Christian Eriksen took charge in the absence of Harry Kane as he scored twice in a straightforward 3-0 win at Swansea City, booking Tottenham's place in the FA Cup semi-finals.
Kane suffered ankle ligament injury against Bournemouth that could probably keep him out until April, but on the evidence of Spurs' display at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday, they should be able to cope without him for the time being.
Mauricio Pochettino said in his pre-match news conference that lifting the trophy would not help breed a "winning culture" at Spurs, but their challenge was boosted 11 minutes into the game when the excellent Eriksen found the net in stunning fashion from just outside the area.
Although the visitors were frustrated by having a Son Heung-min goal disallowed for offside shortly before Eriksen hit the crossbar, a second goal came in first-half stoppage time when Erik Lamela scored in fashion.
Swansea responded positively at the beginning of the 2nd half, but they could not find a way past their former goalkeeper Michel Vorm and Spurs took advantage just after the hour when Eriksen doubled his count.
All chances of a Swansea comeback was long gone as the match entered its closing stages, allowing Spurs to ease to successive FA Cup semi-final appearances for the first time since 1981-82, when they won the competition.
After a tight opening 10 minutes, the indications were it was going to take a moment of individual brilliance to break the gridlock.
That was exactly what transpired, as Eriksen surged towards the penalty area and curved a left-footed shot past Kristoffer Nordfeldt from 25 yards.
Eriksen was proving a real nuisance to Swansea and he almost doubled his tally seven minutes prior to the break, though this time his long-range, left-footed strike was tipped onto the bar by Nordfeldt.
Swansea started the second half in encouraging fashion and tested Vorm twice in quick succession the Dutchman pushing away Martin Olsson's rasping drive and parrying Tammy Abraham's header on the rebound.
That wasn't the start of a Swansea onslaught, though, as the visitors nearly added a third when Nordfeldt just about kept Eric Dier's 30-yard drive out of the top-left corner.
But Nordfeldt was arguably at fault as Spurs went 3-0 up; he managed to get a pass to Eriksen's low shot from the edge of the area but could not keep it out.
Pochettino brought up Dele Alli and Fernando Llorente from the bench late on and the Spaniard went close to scoring towards the end during a goalmouth scramble, but his inability to do so against his former team had no impact on the outcome as Spurs march on in the FA Cup.
