With Antonio Conte's Tottenham Hotspur side heading into Tuesday afternoon's Premier League fixture against Southampton in an excellent run of domestic form, the 52-year-old will have been quietly confident of picking up yet another three points at St Mary's.
However, despite Mohammed Salisu's sending off in the first half today, Tottenham could not find the winning goal against Ralph Hassenhuttl's side, with James Ward-Prowse's spectacular 25th-minute strike and Harry Kane's 41st-minute penalty being the only goals in a 1-1 draw.
As is perhaps to be expected after such a result, a number of Conte's starting XI had an afternoon to forget against Saints, with Sergio Reguilon, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Emerson Royal all turning in below-par displays on the south coast.
However, it will undoubtedly be Dele Alli who is most disappointed with his performance against Southampton on the Tottenham bus home, as the 25-year-old was once again ineffective in the middle of the park after being handed an opportunity to impress by Conte.
Lost 60% of his duels
Indeed, during his 62 minutes on the pitch, the £17m-rated midfielder failed to have a single shot at goal, completed just 17 of his 24 attempted passes (a success rate of 71%) and lost the ball on 12 separate occasions.
The £100k-per-week earner also failed with his one attempted dribble, was beaten by an opponent twice and lost six of his 10 duels, a failure rate of 60%.
These returns saw the player who Darren Anderton dubbed a "freak" receive a disappointing SofaScore match rating of just 6.6, the third-worst of any Tottenham player to step onto the pitch today.
As such, with it being widely reported that Dele could be on his way out of north London in the January transfer window, if this was the England international's last chance to impress Conte, he certainly did not take it. Today's draw with Southampton could well be the last time the 25-year-old ever pulls on a Tottenham shirt.
In other news: Conte can finally axe Spurs' £25m-rated "joke" by signing "devastating" £69k-p/w beast