Imagine getting bottled in one of the biggest derbies in world football and having the stones to respond like that.
The temerity to give it back to the sad, disgruntled muppet in the Emirates crowd.
Dele Alli reminded us all last night that not only is he the Premier League’s king of rustling, but that he’s the man for the biggest occasions too.
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He lives for these encounters. Inject them into his veins, his face, his eyeballs.
Alli’s penchant for the provocative means he’s always like to get under the skin and naturally, as a result, he’s got more than a few doubters.
But anyone would envy his record when the stakes are at their highest.
In his breakthrough year in 2016, Alli scored against Man United and Man City.
A year later he upped the ante, bagging against Chelsea twice, City, Chelsea again, Arsenal, Liverpool and Real Madrid… twice.
So far in 2018 he’s backed up scoring in the World Cup quarter-final by ending Spurs’ Stamford Bridge curse and rubbing it in Arsenal’s faces last night.
That’s a pretty glittering portfolio.
One goal, one assist, one Man of the Match award and one display of pure s***housery; Alli’s performance against the Gunners ticked all his boxes.
An ‘impudent dink’ is usually only reserved for the sauciest of finishes, but this was so impudent and dinky that even Lionel Messi would gaze on in awe.
Alli now has 75 career goals at just 22-years-old.
It’s very, very easy to forget how young he still is, that Jesse Lingard is nearly four years his senior.
He’s still learning and developing under the tutelage of one of the most progressive young managers in the game.
Off the field Alli is the face of boohooMAN and a viral phenomenon.
But on it he keeps delivering, justifying his spiky nature with decisive moments when they really matter.
His haters can try their best, but Alli will have the last laugh.
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