Gareth Bale celebrates his late winning goal against West Ham
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-
Boas believes Gareth Bale's
improvement shows no signs of
abating after the Welshman's
latest wonder goal secured a
dramatic 3-2 victory at West Ham. Bale's incredible last-gasp winner
at Upton Park and his equally
superb first-half opener capped
another scintillating performance
as Spurs moved ahead of Chelsea
and into third spot in the Premier League. And Villas-Boas was unsurprisingly
gushing in his praise of
Tottenham's star man, telling Sky
Sports: "He is unbelievable, he's
such a super talent. I think we
have been able to see him this season in another level and he is
making the difference every
single game. "Gareth has been world class for
some time now. Players like this
are able to assume responsibilities
at these moments. We see him
getting the ball in midfield, being
fouled, getting up and lining up to score the winning goal. He is
tremendous, for sure. "It is the responsibility of the
manager to get the best out of
his players and when you see him
so joyful on the pitch, the
rewards come to the team." The modest Bale did his best to
play down his latest match-
winning display as he tried to
deflect attention from his own
brilliance by claiming the Upton
Park win had been a team effort. But he appreciated the
significance of the triumph ahead
of Sunday's North London derby
against Arsenal. "We knew the result yesterday
[Chelsea losing against
Manchester City] gave us a
massive chance to get into third
spot," he said. "We had a lot of
chances, especially off corners, but the most important thing is
to get the three points again. It
was a massive victory for us. "It's not about me, it's about the
team and we know we have a
massive game on Sunday now.
Arsenal are a great team and we
want to get the three points to
keep our Champions League hopes alive." Villas-Boas was also turning his
thoughts towards Sunday's
showdown with Arsenal, where his
side get the chance to establish a
seven point lead over their local
rivals with just ten games left to play this season. "It is a North London derby, so
there will be plenty of passion
and if we can get seven points
ahead, it will be a nice cushion,"
Villas-Boas said. "It might not be
enough to say Arsenal have been put away, but hopefully we can
get the win and at least gain
that lead. "We just have to keep getting
points. The distance is not very
big for us to second place, but
we face Arsenal on Sunday and it
is a big opportunity to build a
distance to them. We want to put people away. Everton are nine
points behind, Arsenal are four.
Hopefully we can put bigger
distance between ourselves and
Chelsea at the weekend." West ham boss Sam Allardyce
bemoaned Matt Taylor's miss
when the score was at 2-1, but
praised Bale's winner. "It is one of the 'worldies' he
continues to produce," he said.
"You think at some stage he has
run out of them but he has not. I
think that is the best one. "In the end, the way he has hit it,
there is not an awful lot you can
do about it. We made a terrific go
of it. It was at a crucial stage
when Matt Taylor got through
one on one and their keeper made good save, we want to be
scoring that. "At 3-1 there is no way back for
them. They've got the goal then
they scored a 'worldie'. We have
been beaten by Gareth Bale
really. I thought the lads caused
them a lot of problems." Kevin Nolan was replaced after a
strong tackle from Mousa
Dembele and Allardyce believes
Howard Webb should have shown
the Spurs midfielder his second
yellow card of the match. "You look at consistent bookings
that Howard gave to our players
after," he said. " Dembele after
that fouled Mo Diame just inside
after he nicked the ball off him
and he let that one go. "Where he got that wrong in the
second half there is a ball over
the top and he pulls Joe Cole
back then he kicks the ball away.
You do that, Howard you have to
send him off, that's what we are told. I'm really disappointed by
that."