After a summer dogged by whining and controversy, think vuvuzelas, goalkeeping blunders, boring football and bizarre refereeing decisions, Spurs v Man City came as a welcome reminder of what we'd all been missing.
Attacking football, played in a red hot atmosphere with an audience blissfully unaware of the man with the whistle, so seldom did he make a peep.
Referee Andre Marriner was an asset in his ambiguity, leaving the game to flow and giving rise to a forgotten spectacle as a goalkeeper was the star of the show.
City's usual keeper Shay Given may be trusty old padlock, well-versed at keeping intruders at bay, but Joe Hart proved to be a hackproof new-age security system in City's defensive firewall.
Following a summer of dropped crosses and goal-line gaffes, the Premier League looked set to banish the World Cup hangover for good.
Until Sunday, that is, when Joe Cole's red card and Jose Reina's howler provided some hair of the dog to keep us all from getting carried away.
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