Dele Alli earned rave reviews for Tottenham form last season but is he resting on his laurels as Spurs dip?
The tackle on Kevin De Bruyne’s ankle at the weekend was reckless and dangerous and deserved a red card
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DELE ALLI has received plenty of plaudits over the last two years — and rightly so. He was particularly good last season as Mauricio Pochettino’s exciting young side finishing runners- up to champions Chelsea.
On the back of that, I started to see Dele splashed across magazines and on the small screen promoting a TV company.
He was the face of a new breed of young England players that were threatening to stand alongside their foreign counterparts in the Premier League. Dele was proving good young English talent can make its way to the top.
Unfortunately, the player seems to be now resting on the laurels of that praise and the exposure that came with his good form. It is very easy when you are a young player to get carried away with all the adulation.
You then forget what it was that earned you that in the first place — hard work and focus. Now I do not purport to know Dele well and, yes, he is only 21 years old.
But what I see is another young English player falling short of the hype. On Saturday at the Etihad, when he really needed to step up, he let his team down and should have been sent off.
Playing at the top of a diamond, in behind Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son he had a crucial role. But he completely lost his head and his already suspect temperament came to the fore again.
The spite with which he crunched his studs into Kevin De Bruyne’s ankle in a reckless and dangerous challenge deserved a dismissal.
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Because he got a yellow card from referee Craig Pawson rather than the straight red it deserved, no further action will be taken.
Thankfully, De Bruyne was quickly able to get up from that challenge and deliver vengeance in the best way possible with a searing run and thumping finish.
That moment typified a superb City on the day — in the same way Dele’s rag-tag display typified Spurs. He could take a leaf out of Raheem Sterling’s book.
Offered a swap, you would have taken Dele over Sterling this time last year. Sterling was getting headlines for things off the pitch and, on it, things were not happening for him.
He has responded by knuckling down, listening to one of the best coaches in the game and the results have been fantastic for him and City.
Kane, for me, is the only player at Spurs maintaining the very high standards he set himself last season. Yet he, too, could have got his marching orders on Saturday.
Much has been said about Manchester United’s negative approach against City the previous weekend. They very nearly nicked a point, however.
If anything they were sensible in their approach against a superior side. As were Huddersfield and Southampton,who both also nearly got a point.
Spurs tried to take City on, tried to press them high up the pitch and constantly got picked off and just lost their heads.
The game was stark evidence of how far in different directions these two teams have gone in such a short space of time.
Spurs finished eight points ahead of City last season, they are now 21 behind them.
For all the praise Pochettino has had, he has won only one of 18 away games against the teams that finished in last season’s top six.
Evidence enough his side are just not good enough to win the title.
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As they moved out of White Hart Lane last season and looked to the future all seemed to be pointing in the right direction on and off the pitch.
Yes, they have suffered from key absences — not least that of Toby Alderweireld. It is also difficult to keep up with the spending power of the two Manchester clubs.
But that was the case last season as well and I don’t buy into this Wembley excuse. There was a time teams did their best to get there not whinge about being there.
I cannot help feeling Spurs are in danger of really missing a moment in time.
This team maybe has two or three more years to win something. It could start breaking up before that, particularly if they fail to make the top four this term.
As they aim to move into their new stadium, next season Champions League football is a must.
Their form in that competition has been a major plus point this season as they topped a group featuring Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.
They beat Real at home and drew away. But you don’t rest on those results, you kick on — and they haven’t.
They need to find themselves again, or they will go back to being just Tottenham once more.