The young English midfielder has come in for criticism of his own this season and now it seems it is Harry Kane’s turn

Dele Alli is well-versed at dealing with criticism after getting plenty this season, despite his overall good return when it comes to goals and assists for Tottenham Hotspur, and he has told team-mate Harry Kane to ignore everything being said about him right now.

Spurs’ decision, as a club, to appeal to the Premier League for their second goal away to Stoke City to be credited to Kane instead of Christian Eriksen has hit the headlines and is still being discussed over 10 days later.

It has led to plenty of social media jokes with various teams pretending Kane is claiming the goals they scored at the weekend.

The Spurs forward always maintained he touched Eriksen’s cross and the Premier League Match Day Centre eventually agreed and Alli insists the striker will brush the criticism off and continue in his stride towards trying to win the golden boot.

“Harry is an unbelievable striker and to be honest he touched it so it’s his goal and every striker would and should claim it if it is their goal,” said the former MK Dons midfielder.

“He has just got to ignore what everyone else is saying, he knows how good he is and I am sure everyone else knows how good he is. Everyone is different, I don’t know how ‘H’ is going to take it, but I think it gives some people a chance to put him down.

“But playing with him every day in training I can see how hard he works, he wants goals, he’s a striker, every striker wants goals, so he has just got to ignore it and focus on himself which I am sure he will do.

“He is an unbelievable player and he is a great person as well. If it was me and I touched the ball I would try and claim it as well.”

Kane’s goal at Stoke had cut the gap between him and Liverpool’s Mo Salah to five, but the Egyptian netted his 30th goal of the season during the Reds 3-0 win at home to AFC Bournemouth and is again five ahead of the Tottenham star.

The England man will aim to make up some ground this evening at Brighton & Hove Albion and Alli is confident his club and country team-mate can still win a third consecutive Premier League golden boot despite there only being five fixtures left.

“I wouldn’t put it past him, we have seen what he has done before,” said Alli. “Last year against (Romelu) Lukaku it was a tough competition and he finished the season really strongly with the amount of goals he scored.

“Salah is in great form, but that can’t be ‘H’s’ main focus. We are a team and we have got to play together and if he does it, he does it and we will all be happy for him, but I don’t think we are going to focus too much on it.”

Additional reporting by Press Association.