Mauricio Pochettino defends Spurs pair Dele Alli, Harry Kane over bad tackles

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Mauricio Pochettino has played down the mistimed challenges of Dele Alli and Harry Kane in last weekend's defeat to Manchester City.

Early in the second half, Kane was fortunate to avoid a red card for a late tackle on Raheem Sterling, before Alli was lucky to remain on the pitch after a studs-up challenge on Kevin De Bruyne.

Pochettino has acknowledged that the pair made "mistakes", but has insisted that there were no 'bad intentions' with either tackle.

The 45-year-old told reporters: "Of course they know very well I think the timing sometimes, you could argue you arrive late, you make some tackle that's not so good but for me of course I am again of this situation. But we show, no? That when we play and we no win and we are no happy, disappointed, frustrated and you try to change and sometimes you make a mistake and you arrive late.

"That is football, but I think it wasn't with bad intention to injure someone or you know with bad intention only because the result wasn't good for us and you want to do more, you want to run more, you want to recover the ball and sometimes you arrive with bad timing.

"But they are not aggressive in this way and they recognise the same that it was a specific moment but the most important is the intention to do nothing wrong, nothing bad."

Former Premier League official Dermot Gallagher said that both players should have been sent off in the game at the Etihad Stadium, which City won by a 4-1 scoreline.