Aston Villa boss: Andros Townsend not on Gareth bale's level

After starring for England during the international break no one would have begrudged Andros Townsend for believing opposition managers would single him out upon his return to the Premier League.

Paul Lambert thinks differently however, and when he spoke about the upcoming fixture against Tottenham he said would not be paying any special attention to the in-form winger.

“Will we be putting any special attention on him? No,” Lambert told Sky Sports.

“Their whole team is strong, a lot of them will be buoyant, the Belgian lads have qualified too.

“It is not just one lad you will be focused on.”

He continued by stating that although he admires Townsend, the consistency he has shown is nowhere near that of his former team-mate Gareth Bale.

“You can’t jump on the bandwagon. It’s only two games. Gareth Bale did it over a number of years – that’s too much pressure to put on players,” he continued.

“If someone plays two good games they are a world beater but Tottenham have an array of players.

“I’ve not seen much of the lad but when I have he has played well.”

Townsend, who revelled in the limelight on Tuesday evening, has been a constant bright spark for Spurs this season and will probably feel Lambert’s comments to be a little harsh. Despite the club signing Argentina forward Erik Lamela this summer, Townsend has featured in all but one of the club’s opening domestic fixtures and currently sits third in the club’s Performance Score table.

A summary of Townsend’s performance after seven games

It isn’t just this season that Townsend has impressed though, and some would say that Lambert has got it completely wrong with his ‘two-game’ comment. Townsend, who has spent time on loan at nine different clubs, made his mark at Queen’s Park Rangers last season despite their eventual relegation to the Championship.

Townsend’s performance while on loan at QPR in 2012/13

He certainly impressed Harry Redknapp and the former Spurs manager has recently claimed it was the winger’s spell with the R’s that propelled him into his current position.

“He was fantastic for us in the time he was at Rangers,” said Redknapp. “I think it was the making of him.

“He showed that he get the better of a number of Premier League defences. I also decided to switch him. He was always on the left but I decided to play him on the right and he made an even bigger impact.”

Although the Tottenham winger probably knows he’s not at the same level as Bale at the moment, he will be disappointed with Lambert’s comments and will be hoping to sparkle against Lambert’s side at the weekend, just as he did for QPR last season.

Townsend’s Man of the Match display against Aston Villa last season