Dele Alli claims Tottenham’s ‘arrogance’ and ‘attitude’ were to blame for the club’s 2-1 defeat at Manchester United on Wednesday night.
Jose Mourinho’s first return to Old Trafford as an opposition manager would end in defeat, Marcus Rashford scoring twice for the hosts to bring Spurs’ winning streak under their new manager to an end.
Alli would earlier equalise with a brilliant touch and finish, his fourth goal in as many games, though the midfielder admits it is difficult to take positives from a disappointing night and believes overconfidence may have played a part in the club’s below-par performance.
“It’s difficult when you lose to take any positives,” Alli told BBC Sport.
“We know what we had to do. We had to match their energy. We lost the game not by them outplaying us – just attitude. We weren’t hungry enough and we were slow to every second ball, losing 50-50s.
“Maybe it was a little bit of arrogance and overconfidence. We’ve been playing well.
”You have to have confidence and arrogance in games like this but have to use it in the right way. We were a bit sloppy but you can’t do it in games like this or you’ll get punished.
“We’ve spent a lot of years together. We have to learn from this. Games like this bring your feet back down.
“We want to win any game and you want to win for the new manager at his old place.”
Tottenham will be looking to bounce back when they host Burnley this weekend, the club having dropped to eighth following last night’s result, nine points adrift of the Champions League places.
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