a League One side on a nine-game winless run, which cost manager Danny Cowley his job ahead of the match, Spurs had 72 per cent of the possession with 18 shots on goal but they only managed a single effort on target.
It was the important one though as Kane played a one-two with Ryan Sessegnon and curled a delightful goal inside the right-hand post.
It hopefully provided some cheer for Conte who has had a tough week emotionally.
The Spurs boss found out while on his journey to Hotspur Way on Friday morning that his friend and former Juventus team-mate Gianluca Vialli had died during the night. Later in the day the crestfallen Conte posted a photo on Instagram of the two men together at dinner.
Alongside it he wrote: "Having dinner together in London a few months ago as we had fun remembering all our adventures and battles on the field. Unfortunately in these last few years you had to fight a great and terrible battle in life.
"I told you and wrote that you have always been an inspiration to me as my captain and for how you were proving to be strong, proud and brave, fighting like a lion against this disease. Always in my heart my friend."
The death of the popular Vialli comes for Conte after a period in which he has lost not only long time friend and Spurs fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone in October, but also this month another close friend in former Serie A player and manager Sinisa Mihajlovic.
"Gian Piero was a really tough moment. Then came the moment of Mihajlovic. Antonio and Mihajlovic were friends. Now is the moment of Vialli. It is a tough moment. It's difficult," Stellini said ahead of the match.
"For us to speak about the moment you have in the deep. Antonio is a tough man. Maybe this moment is more closed to show his feelings. Only this. We have to stay close to him, stay together. This is a family behaviour. We are, we feel, like a family. After this type of loss, you have to stay so close to show love."
Stellini believes that Conte is a man who pours himself into football in tough moments like this rather than let our his emotions away from the game to his colleagues.
"About football? Yes [we speak]. About work? Absolutely, we speak a lot. To speak about other things is more difficult. In the tough moments, maybe you don't show, or the silence is more than words. We are in that moment," said the coach.
"He doesn't drop the intensity. He can find new energy, because this is the type of man. This is Antonio."
It's been a tough time for Conte and throwing the pressure of life as a Premier League head coach on top of that and it's a good thing his family have been back with him during this festive period. They will all return to Italy for his couple of days off ahead as his daughter returns to school next week before he travels back to life at Tottenham.
Hopefully football can give the 53-year-old something else to lift his spirits in the weeks ahead.
Kane you believe it?
If you were told that only one of Tottenham's 18 shots went on target and flew into the goal, the odds are that you would know who fired it home.
That's because Harry Kane's inch-perfect curling effort, hit as he was sliding to the ground, was his 265th goal for Spurs. That means he is now just one goal behind Tottenham's all-time record scorer Jimmy Greaves with the tantalising possibility that he could go level with the legendary striker, at least, in the north London derby in front of a packed out Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next weekend.
There was a remarkable historical similarity to the goal as well in that both Kane and Greaves managed to score their 265th goal for Spurs on January 7, the latter doing so in 1970.
Few used to expect that anybody would beat Greaves' huge haul of goals, the previous second man in the list - Bobby Smith - was 58 behind on 208 and behind them both was Martin Chivers on 174.
Yet Kane will soon overhaul them all. History will show that the clinical Greaves managed his 266 goals in 379 appearances, while his modern day counterpart has played 412 times for the club.
You could argue that Greaves arrived at Spurs from Italy ready to hit the ground running with 133 goals from 167 appearances already to his name across four years at Chelsea and AC Milan - albeit still being only 21-years-old - for that big £99,999 fee, whereas Kane's early years featured 27 matches across three seasons as a teenager getting a couple of minutes here and there from the bench in Europe and in the league when not out on loan.
Then even in his breakthrough season under Mauricio Pochettino he spent the first three months of it coming off the bench in the Premier League for late bursts of minutes before becoming an ever-present, so he's been playing catch-up with the goals ever since.
Spurs are incredibly fortunate to have had one, let alone two such prolific strikers as Greaves and Kane in their history and with his ability to create goals as well, the England captain will go down as the best forward the club have ever had.
