Nuno Espirito Santo was full of praise for Dele Alli after he scored the only goal in Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers yesterday.
The goal came in the ninth minute when left-back Sergio Reguilon slipped Dele into the box, with the midfielder then rounding goalkeeper Jose Sa to win a penalty.
The 25-year-old stepped up to take the resulting spot-kick, tucking it away well to score his first Premier League goal since March 2020.
Under new manager Nuno Espirito Santo, Dele has seen consistent minutes come his way which he was not afforded under the previous manager Jose Mourinho.
Last season, Dele only accumulated 617 minutes in the Premier League, and most of those games were under interim manager Ryan Mason towards the back end of the campaign (Transfermarkt). The midfielder also failed to score in any of those games.
However, Dele has played in the first two Premier League games of this season and is performing in a new deeper, more defensive, and more hard-working role.
Nuno had his say on Dele’s performance against Wolves (Football London): “He’s working very hard. I think all the team is working hard.
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“We still have a long way to go and are working very hard to improve, the relationship between players and being very versatile enough.
“Dele did a very good job and he worked very hard. He scored in the beginning of the game and in the last minutes of the game he was running all over the pitch so that shows the level of fitness that he has and the belief that he has. A huge, huge help.
“All the team worked very hard. You know that it was not the best of our games but when you cannot play as good as you want you need to do your tasks well and the boys did amazing, they did amazing.”
SpursWeb Opinion
Dele’s new role seems to suit him. He’s not the same player that used to be a shadow striker and make runs in behind. But Nuno clearly likes him and Dele seems a lot happier in general. A goal will also do him the world of good.
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