TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3
Alli (21, 50), Sissoko (69) BOURNEMOUTH 2 Wilson (73, 90)
Jose Mourinho was pleased to be able to let everyone else rave about Dele Alli after the Tottenham attacker’s resurgence continued in a win over Bournemouth.
Alli, whose poor form and injuries over the last few months had seen him dropped from the England squad, has rediscovered his star quality since Mourinho arrived at the club, bagging a brace against the Cherries.
Moussa Sissoko put Spurs 3-0 up, before Harry Wilson’s late double made it an uncomfortable end to the game.
Alli’s brace made it three goals in three games – as well as two assists – and he has been the figurehead of a Tottenham resurgence under the Portuguese.
Mourinho made a point of trying to reinvigorate Alli when he first arrived, teasing him about playing like his brother, and it has worked a treat.
“Dele, I don’t need to speak about,” Mourinho said.
“The best thing that can happen to a coach is when you don’t need to speak about a player because everybody speaks, all of you, fans, everybody speaks about him and speaks about him for the right reasons.
“He’s playing really, really, really well. I couldn’t ask for any more from him. He’s playing amazing, scoring goals, assisting, working, fantastic.”
Alli had struggled for much of 2019, both with injuries and a drop in form, as well as receiving some criticism about his life away from football.
Mourinho was not prepared to allow Alli’s level be so far away from his best and also moved him closer to Harry Kane on the pitch.
“I don’t know the boy much. I know the qualities of the players and that is the direction I went,” he said.
“For a player of such quality, it’s not possible that he’s not performing at a high level. OK, sometimes players are not in the best performance level, but normally with a little bit of up and down, you need to perform according to your potential,” he added.
Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe said: “We have got to defend better, but we didn’t, and we paid the ultimate price for it.
“Great effort from the lads for coming back, showing the character we needed, because it was a difficult game.”