Peter Crouch and Gareth Bale made light of the first-leg deficit to ease the nerves of their long-suffering fans

What was all the fuss about? The nagging fears about Tottenham Hotspur’s potential to make mountains out of Champions League qualifying molehills came to nothing and, in the pouring north London rain, it was adjectives such as professional, composed and clinical that were applied to this stroll into the promised land.

It was Young Boys who, over the course of the two legs, demonstrated the self-destructive streak. “Three-nil and you mucked it up,” chorused the White Hart Lane crowd. Or something like that. The evening, built up so wildly in the hearts and minds of the Tottenham crowd, proved to be something of a damp squib. Certainly, it was not the rip-roaring tie that had been advertised.

Nobody at Tottenham was complaining, particularly after the heart-stopping drama of the first leg last Tuesday. The storyline was refreshingly familiar and simple. Gareth Bale was yet again outstanding, making all of the goals, and Peter Crouch scored three times in a night. Insert punchline here.

There were no wallies under brollies on the touchline. Harry Redknapp took a soaking from the elements but he emerged delighted and no little relieved. Tottenham’s European tour is on. From the first minute here, it was never in doubt.

Awful. Oppressive. Suffocating. And that was just the weather. Rarely can there have been greater pressure on a modern Spurs team. It hung like a great weight at kick-off, mingling with the swirling rain and the optimism on show among the home support. Yet the pre-match worry proved unnecessary.

A little context. This tie was so much more than the make-or-break culmination of all that hard work and achievement over 38 games last season. The previous time Tottenham played in a European Cup match here at the Lane was 48 years ago, against Benfica in the semi-finals of the old competition. Redknapp was in the crowd. He trained with the club as a schoolboy and he went along to games.

He remembers the intensity, the goosebumps, the epic scale of the contest. No one at the ground that night thought it would be so many decades before Spurs played again in Europe’s elite competition. Bela Guttmann, the victorious Benfica coach, predicted that the north London club would win the tournament “soon”.

A stadium full of waving white flags had greeted the teams here and the sound of the Champions League aria was one for the sorest of ears. There were guttural roars yet the atmosphere was actually subdued for long spells. It was hardly 1962 all over again.

Redknapp wanted his player to “swarm” over all Young Boys at the outset and the tempo they set was impressive. Wilson Palacios, in for the injured Luka Modric, shuddered into the first tackle. It was a sign of things to come from him. Tom Huddlestone, who has started the season so impressively, was a calming presence.

What Redknapp and the crowd would have given for an early goal. When their wish was answered, courtesy of Crouch’s far-post header from Bale’s deep delivery, there was release. Crouch reached a long arm to the sky; Heurelho Gomes cavorted at the other end. One-nil was job done. Only 85 minutes to hold out. Clearly, that is not the Tottenham way.

When the draw for this play-off was made at the beginning of the month, Young Boys, to many fans in England, were just an unfancied team with a silly name. The smoothness of their technique and their comfort in possession, among other things, has served to alter perceptions. But they were outmuscled and overrun. Tottenham looked to want it more. And they had the class to back up their desire.

After the initial surge from the home team, there was a lull. And even when Jermain Defoe added the second, having used an arm to control before his finish, the celebrations in the stands were surprisingly muted. Like Defoe, they appeared to be waiting for the referee’s whistle. It felt too straightforward. Had the cold water coming down from the heavens put out the fires?

Perhaps it was the knowledge that, for Tottenham, disaster can lurk around any corner. Michael Dawson got into a muddle with Gomes and Henri Bienvenu fluffed an easy header. The crowd chuntered. But this was not one of those dark nights.

Gomes did not reappear for the second half and, with Carlo Cudicini on for his first competitive football since his motorcycle accident, the game drifted along. It needed a Young Boys goal to enliven it but, instead, Crouch etched his name into the headlines for the right reasons.

The ovation of the evening was for Bale upon his substitution. Tottenham cantered home. No fussing, no frills. This could catch on in these parts. The drama and excitement lies ahead.

