Alli’s ‘dangerous’ tackle angers Guardiola
PEP GUARDIOLA called a wild tackle by Tottenham’s Dele Alli ‘dangerous’ as Manchester City made it 16 wins in a row with a 4-1 win over Spurs.
And Harry Kane was also lucky to just see yellow for a late, high lunge on Raheem Sterling.
Former Premier League referee Graham Poll accused Alli of trying to hurt Kevin de Bruyne with an X-rated challenge which left the Belgian writhing in agony.
‘Dele Alli’s was the worst one of them all. He goes over the ball and I think he is meaning to hurt him,’ said Poll, analysing the match on BT Sport. ‘That is definitely a red card.’
Guardiola was unhappy with Alli, saying: ‘It was a dangerous action.’
But the Spaniard was delighted to see City comfortably see off one of their supposed rivals and extend their lead at the top of the table to 14 points. ‘It was solid, good, against one team demanding to be intense without the ball.’ he said. ‘They have good quality, but we played really good to beat one of the strongest teams in the Premier League.’
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino had no complaints, but he insisted it would have been a different game had his side not gifted Ilkay Gundogan the opener with a free header.
‘It was our mistake,’ he said. ‘In this type of game you have to be focused and concentrate. The problem is we conceded a very poor goal — a massive present.
‘It changed completely the idea of how we play. But the better team won.’