UK Edition
Why under-appreciated Christian Eriksen is the creative equal of any player in the Premier League
After he scored at Everton, Christian Eriksen jogged towards the away fans and looked almost unsure what he should do with himself. There was no milking the applause, just a shy turn away.
Eriksen often looks uneasy when the spotlight falls on him, his interviews are as short and sharp as his passing.
Off the pitch he is about as low-profile as modern footballers come. On it, Christian Eriksen is forcing the world to notice that he is one of the game's best creators.
Individually he has had an incredible 2017. No other player in Europe's top five leagues has more assists than his 12.
He has also created more chances than any one else this calendar year. De Bruyne, Mesut Ozil, Lionel Messi and David Silva are all in the top 10 but trail Tottenham's Dane.
A master of the art of finding pockets of space between the lines, Eriksen is given the freedom of the pitch whichever formation Mauricio Pochettino opts for. Nominally he might be a wide midfielder or forward, but he constantly floats in-field to find space, making him difficult to track for opposing wide players who are reluctant to follow him into the centre of the pitch.
He was marked out of the Chelsea game at Wembley last month by a extraordinarily disciplined David Luiz, after Eriksen terrorised the same opposition in their meeting at White Hart Lane last season. Then, Eriksen was the architect for two identical Dele Alli goals in a 2-0 win, both times picking up an inside-right position before curling an inch-perfect ball to the far post and onto his arriving team-mate's head.
What the more recent of the Chelsea matches highlighted was quite how integral Eriksen now is to Tottenham's attacking play and, crucially, how Harry Kane's supply line is suffocated if you take the Dane out of the game.
Indeed, since the start of last season, Eriksen has been involved in the passing sequence immediately preceding a shot in open play on 290 occasions; that's 26 more than any other player.
Despite Spurs's struggles so far Eriksen still tops this season's version of the chart above. He has been involved in the creation of 43 chances, six more than David Silva in second and eight ahead of Sergio Aguero.
A failure to sign an alternative to Eriksen during the summer always looked like it could harm Spurs's chances of ending their now nine-year trophy drought, and after slipping up against Chelsea, Burnley and Swansea, Pochettino's men have now dropped more points at home than they did in the entirety of 2016/17.
They have become accustomed to relying on Eriksen for creativity, and so far he has proven up to the task. He should now be regarded as among the best No. 10s on the planet alongside Premier League rivals Kevin De Bruyne and Philippe Coutinho.
Whether he can carry the creative burden for Spurs for another season, or at least until January when they can dip into the market, remains to be seen.
While it is Kane and Alli that dominate the limelight and receive more plaudits than anyone else at Tottenham, the route to glory goes through Christian Eriksen.