The plan to stop Bony

Sam Allardyce knows the only way to stop Wilfried Bony is by mounting a massive team effort for there’s no simple way of marking the Ivorian international.

The Swansea danger man is a real threat to the Hammers tomorrow (Sun) and Allardyce’s theory is to shut down the entire Swans’ midfield.

And only if that fails he will assign his defenders to closely mark him and try and knock the striker off the ball.

He said: “I think it is very difficult to stop him. In the main it’ll be about not only the defenders but the team as a whole stopping the supply.

“If you work hard on shutting down their midfield and wide areas and limit the supply then that is the best way forward but that won’t happen all the time.

“When I say we have to get tight on him, we have to be aware of him without getting too tight because he is very strong and very skilful and to knock him off the ball is not an easy task.

“He seems to be able to roll a lot of defenders and hit the ball in the same movement. He is a threat in the air and it will be very interesting for our lads to compete against someone in such good goal scoring form and hopefully on the day we can keep him quiet.”

The Irons can move  to within nine points of Chelsea at the top of the Premier League if they clinch all three points.