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After kick-off was delayed due to the late arrival of Qarabag’s team bus, Radu Dragusin’s night lasted only seven minutes when he received a red card for a cynical pull on Juninho as Spurs’ last-man.

It failed to significantly knock Tottenham off their stride though, with Brennan Johnson able to score for a third successive match five minutes later before Pape Sarr doubled the hosts’ advantage in the 52nd minute.

Qarabag did regularly threaten and Tural Bayramov fired a spot-kick over after Sarr’s strike, which all but ended the visitors’ hopes and Dominic Solanke made it back-to-back goals with 22 minutes left to ensure Tottenham earned a third win in a row before Sunday’s trip to Manchester United.

Postecoglou said: “We want to be a team that tackles whatever challenge we have in a certain way.

“When you go down to 10-men invariable at times you can’t be as aggressive or keep the ball as much or play as fluently but for the most part the intent was there.

“The first goal comes from us pressing. We were pressing with 10-men and we win the ball high up, which is what we wanted to do and we ended up scoring a goal from it.

“I think for the most part the boys showed that intent. That’s the kind of team we want to be and whatever challenge we have before us, is to tackle it that way.”

Spurs boss Postecoglou was left with some late concerns after Son limped off in the 71st-minute before Archie Gray appeared in pain late on.

Johnson was also withdrawn at half-time after he continued his rich vein of form, but the Australian played down concerns.

“I haven’t spoke to him. He said he felt a bit tired, but I haven’t spoken to him or the medical team yet,” Postecoglou said of Son.

“Yeah Brennan’s fine. It was just tactical. I thought we would need Deki Kulusevski because the way the game is going, Deki is a like a hybrid midfielder and can also break out on that right wing. It was just a tactical switch, but Brennan is fine.”

On Gray, Postecoglou pointed out: “He didn’t stop running though so can’t be that bad.”

Solanke made it back-to-back goals with a slick finish in the 68th-minute after Son’s shot had been spilled and earned the praise of his manager after a selfless display in attack.

“He is getting there and probably played longer than I wanted for him to play tonight, just the circumstances of the game, but the one thing about him is he just keeps going,” Postecoglou reflected.

“Great for him to get another goal but his all-round performance was really strong.

“When you’re down to 10-men, you need your striker to be able to hold up the play and do some hard running, which I thought he did.”

Kick-off was delayed by 35 minutes after Qarabag only arrived a short while before the scheduled 8pm start and their manager Gurban Gurbanov revealed they had been stuck on the team bus for two-and-a-half hours.

Gurbanov said: “Imagine being caught in traffic for two-and-a-half hours? I don’t want to make excuses, but it shouldn’t have happened because we had to come by ourselves.

“We had no police to escort us and obviously it had a big impact on our footballers, but it doesn’t take anything away from our opponent. They were a good team.”

Brennan Johnson (left) opened the scoring with this shot (Nick Potts/PA)

It gave Tottenham a precious lead and continued Johnson’s rich vein of form since he deactivated his Instagram account following abuse after the home loss to Arsenal.

Postecoglou’s team dominated possession despite their numerical disadvantage but Qarabag, who were minutes away from knocking out Bayer Leverkusen in the round of 16 last season, were able to regularly run through their two-man midfield.

After Bahlul Mustafazade ran through and fluffed his shot, Spurs threatened again when Johnson latched onto Archie Gray’s impressive ball but the in-form forward could only side-foot wide from 18 yards after he got past Qarabag goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski.

The half ended with a flurry of opportunities for the visitors. Juninho inexplicably side-footed wide from Elvin Jafarguliyev’s cross with only Guglielmo Vicario to beat, before the Italian slid in to deny the same player after he had tackled Ben Davies in an incident similar to Dragusin’s red card.

Dejan Kulusevski replaced Johnson and instantly had an impact with a fine run down the right able to force a corner, which created Tottenham’s second goal seven minutes into the second half.

Kochalski, under pressure from Davies, could only get a faint touch on Kulusevski’s corner and Sarr was on hand to volley home at the back post.

Spurs’ joy appeared short-lived three minutes later when Yves Bissouma caught Jafarguliyev inside the area but Bayramov drilled his penalty over.

There were further chances for Juninho, who fired straight at Vicario and sent another effort against the post from a narrow angle, before Tottenham wrapped up the points.

