Yes and what did he do after that?, A nice bit of trickery is our own half of the pitch while Palace have flooded the middle.
You do realise Modric, Xavi etc are world class players who have been playing at the top level for a while don't you?
For Bentaleb to make as many successful passes as he did whilst playing in the middle of the park in the premiership shows he has good movement to receive the ball in the first place, and the ability to find others. Ball retention must not be underrated, besides the pass map shows that his passes were most certainly not all backwards or completely sideways. Give him some time before you expect highlight reel lofted through balls man.