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Sam Allardyce believes that stopping Wilfried Bony is key to stopping Swansea.

The 25-year-old striker is his club's leading goalscorer having found the back of the net six times already this season.

And when asked about his importance to the Swansea squad, Allardyce - speaking to the press ahead of Sunday lunchtime's game - insisted that stopping Bony, a player he almost signed, was paramount.

"It'll be very difficult to contain him because he's in such good form", admitted the Hammers boss. "We'll have to limit the supply into him from the midfield and wide men.

"We need to get tight to him but not too tight because he can roll defenders well as he's strong and very skilful. To try and knock him off the ball is not an easy task. It'll be a good test for our lads to play against a player who's in such good form.

"We signed Andy Carroll [in 2013] and it was a case of one or the other. We couldn't do both with the budget we had, we also needed to bring in other players in different positions."

Meanwhile the Ivory Coast international, who has been a huge hit at the Liberty Stadium since signing for the Jacks in July of last year admitted that he's happy not to score - if it means a win for his team, who go into Sunday's match just two points and two places behind West Ham.

"What is more important is to win," he said. "It's good for me, it's good for the team. If I don't score, I can create chances for other players to score. We take the games step by step. We don't care what other people say. We just care about what we do and our performances. We just focus on our way of play."

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