Adebayor grabbed his third goal in four games since Sherwood brought him back into the first team, having been left out by former boss Andre Villas-Boas, and the 44-year-old was delighted with his Old Trafford display.
The 29-year-old rose unmarked at the back post to head home a Christian Eriksen cross in the first half to put Spurs 1-0 up, and led the line well until he left the field on a stretcher in the 70th minute.
"He's a top striker," Sherwood said. "One of the best in the league, when he performs like he is at the moment he's almost unstoppable.
"He's massively important to us. He's happy in himself and wants to play every minute.
"He's got ice on every part of his body so we can't tell what's wrong with him, I'm hoping he's not too badly injured."
It was not just Adebayor who impressed Sherwood on Wednesday, the head coach praising all of his injury-ravaged squad for recording back-to-back victories at the home of the defending champions.
"We've got nine players injured so we're having to go with it with a very small squad at the moment," he added.
"We just try to win as many games as we can. We'll try to dig out result and see what we can do. I think we've got good enough players to achieve something, we'll just see what that is.
"I thought we could have played better, we could have moved the ball a bit sharper because they were there for the taking, We didn't do it regular enough but games are won on different qualities.
"We showed the heart of a lion out there. We really dug in when we had to, all credit to the lads for getting a result."
The win moves Tottenham into sixth place in the Premier League and just two points off Liverpool in fourth.
