Jamie Carragher thinks Dele Alli has escaped the type of criticism Mesut Özil would have received if he’d put in the same kind of performance in Saturday’s North London derby.

Carragher was speaking to Sky Sports on Monday about the total anonymity of Alli’s showing at the weekend. He said: “If Mesut Ozil had performed the way Dele Alli did in that game, we would be slaughtering Mesut Ozil,” reports the Express.

“We still think of Spurs as a young team, going forward, don’t really expect them to win, we all love to see them win. Listen, there is no bigger fan of Spurs than me, they’re the best side I’ve watched since working for Sky. 

“Love to watch them, love the manager, love the players, desperate for them to win. But we still don’t treat them the way we treat the other big players. Some of those players now, you look at them and think ‘come on, you’ve got to step up’, now is the time.”

Firstly, it’s nice to hear someone in the media finally admit that they’re a Spurs fan. It’s been obvious to Arsenal supporters for some time that pundits would much rather see Tottenham do well, but finally we have the quotes to prove that’s not just delusion.

Secondly, Carragher is spot on. Alli completed just 71% of his passes against the Gunners, and not one of those passes led to a chance being created. On the other side, Özil completed 81%, and created four. So not only were the Arsenal midfielder’s passes more accurate, they were also much more effective.

The disappointing performance from Alli was topped off by an early substitution and sarcastic cheers from the Arsenal fans. Normally that would be enough to draw mass media criticism, but when it isn’t Özil, that doesn’t tend to happen.

In fairness, the 29-year-old has mostly received the praise he deserves on this occasion. But if things don’t go so well for Arsenal this week, I’d expect normal service to resume.