He deserves silverware now for his CV to go along with all of the personal accolades and broken records to ensure he's seen across the world for the world class striker he is, rather than just within the confines of Spurs and a far too small section of people outside the club.
On being just one goal now behind Greaves, Kane said after the game: "I try to not think about it. Sometimes you can think too much. Obviously I feel in good form and I feel fit. My mindset is to help the team and hopefully the goals will come."
On the match, he added: "It was a tough game. We were clear favourites and people probably expected a bigger score but credit to them, they stayed compact and made it difficult.
"It was tough. We thought after the first it might open up but they stopped us getting the second one. It's good to get through - that was the objective - and we'll see who we get next.
"I think we said at half-time to get a few more players further forward because there was no real threat from them in behind. We got the goal at a good time."
One of the young players who looks up at Kane with awe, having followed his journey from academy to first team, is Oliver Skipp.
"It's amazing. The goal against Palace, the quick feet and then the goal today. It's something you need, especially in those type of games, when they are going to stick players behind the ball and make it difficult for us," the young midfielder told SpursPlay after the game.
"We're always delighted to have someone of his quality and give him half a chance, well that wasn't even half a chance really, give him a little bit of space and he'll always deliver for us."
On the forward's record-nearing haul of goals, Skipp added: "It's incredible. Credit to him and how he performs in every game. We're talking about a world class striker. We see it in training so it doesn't surprise us as much perhaps as other people but it's incredible that he's on 265 goals and I'm sure he'll get a few more before the season ends."
Kane's team-mates and the fans will hope he gets a few more before the North London Derby ends and in doing so he will become a Tottenham Hotspur legend, if he wasn't already.
The young ones return
Once again this was a match in which Conte gave youth its chance and once more there were more positives than negatives.
Yves Bissouma, returning from suspension, had been carrying an ankle problem from the defeat to Aston Villa but was named in the starting line-up until it became clear in the warm-up that he simply could not move well enough.
"Yves had an ankle problem, in the last two or three days he wasn't good, but he tried to push himself to play," explained Stellini. "It’s important for the players to tell us if they are not ready to play a tough game like this, and Bissouma said to us 'I’m not 100 per cent, it’s better to play to Skippy and Pape together'."
That meant Conte had to pair a 20-year-old and a 22-year-old together in a very young midfield in Pape Matar Sarr and Oliver Skipp. The latter discovered he was starting the game just minutes before kick-off.
"I found out literally five or 10 minutes before. I could half-see out the corner of my eye that Yves was, in the warm-up, speaking to the physios so there was a little bit in the back of my mind that I thought I'd better be ready," Skipp said.
"Then five or 10 minutes before kick-off I found out. So it was a quick scramble, check the set pieces, check everything. It's not easy but it's something you've got to be ready for. That could happen five minutes in and someone could get injured."
He added: "It was more a case of making sure I was ready for the set pieces. That's the big thing because usually the day before the team that starts will practice, but I've played enough games now to be ready even though it still probably does take you a few more minutes to get into the game than perhaps it would otherwise, but after 10-15 minutes you feel ready."
For Skipp, this period has been about trying to shake off the rust after that long-term pelvic injury last season and then the freak gruesome training ground foot injury last summer.
"I feel like it does take more time than I appreciated at first. I thought I was going to come back and be flying but it's taken a bit longer that I would have liked, I'll be honest about that," he said.
"Definitely that World Cup period was massive for me, because in pre-season I had the foot as well which was bad timing and this was like another restart for me and a chance to get in the running and just the sharpness back because nothing replaces being out there on the pitch.
"You can train as much as you like but to get that match sharpness is always important. It was nice to get back-to-back games."
Skipp did look rusty at times against Portsmouth, particularly with the odd loose touch, but as he did at Selhurst Park on Wednesday night he got better and better as the match wore on and he found his rhythm.
Unexpectedly he was handed a more forward-thinking role than Sarr, despite the younger man's experience of playing in attacking areas at Metz. That pushed Skipp into some situations he's not entirely comfortable with although even he knew he should have done better with an unmarked lashed over shot from eight yards in the second half.
