'It should be a good Christmas' - Eriksen grateful to get Burnley winner

Christian Eriksen was a relieved man after coming off the bench to net the winner as Tottenham edged past Burnley to stay in touch in the Premier League title race.

The north Londoners barely threatened throughout the 90 minutes at a wet Wembley in a hangover from their Champions League draw at Barcelona in mid-week which saw them progress to the knockout round of the competition.

Mauricio Pochettino brought on Son Heung-Min and Eriksen for the closing stages and the move paid dividends when the Denmark international thrashed past Joe Hart from Harry Kane's lay-off.

Victory closes the gap to leaders and defending champions Manchester City to just five points and keeps them on the coattails of Liverpool ahead of the visit of Manchester United to Anfield.

"The games are so close to each other if you drop any points to lose ground getting to first place so getting in a flow like we are now feeds confidence," said the 26-year-old attacker. 

""It should be a good Christmas I hope. 

"We try to win every game, it is not only around at Christmas we want to win all the time. 

"We are in a good situation, we have a lot more points than we had before and feel confident going into any game. 

"We had to wait a long time on a cold day like this."

Under Pochettino, Spurs often leave their best form of the campaign for the hectic festive period, averaging more points per game around Christmas than they do over the course of the season. 

Eriksen has not always been assured of a starting place in the Tottenham first team this term, beginning just nine of their 17 top flight fixtures as injuries have taken a toll on his campaign.

Though his omission against Burnley came after playing 90 minutes in a fine 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou, he was delighted to contribute off the bench.

He added: "Every time you come on you want to make a difference particularly in a game like this when it is 0-0 for a long time. 

"To score in extra time was nice and a good feeling.

"Any goal it doesn't matter if it is your first or number 20, when you score a goal like this to win the there points is always important and it is nice to score."

As Pochettino shuffled his pack he gave a full Premier League debut to midfielder Oliver Skipp, who had made just two previous senior outings against West Ham United in the Carabao Cup and Southampton in the top flight.

At 18 years and 90 days he became the youngster Tottenham starter in the Premier League since Gareth Bale and Eriksen couldn't help but be impressed.

"He has come up out of nowhere in training and pre-season and since then he has been with us every day, learning," he explained.

He is not scared of anything, he made the first mistake in the game but he didn’t make one after, it show his character and he's a good boy."