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2017-18
The start of Alli's decline was evident in the 2017-18 season as his performances which, until that point had shown rapid improvement, now started to show signs of decline.
In all competitions, he would match his total of appearances, once again reaching a half-century of games as Tottenham competed on four fronts. However, his goalscoring contribution was now beginning to decline. He scored 14 goals that season but only 9 of them came in the Premier League, significantly lower than the 18 he had managed in the previous season.
It would be unfair, though, to suggest that Alli wasn't still a key part of everything good about Tottenham and one area where he excelled once again was in the number of assists as he improved on his tally the previous season to claim an impressive 17 across all competitions, 11 in the Premier League, two in the FA Cup and four in the Champions League.
His lack of goals can be explained by a decline in the number of shots Alli was taking per game in the Premier League. In the previous season, he had averaged 2.5 a match but in 2017-18 this dropped to 1.9 a game. Despite his rise in assists, the quality of his passing was now also starting to show evidence of decline, dropping to 77%.
Southgate remained a big admirer of Alli's talents and selected him for the 2018 FIFA World Cup where England reached the semi-finals of the competition. He struggled to reach peak fitness for the tournament after picking up a knock in England's opening fixture against Tunisia but still made five appearances, scoring a crucial goal in the quarter-final victory over Sweden, before England were knocked out by Croatia in the semi-finals.
