‘Every time I play next to him, it feels normal’ – van de Ven relishing Romero reunion

Micky van de Ven feels like he’s in a good place – and is excited at the prospect of reprising his central defensive partnership with Cristian Romero as the duo look to banish some personal demons against Chelsea tonight.

Both have had their fair share of injury woes this term, while neither one has particularly fond memories of facing the Blues over the last couple of years.

They saw their initial tandem return to action cruelly cut short by further setbacks against Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in December, while the equivalent match last term saw us lose Micky to a hamstring problem and Cuti to a red card in the first half, although the team was memorably clapped off at the end for their herculean efforts in spite of the final result.

All that is in the past, though, with Micky, who completed his comeback last month, underlining how he’s “feeling well and ready” as we look to write a new chapter against our London rivals tonight (Thursday 3 April, 8pm UK).

“I’m feeling really good,” he told us at Hotspur Way this week. “I had some extra weeks when the international guys were away – I was not with the national team – so I had some extra time to recover, I’m feeling well and ready to go now. I did everything that I needed to do and this next game is going to be a tough one, but we’re ready for it.”

On working alongside Romero, Micky continued: “My partnership with Cuti is really good – every time I play next to him, it feels normal. I feel the trust he’s got in me and the trust I’ve got in him. We’re always covering each other well, we’re there for each other, one of us will never let the other down and we’ve really got that trust in each other. He’s an unbelievable player as you can see and of course this season, we were both out for around the same amount of time, but I’m really happy to be back next to him and hopefully we can end the season strongly together.”