It was the nature of the Tottenham Hotspur goals, as much as the emphatic scoreline, that underlined the sizeable gap in class between these two sides on a night when the underdogs were never given a chance to bare their teeth.

No player in Tranmere Rovers white could have swirled the ball into the top corner like Serge Aurier did for the Spurs opener, and no League Two attacker could have strolled past an entire backline like Heung-Min Son did for their second. Two high-class players, scoring two high-class goals. Spurs were untouchable in those moments, and simply better than the Tranmere for the rest of this uncomfortably one-sided encounter.

On an evening which had all the usual ingredients needed for a third-round upset - a patchy pitch, freezing conditions, a former furniture van driver at centre-back - Spurs took minimal risks. Mauricio Pochettino’s side produced nine minutes of scintillating football in the second half, scoring three goals and ending this as a contest with more than half an hour to play.

It was a chastening experience for Tranmere, who showed spirit in the first half but swiftly ran out of ideas in the second. Most of their players could only stand and watch as Fernando Llorente scored a quickfire hat-trick after the break, to add to Son’s individual effort and another strike from Aurier. It felt needlessly mean on Tranmere’s poor defenders for Pochettino to then introduce Harry Kane from the bench, with the score already at 6-0. Naturally, the England captain promptly made it even worse for the home side, scoring a delicate seventh to make this the biggest away win in Spurs’ history.