"He came in and did exactly what we thought he could do in that 10 position," said Thomas Frank, speaking about Xavi Simons' impressive second-half cameo against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
Having started off the left wing against West Ham United and Villarreal, our summer arrival replaced Rodrigo Bentancur trailing 2-1 with just under half an hour to play at the Amex and changed the complexion of the contest from midfield in our spirited 2-2 draw in the Premier League.
After Richarlison halved the deficit shortly before half-time following earlier goals from Brighton's Yankuba Minteh and Yasin Ayari, the Dutch international's impact was almost immediate as he rifled a shot wide moments after stepping onto the pitch and continued to pull the strings in his more central role.
While he didn't directly contribute with a goal or assist, Xavi's three attempts on goal was bettered only by Richy (five) in our colours and one of those forced a smart stop from Bart Vergrubben to deny him his first Spurs goal six minutes after entering the action.
Shortly after, Lucas Bergvall stepped over Mohammed Kudus' cutback from the right which found our number seven in space but he sent his first-time shot narrowly wide much to his own frustration.
His creative abilities were also on full display, completing all six of his attempted passes in our opponent's final third, to create space for himself and his teammates and show a willingness to take the game to the home side.
Having carved open the Seagulls' defence by dribbling from deep and fashioning a chance for our number nine inside the box who shot straight at the goalkeeper 10 minutes from time, he then found Mo in space on the right flank two minutes later whose in-swinging cross was turned into his own net by Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke to ensure we came away with a point on the south coast.
Watch | How Xavi Simons provided the second-half spark on the south coast
Xavi's standout display provided the much-needed spark and was exactly what our Head Coach was after as he employed his summer signing in the advanced midfield role for the first time.
"Of course, he had a good pre-season and he played two games in Germany, but he's still coming into a team and all that," continued Thomas.
"On any other day, he'd score a goal. He got a great finish on the first one, great save from Verbruggen, and the other one, he mistimes. He could have got an assist to Richy, where Lucas takes the ball, he doesn't see him.
"I think he can play both. I think he can easily play the left winger, that can go more inside. I also think he'd have the right position to... sometimes the playmakers, they drift to the side because there's no space in the middle. So I think he can do that. But 10, obviously he can play that as well."