LEDLEY King has played down the significance of Sunday s victory, arguing that Tottenham have to win against the league's lesser sides to truly confirm their progression. Spurs' victory over Liverpool was the Lilywhites' first opening-day win...

By Ben Pearce

LEDLEY King has played down the significance of Sunday's victory, arguing that Tottenham have to win against the league's lesser sides to truly confirm their progression.

Spurs' victory over Liverpool was the Lilywhites' first opening-day win since 2005, but King points out that, so far, very little has changed from last season.

"We managed to beat Liverpool at home last season and we came out well against the top sides, so in a way it's not a surprise that we won at the weekend," he said.

"It's the other games that we've been slipping up in - ones where teams have been looking at us thinking we're the favourites to win. They're the games we haven't been winning, but we have to get that right this season."

Tottenham fans may have been eagerly awaiting Sunday's kick-off during the summer, but King admits the Spurs squad have been looking forward to this week for a lot longer.

In fact, they have been counting down the months ever since the second half of last season, dying for the chance of a restart after a disastrous opening left them playing catch-up for the whole of the last campaign.

"The way we were playing towards the end of last season, we were really looking forward to the start of this one, and you could see we were up for it on Sunday," said King.

"The players were looking forward to this season, for the manager to have a start to a full season, to really get to work with us, and we're really looking to kick on this season.

"We've had a good nine months or so with Harry so we can kind of see where we're going, in what direction and what kind of team we want to be. It was important that we started off right. We realised how difficult we made it for ourselves last season."

And King has paid tribute to two of Sunday's heroes, matchwinner Sebastien Bassong and midfield powerhouse Wilson Palacios.

"Sebastien was brilliant," he added. "To be honest we've only been on the training pitch two or three times - obviously that's because of me - but I played 45 minutes with him against Olympiakos and he did really well, and on Sunday he was even better - he was magnificent.

"Wilson's the type of player this club has been looking for for a long time. He's all action, he wins the ball but he's great with the ball as well. He's great for a defender and he does a lot of hard work.