Our past four games, against Sunderland, Wolves, Tottenham and Qarabag, have yielded two wins, a draw and a defeat. We were in control for much of yesterday’s game in Baku, but a poor spell in the build-up to half-time cost us two goals and left us with an uphill struggle.

It is passages of play such as those Joao Pedro says can prove costly. He doesn’t want it to become a long-term issue.

‘We started well, we were controlling the game, but then we complicated it,’ noted the attacker.

‘We dropped the concentration levels, and if you drop, the other team are going to score. To win games in the Champions League you have to be focused 100 per cent the whole game.

‘We can learn a lot from it. We need to learn to be able to be concentrated for the full game, because if we start to drop points in the Premier League, it will be tough to be in the Champions League next year again.’

Joao Pedro played 70 minutes in Azerbaijan off the back of his match-winning goal in north London on Saturday.

He is one of the players whose minutes are being carefully managed in an effort to ward off injury during what has been a fixture-laden few months. Joao Pedro revealed how he is feeling right now.

He explained: ‘I want to play always. I try to be ready always. It’s tough, but I want to play every game.

‘They are managing me, but I’m okay, I feel good and I want to play every game.’