Scouting Tottenham Hotspur's Rising Star Marcus Edwards

Tottenham Hotspur's senior side were unable to beat Arsenal in the north London rivals' meeting at White Hart Lane on Saturday. One group among the club's junior ranks can count a recent win over the Gunners, however.

Tottenham's under-18 side beat Arsenal 4-0 in late February. Goals from Samuel Shashoua and Ryan Loft sandwiched a double from Marcus Edwards (video below)—a rising star of English football already finding his name among the headlines.

The latest mentions of the clever attacking midfielder's name relate to a Spurs future that is a little up in the air right now.

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The Guardian's David Hytner last week reported Edwards, 17, and his would-be employers are in a "stand-off" over his professional contract. Not signing him to a new deal could leave him open to being snatched/tempted away in 2017.

The Tottenham Academy Twitter page—an unofficial but detailed tracker of youth-team goings-on at the club—is more confident about his Spurs status.

Such public talk about highly rated young prospects is unavoidable nowadays.

Another Spurs-academy-tutored attacking midfielder, Alex Pritchard—currently struggling for minutes on loan at West Bromwich Albion—was the subject of scuttlebutt back in 2012. Back then it was the Daily Star's Adrian Kajumba touting interest from Barcelona and Real Madrid after the then-teenager's eye-catching displays in the now-defunct NextGen Series.

Successive new contracts in the last two years ended that talk. Spurs moving to confirm his future as his stock rose further with loan spells at Swindon Town and Brentford.

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Edwards' contract situation may soon be clarified, too, following club-mates like Shayon Harrison and Kyle Walker-Peters in establishing a path of progress to first-team contention (all being well anyway).

So why is the youngster worth Spurs tying him down to a deal then?

The aforementioned brace against Arsenal were two of eight goals scored by Edwards in 20 under-18 appearances so far this campaign. Promoted to that age-category last season, he is their third top scorer behind Loft and Kazaiah Sterling—goal tallies confirmed via YouthHawk.

He has also been involved in the group's participation in extra-curricular competitions like January's Copa Chivas in Mexico, and he recently made his second under-21s appearance as a substitute against Reading. The teenager made the pass that allowed Joe Pritchard to set up Will Miller for Spurs' equaliser in the 1-1 draw.

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Speaking to Tottenham's official website after the Arsenal game, coach Kieran McKenna talked about his side pursuing a balance between defence and attack that allows room for individual expression. It is an ideal that has given a creative-minded player like Edwards licence to develop.

At first glance, his small stature and rapid gait brings to mind someone like former Spur Aaron Lennon.

You do not need to watch him much longer to realise, stylistically, he is a more expansive performer (albeit we are obviously talking in different parameters to the high level Lennon has performed in for over a decade). He is a centrally stationed playmaker who relishes pulling the attacking strings for his side.

The above highlights package of England's under-17 European Championships qualifying 4-1 win over Cyprus in October 2014 provides a couple of nice examples of his assured manner delivering a final product.

His assist for Layton Ndukwu to make it two-nil sees him hold off an opponent before making a perfectly weighted, close-range through ball. Edwards later scores England's fourth, calmly controlling a cross before improving his angle and firing coolly past the goalkeeper.

As the earlier-mentioned scoring tally noted, that finishing has been seen at Spurs, too. Against Arsenal, a deflected free-kick was followed up by him cutting inside and placing one in the bottom corner. In February's 4-3 win over West Bromwich Albion he worked a half-yard before firing underneath the goalkeeper (video via above).

Underpinning and facilitating all this is an intuitive dribbling ability and understanding of conducive attacking routes that ensures he is not easily contained. Football's version of one-on-one combat is where he thrives. "I smile in my head when I see the ball coming to me—I get excited."

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"I’ve been doing it from a young age, I love attacking defenders," he told the Football Association website's Gary Stonehouse back in August 2014. "I like to believe that I possess flair, I’m exciting and skillful, so when that ball comes to me I couldn’t be happier."

At the U17 European Championships in Bulgaria, which the win over Cyprus helped England qualify for, Edwards was among their most dangerous players. When the ball came through him, they came to life.

Edwards' second goal of the tournament (see here, via UEFA.com)—a first-place-sealing strike vs. Ireland in Group D—was a moment of improvisational brilliance. Blocked from going left, he turned back inside and arrowed one into the top corner. He had been kept quiet at times but was without doubt his side's best performer, inventively finding ways through the lines as he searched for team-mates to link up with.

"He obviously saw the picture in his head, technically delivered it and I'm delighted as it got us the win I thought we deserved," then-manager John Peacock said of the match-winner to the FA's Stonehouse.

England lost at the quarter-final stage to Russia, and there would be more frustration for Edwards at last autumn's U17 World Cup in Chile.

In the Group B opener against Guinea (above) he won a penalty speeding in from the right flank but saw his spot-kick saved. Again, though, plenty of England's better attacking work involved him.

The following 1-0 loss to Brazil was a more frustrating affair for the sparsely involved Edwards, and he was substituted after 71 minutes (a couple of brief glimpses can be seen in the below video). He was dropped for what proved England's final group game against South Korea.

New England U21 boss Neil Dewsnip proved a less understanding interpreter of Edwards's talent than Peacock or his Tottenham coach McKenna.

The obvious trust in this skillful and smart operator at Spurs should give him ample opportunity to develop. The tests to come will be in whether Edwards can continue to implement his game at increasingly tougher levels as freely as he has been able to thus far.