Spurs suffer “real blow” ahead of Arsenal clash | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur have received a frustrating setback ahead of the north London derby…

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According to Sky Sports reporter Michael Bridge, Spurs will be without central defender Cristian Romero for their Premier League clash against Arsenal on Sunday evening, despite the Argentina international making good progress on his return from injury.

“He’s obviously going to miss the derby, which is a real blow. I thought he might be back for that,” he revealed to GIVEMESPORT.

A little over two weeks ago, Romero was spotted back in first-team training, which was well ahead of his scheduled return in February, at the very earliest.

Meanwhile, in midweek, manager Antonio Conte revealed to the club’s official website that the 23-year-old was ” very close to coming back.”

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Huge blow

The Atalanta loanee has proven to be an important member of the starting lineup, providing the backline with a ruthless edge alongside the more error-prone Eric Dier and full-back Ben Davies, who has looked decent out of position.

That much has been reinforced by Conte recently.

“We are talking about another important player for us. We lost him for almost two months, and I think we faced this situation in best possible way because Cristian, for sure, is an important player for us,” he added before their Carabao Cup semi-final with Chelsea.

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The £31.5m-rated colossus has featured only 13 times for Spurs since arriving in the summer, largely due to persistent injuries but whenever he’s played, he has excelled.

Indeed, his average WhoScored rating exceeds that of the two aforementioned Lilywhites defenders, whilst no other centre-back averages more tackles per game (2.4) and he also leads the squad for interceptions per game (1.7).

Arsenal have been in better form this season and are actually ahead of Spurs in the race for a top-four finish, so to not have Romero available, as Bridge thought he might well be, will certainly come as a huge blow to Conte and the fanbase.

You’d imagine that the Spurs faithful may be getting a little annoyed by these continuous setbacks, too.