The German defender has featured regularly since Thomas Tuchel took charge of the team and switched to a back three, starting every Premier League game so far, as our subsequent upturn in form has put us firmly back in the fight at the top of the Premier League table.

However, while evaluating his goals for the remainder of the season, Rudiger insisted we have to take them one at a time, looking to the next target only when the previous one has been achieved, starting with continuing our run of good results when we host Newcastle United tonight.

‘There is the top four and then the title race, I think we have to look to one after the other,’ he said. ‘Newcastle is up next and we have to continue our momentum, keep going and getting results. I think this is the most important thing at the moment.

‘My goal for the season is that we stay in the challenge for the Premier League and top four. For the others, let’s take it step by step. We are still in the Champions League and the FA Cup and everything is open. At a club like this, you want silverware, so we will go for it.’

Another reason for not taking anything for granted in the second half of the campaign is the unpredictability we have seen in the Premier League throughout 2020/21, even more so than usual, making it difficult to predict the outcome of the season for any team.

‘This season is a very strange one,’ added the centre-back. ‘There have been five different teams who have been first. Everyone is dropping points. Now City are doing well for themselves and we started strong at one point, but now it is important to find the right balance and to win back-to-back games, to watch game after game and not look ahead. We need to win them and see every one as a final.’

Impressively, with Rudiger in our defence since Tuchel’s arrival, we have only conceded one goal in five matches. Unfortunately, it came from the defender’s boot, as a mix up with goalkeeper Edouard Mendy resulted in Rudiger putting the ball into his own net.

However, the 27-year-old didn’t shy away from discussing that mishap in our last Premier League fixture, when we went on to win 2-1 away at Sheffield United, taking full responsibility for his mistake while being able to look at the bigger picture of the game as a whole.

‘It was a miscommunication and I should’ve cleared out the ball, but this happens, this is football. It was a difficult match from my side. It was important to go into the second half with the 1-0 lead and then my own goal, it’s football and that happens.

‘For my personal standards, I think I had a very good positive reaction after the own goal and we had a good reaction as a team, because we had a penalty and for myself a couple of saves I did. Overall, it was a good game.’