Kevin De Bruyne plays down Dele Alli challenge

Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne has insisted that there was no malice involved in Dele Alli's challenge on him during this evening's Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium.

Alli was shown a yellow card for a studs-up tackle on De Bruyne which saw him go over the ball and catch the City player on the ankle, with pundits suggesting after the match that it should have been a red card.

However, De Bruyne believes that it was merely a mistimed tackle from the Tottenham Hotspur man, who was unable to prevent his side from falling to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of their rampant hosts.

"I am a split second before Dele and it happens, it's part of football," he told BT Sport.

De Bruyne was amongst the scorers in a man-of-the-match display as City racked up a 16th consecutive Premier League win to move 14 points clear at the top of the table.