Dele Alli has moved to make clear that he bears Raheem Sterling no ill will, on the back of the latter’s dangerous challenge on him during Tottenham’s victory over Manchester City.
Spurs secure impressive 3 points
Jose Mourinho’s men welcomed City to the English capital yesterday evening, for a Premier League clash.
The north Londoners headed into proceedings desperate for all 3 points, as the race for a top-4 berth continues to heat up.
With all of Chelsea, Manchester United and Wolves having dropped points on Saturday, Spurs were aware ahead of kick-off that a victory would have seem them move to within 4 points of a Champions League spot.
And, when all was said and done at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, this was precisely what the Lilywhites managed.
After a hard-fought opening hour, Oleksandr Zinchenko’s dismissal saw the matchup swing in the favour of the hosts.
An opener soon followed courtesy of Spurs debutant Steven Bergwijn, before Son Heung-min made sure of all 3 points for the north Londoners with a 2nd 20 minutes from time.
Highlights: Tottenham 2-0 Man City
‘We move on’
One note of concern on an otherwise positive evening for Spurs, though, came on the injury front.
A first-half challenge between Dele Alli and Raheem Sterling saw the latter follow through dangerously onto the Spurs’ midfielder’s ankle, with Alli having been left in evident pain on the turf.
Though the English international managed to carry on until 20 minutes from time, he now faces a wait to discover whether any lasting damage has been done.
The nature of Sterling’s tackle, meanwhile, saw many claim that the Man City attacker should have been given his marching orders, rather than the booking which stood following a VAR check.
Dele Alli, however, has since moved to assure that Sterling certainly did not intend to cause him any harm, and that there are ‘no hard feelings’ between the pair.
Speaking on the back of his side’s impressive win, Tottenham star Alli explained:
‘We were speaking about it at half-time and we are good friends. I know what sort of player Raheem is and he would never intentionally try to hurt someone. There are no hard feelings, he is a fantastic player and we move on.’
‘We were chatting afterwards [too], he was not in the best of moods — he is a winner, so it was difficult. We haven’t seen each other for a while so it was nice to have a catch up.’
‘I am not sure [if it deserved a red card] to be honest, I have not had a proper look back at it. It is obviously for the referee and VAR to make the decision.’
‘They didn’t give the red card. It is football and those things happen, so I know it was nothing intentional. He is not a player like that, so I understand.’
As quoted by the Evening Standard
Bergwijn turned back on almost £6m bonus to join Tottenham – Mirror
Man City to make decisions over six players heading into summer – Mirror
