Dele Alli has been simply magnificent, gushes Jose Mourinho

During the post match conference, Jose Mourinho hailed a revitalised Dele Alli after his two goals steered Tottenham to within six points of the Champions League qualification places. The North London club took a 3-0 lead but had to face late fight-back in the second half as Bournemouth recovered and scored 2 goals via Harry Wilson, including a superb free-kick, to make the final stages of the game very interesting.

However, Mourinho’s Tottenham held onto the thin 1 goal lead and walked out with three points at the end of the game. The England midfielder will be confident of earning an international recall in March if he continues the start he has made under his new manager. Mourinho went on to admit that he cannot ask anything more of Alli but he expects the midfielder to keep his performance levels up.

“With Dele, I don't need to speak. It's the best thing that can happen to a coach when you don't need to speak about a player because everybody speaks. Everyone is speaking about him for the right reasons. He's playing really well and I couldn't ask any more from him. He's scoring goals, assisting, and his work-rate is fantastic,” said the former Chelsea manager to the Sky Sports.

With 2 goals and an assist, Alli has been directly involved in three goals in his two Premier League games for Tottenham under Mourinho. Shockingly, the 22-year-old managed the same stats in his last 12 under Mauricio Pochettino. The season feels alive again for Tottenham after things had become a little stale under Pochettino.

“When I arrived, we were 12 points behind the last Champions League position, and I said that I didn't want to think about it. I just wanted to play matches - we were even eight or nine points from a Europa League position. But I said that if we think too much about it, we are going to be depressed because we want to play European football next season. But I told the players not to get depressed but to think game after game and see what's going to happen.

"Now the distance is smaller, and we're going into a period with lots of matches in the Christmas period so we have the chance of both. We could put pressure on our opponents, and we play Chelsea by the end of December,” concluded the Portuguese manager.