With six goals in his last 16 Premier League appearances, a new star is rising at White Hart Lane this season – Danish international Christian Eriksen.

The attacking midfielder was yet again at the heart of another last-gasp Tottenham win on Sunday, a 2-1 affair against Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium, epitomising the north London outfit’s new-found endurance, tenacity and most importantly, quality, under summer appointment Mauricio Pochettino by netting his second injury-time winner of the campaign.

So are we looking at Tottenham’s new talisman in the elusive, goalscoring playmaker? Or perhaps more significantly, amid speculation that his recent form has attracted interest from several ‘elite Premier League clubs’, are we looking at the next Spurs star to leave the Lane for an exceptionally lucrative transfer fee?

Tottenham fans will know what I’m referring to only too well; over the last six years, the Lilywhites have emerged as an unofficial feeder club for some of European football’s leading super powers, instigated by Dimitar Berbatov’s £31million move to Manchester United in 2008 and later followed by Luka Modric and Gareth Bale’s departures to Real Madrid, in 2012 and 2013 respectively, for a combined £120million.

Eriksen’s not quite in the category of Bale, Berbatov or Modric just yet –  partly due to an incredibly unstable 18 months at White Hart Lane that’s witnessed drastic overhauls in players and staff – but he does share some significant traits with Tottenham’s former talismans.

His capability as a match-winner for example, will provide Daniel Levy with crucial leverage when it comes to negotiating Eriksen’s eventual departure. He’s bagged two late winners already this season, against Swansea on Sunday and Hull City in November, and when combined with his deciding goal against Southampton in October, constitutes nine points from 24, Tottenham’s total after 16 games, the Danish prodigy will feel he has almost individual claim over.

One can loosely compare with the form of Gareth Bale during his coming-of-age 2012/13 campaign, a season that saw him score 21 times in the Premier League, laden with countless winning goals. The welsh wizard’s late worldly strike against West Ham for example, securing a bitter-fought 3-2 win at Upton Park, particularly comes to mind.

Not that the mental capacity to influence matches late-on is Eriksen’s only gift as a footballer. Having received his education at Ajax’s illustrious academy, the 22 year-old’s close control and quality on the ball stands out in an otherwise ordinary Tottenham squad. To describe it as El Clasico-worthy might be a little presumptuous, but the midfielder’s technical mastery gives glimpses into a future that could one day include clubs of such magnitude.

As with many young players however, Eriksen’s inconsistency is still a source of occasional frustration for the Lane support. Lacking the physical dynamism of your average Premier League footballer with a slender 5 foot 10 frame, his individual style is better described as stealthy or elusive, often resulting in him portraying the image of a playmaker who drifts in and out of games rather than control them for a full 90 minutes.

It sometimes affects his focus too; set piece duty is a huge responsibility at a club like Spurs but Eriksen’s dead ball deliveries this season, for a player of such obvious quality in such scenarios, have been on the whole disappointing.

That being said, there are few better coaches in the Premier League to oversee the midfielder’s development than Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino. Eriksen’s lapsed attitude and whether it would eventually limit his potential was rightly debated at times last season – he certainly wasn’t too acquainted with the Premier League’s added defensive responsibilities, especially when playing out wide – but he’s really bought into the more industrious side of the beautiful game under the Argentine, averaging 1.8 tackles per match this season compared to last term’s average of 0.76.

That change in mentality could well be the making of Eriksen, should he continue to combine it with proficiency in the final third. There are plenty of top-class technicians in world football and plenty of work-horses too, but those who can encapsulate both, such as Bale and Modric, are those who eventually reach the summit of their trade.

Of course, that still seems a few years off for Eriksen. He’s just 22 years of age and judging by his progress for Tottenham thus far, becoming the Premier League’s top scoring midfielder of 2014 (excluding penalties) last weekend with twelve goals, will only increase in value the longer he stays at White Hart Lane. His contract doesn’t expire for another three-and-a-half years.

But compared to the other promising young talents amongst the Tottenham squad, Paulinho, Erik Lamela, Benjamin Stambouli, Nacer Chadli and Lewis Holtby for example, all of whom were bought with the same intention as Eriksen – selling on for enormous profit – it’s the Danish international who definitively stands out as the next star likely to leave Tottenham for a higher calling.