"First half we moved the ball well but we didn't really create much. At half time it was important to get a few more players higher up, in and around the box, and try to get the midfielders a bit higher and try to, as you saw with the goal, try to get players in and around, playing combinations," he said.
"Credit to them, they defended well but once we got that goal, perhaps we should have scored more (laughs) myself included. In the second half we were getting more and more chances, Emerson hit the post as well.
"We had to make sure as well that on the counter attack and set pieces we did it right. It would have been good to score a few more goals and make it comfortable, but you knew they were going to be up for it with a new caretaker manager."
Conte entrusted Skipp with the job of bursting forward to try to create more space for the attacking trio to operate in.
"I think it was that we had plenty of possession and the three centre-backs could deal with the build-up play," he said. "I think we felt that we didn't need too many bodies behind the ball and they knew they were going to be set up quite deep and it was trying to stretch them and get more space for Harry to drop in.
"It was things like that and even combination play around the box. If we have more bodies up the pitch, for the turnover, because it is going to be tight in there so we can quickly win the ball back. That was perhaps the idea of one of the midfielders getting higher and trying to support the attack."
Skipp will get sharper with the more minutes he gets and it's easy to forget that he was a dominant force in the Spurs midfield last season before that injury, picking up a string of man of the match awards in a row and praise from Conte who labelled him an "important player" for the club.
All eyes on Saturday though were on the full debut of Conte's current object of midfield affection, Pape Matar Sarr, who looks like he's been playing in a Spurs shirt for years.
The 20-year-old's far older team-mates all trust him with the ball and he touched it 115 times during the match, far more than anyone else on the pitch bar Ben Davies (105).
Sarr had a passing accuracy of 90.4% to Skipp's 88.6% and during an action-packed shift in the defensive role he managed 11 ball recoveries, five tackles, three interceptions and one clearance.
His movement off the ball and his anticipation shows a maturity beyond his years while Stellini explained to football.london on Friday what Conte, he and the coaches have been working on with the youngster.
"He's a very young player. It's the first time he came to England. He has one year experience in Ligue 1 in France. About his skill, he can do everything because he's a great player with many possibilities. He's a midfielder who can play in many positions. He's a talented player," he said.
"I spoke at my last press conference about the way you have to wait with young players. If you use young players at the wrong time, you can make a mistake. But with Pape, Antonio decided at this moment that Pape is ready and he improved a lot in training.
"We worked a lot on body position and many skills he has to improve. He showed a desire to improve and this is very important for us. If you work with a player and they show this desire it's easier. With Pape it is easy.
"He has to continue to work because we have a hierarchy, so he has to respect this and we have to respect the players. He has the possibility now and he has to show his desire and his quality."
Sarr will eventually fill out his tall and gangly frame, but he's already got plenty of strength within it and he is not one to be knocked off the ball. He can use that frame to put himself into situations to win back the ball and he's tough, carrying on after a strong tackle late on threatened to end his game prematurely.
His ability to hold on to the ball will see him used more and more by Conte from the bench in the months ahead. Italian side Salernitana have been keen to take Sarr to Serie A but the Spurs head coach signalled in the week that he had no intention of loaning his younger players out this season, while talking about Sarr and Skipp, with Stellini later telling football.london that Gil also fell into the category.
Two months ago and a loan for Sarr would have been logical, but now, unless an opportunity suddenly arises to sign a season-changing experienced central midfielder in the January transfer window, the Senegal international is now going to get plenty of opportunities for minutes under Conte so it would make little sense to allow someone else the chance to reap the benefits of his talent.
Among the other young players, 21-year-old Bryan Gil impressed again and his movement on and off the ball showed his burgeoning confidence, with his team-mates also trusting him to take the ball from them far more than before.
He has given Conte a choice to make if Dejan Kulusevski is not absolutely 100% fit for the visit of Arsenal next week.
At left-back, Ryan Sessegnon had a mixed match. The 22-year-old still appears to bear the psychological scars of those different hamstring injuries and that prevents him from racing at defenders as he used to as one of the game's most exciting teenagers.
