Dele Alli warned by Mauricio Pochettino to cut out diving after booking for simulation in Spurs' rout of Huddersfield

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Mauricio Pochettino said Dele Alli “has to learn” after the England midfielder was booked for diving in Tottenham's 4-0 win over Huddersfield Town on Saturday.

Spurs were already 3-0 up by the time Alli tumbled in the Huddersfield penalty area, having overrun the ball as he attempted to skip around goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. Alli, who will miss England's next game through suspension, grinned sheepishly as he was booked for the clear dive.

After the game Pochettino, while delighted with the performance of his team, had some unusually strong words for Alli.

“I didn't see it, it was difficult from my position,” said the Spurs manager. “But if it was like this, he needs to learn. He must learn. Because this type of action doesn't help him, doesn't help the team and doesn't help football. We have talked in the last few years about fair play and being honest. I think he's improving a lot, but still it's something he has to learn about.”

That was perhaps the only fly in the ointment on a very successful afternoon for Spurs, who blitzed their opponents with three goals in the first 23 minutes, Harry Kane scoring two to bring his tally for September to 13 in eight games. So good was the England centre-forward that when he was substituted in the closing stages, even the home fans stood to applaud him.

“It's so difficult to talk every three days about Harry Kane,” said Pochettino. “To find different words to describe him. He's fantastic. He's great in front of goal, but when we don't have the ball he's the first to run, fight, work hard for the team, and that mentality is fantastic.”

The double took Kane level with Cristiano Ronaldo's Premier League goal tally of 84, but seeing that particular bear trap coming a mile off, Pochettino was circumspect about any comparisons.

“I don't want to compare them too much because I know the headlines will take it out of context,” he said. “Cristiano is amazing, on a different level like Messi. Harry is still so young – the gap to improve is massive for him, and that is why we try to push him every day, to get better and better and better.

“I think every player – aged 23, 24, 30 – can improve. That is our mentality: everyone can be better. We try to open their mind to realise that if you stop training, if you stop thinking that way then you start to go down. Every player has the possibility to improve if they want.”

This was a brilliant Tottenham performance, but Huddersfield manager David Wagner was disappointed that his side were so accommodating. “We made it too easy for them, especially before the goals,” said Wagner.

“We saw today that this was a different class of opponent, and if you want to get something out of these games, you have to be 100% in terms of concentration, especially in defence. If you give them a chance, they'll use it. If you give them a present, they'll use it for sure, and today we gave too many presents. I'm disappointed that they didn't have to work enough for their chances.”