Spurs gave their most complete performance of the season and were deserved winners against a Chelsea side nowhere near their best and who were unable to match the visitors’ control of midfield.

Goalkeeper Mike Penders, making his first league start, punched the ball into his own goal to hand De Zerbi’s side the lead with 13 minutes to go before Cole Palmer left his studs on Conor Gallagher and received his second yellow card of the game.

Palmer’s first booking came after he clattered Mateus Fernandes to the ground with the ball out of play, a pivotal moment in which tempers flared on the pitch and in the dugout as a tight match sprang suddenly into life, ultimately to Tottenham’s advantage.

Mathys Tel scored a brilliant individual goal against the 10 men to cap a memorable display in west London.

“I love watching my players fighting on the pitch,” said De Zerbi of the ruckus sparked by Palmer and Fernandes in the 69th minute. “Fernandes played 90 minutes with a big quality.

“I want to see him with personality, enjoying with the ball, can make a mistake, it doesn’t matter. I want to see this personality from my team.

“We are a big club. In the last period the results have been not so good, but we are a top club. We must show personality. We must show mentality.”

It had taken Spurs seven attempts to get their first league win of the season against Coventry on Monday and here they looked transformed from the side that did not even score a goal until September 19.

The first goal was fortunate, the ball squirming off the fist of Penders from a corner in admittedly difficult conditions in the driving rain, but Tel’s effort to seal it was magnificent, a driving run in off the left and a finish that flew past Chelsea’s beleaguered 21-year-old goalkeeper.

“Changing the spirit of the group, changing the performance of the players, especially the more fragile players, maybe the younger players,” said De Zerbi.

“Mateus Fernandes maybe was one of the best players on the pitch, like Mathys Tel. Archie Gray is younger, but he’s older as a mentality. I’m very, very happy.

“We want to improve, improve, improve, to be better game by game, week by week. We have suffered enough.”

A 3-1 win here in 2018 had been Spurs’ only victory away to their great rivals since 1990.

“It’s not our responsibility the results of the past,” said De Zerbi. “Winning the game, we are very happy for them, very proud for the club. But I think we are working to change the mentality of our club in the last seasons.”

Defeat for Chelsea, their first at home under Xabi Alonso, brought an end to their winning run that followed the international break.

“At half-time we spoke, we had the feeling it would be about the first goal,” he said. “First half was tight, some half-chances. It was going to be about the key moment.

“Once we conceded the first goal it changes everything. We wanted to have a reaction. The red card, it went the other way. We can do better. It’s one to reflect.”

Of Palmer’s yellow cards, he said: “I haven’t seen them on TV. I’ve been told probably (the referee) got it right. We need to have the maturity to deal with difficult moments.”