Can Tottenham keep winning without playing especially well?

For some perspective on Tottenham’s start to the season, it is worth recalling how they began the last. Four league games in, they had won the first three but lost the fourth, going down 3-0 away at Crystal Palace. It was at that point that the faint and fleeting sense that something worthwhile could come of the Nuno Espirito Santo experiment fell away, and everyone remembered why it had been considered an underwhelming appointment in the first place.

A year later, there is a lot different about how Tottenham have started. There are no such lingering doubts about Antonio Conte’s ability to do the job. The hodgepodge of a squad that he inherited has been improved upon through smart business. A top-four finish is the expectation rather than a mere ambition. Spurs even have a point more than they did at the same stage under Nuno.

Some things are not so different, though, and for some, with each passable but not entirely convincing performance that Tottenham put in, there are more and more fears that they are about to get found out all over again. Is that fair?