Tottenham Hotspur's Gareth Bale enforces top-four hopes but manager Andre Villas-Boas remains on the defensive Little wonder, then, the Bale was voted Footballer of the Year by football writers as well as winning the PFA's Player and Young Player of the Year awards last week. Yet Villas-Boas thought the "one-man team" idea disrespectful to the rest of his players. For me it has no value whatsoever and is extremely unfair. The team has to produce for a player to enjoy this moment of brilliance. I think we are all able to enjoy a player at a great moment. The Football Writers" Association have recognised that, the players have recognised that. He (Bale) is enjoying his football and continues to be decisive. But most of the big teams have players who can make the difference. Chelsea have Lampard, Mata and Hazard, Man United have Van Persie and City have Yaya Toure. They are decisive in games too. We recognise that great stars do things for the team. Real Madrid and Barcelona have two teams that scored 100 goals in a season, he has scored less than 30. He's enjoying his best season so far, we are fortunate to have him at this moment. Comparisons with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are made, and Bale is closer to the latter in style and stats. While Messi has scored an astonishing 44 of Barcelona's 101 league goals, Ronaldo has scored nearly a third of Real Madrid's league goals (31 of 89), the same ratio as Bale (20 of 61), and many of them are free-kicks or from long range. Van Persie has a similar ratio. Tottenham's greatest goalscorer was Jimmy Greaves, who had the happy knack of doing little in games other than scoring the decisive goal. Bale did the same against Southampton with an otherwise quiet performance that reinforced the idea he has not fully recovered from last month's ankle injury. Nathaniel Clyne, who missed a chance to put Southampton ahead in the 10th minute, was marking Bale until the Welshman switched flanks shortly before his dramatic strike sank the club where he started his career, and who deserved at least a share of the points. "We did pretty good marking him throughout the whole game and keeping him quiet, but you know quality players are always going to have their chances and he took it, unfortunately," said Clyne. He came inside and shot from outside the box and just broke our hearts really. Manager Mauricio Pochettino added: "Perhaps I made a mistake when I said Tottenham were not a one man team. He (Bale) could play for any side in the world. Southampton are not yet safe, while Villas-Boas knows Tottenham can finish third if they win their remaining three games, starting at Chelsea on Wednesday. His eight months as Chelsea manager ended acrimoniously last March, but he said: "It means absolutely nothing. It's another opponent in our quest to get the nine points that we have to play for. Hopefully at the end there can be a little bit more satisfaction. I was another manager who just passed by. I spent three great years on the staff, but when I was given more responsibility I wasn't given enough time.