Stuttering Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli still struggling to find his mojo despite festive boost

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After yet another dazzling week for Jesse Lingard and Raheem Sterling in the colours of Manchester United and City, the gaze fixes more firmly on Dele Alli.

In a World Cup year, Gareth Southgate will already be contemplating formulas for the March friendlies against Italy and Holland and on current form, both Lingard and Sterling could stake a fair claim for Alli's place in the England team. They are affecting games with greater purpose, committing defenders and scoring important goals for their club.

For Alli, the stress signals have been clear. This season, Alli has too often worn the look of a distracted footballer. His run of ten matches without a goal between November 1 and Boxing Day exacerbated concerns that one of England's outstanding young talents is stuttering at the point of maturity.

Dele Alli is one of England's outstanding young talents but stuttering at the point of maturity

At Tottenham, the consistency of Harry Kane only serves to place Alli's downturn in form into sharper focus. As Kane notches up more broken records than a vintage vinyl store, Alli has regressed.

In the final two games of that 10-match sequence, sharper referees would have dismissed Alli for poor fouls, first for a ghastly lunge on Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne and then an equally poor challenge on Burnley's Charlie Taylor. 

The actions spoke volumes for a player increasingly irritated by his own limitations. 

Meanwhile, off-the-pitch, Alli has recruited an assortment of public relations and commercial specialists who have previously worked with David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho. Alli will know that the extra-curricular pays a greater dividend when he gets matters right on the pitch.

Alli was reduced to scavenging down the left channel for space against West Ham

His manager Pochettino has always taken a long-lens view, stating: 'It is not that he is not doing good, it is that in the past he was amazing.'

Even Pochettino's patience, however, must have been tested at times. Thankfully, Christmas, appears to have an energising effect on Alli. He is a slow starter. He scored only five goals for Tottenham before Boxing Day last season and only four by the same stage of the the previous campaign.

Yet Yuletide has invigorated Alli once more and the past week has brought hints of progress. Alli was impressive in goalscoring performances against Southampton and Swansea.

Alli played 90 minutes amid Storm Eleanor's torrential rain and biting wind in the 2-0 victory over Swansea on Tuesday. It might have taken its toll here at Wembley, in a game where Alli needed to be fresh of mind as well as movement.

 The Tottenham midfielder has too often worn the look of a distracted footballer this season

This was always going to be an awkward assignment on an evening where West Ham came to contain. West Ham had neither a shot nor a corner in the opening hour. 

David Moyes' side operated with three centre-backs and three holding midfielders plugging the gaps between the midfield and defence. The claret and blue jerseys soaked up everything. For all their absence of ambition, West Ham always retained a certain level of control in the game. The result, however, was a painfully dull first-half in which Tottenham required almost half an hour for their first strike on target.

Alli was reduced to scavenging down the left channel for space. When he did find room, his stepovers lacked conviction as Winston Reid watched the ball and averted danger. In the second-half, there was marginally greater success, as Alli worked the ball to the byline and created a fine chance for Heung-Min Son. Alli's touch then let him down as he sought to bring a Ben Davies cross under his control.

When Spurs fell behind to Pedro Obiang's marvellous strike, Pochettino launched all his arsenal at the West Ham defence. Erik Lamela joined the fray and Fernando Llorente soon followed. Yet as so often this season, it was left to the splendid Son to spare Tottenham.

Son Heung-Min scored a brilliant equaliser to ensure that Tottenham claimed a point