Jan Vertonghen: 'I feel like a footballer again'

Result aside, Jan Vertonghen was delighted to finally be back in action on Sunday afternoon against Manchester United.

Centre-back Jan returned to the side for the first time since our 1-1 Champions League draw with Barcelona over a month ago, having sustained a problem with his quad towards the end of the tie.

That was the Belgian’s second injury setback of the season, having previously missed the entirety of October and the bulk of November with a hamstring issue.

The defender now hopes that his injury worries are behind him and wants to kick on for the rest of the campaign in order to rediscover the kind of form that saw him named Player of the Season in 2017/18.

“Physically, I felt in great shape (on Sunday) and I’m very happy to be back. I felt like a football player again and that’s what I wanted,” our number five explained.

“I think (the injuries) were just unlucky and now I just want to be ready to go and help the team again.”

Jan’s comeback ultimately ended in disappointment as we suffered a frustrating 1-0 defeat to the Red Devils at Wembley.

While we had put no less than 11 shots on target in the second half alone, we could not find a way past United’s David de Gea, whose team escaped with all three points thanks to Marcus Rashford’s winner on 44 minutes.

For 31-year-old Jan, while the result was naturally disappointing, he is confident that we will bounce back quickly as we continue to battle on all four fronts.

“We are still competing for everything and I’m sure we’ll get back to more positive things soon,” he added.

“I don’t think we are affected at all. We are a team that focuses on quality and I think we showed that (on Sunday). We won't allow ourselves to be affected by the result and we're already looking forward to next weekend's match (against Fulham).”