Southgate’s excuse on why Dele Alli showed the middle finger to the referee might not cut it

The Spurs man could be in trouble.

It wasn't pretty at the start, but England got the job done against Slovakia. After making the worst possible start at Wembley, goals form Eric Dier and Marcus Rashford have all but guaranteed qualification for next summer's World Cup. With games against Slovenia (H) and Lithuania (A) to come, England are in control of their own destiny as their five point lead at the top of the group looks incredibly healthy. During the match, Spurs star Dele Alli was clearly angry after being treated to some heavy tackling from former Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel. After the referee waved play on and turned his back to the play, Alli stuck his middle finger up in the referee's general direction. It didn't go unnoticed. https://twitter.com/RobArmstrong_wh/status/904801300298301444 In his post-match press conference, Southgate said that "Dele & Kyle Walker were messing about & Dele made the gesture towards Kyle. They have a strange way of communicating." If the midfielder receives a three-game ban, he could miss the first game at the World Cup, if England finish top of their qualifying group. ITV pundit Lee Dixon added that: "If the ref has seen it and it is in his report then he's in trouble. The referee’s got a view of him walking towards him and if he’s looking at that, and I’m pretty sure he says something when he gets substituted, there’s a little chat going on there." https://twitter.com/tomwfootball/status/904817105786241025