Tottenham Hotspur continue to tick off the lesser assignments, although they cannot have expected to meet quite such compliant opposition as they did here. A second away win by this margin in four days could not have been more convenient preparation for Chelsea’s visit to White Hart Lane on Wednesday and any suggestion that they might take their eye off the ball against opponents with previous for inconveniencing bigger names was quickly rendered unnecessary by the sheer paucity of Watford’s offering.

It is hard to imagine that a home side will play this inadequately during the rest of 2017. Injuries had played havoc with Walter Mazzarri’s plans, but that does not completely excuse the sluggishness and basic errors that peppered the performance of a relatively experienced starting XI. Tottenham were merciless in response and seized upon the home side’s repeat offences, the snatched clearance from Younès Kaboul that teed up Dele Alli to score a third goal – and end any lingering doubts over the outcome – four minutes before half-time providing a faithful snapshot of the afternoon’s events.

None of that is to detract from the encouragement Tottenham, whose four-game winning run gives the impression of a team easing into gear after a patchy autumn, will take from a match they controlled entirely. Alli, recapturing last season’s levels of effervescence, was a delight to watch and Mauricio Pochettino will have been equally happy that he could rest his midfielder for the last third of the game. Harry Kane looked as sharp as at any time this season and then there was the performance of Kieran Trippier, who has been a forgotten man due to the excellence of Kyle Walker but took advantage of his team-mate’s suspension to lay on both of Kane’s goals. He remains one of the division’s most technically gifted right-backs and this was a reminder that Spurs possess important depth in what, for them, is a vital area of the pitch.

Trippier had already created a chance for Danny Rose when, spotting Kane’s angled run in the inside-right channel, he met it with a clever pass round the defence. Kane beat Heurelho Gomes confidently and from then on it was a question of how many Tottenham would score.

Six minutes later it seemed anyone’s guess. Trippier’s next trick was a wonderful, half-volleyed cross from the right flank that bypassed the home centre-backs for Kane to jab home emphatically. Watford players were not without reproach, Kane showing far more hunger than the two he beat to the ball, but the delivery had been virtually unplayable.

It was a perceptive, first-time switch across field from Alli that supplied Trippier with the time and space to centre. That was entirely characteristic of the midfielder’s performance, which could have been crowned by a spectacular goal when a 25-yard shot rapped the bar seconds before Kane opened the scoring, but was still rewarded soon enough. Alli was deft, alert, brain and feet operating yards ahead of anybody in a yellow shirt. Craig Cathcart might have prevented him from seizing on to Kaboul’s mistake, but this was a day when 50-50 contests had only one winner and his finish was unerring.

There was a similar outcome when, found with half of the penalty area at his disposal from Kane’s cross 58 seconds into the second half, Alli was faced with Gomes a second time. The result was the same and had the option been available, both sides would surely have wound things up there and then.

Watford’s supporters had booed after the third goal but saw the rest of the game out as quietly as their team. Much as Kaboul’s scrambled injury-time consolation was insignificant, it was a jolt to the senses inasmuch as they had never threatened anything of the sort. “We were growing during the season and then out of nowhere we miss five very important members of the team,” said the Watford manager. “If you took that number from any other team in the Premier League they would also be in big difficulty.”

Mazzarri had said before the game that he needed “a priest” to rid Watford from a litany of problems that had included early injuries to Daryl Janmaat and Valon Behrami in the Boxing Day draw with Crystal Palace. Nobody with access to a higher power appeared to have listened; Watford were forced into a reshuffle when Camilo Zúñiga suffered an ankle injury in the warm-up and that set the tone for their afternoon. Zúñiga’s replacement, Odion Ighalo, went on to underline the sense that the form with which he began 2016 was very much against the norm.

The task for Tottenham is to make sure that this level of performance becomes a regular occurrence against better opposition. “It was nearly a perfect game,” Pochettino said, and more of the same against the leaders on Wednesday would give the next 51 weeks a tough act to follow in improving on this first one.

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