Richarlison double gives Tottenham winning start against Marseille

There was the obligatory pre-match footage of Lucas Moura’s winner at Ajax and then the declaration on the big screen at Tottenham’s magnificent stadium, one that is built to stage these kind of Champions League nights. “We’re back.”

For so long, it appeared that the grand return after a two-season absence would fall flat, even when Marseille were reduced to ten men in the 47th minute following Chancel Mbemba’s last-man foul on Son Heung-min. It was a dreadful misjudgment by the former Newcastle centre-half. Spurs were labouring sorely to create against the Ligue 1 runners-up from last season.

Enter Richarlison. The £50m summer signing from Everton had not previously found the net for Spurs but he changed all that with a devastating one-two punch late on. Both of the goals were headers, marked by thumping power, and the home crowd could reflect that all was well when it ended like this.

Marseille had been dogged but when Ivan Perisic shaped a cross from the left and Richarlison started to drift into a seam of space, they switched off. The second one was even more devastating, Richarlison getting the better of Samuel Gigot to crash home from Pierre-Emile Højbjerg’s cross and Spurs were firmly up and running.

Tottenham’s previous Champions League tie had been the last-16 second-leg defeat at RB Leipzig in March 2020. It was a dispiriting night, with José Mourinho’s injury-hit team always feeling destined to go out, and there was a stark contrast in the pre-match optimism here, the surge of noise and energy at kick-off time.

Antonio Conte was not supposed to have returned Spurs to Europe’s elite competition, not after taking over last November with the team struggling following Nuno Espírito Santo’s tenure and ninth in the