Harry Kane sets Tottenham on the road to beating Southampton as Ralph Hasenhuttl watches on

Tottenham 3-1 Southampton: Spurs proved too good for the visiting Saints but there was some encouragement to be had for the incoming manager watching on

It was not a thorough evisceration of Chelsea, in which they should have scored six or seven. It was not the climactic overcoming of Inter Milan to keep their Champions League season alive. But it was still a win for Tottenham, forgettable but certainly deserved, as they put away managerless Southampton with absolutely zero fuss.

It would be dishonest to call this a classic, and the most memorable part of the evening is the fact that only 33,012 people came to watch. Plenty of Spurs fans are understandably tired of Wembley and are just waiting for the new stadium in 2019. Do not expect bumper crowds when Burnley, Bournemouth or Wolves come here before the end of the year.

But players still did everything they could in recording their fourth straight home win, a run that will surely continue if they keep playing like this. Harry Kane, Heung Min Son and Lucas Moura, the mobile front three, gleefully ripped through the big holes in the Saints defence. Had they needed to or wanted to they could surely have scored more than they did. Kieran Trippier and Danny Rose both returned from injuries and Hugo Lloris made a string of second half saves too. You can only beat what is put in front of you.

Danny Rose in action at Wembley (Reuters)

The defensive poverty of this Southampton performance will give Ralph Hasenhuttl plenty to think about before his unveiling on Thursday lunchtime. He was sat in the stands and was treated to an exhibition in the flaws of the Mark Hughes era, the lack of marking, the lack of confidence, the individual errors that eventually cost Hughes his job. At least there is plenty of room for improvement here. The attacking play in the second half, and the number of saves Lloris had to make, shows that this is far from the worst squad in the division.

The only expectation that Kelvin Davis could have had of his Southampton team is that they would make life difficult for Tottenham, frustrate them and silence the sparse crowd. And yet Saints did not even manage to do that. Spurs should have been ahead after just three minutes when Kieran Trippier, back in the team after injury, set up Heung-Min Son who hit the post from an angle.

Sure enough, six minutes later Spurs were ahead with a goal that they could hardly have dreamed would be so simple. Eriksen found space from a short corner and then had far more space than he had any right to down by the by-line. So Eriksen drove in the cross, hard and low, and Kane was the only man who knew what to expect, and he darted in behind Maya Yoshida to tuck in. It was a clever goal, but not an unstoppable one. How could Southampton do so little to stop it?

Harry Kane celebrates scoring in the first half (EPA)

The answer is that the habits of good defending have long been forgotten at St Mary’s, and it will take Ralph Hasenhuttl months of coaching to instil them back into these players. What was more surprising, and more encouraging, is the fact that Saints did not instantly fold after going behind. On one rare attack, Pierre Emile Hojbjerg even forced Hugo Lloris to brilliantly tip a 30-yarder onto the post. In the context of Southampton’s recent weeks, it was a highlight.

But even in this flat atmosphere Spurs were the more dangerous side, and with more focus they should have put the game to bed long before the break. There was always space to attack, Kane and Son both had shots saved by Alex McCarthy, and Spurs went into the break sensing that they really should have killed off Southampton already.

Five minutes after the restart, they did. It was clear from the start of the second half Spurs were no longer messing around, as Toby Alderweireld went close with a header from a corner, and Eriksen from a free-kick. Their next set play was a corner and it fell to Lucas Moura at the back of the box. His shot was blocked by Jack Stephens, the ball bounced back, and he controlled it and scored. Again, bad marking and too much time in box, as Hasenhuttl will have noted.

Five minutes after that came the third, and the simplest of the lot. Matt Targett was easily beaten by Trippier, who passed to Kane, free down by the byline. He pulled the ball back to Son, unmarked again, for Spurs’ third goal and second tap-in of the night. It was an even simpler finish than Kane’s opener.

That was the end of the game as a contest, but Southampton did at least manage to attack with more intent when the game was already lost, and especially when Charlie Austin came on up front. Nathan Redmond hit the bar, and Lloris had three good saves to make before Austin’s consolation goal, racing in behind and finally beating Lloris down into the bottom corner. Southampton deserved it for their flurry of late chances. But any tension in the evening – and there was very little from the start – had long dissipated by this point. Not every game can be an epic.