Eriksen fills void at Lane

Tottenham Hotspur 2 Norwich City 0

The Y word — ‘Yids’ — was predictably chanted by those supporters who refused to listen to the English FA’s condemnation of it as an insult. It took just three minutes before Spurs fans, a large number of whom are Jewish, began chanting “Yid Army” followed by “We’re Tottenham Hotspur, we’ll sing what we like”.

It took considerably longer for the B-word — Bale — to be mentioned. It was the final minute of Andre Villas-Boas’s post-match press conference before a reporter brought a smile from the Portuguese coach by asking him about the Welshman, who made a scoring debut for Real Madrid on Saturday night.

AVB could afford to smile. Eriksen had made a debut of style and substance to demonstrate why Tottenham were so keen to sign the 21-year-old Dane from Ajax for what looks to be grand value at €13m.

He played a significant part in both goals from Gylffi Sigurdsson, who took over Bale’s left wing position and goalscoring mantle, as Spurs cruised to victory against a toothless Norwich side who barely had a shot on goal.

By contrast, Tottenham were brimming with attacking intent, raining shots on John Ruddy’s goal, and it took a string of fine saves from the keeper and some heroic blocks from former Spurs defender Sebastian Bassong to keep the home side at bay.

Eriksen unlocked them, though, setting up Sigurdsson with a clever pass in the 28th minute and then releasing Paulinho, the Brazilian powerhouse, to cross for the Icelander to score his second goal shortly after half-time.

Eriksen also showed he can be as influential for Spurs in the playmaker role as Mezut Ozil will be for deadly rivals Arsenal. Indeed Bassong believes the Dane is not far behind the German.

“Ozil must be one of the best No 10s worldwide, a fantastic player, and Eriksen is not far from him,” said Bassong. “He knows where to put himself, floating between the lines. As soon as he gets the ball he is a threat. He plays very simply. With his touch and vision, he sees the right pass at the right moment.”

Eriksen follows a long line of creative midfielders at Spurs, from Danny Blanchflower through to Luka Modric, with Ossie Ardiles, Glenn Hoddle and Paul Gascoigne in between. Villas-Boas missed out on his main target, Joao Moutinho of Porto, when Modric left last summer, but now he has the ideal man to unlock defences and create chances for the likes of Roberto Soldado.

“He is a brilliant player who makes everything look easy,” said Soldado. “Today he made the difference.

“It’s incredible that he has got up to this level already in his first game in English football. He will improve us.”

Villas-Boas was all smiles about the new man. “He has occupied the No 10 position all his life. He is naturally gifted to play in this position, with his creativity and vision. His ability to see forward — these are the characteristics you want as playmaker.

“We watched him live last season because we thought hard about bringing him then. For such a young age, with the experience and the potential he has, he has all the conditions to be a great player.”

Villas-Boas now has the sort of squad he believes can challenge for the title, though he does not think they can win it this season.

“We need a strong squad if we want to be up there with the elite. We paid a heavy price last year when we didn’t have the options when we had injuries in March and April. It was difficult but now we have that quality and depth.”

Tottenham’s squad are young, too, and Kyle Walker made the point that he is still learning. The England full-back had to apologise publicly after pictures were published last week of him inhaling nitrous oxide at a party in the summer, and was criticised for some of his recent performances.

“It’s all part and parcel of the job and you just have to deal with it,” he said. “What’s done is done and now I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. I think people forget that I am young. I only just turned 23 in the summer.

“I have played over 200 games now, but it’s just the start of my career and hopefully I can learn from players like Michael Dawson and others around me and maybe get up to the next level.”

Walker is also a fan of Eriksen. “He is a No 10 and we need to get him on the ball. He will always create chances and he brought an extra spark to the game today.”

Chris Hughton, who played alongside Hoddle and Ardiles in their Tottenham days, admitted his side had been outclassed, but added: “The important thing is to assess what went wrong, put this game behind us and move on to the next one.”

TOTTENHAM 4-4-1-1 Lloris 6; Walker, 6 Dawson 7, Vertonghen 8, Rose 7; Townsend 6, Paulinho 8, Dembele 7 (Lamela 82), Sigurdsson 8 (Sandro 79); Eriksen 9 (Holtby 70); Soldado 6.

NORWICH 4-4-2: Ruddy 6; Whittaker 7, Bassong 8, Turner 6, Garrido 6; Snodgrass 6, Johnson 5 (Howson 64), Fer 5, Redmond 6 (Pilkington 74); Elmander 5 (Tettey 74), Van Wolfswinkel 6.

Referee: Lee Mason.