Is Tottenham's Christian Eriksen the league's most influential creator?

Tottenham’s welcome of West Brom on Saturday afternoon could have been a banana skin of a fixture for the hosts. Spurs had failed to win their last four home league meetings with the Baggies ahead of the lunchtime clash including a stalemate that all but cost them a shot at the title. Come full time, though, the White Hart Lane hex had been broken as Tottenham ran out 4-0 winners and - in truth - it could have been more had Ben Foster not impressed between the sticks   as he made eight saves. Considering Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all struggled to get the better of West Brom on home turf this season, it makes Spurs’ trouncing of Tony Pulis’ side all the more commendable. 

Granted, the West Brom boss was unable to call on key defenders Jonny Evans and Nyom, but Spurs made light work of their Premier League opponents. Harry Kane deserved the plaudits for his hat trick to take him to 13 Premier League goals, just one behind joint-top goalscorers Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexis Sanchez and Diego Costa, but it was the performance of Christian Eriksen that again had supporters beaming. 

The Dane started the season slowly and it wasn’t until his new contract was agreed that he began to settle, yet even then Eriksen failed to churn out his best performances until late November. Since then, the 24-year-old he been unstoppable. His assist for Kane’s first on Saturday was his eighth of the season; only Kevin De Bruyne (9) has more in Europe’s top five leagues this term. Five of those eight assists have come in his last eight top flights outings. A fine strike against Chelsea in the 2-1 loss at Stamford Bridge seemed to kick the Denmark international into gear. 

Indeed, of players to make more than one appearance since November 25th 2016 - the day before Spurs travelled to west London - only Alexis Sanchez (8.17) has a better WhoScored rating than Eriksen (8.09). The Spurs man’s rating is a vast improvement from the 11 appearances leading up to the meeting with the Blues (7.02). While a traditionally slow starter to each Premier League campaign, Eriksen looks to now be in the best form of his career, with that coinciding both with Kane’s return to action and form and Mauricio Pochettino’s choice to move to a three-man defence. 

Much like with Antonio Conte’s decision to switch to a three-man backline freeing Eden Hazard from his shackles, similar has happened with Eriksen, who has been thriving behind Kane and alongside Dele Alli in a 3-4-2-1 formation. Here, Eriksen is granted the creative freedom to drift across the final third and find pockets of space to maximise his vision and distribution. It’s no wonder then that only Dimitri Payet (74) and De Bruyne (60) have made more key passes than Eriksen (59) in Europe’s top five leagues this season - 33 of those have come since November 25th, more than any other Premier League player. 

With Kyle Walker and Danny Rose making surging runs down the flanks, Eriksen is presented with an additional outlet with which to utilise his distribution as the pair routinely look to open up opponents from wide positions. The English duo are renowned for the attacking output and willingness to break forward at any given opportunity meaning the Danish attacker can feed passes into their path to help open up the pitch and stretch defences. With Kane dropping deep to win possession and pulling wide to drag players out of positions, this provides another route to goal for Spurs, be it through Eriksen or Alli when deployed behind the striker. 

Alli is a capable performer when it comes to making runs into the opposition box having scored 10 league goals this season. With that, Eriksen is able to pick out his teammate, with three of his eight assists coming for Alli, one of the better assist-to-goalscorer combinations in the Premier League. Safe in the knowledge that the imposing pair of Mousa Dembele and Victor Wanyama are shielding the defence, there is less pressure on Eriksen, Alli, Walker and Rose to carry out their defensive duties meaning they can blitz opponents as they did on Saturday. 

With Eriksen at times the deepest attacking outlet, this provides another dimension for Spurs to attack, as was noted in Gareth McAuley’s own goal at the weekend. The ball was played back to Eriksen and while his sweeping effort took a deflection off Jonas Olsson before being inadvertently turned into his own net by McAuley - a competent defender made to look a rank amateur at the weekend - and it’s a blueprint of an approach that has worked well in the past. This was evident in the 2-0 win over Chelsea earlier this month, where Eriksen held his run and waited for a pass from Walker on the edge of the 18-yard box, before he composed himself and picked out Alli to twice head past Thibaut Courtois. 

After the win over Chelsea, manager Pochettino said of Eriksen: "He's a very talented player and we're very happy with him. But he's another player that can improve. In the last few months he's improved a lot. We need to push him to try to get another level." Eriksen has evidently taken his manager’s advice on board and continues to thrive, which is little surprise considering the swap in system that benefits a player of his calibre. A WhoScored rating of 8.29 against West Brom took his average for the season to 7.51, which is now enough to feature in the Premier League team of the season. 

On current form there are few better than Eriksen in his position in the Premier League. Up next for Spurs is - on paper at least - a daunting trip to Manchester City, a fixture they secured a 2-1 victory in last season. Eriksen proved to be the difference on that day, scoring a late winner to earn a vital three points, and if he can churn out another fine performance, Spurs can land a club-record seventh successive Premier League win and maintain their chance of a first title triumph.