Tottenham Hotspur star Dele Alli was one man who didn’t have a good night on Tuesday evening as we welcomed Ajax to the new White Hart Lane Stadium for the first leg of the Champions League Semi-Final double header.
We don’t necessarily need to go over old ground in terms of the basics. Poor first half, better second half, Jan Vertonghen worry, lost 1-0.
There’s no denying that even allowing for the improvement in our play once Moussa Sissoko came onto the pitch, with so many key players out, it was really all eyes to Alli and Christian Eriksen in particular for that moment of genius to take us to victory, and it was lacking from both.
In 62 touches according to statistics website Whoscored the usually reliable Eriksen managed one shot (off target) and only two key passes on the creativity front. Alli was slightly better with three shots (the most from a single player and our only effort on target across the 90 minutes) and he had one key pass, but he only mustered 48 touches.
As we turn our attentions fully to Saturday’s clash with Bournemouth, with so much still up for grabs, let’s hope we don’t see this face again.
So near, yet so far but those are the margins the game is built on.