“Bizarre thing to write” – Some Spurs fans react to Eriksen is arrogant claim

Some Tottenham Hotspur fans have taken to social media to defend midfielder Christian Eriksen after football journalist Martin Samuel labeled the Dane as arrogant.

Samuel made the ridiculous claim in his column in the Daily Mail in a piece in relation to Kieran Trippier’s superb free-kick against Fulham at the weekend.

The England international recreated his set-piece form from the World Cup, where he scored a stunner against Croatia and followed it up at Wembley to score the matchwinner against the Premier League newcomers.

Samuel referenced the fact that Spurs had not scored a direct free-kick since October 2015, when Eriksen found the back of the net in an away match at Swansea City and decided to criticise our regular free-kick taker.

He said in his column: “It was October 4, 2015, when Tottenham last scored a goal from a direct free-kick in the Premier League; two in the same game, in fact, both taken by Christian Eriksen.

“That means it is close to three years since Eriksen last did his job from a dead-ball shooting position. Yet when Tottenham got a free-kick within range against Fulham on Saturday, he still insisted on taking it, ushering Kieran Trippier aside.

“Eriksen missed, twice. Later in the game, when Trippier finally got over the ball in a similar position, he scored.

“Tottenham are the last club one would single out for not affording English players opportunities, but does this not sum up the way homegrown players are viewed?

“Trippier proved an excellent free-kick taker for England at the World Cup, but Eriksen was not demoted and too arrogant to step away. Imagine it the other way around.

“If an English player had missed consistently for close on three years — including 16 times last season — and the club had a superb, foreign, dead-ball specialist on the staff, the lad from Bury would be told in no uncertain terms who the new taker was. Why didn’t the same apply?”

Tottenham fans have questioned Samuel’s logic in his description of Eriksen and have moved to defend the player.