Sam Allardyce was asked about the Welshman at the pre-match press conference and he had this to say, “The team from an attacking point of view has been outstanding, Recently they've lost their leading goalscorer, who is Jermain Defoe, and Adebayor has been away at the Africa Cup of Nations, so from a goalscoring point of view they've had to rely on one man and one man only to come up with the goods. That's Gareth Bale and he's been the major difference between Tottenham and the teams they've played recently.
"Not only has he scored very important goals, but they've been stunning goals at that. He's going to need some looking after on Monday night. If we can do that we nullify a threat that Tottenham have. Of course [Aaron] Lennon is a threat down the other side, but he doesn't quite score as many goals as Gareth Bale. We're not sure yet whether Jermain Defoe will be fit, but certainly we've got to cope with that strike force.
"Our home form has been excellent all season and so we're going to hopefully make sure Tottenham worry about us for a long period of time on Monday night, rather than us worry about them too much."