Opening day win shows Spurs will be just fine without Harry Kane

Tottenham Hotspur manager Nuno Espirito Santo with the players after the Premier League win over Man City. Picture: Nick Potts

How badly do City need Harry Kane?

Daniel Levy will be chuckling all the way home after this toothless display.

You could be forgiven for thinking Pep Guardiola picked Ferran Torres just to give his mega-rich paymasters a final nudge.

Torres, operating as a false nine, hardly contributed a kick, although admittedly no-one else in blue managed to test Hugo Lloris much either.

Early City chances saw Fernandinho nod a free header over and then Riyad Mahrez fall over in front of goal; it was impossible not to think ‘Harry would have buried those’.

How might Spurs cope without Kane?

Kane’s injury record means Son Heung-Min is no stranger to being the man Spurs rely on when Harry’s not there.

The South Korean has an impressive track record of tormenting City in previous games but began this one surprisingly shyly.

Home fans groaned when he kept possession instead of letting fly - and when he eventually did it almost led to the opening goal.

In the second half he tried again and...you know the rest.

If Spurs are going to remain a counter attacking team under their new manager then there is no reason why Son cannot thrive as the main man without his partner in assists.

What has Jack Grealish brought to the champions’ already-laden table?

Exactly what we knew he could bring - an excellent first touch, the ability to go past players and win free-kick after free-kick.

The England man got used to regular kickings while Aston Villa’s main man and it already seems likely he will clock up a record number of fouls now he wears blue.

But whether those particular skills will make City that much more potent remains to be seen.

He picked up a booking too, with some late retribution. No doubt he argued that if he got a yellow for his first offence then Spurs should have been a five-a-side team before an hour was played. But Grealish also knows he has a season of being a marked man -literally - ahead of him.

Has Nuno Espirito Santo gained instant approval from the Spurs fans?

The Portuguese brought a reputation for pragmatic rather than exciting football with him from Wolves, which maybe summed up why he was nowhere near being Spurs’ first choice as Jose Mourinho’s permanent replacement.

But given that City were his opening weekend opponents it made perfect sense to adopt counter-attacking tactics and protect the back four with three defensive midfielders in Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Oliver Skipp and Dele Alli.

Nuno can point to a 90 minutes that was pretty much perfect in terms of soaking up pressure and breaking at speed and in so doing added to an already impressive list of results against City at this stadium. Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura were constant threats just by running at City and the new man at Tottenham has plenty of players on the bench who can do that too.

Can Nuno rekindle Dele Alli’s career?

Maybe, but as a defensive midfielder. The former England regular impressed the most with his efforts in his own half in this one.

No longer being sniped at by Jose Mourinho must be a joy for Dele but we saw nothing of the attacking prowess that made him a teenage sensation.

Instead he mostly jockeyed opponents in a crowded Tottenham half, getting up to support attacks only occasionally. Perhaps it was high time he learned (a new) discipline.