Comment: Tottenham Hotspur's promising character reference suggests they can get involved in Premier League title race

CHARACTER TEST: Dejan Kulusevski scored a very late winner for Tottenham Hotspur against Sheffield United

Eight games is still not much more than a form table, but it gives a bit of an indication as to who will be fighting for what as the second goes on.

And Tottenham Hotspur are top of the pile.

At the end of last season, you would have got long odds on that. Longer still if you could have guaranteed Harry Kane would no longer be at White Hart Lane, and again if you had said they would not have signed a centre-forward to take his place.

But as Manchester City stutter, Arsenal bed down new tactical plans and Liverpool a new midfield, Ange Postecoglou's side are in the shake-up.

You would not fancy them to end the season where they are now. City's wobble is probably the precursor to some Pep Guardiola masterstroke or some incredible run of form.

Liverpool and Arsenal should get better as they grow more accustomed to their new plans. And they are pretty good as it is.

But as well as the freshness and vitality of Tottenham's play, which snowballs with the support is generates, Spurs have had their mettle tested a bit too.

Surprpsingly, Sheffield United – at the other end of the table – made them sweat, 1-0 down four minutes into stoppage-time when the sides met in September. For all that Spurs were the better side, it was a game last season’s team would not have believed they could win, maybe not even draw. They won 2-1.

They rode their luck against Liverpool, as anyone who stumbled across even a bit of last week's VAR controversy knows, and it took a stoppage-time own goal from Joel Matip to get it done. But they did get it done.

When Manchester City have won the last three league titles on the trot, and become only the second team in the history of English football to do the treble, you just want a contest for this season's trophy and the more sides involved, the merrier.

With their fluent passing and high-speed attacking, Spurs look capable of joining the party. There will of course be bigger tests to come, but this is a good start.