Christian Eriksen masterclass

Type ‘Christian Eriksen free-kicks’ into your internet search engine and you will not be disappointed.

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The Tottenham Hotspur playmaker’s set-piece highlights include this pre-season’s eye-catcher against Celtic, two for Ajax in a friendly versus Dynamo Dresden in 2013, and, that same year, a beautiful strike for Denmark past Poland, and Arsenal, goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Eriksen also rattled Queens Park Rangers' woodwork last weekend but that is to name just a few brilliant free-kicks in what is still the early stages of a 22-year-old’s career. It is a reason why Liverpool will be wary of the threat ahead of kick-off at White Hart Lane, live on Sky Sports 1HD, on Sunday lunchtime.

Former Ajax star Eriksen, arguably Tottenham’s most successful arrival to date from the cache of players signed last summer with the Gareth Bale profits, possesses a technique which looks close to flawless.

Perfectly balanced, whipped with accuracy and almost impossible to predict; in short, the £11million man is a master of his free-kick art.

Yaya Toure’s phenomenal set-piece conversion rate of four goals from seven attempts was the 2013/14 Premier League benchmark and, in comparison, Eriksen’s one goal from 13 efforts looks a little shabby.

However, that would be doing an injustice to the aesthetics of Eriksen’s conversion against West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day 2013. It should also not be forgotten that the Dane scored additional free-kicks versus Benfica and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in last season’s Europa League.

I used to practise free-kicks with my weaker foot a long time ago but not anymore. Now I concentrate on making my stronger foot better, because free-kicks are important situations in the game

So what is the secret to Eriksen’s free-kick success? We spoke to the man himself at the announcement of EA SPORTS' partnership extension with the Premier League.

“You have to look at the goalkeeper to see where he is standing and maybe try and put a trap for him or do something else that he is not expecting,” he exclusively told Sky Sports.

“The position of the goalkeeper has an impact on how hard you hit the ball and the placement.

“If he is standing in the middle of the goal, you have two options of which corner to shoot at. If he is standing to one side of the goal, it is best to aim at the other corner.

“Once you have a good understanding of what the goalkeeper is doing, you next have to look at the wall. Then you can make that decision of which corner you are going to shoot at.”

Free-kicks, though, are not just an individual process. Managers and squads spend large portions of time devising routines to fool their opponents. Some can be ingenious and others fail miserably but it shows creativity.

And Eriksen explained that his team-mates and rehearsed routines are a part of his thinking at set-pieces.

“It depends on how far you are from the goal for whether you look at the position of your team-mates,” he said.

“If you can shoot, you will probably shoot. But if the position of the free-kick is further away from the goal, or if you have a good idea with your team-mates, you can try something different.”

The amount of effort Eriksen devotes to constantly developing his free-kick ability should also not be underestimated.

Schooled at Ajax’s famed academy during his teens, the Scandinavian has been brought up with the correct principles and regula