Dele Alli’s Harry Kane impression helped Tottenham end Chelsea jinx

Dele Alli did a good impression of Tottenham striker Harry Kane to score twice on the way to beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

You don’t miss Harry Kane if you have Dele Alli. It’s the lesson Tottenham learned on Sunday when they used the latter to replace their star striker in a 3-1 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Alli eventually morphed into a role as a false 9, scoring twice in the second half. In the process, he inspired Spurs to a first league win at the Bridge since 1990.

His more than passable impression of a striker also meant Kane wasn’t missed. The latter spent nearly 75 minutes on the bench in his first game back from injury.

You’d hardly have noticed Kane wasn’t involved, though. Not with the way Alli routinely ghosted and darted into central positions at the tip of attack.

The timing and variety of Alli’s runs kept him free from Chelsea markers all day. Two factors gave Alli the space and freedom he needed to transform from attacking midfielder to de facto center-forward.

The first was the subtle change in Tottenham’s midfield shape. It began with Christian Eriksen dropping deeper. From a withdrawn role, the cerebral Dane had more time to picks his passes, as well as more room to fire in shots like the spectacular, long-range equaliser he struck before halftime.

Eriksen’s backtracking eventually dragged one of Chelsea’s midfield pair, either Cesc Fabregas or N’Golo Kante, further forward. Once either man left the ares in front of the Blues’ back three, Alli and Lamela had greater freedom to create and meet chances.

Alli used the freedom to exploit central positions vacated by Kane’s ostensible replacement, Heung-min Son. The South Korean forward started the match as Tottenham’s striker of choice, but moved to the right side of midfield after the break.

With Son out of the way, Alli could fill the spaces in the middle. How he filled them turned the match permanently in Spurs’ favor.

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Specifically, the way Alli and Lamela rotated and interchanged their positions baffled Chelsea defenders. If Alli was in the center-forward area, Lamela would support either as a number 10 or from the left.

Similarly, whenever Lamela went beyond him, Alli would drift into the inside left channel. The fluidity of Lamela and Tottenham’s false 9 kept the Blues guessing.

Nobody was quite sure who to mark when Eriksen, who had gotten beyond the front for a rare time, dropped out of the middle before Alli darted in from the left.

Alli ran across Cesar Azpilicueta and off the back of Andreas Christensen. The latter was too focused on Lamela, while fellow center-back Antonio Rudiger had been pulled wide by Son.

It left Alli with a free run from out to in. He sped through the middle and controlled Eric Dier’s long punt with a sweet first touch before lobbing the ball over Willy Caballero.

Alli had put Spurs ahead in the 62nd minute. Four minutes later, he’d put the game out of sight.

His second came from another move involving Son peeling wide. The tricky No. 7 was hugging the touchline on the right when Eriksen released him.

Son’s pace easily took him beyond Marcos Alonso and into position to fire in a low cross. Rudiger had been drawn to Eriksen, while Christensen was attracted to the ball.

It left Azpilicueta focused on Lamela, while Alli stole a march on Victor Moses after the wing-back was slow to track his run. Alli eventually finished smartly to kill the game as a contest.

His goal has also all-but killed Chelsea’s hopes of playing UEFA Champions League football next season. Spurs are eight points clear of their London rivals with only seven matches left.

Tottenham merit the lead thanks to creative use of their versatile attacking midfielders. The way Alli was given license to act as a roving frontman was fluid tactical thinking at its best.

It also showed the many layers to Alli’s still burgeoning repertoire. The precocious 21-year-old has given Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino an obvious remedy whenever primary goal-getter Kane is unavailable.

In conjunction with Eriksen’s intelligence and technique, Son’s width and Lamela’s flexibility, Alli as a false 9 can pose puzzles few opponents will be able to solve.