The 20-year-old’s inspired performance at St Mary’s ended Spurs’ long winless run on the road.
For a player who’s supposedly having something of a quiet season, Dele Alli isn’t doing too bad on the goalscoring front. His double in Spurs’ 4-1 thrashing of Southampton at St Mary’s took him to six Premier League goals in 2016/17, coming in just 15 starts.
The 20-year-old’s South Coast brace offered a reminder of the expansive weapons within his armoury. The first, a towering header, and the second, a cool, composed one-on-one, were equally well-taken yet completely different in their execution.
And that’s without mentioning the penalty he won early in the second half. Yes, Harry Kane blazed the spot-kick into orbit but the admittedly harsh red card shown to Saints’ Nathan Redmond for apparently tripping the rampaging Alli killed the game as a contest.
In short, he was the catalyst for a first away win in eight.
As a result, Alli has now contributed to 26 goals in his first 50 Premier League appearances in Tottenham colours. For the record, that’s one more than enigmatic team-mate Christian Eriksen managed and some way in front of legends of Spurs’ recent past, Darren Anderton, David Ginola and Gus Poyet.
In fact, only Rafael Van Der Vaart scored or assisted more times in his Spurs half-century, scoring 20 and providing 12. And he arrived at White Hart Lane at the peak of his powers, a ready-made superstar from Real Madrid.
Dele Alli, meanwhile, is only just getting started.
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