Dele Alli insists that the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United won’t knock Tottenham Hotspur back in their pursuit of glory.
Dele Alli has told Tottenham Hotspur’s official website that Spurs are determined to win big matches after they went down 1-0 to Manchester United on Saturday.
The 21-year-old midfielder missed a golden second-half chance for the visitors minutes before Anthony Martial snatched United three crucial points at Old Trafford.
Tottenham were not outclassed or outfought by the Red Devils, but Alli has made it clear that the team has greater ambitions than merely competing with the Premier League’s elite.
“It’s disappointing when you come to a place like this, you play well and you are hoping for a win or at least a draw,” Alli told Tottenham’s official website. “We felt we should have won really and to go to United and think you should have won shows where we are as a team.
“We don’t just want to compete, we want to win and as a team, we’re frustrated but now we have two big games coming up, Real Madrid and Palace so it’s important we learn from this, work on what’s gone wrong and keep building as a team because we’re still in a fantastic position and we’ve been in good form, so we can’t let this knock us back.”
It was Tottenham’s first league defeat since losing to Chelsea in August and left them eight points adrift of pacesetters Manchester City at the top of the standings.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side have only lost one league game to a team outside of the top six since May 2016 – a 1-0 home reverse to West Ham United last May.
But their record against potential title rivals is less impressive – four wins out of the last 11 matches – and that is something that must improve if Spurs want to transition into winners.
And Alli’s reaction to the United defeat suggests that Spurs know that.
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