Sarr and Kulusevski combined to tee up Son Heung-min and while his curler was saved by Kochalski, Solanke was on hand to slide home for his first Europa League goal.

Son limped off minutes later in a rare sour note on a positive night for Tottenham.

Johnson weighed in with 10 assists and five goals after joining Spurs from Nottingham Forest last season, during which he made 23 Premier League starts and 32 appearances in total in the competition.

But the 23-year-old has often drawn criticism from Tottenham fans on social media, with many believing Johnson has yet to prove value for money following his arrival in north London exactly 12 months ago.

Johnson’s new Wales manager Bellamy, however, is in no doubt that Tottenham have a “really elite” player on their hands who will only get better.

“I see an incredible footballer in Brennan,” said Bellamy, who starts his Wales reign next week with Nations League fixtures against Turkey and Montenegro.

“He hits all the marks you’d want him to hit. I believe there’s so much more to come because what he can offer is elite. He’s really elite.

“If I was the manager at Spurs for instance, would I have signed him? Yes. Would I have paid 50 odd million? And more.

“So that gives you a certain level of what I see with this player. And I’m looking forward to that as well.”

Johnson – who has started Tottenham’s first two league games ahead of their trip to Newcastle on Sunday – was considered the natural attacking heir to Gareth Bale after making his Wales debut in November 2020.

But despite official data recognising Johnson as among the quickest players in the Premier League and evident scoring ability during his Forest days, Johnson has yet to shine for Wales on a consistent basis.

He did not start a game at the 2022 World Cup, coming on in all three matches as a substitute, and has scored only three times in 28 appearances.

Bellamy said: “Now maybe he needs to be a little bit more selfish and ruthless to back the ability he has.

“I’d like to be able to see that with Wales as well. I’m sure it’s going to come very soon.

“That’s exciting for me as well. Just to get a feel for him.”

Bellamy made several high-profile moves during his own top-level career that saw him play Liverpool, Manchester City and Newcastle among others.

Asked about Johnson’s big-money transfer to Tottenham, Bellamy said: “It takes time. It does. The expectation goes up and the competition goes up as well.

“Even though I carried myself as very confident – and at times I definitely was – there was always doubt deep down. It’s normal.

“Some players get to it straight away. They are like a duck to water and off they go.

“Some take a little longer. But I believe if you have the genuine quality then it will come. It always comes out in the end.”

Bissouma put himself back in Ange Postecoglou’s good books after the Spurs boss likened him to a naughty child who was now behaving himself, having been suspended for one match by the club for taking laughing gas.

Restored to the starting line-up, the Mali international instantly repaid Postecoglou’s faith with a stunning 20-yard strike to open the scoring.

It was Bissouma’s first Spurs goal, in his 57th match for the club, and he marked it with a contrite celebration before running up to the touchline to hug his manager.

Jordan Pickford then blotted his copybook when his dreadful error allowed Son to double Tottenham’s lead.

Cristian Romero headed a third and Son struck again late on to leave Everton slipping towards full crisis-club mode just two games into the season.

In a frenetic start Pickford had actually made three top-class saves before undoing all of his good work.

First, he made a point-blank stop to deny Romero after the visitors failed to clear a corner, and moments later the England goalkeeper was at full stretch to tip Son’s deflected strike wide.

Pickford was then out quickly to block James Maddison after he latched on to Romero’s ball over the top.

But a goal was coming, and it arrived in the 15th minute when Dejan Kulusevski skipped past a couple of challenges in the area and laid the ball off to Bissouma.

The 27-year-old let rip with a fierce, first-time drive which crashed off the underside of the crossbar and into Pickford’s net.

Pickford could do nothing about that, but he held his hands up for the mistake which gifted Tottenham their second.

James Tarkowski played the ball square to his keeper from a throw-in but as Pickford tried to switch feet, he took a poor touch allowing Son to nick the ball and tap into an empty net.

Just half an hour into their second game and Everton, on the end of a chastening 3-0 home defeat by Brighton on the opening weekend, were in utter disarray.

Substitute Jesper Lundstrom had their best chance of getting back into the game with an angled drive, beaten away by Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario.

But the Toffees were condemned to start a third straight season with back-to-back defeats after Romero headed in Maddison’s corner and Son drove home the fourth to leave them still without a win on the road in 2024.