GettyImagesAndre Villas-Boas has found success in the Europa League

If there was one defining image of Tottenham's progress in the Europa League this season, it was perhaps one moment in the second half of the opening fixture against Lazio. Andre Villas-Boas was patrolling the touchline, absent-mindedly clutching a superfluous match ball. As Spurs saw another chance to score go by, the Portuguese turned his back on the pitch, gritted his teeth in a grimace and pressed his palms and fingers so hard into the ball that it briefly seemed as if it might explode.

Nobody has quite the same intensity (to use one of the coach's favourite words) as Villas-Boas when it comes to this competition. Neither the White Hart Lane crowd - a little short of their habitually raucous form and frequently outsung by the boisterous Panathinaikos contingent - nor the Spurs defence, who were nodding off in carpet slippers when Zeca stooped to nod in an equaliser in the opening minutes of the second period, did here.

When Panathinaikos levelled we had a real game on, and not just in Villas-Boas' mind. Though the visitors rightly celebrated pegging Spurs back as an achievement in itself, they continued to push with an all-or-nothing attitude, knowing that an improbable winner would send them through to the last-32 at the Londoners' expense. When Spanish striker Toche toe-poked a presentable chance to snatch it wide with twenty minutes left, the discontented barks of the crowd showed that they knew it.

All of a sudden Villas-Boas' wiry touchline posturing of the first half, when the game rarely stirred itself into more than a gentle trot, didn't look so out of place. The boss had clenched his jaw and gnashed his teeth like a trainee Cristiano Ronaldo after Jermain Defoe skied one chance, even if the gentle demeanour of their visitors suggested to most of the crowd that the miss would not be costly.

Tottenham had been left in this relatively precarious final-day position partly by the indecision in their play that appears to have been banished in recent weeks, not to mention a clutch of ghastly officiating errors that saw good goals chalked off home and away against Lazio. That uncertainty at least partly returned here, an understandably immediate consequence of the red-hot Gareth Bale's absence following his weekend injury against Fulham.

Instead, Clint Dempsey and Emmanuel Adebayor took turns to drift out left in a glimpse into a pre-Bale world for younger fans, when candidates as unsuited as Steed Malbranque and Luka Modric were intermittently shoehorned into the role. With the right-footed Kyle Naughton again occupying the left-back position, the early signs were that Tottenham's attacking combinations down the left were of less fluency than regulars are used to. It must have been some relief to visiting right-back Giourkas Seitaridis, scorer of surely the most ludicrous own goal on a European pitch this season in Panathinaikos' own home draw with Lazio.

Dempsey may not be able to offer the pace of Bale, but he quickly became the centrepiece of Spurs' best moves, surging inside and out with his dribbles. Unfairly classified by some as a needless buy in the wake of his move across London, the American is beginning to show that his energy can perfectly suit Spurs' style. With the home crowd getting tetchy, it was his incisive pass that switched up the tempo dramatically, sending in Adebayor to open the scoring.

Still, without such a key reference point as the Welshman, Spurs frequently lost shape, oscillating between the desired swagger and their worst follies, where the heart completely eclipses the head. It was too often up to young Thomas Carroll to be the decisive presence in the middle of the park during the first half, getting Spurs moving when bogged down in defence or attack. It was something he did well.

Carroll's enterprise distracted from the torpor that Spurs were to fall deeper into as the second period dawned. Dempsey's header, which deflected in off unlucky goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis' back to recoup Spurs' lead with fifteen minutes to go, was their first real effort of note following the interval.

It was hard to ascertain whether they began sleepwalking through a relatively straightforward task against spirited but limited opponents, or whether they were taken aback by Panathinaikos' ability to summon some extra reserves of power after the break. Perhaps it was a bit of both.

The occasion and the opportunity certainly meant something to the noisy 3,000-plus Greek contingent that packed into the south-west corner of White Hart Lane. Maybe that bond has been intensified by the summer supporter-led takeover of the ailing giant, but London has been a touchstone in Panathinaikos' history for some time. It was just up the road from here, at Wembley, that the Greeks celebrated the pinnacle of their European achievement. In 1971, they were edged out Rinus Michels' Ajax beneath the twin towers, in what turned out to be the first of three successive European Cup wins for the Dutch.

Certainly the current representatives of this proud Athenian giant pale in comparison to the swashbuckling 2010 double winners, led by a prime Djibril Cisse and Sotiris Ninis. They are treading water in sixth place in the Greek Super League, having scored just 14 times in their opening 13 matches at home. Zeca's goal was just their fourth in the six group matches. For most of this match, it wasn't too hard to see why.

Jermain Defoe's clincher had a little more of the verve we expect, created by Aaron Lennon's electrifying burst inside. By then, the home fans were warming themselves by baiting deposed London rivals Chelsea with a chant of 'Champions of Europe, you're not any more.'

Whether Rafael Benitez's assertion to take the Europa League seriously are more than lip service - and whether he'll still be there to back them up in February - remains to be seen, though if the Manchester clubs' example from last season is anything to go by, the teams already in the competition shouldn't fret too much. With Villas-Boas, though, you know what you'll get in this tournament. It will be interesting to discover if his, and Tottenham's, exploits in the Europa League can spread that enthusiasm amongst Premier League clubs.

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