That can make for predictable movement down the left when he cuts inside and plays a simple pass to someone - often to Son, who was not quite as energised with confidence after Wednesday's goal as everybody had hoped he would be.
Sessegnon did fire in three dangerous crosses either side of the break and grabbed an assist with a quick pass in a one-two with Kane for the winning goal.
The England U21 international still has a lot to improve on and much of it will come in his head as he needs to try to fully trust his body. The repeated hamstring problems will be frustrating and at times heart-breaking for him, but if he lets them define his play then he will push himself out of the reckoning next season with Destiny Udogie entering the mix with Perisic.
There was also a home debut for 18-year-old Alfie Devine late on which gave him the chance to make one eye-catching break up the pitch. The teenage midfielder desperately now needs a loan and with Spurs expected to bring in another attacker in January he's one young player who Conte needs to allow to head out of the door temporarily.
Devine was set for a loan move last summer before suffering a hamstring injury with the U21s and first team football in League One or Two will do him the world of good as he adjusts to the physicality of the men's game.
Another 18-year-old Spurs player currently out on loan in League One but unable to play on Saturday was Dane Scarlett.
The striker was not allowed to play against his parent club and instead watched from the sidelines, coming down to the tunnel area to greet the players as they came off after the game. Son was clearly delighted to see his young team-mate, hugging him and sticking around for a long chat.
There has been speculation that Scarlett will be brought back from Portsmouth and then loaned out again and he was not starting regularly in the final weeks of Danny Cowley's reign. Spurs will no doubt look closely at what comes next at Portsmouth before making their decision.
Pompey caretaker boss Simon Bassey said after Saturday's game: "I think it has been a good loan, certainly for Dane and us also. Obviously a young boy, but super talented. He is a brilliant kid, humble, hard-working, everything you look for in a top player.
"He will be a top player, I have no doubt about that. I see no reason that Tottenham want to call him back and if they do, I am sure we will take Harry Kane off them instead!"
The Djed Spence decision
There is one other young player who got some minutes on Saturday but not as many as the 22-year-old or the Tottenham fans would have wanted.
It would have been the ideal opportunity to hand Djed Spence his first competitive start as a Spurs player against the League One side, but instead Emerson Royal was given yet another start as Matt Doherty took a well-earned rest.
The Brazilian, who turns 24 next weekend, provided what he often does, reasonably solid defending but very little going forward. He did, to his credit, get into the exact kind of attacking position Conte wants from his wing-backs, to head Son's cross back across goal and agonisingly off the left-hand post.
However, he does not provide the crosses nor attacking ability that is required in the wing-back role. It was a day when Spence could have been given more than the 13 minutes he eventually got, finally coming on to replace Sessegnon with Emerson switching to the left.
Once again there were cheers from the crowd as he was called back from his warm-up and even more so when he put on his shirt to come on by the touchline. The only surprise was that he was brought on at all for fear of him being cup-tied for a potential loan club.
Conte sees Spence week in, week out on the training pitches of Hotspur Way, but when his system relies so heavily on having wing-backs exactly in the mould of the England U21 international it's difficult to see the football reason as to why he would not give him more opportunities.
"We gave minutes to Spence and he is increasing his progression and he's improving a lot," said Stellini afterwards, but it really is mere minutes the summer signing is getting to his name.
He has just 41 of them across six appearances and when he chose Spurs ahead of string of interested clubs last summer in a deal that could eventually be worth £20m to Middlesbrough, Spence would not have expected to be 'welcomed' by a head coach who does not appear to particularly want or need him at this exact moment in time.
Otherwise Spence surely would have chosen one of the other interested parties from Germany, Italy or the Premier League last summer.
When he came on against Portsmouth, he looked slightly tempered in his play, perhaps fearful of getting caught up the pitch with Spurs holding just a single goal lead and then being held responsible for a turnaround in the scoreline.
One consistent remark made about Spence to football.london from those within Spurs is that he has been a model professional throughout what has been a difficult time for the young wing-back.
