Tottenham Hotspur got back to winning ways quickly on Wednesday night, but the result was nothing less than they would have expected - or accepted, for that matter.
Spurs took down lowly Doncaster 3-0 in the League Cup, with Brennan Jonson getting on the scoresheet in the 94th minute to put an exclamation point on a match that was never in doubt, unlike the narrow League Cup win over Lincoln City by Chelsea or Liverpool's 2-1 win over Southampton the night before.
Credit Tottenham and Thomas Frank for getting the job done without any fuss, and also credit opening goal-scorer Joao Palhinha for another monstrous game in the middle of the park next to young standout Archie Gray.
Palhinha led the team by example on Wednesday night, functioning as the main star in the lineup with heavy rotation and showing why he is as much of a Premier League Player of the Season candidate as any Tottenham player.
It may sound like a stretch to consider a true defensive midfielder a Player of the Season candidate, but when Palhinha is shutting things down so well defensively while also passing at a high level and even chipping in goals, it's hard to deny that he's in the conversation.
Obviously, a match against Doncaster literally isn't in the Premier League, and Doncaster are well below the standard of a Premier League team. But, well, Grimsby Town not being in the Premier League didn't stop Manchester United from getting upset in the League Cup.
Palhinha enhanced his candidacy as Spurs best player of the year with that display, scoring and leading the team with 70 pass attempts, completing 90 percent of his passeswith two tackles, an interception, and six clearances thrown in for good measure.
Such a dominant force defensively, Palhinha's solid work on the ball is often overlooked, but that wasn't the case against Doncaster, especially with the additional goal to his tally to open things up.
Throughout the first seven games of the season in all competitions, Palhinha has elevated Tottenham significantly. He has stabilized the entire team from the deep midfield position, cleaning up all sorts of tackles while holding his position and making simple passes accurately without fuss.
With each passing solid performance by Palhinha, all the Portuguese international does is make it even more difficult for Tottenham to deny him a permanent transfer at the end of the 2025/26 season from Bayern Munich.