Chelsea have been building momentum during the first few weeks of Liam Rosenior's leadership, including securing back-to-back victories in his first two Premier League matches and qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League with victory over Napoli on Wednesday night.

Both the Premier League wins came in London derbies, against Brentford and Crystal Palace, and another Premier League capital clash is coming up next, when we host West Ham at the Bridge on Saturday.

The Hammers struggled during the first half of the season, under Graham Potter initially and then Nuno Espirito Santo, but have recovered recently to record three consecutive victories in all competitions, leaving Cucurella wary of the challenge we face, even if he remains confident given our form.

‘I’m quite happy,’ began the left-back. ‘Always you can improve things and you can do better, but in general I think we are finding the right way again, winning ways, and hopefully we can continue in this way until the end of the season.

‘Playing against West Ham is always really tough. In the end it is a London derby and always we need to win. They are coming from two [league] wins in a row and I think they’ve improved a lot.

‘Hopefully we can play this game and we can win it. We are improving as well. We know better now what the head coach [Rosenior] expects from us, what we can improve. Hopefully we can play a really good game and take the three points.’

As well as looking ahead to the weekend, Cucurella reflected on the attributes he brings to the Chelsea team and how the early years of his career in his native Spain and Barcelona’s famed La Masia youth academy shaped him as a player.

‘I’m a very intense player,’ he added. ‘I always try to help the team and help my team-mates. I think I have a big character. I like to always show fighting spirit, to defend my team-mates, to be a very tough opponent to play against.

‘I grew up in La Masia so I always tried to watch the players at Barcelona. I’d say Jordi Alba was probably my reference because I grew up watching him play and tried to always see if I could learn some things about his style.

‘In Spain, when you grow in the academies, they try to teach you to play with the ball, to have good control and passing of the ball. I think that is probably one of the most important things that all the Spanish players have.’

Hopefully all those qualities will be on display from our Spaniard at the Bridge on Saturday, to help us secure a third consecutive Premier League victory when West Ham come to SW6.