Dele Alli Continues to Help Spurs’ Title Chances
Dele Alli’s debut season for Spurs is nothing short of spectacular. Looking closely at his statistics, there’s a good reason why Spurs are serious Premier League title contenders.
During the 2014-15 season with MK Dons at League One, Dele Alli made 44 appearances, scored 16 goals and racked up 11 assists in all competitions. That kind of production saw Dele Alli win the Football League One Young Player of the Year award and be named as a member of the PFA Football League One Team of the Year.
That brief glimpse would be a precursor of what Alli could bring to Spurs when he signed during last January’s transfer window. This term, the England international has made 32 appearances, scored seven goals and has six assists.
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Dele Alli is well on his way to quickly repeating the success that he enjoyed a year ago, but one thing that stands out is when Alli took off and helped Tottenham become legitimate Premier League title contenders.
For whatever reason, ever since Dele Alli served a one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation, and sat out against Chelsea on November 29. Spurs have seen their 19-year-old phenom record amazing statistics that can only be matched by Harry Kane this season.
Perhaps not being able to play and contribute to Tottenham’s season for one game where he was suspended, was more than enough of a motivational spark to produce five goals and five assists in 11 games.
Yes, you read that correctly and Alli’s performance data on his Transfermarkt page backs it up (at the time of this writing, Spurs’ 1-0 win over Watford hasn’t been updated, but Alli did record an assist).
Being able to come on in the second half at the 61st minute and record an assist on Kieran Trippier’s goal just three minutes after entering the game, shows the kind of impact that Dele Alli is capable of whether he’s starting or coming on as a substitute.
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Now for a team to win a league title — or at least compete for one — it’s obvious that teams need to score goals. But they also need a good to great defense to keep them from conceding goals and losing close games.
Right now, Spurs have the defense to contend for silverware, but it’s about time that their offense catches up to them. And lately that’s been the case for two months.
Whoever scores the goals doesn’t necessarily matter at this point. Although it definitely helps to have more than one proven goalscorer on your squad.
For Spurs they don’t have just one goalscorer, they have multiple goalscorers and one of them is Dele Alli. In fact, it was previously mentioned above that Alli’s goal scoring form can only be matched by that of Harry Kane’s and it’s true.
If we look at Kane’s performance data from his Transfermarkt page and look at the same amount of games following Tottenham’s 0-0 draw against Chelsea. Harry Kane has scored 7 goals and recorded an assist in 11 games.
Kane’s form may dip, but Spurs have enough firepower throughout the squad to make up for dry spells for their only true out-and-out striker. And Kieran Trippier’s goal today against Watford is proof of that.
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Dele All’s latest surge has helped Spurs continue their current assault up the Premier League table after they were making their steady climb to start the season.
Since that fateful one-game suspension for Alli (which can now be described as a blessing in disguise), and the start of December, Dele Alli and Spurs have taken their game to a whole new level by winning 63% of their games and posting a 7W-2D-2L record in 11 Premier League fixtures.
A great winning record, with two in-form goalscorers, an offense that continues to improve and a defense that continues to dominate, have overall, given Spurs their best chance to win the title at the end of this season. And it’s thanks in part to Dele Alli’s play since returning from his one-game suspension.