After the miss in Minnesota came the brace in Blackpool. An open goal was squandered but two were scored. A change of continent may have brought a change of luck for Dele Alli. After perhaps the worst miss of his life came his first goals in an Everton shirt, albeit in unofficial capacity. They should have arrived earlier. His twin strikes came not in the Twin Cities but on the Fylde Coast. Everton, embarrassed 4-0 by Minnesota on Wednesday, beat Blackpool 4-2 on Sunday.
Time will tell which is the more accurate marker for his and their season. Certainly the more memorable result came in the Midwest, not England’s west coast, just Alli’s glaring miss in the United States – the ball hitting his heel when he had a tap-in – is more likely to linger in the mind than two close-range finishes, one still simpler, at Bloomfield Road. It lent itself to the kind of clip made for social media, as though designed as an encapsulation of the decline of a seemingly once-in-a-generation talent.
