With time running out on Tottenham’s latest attempts to get in to the Champions League places, Andre Villas-Boas must hope he sees the best from Gareth Bale.
The Wales international — tipped to win last night’s PFA Player of the Year award — is just back from injury and, despite scoring an early goal at Wigan on Saturday, was relatively subdued as Tottenham just about came away with a draw.
Bale’s afternoon at the DW Stadium was spent largely trying to escape the attentions of James McArthur and James McCarthy and Villas-Boas knows there will be more of that between now and the season’s end.
Freak: Gareth Bale (right) scores after a poor clearance from Wigan goalkeeper Joel Robles
‘They did ever so well with that,’ conceded Villas-Boas after his team’s 2-2 draw.
‘Wigan have good organisation and are used to playing this system with three at the back and today they had McCarthy as sweeper in midfield doing very very well on Gareth. So credit to Roberto for that.’
Tottenham’s season may yet hinge on a crunch meeting with Chelsea on May 8 but it is clear Bale will be on the mind of every manager Villas Boas faces between now and the end of the season.
Wigan coach Roberto Martinez said: ‘It was a difficult job. We had to adapt and stop the space. Bale is not someone we can stop once he has the ball but you can restrict the space and stop the service to him. That demands constant decisions on the pitch and I think we made those today.’
As they did against Manchester City six days earlier, Tottenham finished Saturday’s game strongly and could have even have won the game in the dying seconds.
Whether that transpires to be a mirror image of their season remains to be seen.
Villas-Boas added: ‘Our resilience is very strong and our willingness to get this qualification is too. So it depends on where and when you drop points.
Extra attention: Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas knows Bale will need to find his best form if they are to qualify for the Champions League
Marking job: Wigan boss Roberto Martinez deployed James McCarthy to do mark Bale
‘We have dropped two away from home which could be important or not but we have to win our home games and continue to focus on that.
‘The players are very committed, you saw in the first half how well they did and how well they played.
‘So I think their achievements of not being able to achieve it [Champions League qualification] in the past counts because they are fully committed to getting it. So the desire will be there.'
Equaliser: Emmerson Boyce (third left) levelled for Wigan two minutes after Bale's opener
Stunner: The home side then took the lead through a brilliant strike from Callum McManaman (right)
Leaving it late: Boyce then scored an own goal in injury time to earn Tottenham a point