Even on an off day, Eriksen Bees’ inspiration

THeY say the sign of true champions is winning even when you are not playing well. The same can be attributed to individuals. Christian eriksen’s performance for Brentford against southampton on saturday was labelled ‘average’ by his own manager, the Dane far from his industrious best. Yet even though he failed to hit the heights of some of his recent virtuoso performances, he was still at the heart of all that went right for his side against the struggling saints. It was his pinpoint corner that found the chest of Ivan Toney after 13 minutes, the striker able to bring the ball down and tee up Pontus Jansson for the opener. It was his surging run a minute later that was halted by Mohammed salisu’s foul, only for referee Michael salisbury to play advantage and allow Yoane wissa to make it two. It is the kind of influence that has seen the 30-year-old linked with Manchester United and even a return to Tottenham. His short-term deal comes to an end this summer and interest is understandably mounting. Captain Jansson and those at Brentford are still hopeful eriksen can be persuaded to stay put. ‘He has made a huge difference with what he has done in the last three months, it’s been unbelievable,’ said the Bees skipper. ‘Hopefully he stays. He is a world-class player. ‘He would start most games for any club he went to because he is one of the best players in the Premier League. Of course we want him to continue to play for us.’ How southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl must miss that feeling of being wanted. The saints manager was subjected to chants of ‘sacked in the morning’ from his own fans in the 83rd minute. a run of one win in 10 games has cranked up the pressure on the austrian. ‘we were really poor,’ said stuart armstrong. ‘apologies to the fans, it must have been a hard watch. The good form seems a long time ago now.’