Since taking over as Tottenham manager in 2014, Mauricio Pochettino is unbeaten at Arsenal and came close to ending his team’s 26-year winless run at Chelsea. Spurs won 2-1 at Manchester City last season and outplayed Liverpool for large parts of a 1-1 draw at Anfield.
The one stadium in which Pochettino’s Tottenham have failed to deliver, however, is the venue they visit on Sunday. At Old Trafford Spurs were dismantled 3-0 in Pochettino’s first season, before a sterile display brought a 1-0 defeat on the opening day of the 2015-16 campaign.
Pochettino will demand an improvement this weekend and his best bet to realise that aim could be the man who inspired Spurs’ last win at United, Christian Eriksen.
Eriksen was on target when Tottenham last won at Old Trafford, on New Year’s Day 2014. His 66th-minute strike was the decisive goal in a 2-1 victory. Tottenham need a similar performance from him on Sunday, and recent signs suggest that he will deliver it.
Had life turned out differently, Tottenham might have had to resist offers from United for Eriksen last summer. It is believed the Dane was a key transfer target for former United manager Louis van Gaal, whose interest stretched back more than a year.
Though he was happy at Spurs and the club were in no mood to sell, Eriksen is thought to have been aware of United’s admiration. Van Gaal believed Eriksen, 24, was the ideal man to give United the creative spark they were missing during his two-year reign.
When United finished outside the top four last season, Van Gaal was dismissed and Jose Mourinho had identified other targets. Eriksen signed a new four-year contract, worth about £70,000 per week, to stay at Spurs.
Eriksen made a slow start to the season and was even left out of the starting XI for the 2-1 defeat in Monaco last month, which sealed Tottenham’s Champions League exit. Since then, though, his form has been excellent: a goal in the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea on November 26, and man-of-the-match displays in the wins over Swansea and CSKA Moscow.
Eriksen was criticised for his lack of influence as Spurs managed a single win in 10 games during the autumn. Yet Standard Sport understands the former Ajax player was battling a hip problem for at least two months, which restricted his ability to move as he usually does.
Eriksen was keen to continue playing during that period and played down the significance of the damage, but there appears no doubt that it affected him. Because of it, Eriksen returned early from Denmark duty during the last round of international matches, missing a friendly in the Czech Republic on November 15.
It is no coincidence that now he is free of pain, Eriksen has started to sparkle again. He has three goals in his last two league matches, and four assists in total in the league. In all competitions, he has five goals and five assists.
Despite carrying the injury, Eriksen has started 13 of Spurs’ 14 matches in the Premier League. Even when out of form, he remains one of the most diligent members of the squad, leading a professional life on and off the pitch.
Earlier in the season Pochettino suggested that the lengthy contract negotiations had caused Eriksen’s form to decline. “We were always behind him, trying to help, but sometimes maybe the speculation can affect you —subconsciously — when you are negotiating your future,” he said. “Sometimes it is difficult but he was happy to stay and if the club gave him a better contract, it is because he deserved it. Christian is a very important player for us, as he has been for a few years.”
And yet, as good as he was in the last two matches, Tottenham did not buy Eriksen to help them knock over Swansea or CSKA Moscow. It was because they believed he could decide the most important matches, like Sunday’s at Old Trafford.
Eriksen has occasionally threatened to move into the “world-class” bracket, without ever quite playing well enough for long enough to achieve it. His record — 35 goals in 145 matches, as well as a regular flow of assists — is very good. Yet the best players are defined by their work in the biggest games.
By helping Spurs to victory on Sunday, Eriksen can start to make a persuasive case — as well as showing United exactly what they could have had.