Tottering Tottenham get another timely Bale-out

Tottenham 1 Southampton 0

Will he be given a warm welcome simply because he is not Rafa Benitez? Or jeered for lasting only a few months at the Stamford Bridge helm? Perhaps he will be scarcely noticed at all, being just one in a number of people who are just not Jose Mourinho...

Actually, it seems he suspects the latter. “I have no idea,” he admitted. “Hopefully the Chelsea fans are respectful and it should be fine. But if not, it’s fine too.

“I’m not sure if enough time has passed for me to feel anything. I was just another manager that passed by. Obviously I spent three great years there when I was on the staff, but when I was given more responsibility I wasn’t given enough time.”

One thing that is for sure, however, is that if Villas-Boas’ Tottenham team loses against his former employers then the chances of Champions League football returning to White Hart Lane will drop into the remote category. This is the game in hand both teams have on Arsenal, but the Gunners know something must give. And of course, as Tottenham fans do not need reminding, Chelsea and Arsenal have a history of top four finishes, while Tottenham do not.

Then again, Spurs have Gareth Bale.

No other Premier League performer can match the double Player of the Year winner’s total of eight winning goals this season; the Welshman is the reason why Tottenham have even a hope of gate-crashing Europe’s swankiest party.

Southampton, the club who sold him to them back in 2007, became his latest victims and left White Hart Lane wondering why they are still in danger of the drop.

For 86 minutes they kept him quiet, or quiet enough anyway. Bale began in a roving role behind Jermain Defoe, but the Saints were able to snuff out his menace there. Then he was switched to the left, the position in which he made his name, before switching flanks.

And it was from here that he won the game, cutting inside, getting up a head of steam and then unleashing a shot that fizzed past Artur Boruc in the Southampton goal. It had taken an age to arrive, but when it did it was undeniably world-class.

Three precious points in the bag then, but Villas-Boas knows the cost will inevitably be more jibes about the imbalance in his squad. The joke is that there will be three Welsh sides in the Premier League next season: Swansea, Cardiff and Bale, the one-man team.

“For me, it has no value whatever people say,” he insisted.

“We recognise that great stars make the difference for teams and I have told you time and time again about Real Madrid and Barcelona who have two players who have scored 100 goals in one season. This player has scored less than 30.

“He is enjoying his best season so far and we are fortunate to have him.”

Fortunate indeed. Gone are the days when he was employed as a left-back, or even not at all as he was regarded as something of a Jonah in his early days at White Hart Lane when Tottenham couldn’t seem to win with him on the pitch.

Southampton, who saw Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris tip Rickie Lambert’s first-half free-kick onto a post, nearly discarded Bale themselves when he was in his mid-teens, but are currently enjoying the fruits of other decisions by academy coaches.

“The academy seems to be producing a lot of good players,” said defender Nathaniel Clyne, who also went close before the break. “We’ve got Luke Shaw out there who has done pretty well and James Ward-Prowse on the bench, and also Adam Lallana, who’s forced his way into the England [squad].

“He hasn’t made an appearance yet, but if he continues how well he’s been doing I’m sure he will get his chance and that just gives us all hope that we could get in as well.”