Dele: “We can’t start games like that”

Dele would have loved to have been talking about one of his great Spurs goals, but it wasn’t to be.

Instead, a naturally disappointed figure spoke to Spurs TV at Old Trafford after our 2-1 loss to Manchester United in the Premier League on Wednesday night.

It might have been so different. United had dominated and deserved their 1-0 lead when Dele conjured an equaliser with a moment of magic. Serge Aurier’s shot was blocked by David De Gea and as the ball came back out of the sky, Dele flicked it back between Ashley Young and Fred, spun and fired home. It really was a thing of footballing beauty.

We all hoped that would spark a second half performance, but it wasn’t to be. Dele conceded ‘we came out flat’, United regained the lead via the penalty spot three minutes into the second half and despite pushing the home team back as the half wore on, we couldn’t find a second goal.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Dele. “We can’t start a game like that. If you start slowly and get punished it’s hard to pick yourselves up.

“Obviously, we went level and we looked to dominate from there but again we came out flat (in the second half) and we were punished again, so maybe there was a bit of arrogance, I don’t know, but we can’t start games like that and perform like that. We were second to every ball.

“Maybe it’s just a wake-up call. There have been a couple of games where we’ve started like that and got away with it and won the game but against the top sides, we need to do better. We need to perform better. We have to pick ourselves up and learn from it.”