Eriksen on Dele: 'He digs in and works hard'

Christian Eriksen saluted Dele Alli’s all-round game after seeing his young team-mate notch up his 100th Premier League appearance at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Dele was in great form as he bagged two second-half goals to seal a memorable 3-1 win over Chelsea, with Christian having earlier cancelled our Alvaro Morata’s opener with a long-range thunderbolt.

Asked to sum up Dele’s match-winning display, Christian said: “He does that for us, but with him in the team you know he will get his chances.

“He's always at a good spot, at the right place and also the defensive work – he digs in, works hard and it's always easy to play in the team with a guy like this.”

It only seems like yesterday that a 19-year-old Dele leapt off the bench to make his top-flight debut at Manchester United on the opening day of the 2015-16 season.

Christian, who has been on the pitch for the vast majority of the midfielder’s intervening century of Premier League games, believes his comrade will only benefit from all the experience he’s picked up so early in his career.

“It has gone quickly but he's still a young kid so it's good for him,” said the Danish international. “It’s similar for everybody at this club because it's been a lot of the same players playing in the last three years, so all the boys are getting a lot of game time.

“But, of course, Dele playing 100 games already is great.”