Tottenham were running out of time and ideas against Aston Villa. Then they brought on Christian Eriksen

As the clouds over north London began to darken late on Saturday afternoon, Tottenham continued to trail newly promoted Aston Villa in their opening match of the season. It was all going wrong. They looked susceptible to the counter-attack. Record-signing Tanguy Ndombele was chasing shadows. And — most concerning of all — Harry Kane had spurned two fine chances. The kind he would usually score with one eye closed.

Then Christian Eriksen came on and everything changed.

He did not score any of the three goals that ended Villa’s hopes of an early season upset. He did not directly assist any of them, either. But, with Eriksen on the pitch, Spurs created more chances and had more shots on goal than they had managed all game. As Villa’s tiring defence began to drop perilously deep, he set to work: gliding into the large swathes of green before him and picking his passes with an easy finesse.

His influence on the game should not be measured in the key statistics but in the shadows and half-spaces. Until his long-awaited arrival, precisely nineteen minutes into the second-half, Spurs were a mess. For all their possession they lacked poise and control in the final third, with a frustrated Kane charging backwards in demand of the ball and the waifish Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura offering little either side of the panicked Ndombele and Moussa Sissoko, who repeatedly hared forward only to fluff their lines in the final third.

Eriksen — in one glorious cameo — helped to change all of that. Not that it initially seemed as though he would. Left out by Mauricio Pochettino due to speculation over his future, he was given a muted reception when he first began warming up on the touchline. Eriksen’s perceived inability to beat the first man with his corners has become something of a running joke among Tottenham supporters: this time, there appeared to be an extra edge to the howls of derision when his first set-piece was confidently headed away by Neil Taylor, opportunistically stationed by the near post.

But Eriksen overcame his critics in the best and simplest way possible: by letting his football do the talking.

That hasn’t always been possible this summer. Not since the start of June, when an interview with the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet would ensure his future would become a hot topic of discussion until the end of the transfer window. “I feel that I am at the stage of my career where I would like to try something new,” he said. It was a juicy soundbite that revived far greater attention than the following sentence of the same interview: “I have the deepest of respect for everything that is happening at Tottenham and it would not be something negative to stay.”

Back then, it seemed destined as though Eriksen would be one of the big winners of this summer’s window. It hasn’t quite worked out like that. A much-rumoured move to Real Madrid failed to materialise, following their £88.5m acquisition of Chelsea’s Eden Hazard. Late — and genuine — interest from Manchester United did not result in a bid. Now, he faces something of an awkward choice even if he does hold all of the cards: remain at Tottenham before leaving next summer on a lucrative free transfer or find another club.

Given his predicament, his match-winning performance against Aston Villa could not have come at a better time. The mood music coming out of Spurs in the final few days of the transfer window has been fairly stark. Sources close to the dressing room say that Mauricio Pochettino — who has made no secret about his longstanding reservation at retaining players in the final year of their contract — was and is ready to sell Eriksen. That erosion of trust led to Eriksen’s representatives seriously considering a move to Old Trafford, despite the players’ earlier insistence that his desire to leave Tottenham was fuelled primarily by his wish to experience life in another European country, particularly Spain.

In both the short and long-term, Madrid remains his most likely destination. Should the offer of a new contract go unsigned, Spurs would rather he moves to Atletico this window, so that they can recoup at least some of the £145m they have outlaid on new signings this summer. Eriksen however prefers a move to Real and is willing to wait a year before leaving Tottenham on a free transfer.

How far such a decision will strain relations at his current club remains to be seen.

This is uncharted territory under Pochettino at Tottenham. It is even uncharted territory under Daniel Levy at Tottenham — who has been at the club since 2001. Under his stewardship, Spurs have been extremely careful to retain control over their players’ contract situations, never allowing their stars to have the upper hand in negotiations with the club. That changes with Eriksen, who is yet to sign an extension to the four-year deal worth £70,000 per week he signed in September 2016. Most of the clubs interested in signing him would happily quadruple that figure.

But — on a performance level — retaining Eriksen for one more season would be no bad thing, as Saturday’s match demonstrated. True: Tottenham hope new loan signing Giovani Lo Celso will develop into Eriksen’s long-term successor, but it would be foolish to expect the 23-year-old to immediately match his level. Eriksen has been Tottenham’s most influential player ever since Pochettino arrived in 2014. Lose him and there is no quick fix.

Instead, his match-saving cameo demonstrated the potential folly of Pochettino’s churlishness. Not for the first time, decisions taken at an executive level have made his job more challenging. That is not his fault. But to exclude Eriksen from his starting XI — or to rush him out of the door this summer — only weakens his team. Eriksen remains one of his best, most vital players. Even if that is poised to change.