Son Heung-min left the pitch just before full-time at White Hart Lane to a huge, concerted ovation. By that stage Tottenham Hotspur’s stand-in No9 was so utterly spent, so drenched in goodwill from a cooing, gurgling home crowd that, as Andre Marriner shooed him off, Son mistook the referee’s gesture for one of congratulation and tried to shake his hand.

On the bench there were backslaps and hugs for a performance of prodigious energy and craft, a significant turn not just in this 2-0 defeat of Manchester City but in City’s wider attempts to adapt to new rhythms and shapes under Pep Guardiola.

Fittingly there was little in the way of recognition from Son’s manager, who continued to leap and whirl and flail the flaps of his dark suit around like a dementedly angry wedding cake figurine, even with his team two minutes from victory. Tottenham were relentless here, Son the outstanding forward point of a performance of such throttling, strangulating pressure that even watching it from pitch-side – and the press box at White Hart Lane is particularly close to every thwacking tackle, every nostril-flaring sprint – was genuinely draining.

Press here to open. Brendan Rodgers had drawn a degree of derision for the suggestion his Celtic team had shown how to get at this Pep work-in-progress. But he is right, for now at least. Aggression, running power, furious staged pressure: this is how Premier League teams will attempt to disrupt this evolving project-team. They may not succeed. Spurs are startlingly good at this, a team geared exactly for the challenge. The pressure might even act as a catalyst for City’s own evolution . “Football is a process,” Guardiola said afterwards, magnanimous and, indeed, utterly spot-on in defeat. “We will just have to learn.”

The contrast in managerial method had been ramped up before the game. Both see football as a matter of controlling space. Pochettino wants to dominate it, to inhabit every crease, to breathe all the air in the room. Guardiola wants to create more, open up, expand the available edges. In the event it was Spurs’ brilliantly grooved team that imposed itself. They were led by Son, who was sensational in the stand-in centre-forward’s role here, coming on like a rabidly hyper-mobile Harry Kane, covering every space, shielding and dribbling and linking and thoroughly deserving the goal he might have had if Erik Lamela had let him take Spurs’ second-half penalty (Lamela missed it).

Son traumatised City’s defence for the opening hour with his fine, intelligent movement and an ability to take the ball with his back to goal and spin that looked entirely natural. He shot on sight, he took the ball in his stride, he produced a lovely pass for the second goal to make it six goals and two assists in his past seven league games. It has been a thrillingly whole-hearted response to a difficult summer. Son was distraught at his underwhelming part in South Korea’s exit from the Olympics at the hands of a low-grade Honduras team. He might have left in the transfer window. He could also face a period of military service next year, not something easily waved aside when one’s most significant neighbour is a jumped-up despot with a missile‑hoarding fetish.

On Thursday night Son confirmed he had not actually played centre-forward for Bayer Leverkusen at all, although he had a few games there at Hamburg. And yet his success here makes sense. He is in many ways a perfect fit for the Poch-ball dynamic. “Running is everything” is a maxim of Marcelo Bielsa, Pochettino’s defining influence as a young coach. Mention this to Son and he is likely to greet you with a blank stare. Your point is?

Son’s early movement set the tone here. He twice picked a straight sprint on goal with Pablo Zabaleta, who tracked back with all the natural spring of a man squelching through a peat bog in a pair of thigh-high waders. The first goal came from that side courtesy of a horrible moment for Aleksandar Kolarov. Spurs pressed and won the ball, Danny Rose curled in a nice cross and Kolarov scuffed it off the bar and into his own net.

After which Spurs continued to play like Spurs, on days like these a homogenised, high-intensity substance that never dips or drops or lets its fizz die away. The second goal was another fast-breaking affair, Dele Alli, Son and Lamela setting about the centre of City’s defence like a Mexican flyweight throwing punches from all angles. Alli finished it nicely, tucking the ball low past Claudio Bravo’s left hand to garland a fine all-round performance.

Victory here confirms the soundness not just of Pochettino’s methods but of his ability to drill them into this willing group of players. But it also confirms that City are only starting out on their own journey. Before this match Guardiola had dismissed his team’s fast start as something of an illusion, born out of the players’ willingness more than any really profound plateau being reached.

Pep wants control. He wants his team to decide the tempo and texture of a match. This was a constant background mutter through his great days at Barcelona. When, we asked, will someone finally “get at” that poised and artful defence, these world-class, all-time fanny-merchants. Pretty much never was the answer, tribute to just how good that team was at playing the way only that team really has. At White Hart Lane Spurs, with Son to the fore, found some cracks to dig their nails into. They will march on from here with great confidence. City will regroup and re-groove. Do not take your eyes off this one.