Tomas, who has largely played right back this campaign but who reverted to centre half at the weekend, has been praised by Alan Pardew for his form this campaign - and Steve echoes his manager's thoughts.
"Tomas has kept his cool and has not been suspended and that is important for the team; he is a quality player and if he misses games we miss him," he says.
"He has been different class and is worth every penny of what he cost - he stops me being so busy."
The game against Stoke marks Alan's first full year in charge and Steve says:
"Someone told me last week that it was a year and it has gone really quickly.
"He has come in and with his rules, has instilled a lot of discipline, and the lads respect him.
"He keeps the lads going and it is good all round; if I hadn't thought the year had gone so quickly that would have meant it felt like a grind - but it hasn't."
Steve wants to reward his manager with two home wins on the trot against Stoke and Gillingham in the next few days and he adds:
"We need two wins in the next two home games where we are strong and we have to keep pushing the top teams - if they see West Ham up there they will feel the pressure and might slip up a few times and then we can capitalise on that.
"It is still early doors but now is the time to get the points in because the games go by so fast you don't really notice.
"At Christmas you start looking at the table so you need to get the points before then.
"Our squad is a heck of a lot better than the majority of clubs in our league and the lads are motivated.
"We know how disappointed we were last year and we don't want to be in that position this time.
"We are going for the title though if someone said we are guaranteed second in May then I would take that.
Looking back on the weekend, he says:
"It was a disappointment; the lads did their best but we didn't get the three points - they weren't great and we weren't the best either.
"We are better than that and we have to show it in the next couple of games.
"The main thing is that although we defended well we didn't score; I have not had much to do, to be honest, as the lads in front of me have been superb.
"It is annoying not to keep a clean sheet especially when other sides are not getting many chances.
"Now we have a lot of players coming back and we just need to get on a roll of Saturday-Tuesday games.
"Hopefully we can get our momentum going against Stoke; the lads are up for it and have been magnificent.
"I was personally a bit down about Saturday but you need to forget about it and the best thing about football is that there is always another game - that is the way I am thinking, and it should be a good atmosphere against Stoke with the fans behind us."