Bruno Fernandes shows Tottenham what they are missing with dazzling display

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Christian Eriksen struggled as Tottenham Hotspur slumped to defeat against Newcastle United but would Bruno Fernandes have made the difference?

80 per cent possession and 17 shots to eight; with statistics like this, who would have thought that the only goal in Sunday’s Premier League clash between Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United would be scored by one of Steve Bruce’s much-maligned Magpies?

Joelinton’s first strike in English football set Newcastle on their way to the season’s most eye-catching, coupon-busting result so far, winning 1-0 away at the Champions League finalists. And Tottenham only have themselves to blame.

Newcastle were much improved from that collapse away at Norwich eight days earlier of course, with Paul Dummett and Jamaal Lascelles producing heroic performances with their backs to the wall, but Spurs could, and perhaps should, have won comfortably.

A lack of cutting edge and end product meant Mauricio Pochettino’s side failed to turn their dominance into anything tangible however, and Spurs fans were given a worrying look into a future without Christian Eriksen, the Danish play-maker who was left on the bench.

To make a galling defeat even more frustrating, the man who was apparently lined up to replace Eriksen in North London produced a performance full of quality and class on the very same day.

According to the Mail, Bruno Fernandes was desperate to join Tottenham before the window shut, although Sporting Lisbon’s £64 million price-tag appeared to put off a club who continue to spend within their means.

But Fernandes was never going to throw his toys out of the pram. The Nations League winner has picked up where he left off at the start of 2019/20 and provided not one, not two, but three assists to fire Sporting past Portimonense on Sunday.

If the first two were simple slide-rule passes, the third, a glorious floated cross which set up the goal on a garnished plate for Raphinha, was a moment of quality straight out of the Eriksen playbook.

And the irony won’t be lost on Spurs fans. Who knows whether Fernandes would have made the difference and carved apart Newcastle’s iron-clad defence? But his pinpoint passes and innate vision would have certainly made a comeback far more likely.