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Worse teams than Queens Park Rangers have come to White Hart Lane and taken a pasting.

But rarely, if ever, has a Premier League side turned up to the baptism of a new Tottenham manager and performed so execrably.

To play in a half-hearted fashion, at least you need a heart. But QPR’s sauntering millionaires, put together at considerable expense by a budget airline tycoon, were an embarrassment to the shirt.

For his inaugural voyage in the Tottenham dugout, Mauricio Pochettino might have expected stubborn resistance, if not a vaguely uncomfortable afternoon.

But Rangers – strolling, supine Rangers – were ideal party guests.

MATCH report: Tottenham 4-0 QPR

Pacifism is a noble virtue, but Harry Redknapp’s men took it too far, rolling over with a first-half display of such negligible application that they were in danger of being removed from the premises as suspect packages.

Defender Richard Dunne carried the can, hooked at the interval as Redknapp’s token protest at the collective inertia, while Pochettino reclined in his touchline seat and enjoyed the rare distinction of winning his first three games in charge.

The Argentine had opted for a low-key entrance, slipping into the dugout with no fanfares, theatrical bows or waves to the crowd.

He has already presided over the best football of Erik Lamela’s career in English football, while Nacer Chadli – a rare species in the Premier League as a Belgian who didn’t impress at the World Cup – was outstanding.

“It means nothing to be top of the league after only two games,” said Pochettino. “The most important thing is to try and develop our style and philosophy, and today the team showed that if we play like a team together, we can achieve something.

“It is important to keep the reality and stay calm. If you lose two games, you are in danger – it’s always easier to develop your style when you win.”

As for Rangers... draw the blinds and look away now if you don’t want to face facts.

Joey Barton and Steven Caulker aside, they will find Premier League survival a more achievable goal if they actually run around and look interested before they are 4-0 down.