It’s scant praise to say “He’s done well to weave a path there”, when Ndombele pulled off a magic trick to escape from three Aston Villa players.
Ndombele has been compared with former Spurs midfielder Mousa Dembele but they are different players: Dembele was a protector of the ball, Ndombele is an improviser. You knew what Dembele was going to do – keep the ball using immaculate technique and positional awareness – but you were powerless to stop it. With Ndombele, no one knows what he’s going to do.
Another way of putting it: Dembele played like a dad daring his kids to try and get the ball off him in the back garden, whereas Ndombele is the kid who won the ball and then did something brilliant with it.