The “competitive animal” in Dele Alli has a quality “that you cannot buy in the supermarket” according to Mauricio Pochettino, who praised his attacker’s capacity for big-game performances, after a glorious goal to seal a 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur win away to Arsenal in the League Cup quarter-finals.
The England international was also struck by a plastic battle from the home crowd, and while Pochettino said he expected Arsenal to “take responsibility for that”, it should not overshadow what was a fine individual display.
“I think I explained before, Dele is very competitive,” Pochettino said. “He loves to compete. I think I explained to you, that in easy situations, he is gets bored easy, in training he gets bored easy, if you don’t put opposition and you push him to compete, because he’s an animal, a competitive animal.
“When he feels so comfortable when he’s in a very competitive space and situation, he always gives his best. That is a quality that he has. You cannot buy in the supermarket.”
Of the bottle incident, that also saw Dele Alli make a “2-0” gesture to the fans, Pochettino said it was just fortunate it wasn’t a “big problem”. He also said he expected to Arsenal to handle the situation creditably, and said the actions of one “stupid person” can’t colour an entire fanbase.
“For me, come on, OK, we play a derby, we hate each other in a good way, but that [throwing a bottle] is a bad way, when you want to damage an opponent.
“I cannot talk in general, because only one stupid person made a mistake. I respect the Arsenal fans, and for one you cannot talk about everyone. Hope Arsenal take some responsibility with the people, sure, through camera they can identity, because OK it wasn’t a problem, but it can happen some big problem, some big issues, then how can we fix?
“I think Arsenal is going to take some responsibility identifying the people.”
