Sunday 18 January 2015 13:55, UK
We look at the stats behind Christian Eriksen's last-gasp heroics...
Christian Eriksen snatched all three points for Tottenham with an 88th-minute winner against Sunderland on Saturday - but Gus Poyet can't say he wasn’t warned.
After all, Tottenham have now won 10 points this season with goals scored in the 88th minute or later, four more than any other side.
Eriksen himself has netted two other winners at a similar stage of a game, securing 2-1 wins at Swansea and Hull with strikes in the 89th and 90th minutes respectively.
His decisive finish against Leicester on Boxing Day came a little earlier, on 71 minutes, but had the same outcome: a 2-1 win for Spurs.
Saturday was the first time the Denmark international had achieved the feat at White Hart Lane, though, and there's no question Spurs supporters have now taken the 22-year-old to their hearts.
Recruited in the summer of 2013 from Ajax as part of the £100m splurge before Gareth Bale’s record-breaking sale to Real Madrid, Eriksen made a slow start in north London and didn't notch his first Premier League goal until Boxing Day, in a 1-1 draw with West Brom.
However, eight assists - the eighth most in the league - and seven goals proved a decent return and he picked up the Spurs player of the year prize, with his £11.5m fee looking better value than the £26m splashed on Erik Lamela (one assist and no goals last season) and £26m on Roberto Soldado (six goals last season).
But it is this season Eriksen has truly stood out, with eight goals already to his name.
"As a playmaker, I think he can be one of the best in the Premier League," said Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen, who was also Eriksen’s team-mate at Ajax. "I've played with him since he was 16 or 17, so probably for six or seven years now, and he's improving every season."
So what's the secret to Eriksen’s success? Hard work.
Despite all his flair and trickery, Eriksen has covered more ground than any other player on the pitch in 16 of his 22 Premier League matches this season (he was second only to Harry Kane against Everton).
Remarkably, that includes all of the games in which he's scored late winners.
From the opening day of the season against West Ham, when he racked up 12.52km before Eric Dier’s late, late winner, to his 12.67km effort against Sunderland, Eriksen has repeatedly put in tireless shifts for his team.
Eriksen’s highest total this term is the 12.9km he covered against Newcastle in October. It seems typical of the man that his record mark came as Spurs frantically tried to overturn a 2-1 deficit.
"He’s a very hard worker," says Vertonghen. "He’s in first (for training) and he’s on the pitch until the last minute."
Hard work combined with talent is usually a recipe for success and there’s no doubt Eriksen has plenty of the latter.
"I watched him at 17 years of age at Wembley for Denmark and I rang (chairman) Daniel Levy the day after and said that he needs to sign this boy," Tim Sherwood recalled during his time in charge at Spurs.
A three-time Eredivisie winner with Ajax, Eriksen was named Dutch football talent of the year and Ajax talent of the year in 2011, after a stellar 12 months, which included a man of the match display against England in a friendly at Wembley and a place in the U21 European Championships team of the tournament.
Plenty more accolades will no doubt come the way of the 2010 World Cup prodigy but one thing’s for sure, he’ll keep working until the final whistle to make sure he gets his rewards.
Watch Christian Eriksen and Tottenham take on Sheffield United in the Capital One Cup semi-final first leg live on Sky Sports 1 HD on Wednesday from 7.30pm
