Luiz Felipe Scolari does not handle defiance well. Just ask Ronaldinho, who failed to take the Brazil manager's advice on cutting down his off-pitch shenanigans and is set to miss the 2014 World Cup even if he scores a hat-trick every week. Or Ramires, who the big man felt had snubbed a chance to hang around with his selecão team-mates during an international week in London even when sidelined by injury.

Based on that evidence, one could not help thinking Paulinho was bound to watch the Confederations Cup from the bench after repeatedly disregarding orders to tame his attacking instincts and focus a bit more on protecting Brazil's back four. Instead, having seen the midfielder score the equaliser that spared Brazil's blushes against England in June's reopening of the Maracanã and another goal against Japan in the first game of Fifa's test event, Scolari adjusted the selecão's entire gameplan to give Paulinho a bit more freedom, bringing in the calf-biter and Arsenal target Luiz Gustavo against Italy and Spain.

The man who crossed Scolari and lived to tell the tale is now key to Tottenham Hotspur's plans for the new Premier League season, and any untrained observers might be puzzled where the rebellious instinct comes from. On the outside Paulinho, or José Paulo Bezerra Maciel Júnior to give him his full name, could easily contest a shyness contest with Chelsea's Oscar. Inside, however, lies a fierce determination.

"Football is a game where you have to do a bit of everything if you want your team to have the edge," says Paulinho, who played the full 90 minutes in Brazil's 1-0 defeat by Switzerland on Wednesday. "Matches are decided by details and you have to be ready to create spaces and help open up defences. It is what I have to do."

With 20 goals in 86 appearances for Corinthians and five in 19 matches for the national team, Paulinho could not be more different from his fellow countryman Gilberto Silva, nicknamed the "Invisible Wall" and a member of Arsenal's 2003-04 Invincibles. Few players, though, seem so right for the Premier League and he is eagerly anticipating the challenge.

"It is quite interesting to see how games in England seem to change a lot in terms of action and pace," the 25-year-old says. "The game here is full of movement and intensity. The pace is unbelievably fast, faster than Brazil. But I feel this is all so right for the kind of player I am."

Still in the process of settling down in London a month or so after Spurs paid £17m for his services, Paulinho nonetheless has done his homework. If moving around the capital still requires a helping hand from his team-mates Sandro and Heurelho Gomes, his grasp of north London fracture lines is spot on.

"I come from a club everybody loved to hate and that has two massive local rivals just in the same city, let alone the country," he says. "So I do understand what it means for Tottenham fans to beat Arsenal. Since my first day at Tottenham it became clear to me."

So too has the knowledge that the fate of a rampant Welshman is a crucial part of Spurs' aspirations. "Gareth Bale is such a great player. I had watched him before on telly and you could see how special he is. Losing him would definitely be bad, but this is something that the club and the player have to sort out."

Paulinho stoically navigated his own storm of rumours about a move to Europe after Corinthians, a team that boasts more than 25m followers in Brazil, beat Chelsea in the Fifa Club World Cup final in December. Internazionale, Real Madrid and Chelsea were said to have made moves for him and the speculation intensified after Corinthians failed to defend their Copa Libertadores title.

Ultimately, though, it was Tottenham who won the race for his signature, with the Portuguese-speaking André Villas-Boas a key factor in convincing Paulinho to move to England. "André Villas-Boas is very well regarded in Brazil and he was part of the reason why I joined Tottenham," he says. "We have been talking about how he wants me to play. It makes things easier that we speak the same language."

Paulinho had signed for Corinthians in 2010 as cover in a squad bouncing back from a painful relegation to the second division, and he quickly established himself in a side where his childhood idol, Ronaldo, was the star. The centre-forward retired in February 2011 but Corinthians went on to win their first Brazilian league title in six years and only striker Liédson scored more than Paulinho in that campaign.

Relatively prolific in front of goal, he has broken the mould of recent Brazilian central midfield players. For years the nation has bemoaned the tactical maturity that it believes has killed the ingenious creativity for which Brazil had always been known. Holding players, or volante (steering wheel in Portuguese), had become a symbol of compromise that disturbed purists. "I like going forward," Paulinho says, "because my dream was always to be as complete as I could get to in this game. It should not be a huge surprise for people."

This will be his second spell in Europe. Following his departure in 2006 from Pão de Açúcar, a feeder club in São Paulo, his first experience was an unhappy one. His journey took him to Lithuania and Poland, where he racked up only 55 games over two seasons.

His time at LKS Lodz was marked by racial abuse and he welcomed his return to his home country. He expects a friendlier atmosphere in England off the pitch but a testing examination on it.

"I have been told you don't have time to think too much when you get the ball in England," he says. "In practice it looks even more dynamic than on TV. But at the same time it feels so right to be here because of my characteristics. Of course people will mention the tactical differences to the game in Brazil but I am looking forward to it."

It does help that Sandro, a fellow midfield who Paulinho knows from selecão duty, was on hand to welcome him but he is not the only Brazil team-mate in London. Paulinho will undoubtedly be introduced soon to a circle of football expats that gravitate around the pool table at David Luiz's Richmond flat.

"Sandro tells me David is virtually unbeatable on that table," he says, smiling. "That is another away game I am looking forward to."