It says much about Andre Villas-Boas's predicament that a positive display from one of his players could provide him with a negative. Doubts linger about the Portuguese's relationship skills since his feud-flecked stint at Chelsea and that, combined with Tottenham's deadline-day purchase of the France goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris, meant Brad Friedel's excellent exploits against Norwich City raise fears as well as cheers.

Friedel may have been unable to stop Robert Snodgrass plundering a late equaliser for Norwich after Moussa Dembélé had come off the bench to give Spurs a barely merited lead in the second half but the 41-year-old produced enough fine saves to prevent the visitors from punishing a mostly listless performance by Spurs. Friedel's display also suggested that Spurs' new £12m goalkeeper will have to accept a stretch on the sidelines.

If Lloris thought the size of the fee paid to bring him to White Hart Lane immediately conferred No1 status, he has been disabused of that notion, with Villas-Boas declaring that the France captain is seen as a prospect to be developed rather than an immediate starter.

"When you transfer it's not written in the contract that you have to play," Villas-Boas said. "Brad is doing extremely well and deserves to be playing and he'll continue to do so.

"The Premier League's a specific league and we want to build for the future, so we decided to bring in Hugo now as he can be our keeper in future. We have to work with that and he will have to adapt to the Premier League.

"There are players that need more time, players that need less time. But again, when you have a keeper that gives so much confidence to the team and is doing so well like Brad, he deserves to be in goal."

Villas-Boas could be commended for fair-mindedness, which may be how Friedel feels when he says "the manager has spoken to me about what he wants to do and I like what I hear", yet there is a perception born of Villas-Boas's Chelsea woes that triggering such intense competition is to set the scene for a potential explosion of egos.

For now no one is rocking the boat. "I'm here because I believe in Tottenham," Lloris said. "There are lot of great players here and a great manager. Everything is in place to qualify for the Champions League. But the most important thing for me is to show that I am up to the challenge on the pitch. I'm ready to do my utmost for the team and supporters."

How long he will wait for an opportunity to do that will be interesting. The Norwich defender Sébastien Bassong, who played with Lloris for France's Under-21 side and used to play with Friedel at Spurs, reckons the Frenchman should be grateful for the opportunity to work under Friedel. "I think he'll learn a lot," Bassong said. "He's a really good goalkeeper but now he's in a new competition and new country, he'll need Brad's help."

One recruit who did not have to wait long to demonstrate his worth is Dembélé, who was introduced at half-time and quickly brought some pattern and purpose to a Tottenham display that until then had been curiously timid and disjointed. The pining for the creativity of Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart abated a little after the Belgian's introduction.

"He came on and changed the game for Tottenham," said Norwich's Bradley Johnson. "Tottenham have got a great signing. He's a world-class player."

Equally encouragingly for Tottenham, Dembélé says that he, for one, has been impressed by his interaction with Villas-Boas so far: "The manager is very clear what he wants me to do and he just told me to play my game the same way as I always play. He has tried to give me confidence and you need that at any level."

Dembélé is also looking forward to renewing his relationship with Clint Dempsey. "Clint is always dangerous and if he plays he is so hungry to score," Dembélé said. "He fights and he is fantastic to have because he does the work of two men."

And if he plays, he will take the place of one man. Villas-Boas's options have been enriched: Tottenham's success will depend to a degree on his man-management not being poor.