Andre Villas-Boas hailed the match-winning performance of Gareth Bale after last night’s 2-1 win over Liverpool but admitted that the biggest teams on the planet will have been alerted by the winger’s form.

It was a masterclass performance from the Welshman that proved to be the difference between the two sides.

He eased past four Reds players on a 50-yard run before squaring to Aaron Lennon for Tottenham’s opener and his 30-yard swirling free-kick was a strike Cristiano Ronaldo would have been proud of.

The only negative for the former Southampton winger came with his comedy own-goal in the second half when he found himself in the way of Lennon’s goal-line clearance and saw the ball rebound in off his head.

Bale has now scored 10 goals for club and country this season and Villas-Boas said: “Tottenham as a club want to keep him here as long as we can but we understand players like this have propositions, have market which is the nature of the game.

“At the moment he’s doing extremely well for Spurs and we are absolutely amazed with what he can do for us,” Villas-Boas said.

“Hopefully, we have no doubt he can become a top player in the future. He is on to a great career.”

Pepe Reina was powerless to stop the ball as it dipped and swerved in to the net for Tottenham’s first and Bale nearly beat the Liverpool stopper twice more from similar range.

“Ronaldo showed you can almost hit the ball from the bottom to the top and it has an effect it changes direction,” the Spurs boss said.

“Gareth has the power to hit the ball at that pace and that’s why the ball gets so many effects.”

Spurs climbed above Arsenal and Everton in to fifth and are now just three points off third going in to Saturday’s game against Fulham.

“This is an important result given this is a midweek fixture when most of the teams have dropped points and we have gained some,” Villas-Boas said.

“It puts us in a really good position. If we can sustain this momentum in our next three games we can maybe join the top where we want to be.”