Harry Redknapp celebrated his return to Fratton Park with a win that kept old club Portsmouth bottom of the table.
The home fans' reception for Redknapp was in reality mild, but the opening exchanges were highly charged.
Ledley King headed Spurs ahead from a Niko Kranjcar corner before Jermain Defoe volleyed in their second.
Kevin-Prince Boateng pulled one back moments before Defoe saw red for stamping, but Spurs held on and Pompey had Michael Brown sent off at the end.
Aruna Dindane had a golden first-half opportunity to put Pompey ahead but ballooned over an open goal inside the six-yard box.
Both match-day squads featured three players who had played for the opposition in recent times, Defoe, Kranjcar and substitute Peter Crouch for Spurs, and Brown, Boateng and Younes Kaboul for Portsmouth.
Striker Defoe, fit after missing England's final World Cup qualifiers, was in the thick of the action from the outset.
He was spoken to by referee Phil Dowd in the first few seconds after a heated exchange of views with former Spurs player Brown.
The lively Defoe then burst through but England keeper David James saved his low shot comfortably.
He was in on goal again after a neat through ball from Tom Huddlestone, but the fierce low drive came back off the post with James beaten.
Portsmouth, with only one league win so far and unsettled by recent changes of ownership, showed plenty of endeavour, with the spirited Boateng at the heart of most of their attacks.
Dindane is likely to see his glaring miss repeated several times on calamity-based football compilations, while Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes, who has endured some calamities of his own, produced some magical saves, most notably an acrobatic one-handed tip over while diving in the opposite direction after Boateng's free-kick was sharply deflected.
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