The 20-year-old took a little time to adjust to his new surroundings during his debut campaign in English football, after joining Chelsea from Ajax in his homeland the Netherlands last summer.

However, he has been one of the Blues’ stand-out performers during the second half of the season and impressed both on and off the ball in our defence.

That was seen again when we beat Tottenham at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, especially with one crucial challenge late on to keep the score at 2-1, and McFarlane highlighted Hato’s progress ahead of Sunday’s trip to Sunderland.

‘It's always challenging for someone so young coming from a different league,’ said our interim head coach. ‘I think the Premier League's a really unique league and it takes time to get used to.

‘I had that conversation with Jorrel when I took interim charge the first time. Since then, since Christmas, I think he's been probably our best performer – or one of them, alongside a few others. He's been exceptional.

‘That moment in the game, the block at the end against [James] Maddison, is massive for our season. So that kind of summarises his level and we're really pleased with Jorrel, he's in a really good place.’

Speaking on the day that many countries’ squads for this summer’s FIFA World Cup were confirmed, McFarlane also had words of encouragement for those members of his team who were disappointed to learn they will be spending their summer at home.

‘I think in life and in football, especially in football, I've learned that you need to take every set-back as a positive,’ he added.

‘There are going to be lots of them. There are going to be losses, there are going to be moments like this, and if you have the right mindset, you can turn it into a positive.

‘The reason they're at this level and able to play for a club of this magnitude is because they can deal with set-backs.

‘If they didn't have that resilience, they wouldn't be international footballers. They wouldn't have won the competitions they've won. They wouldn't be as good as they are as players. So they'll be able to deal with any set-back.’

That leaves him with no concerns the disappointment could affect those players’ performance in what is a crucial game against Sunderland on the final day of the Premier League season, which will decide our fate in the fight for European qualification.

‘Training was really good today. I was pleased with all the boys' mindset, mentality. The way they trained was really good.

‘They're professionals, they're top players and we all know, we highlighted it weeks ago, we need to win as many Premier League games as we can before the end of the season. We've got one more to go, and we need to get three points.’