He has not complained nor dropped his efforts with each missed opportunity to play or be in a matchday squad, but has just continued to try to take on board everything Conte, Stellini and the coaches have been teaching him. All of the coaches have admitted that he has been steadily improving in understanding the big demands placed on a Conte wing-back.
football.london understands that with interest in the player from Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen and three Premier League clubs, Spence is now awaiting the decision Tottenham make on what comes next for him this season.
He wants to become a big success at Spurs but if the decision is to send him on loan to get regular game time then that is a bridge that will have to be crossed.
There is understood to be no desire from the player or the club to send Spence back down to a team in the Championship and if he does move on loan then it will be to a top flight side in order to continue his football education and development.
The right wing-back role is set to be the focus of plenty of attention at Spurs during this January transfer window. The club want to sign another player in the position and an attacker, as well as looking at any other opportunities that arise this month to upgrade areas of the squad.
However, the sheer number of players in that right-sided area of the squad ensure some exits are required, with the club willing to listen to offers for Emerson.
Conte likes to have two players in every position with a young or versatile player able to back them up. At left wing-back, he has Perisic and Sessegnon, with Doherty, Davies and also Harvey White able to play there if required.
On the right, the Tottenham boss has Doherty, Emerson and Spence with Perisic and Kulusevski also able to play in the role. It's more a bloated squad issue if another right wing-back arrives without one leaving than a financial one.
For Spence, it's now all about playing the waiting game for a decision as potential chances for his first start come and go.
If he's not going to play for Tottenham then he needs to play elsewhere. The young wide man was sold a dream move that has been anything but so far, caught between head coach and club and just wanting to play football.
That north London derby and returning players
These two back-to-back wins and clean sheets have come at a good time for Tottenham but they know that the test ahead will be far sterner from table-topping Arsenal next weekend.
That Spurs have got two extra days ahead of the game than their north London rivals has allowed Conte the opportunity to gift his players, staff and himself a couple of days off to recharge before preparing for a big game.
"We've got a couple of days off so it'll be nice to recover and think about other things," said Skipp on Saturday. "Then we've got pretty much a full week to prepare for Arsenal so we'll be making sure that we watch their games back, do all the analysis and making sure that we're ready for that game."
Spurs need to be far better than they were in the 3-1 defeat at the Emirates Stadium and they need to put a dent in the title aspirations of Mikel Arteta's men.
The comparative form of the Gunners this season will only have worsened the dissatisfaction among the fans with Tottenham's injury-ravaged campaign so far, despite them still sitting fifth, two points behind third-placed Newcastle, and in the last 16 of the Champions League.
It has been a while since Arsenal last finished above Spurs in the Premier League, yet this season they have been playing some excellent football with a young team and lie 11 points ahead of Conte's men with a game in hand to boot. If ever there was a time to try to start reeling them back in it's next Sunday.
Conte will need some of his injured stars back in the fold, the ones who can really hurt the visitors.
football.london understands that Dejan Kulusevski is currently the best-placed of the injured bunch to return for the derby, while Rodrigo Bentancur is also expected to be ready to return for his first game since the World Cup. Conte will be hoping that he will be fit enough to start the game rather than simply play a part from the bench.
Richarlison is slightly behind them in the race to be fit and if does manage to be involved in some capacity it would be ahead of schedule after his World Cup hamstring injury. However, if there is the chance of getting him on the bench to lift the squad then it will be taken.
Stellini confirmed to football.london on Saturday that Yves Bissouma would "absolutely" be fit for selection to face Arsenal if required. Only Lucas Moura, with his ongoing inflamed tendon issue, currently remains in unknown territory over his return as he enters the final six months of his contract with Tottenham. At the moment, the club's decision over their option to extend his deal by 12 months is being made more straight forward by his injury woes.
Conte will need as many big players as possible available for the north London derby as possible. Kulusevski could make the difference. He missed the match at the Emirates in October through injury and the absence of his creativity was felt.
Spurs need to make an impact this time in front of a packed stadium of fans that have deserved more in recent months than they have been served up. A victory against their rivals from down the road would be the perfect way to pay them back.
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