Tottenham HotspurChampions LeagueYoung BoysDavid Hytnerguardian.co.uk

Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Arsenal

A gleeful Tottenham Hotspur support turned White Hart Lane into a festive graveyard for Arsenal’s ambitions. Following this defeat, the visitors are six points behind the Premier League leaders Chelsea and, almost certainly, at the end of their ambition for the title. When Robin van Persie, making an impressive comeback from the bench after a long injury absence, seemed sure to cut the deficit, Heurelho Gomes put the 80th minute attempt over the bar brilliantly, before reaching an attempt from the same player and then denying Sol Campbell. With five minutes left, however, Nicklas Bendtner did turn home a low ball from the substitute Theo Walcott to maintain the tension.

Tottenham have not been pretenders to the title in modern times, but thwarting the bid of their north London rivals looked almost as inspiring for them. There was elation to the opener in the tenth minute which went far beyond the happiness due a 19-year-old making such a mark on his league debut. Manuel Almunia did not get a sufficiently acute angle on his punch when clearing a Gareth Bale corner and the ball dropped to Danny Rose for a strong 25-yard volley that arced over the Spanish goalkeeper and into the net.

Despite the admirable execution of that shot, Arsenal’s greatest problem of late has been ill-fortune and their centre-back Thomas Vermaelen pulled up with 2o minutes gone and had to make way for Mikaël Silvestre. The disruption still did not stop Arsène Wenger’s side from having plenty of possession before the interval. Although there was a great deal at stake, few phobias affect Arsenal here.

Any notion that this ground could be intimidating for them was laughable. The visitors’ centre-half, Sol Campbell, as a former Tottenham Hotspur player, received the hostility to be expected by an alleged traitor, but reacted with a desire to show to remind the home support of his expertise. The rest of the visiting side had no cause to quake since they had not been beaten in a league fixture at White Hart Lane since 1999.

Tottenham’s approach was not simple to interpret. Harry Redknapp’s line-up showed five changes from the selection beaten by Portsmouth on Sunday after extra-time in the FA Cup semi-final. It was not an ideal line-up and the partnership in attack between Roman Pavlyuchenko and Jermain Defoe was not immediately convincing.

Nonetheless, a first outing for Ledley King since 21 February roused the audience. Van Persie’s value to Arsenal was underlined by the fact that only Cesc Fábregas, Nicklas Bendtner and Andrey Arshavin have outscored him in this campaign despite the fact that his last outing for the club before the severe damage to his ankle ligaments had come at Wolves on 7 November. Bendtner may have done better than anticipated as a stand-in striker, but the club has felt his the loss of Van Persie.

While he sat on the bench, Arsenal lacked menace despite their typically slick passing. Campbell’s attempt to bundle a corner into the net was foiled on the line by Benoît Assou-Ekotto, but his team made few clear openings before half-time. There was merely exasperation over, for instance, a foul by Younes Kaboul that stopped a promising attack by Tomas Rosicky in the 35th minute. A yellow card was shown although it was unclear if King was in position to prevent his team-mate from being regarded as the last man.

Little went the visitors’ way, but the thinness of Wenger’s means was illustrated when a second goal was conceded. Silvestre is far from an ideal choice nowadays, as had been confirmed painfully last week when there had been no option but to pick him for what became a 4-1 trouncing by Barcelona in the Champions League.

The level of menace was far from comparable at White Hart Lane, but Silvestre was exposed two minutes after half-time. Defoe fed a very good pass towards his left and into the goalmouth. Silvestre did not close down Gareth Bale and the full-back put Tottenham 2-0 ahead with a capable finish.

Arsenal continued to press on. Although there was no reason simply to give up hope the intent still reflected well on them. Circumstances were not easily altered, however, even with Theo Walcott on as a substitute. The inevitable alteration was made after 67 minutes when Van Persie came on for Denílson to make his first appearance since November. He has entered desperate circumstances for his club.

Premier LeagueTottenham HotspurArsenalKevin McCarraguardian.co.uk