Mikel was referring to Jakub Kiwior and Oleksandr Zinchenko, who came into our back line this evening following the departure of Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori and put in solid performances to help us get a clean slate.

The coach particularly praised the duo, as well as his goalkeeper David Raya, who made some excellent saves either side of our second goal, including a world-class stop that prevented Matthijs de Ligt from equalizing five minutes before Saliba doubled the lead .

“The way they train every day is not easy – for Jakub it was his first start in the Premier League and for Alex his second (this season) after the first game here against Wolves. They have both played at the highest level against this type of opponent, after not playing much it is very tough. So I am very pleased and grateful for them.

“You really have to push through this kind of resistance. We optimized a few things at halftime, the team was a little clearer, a little more efficient, we did the simple things a lot better and the game was a little more open. We had a few great chances during the game and then scored a goal after two set pieces.

“We didn’t concede anything and in the action that resulted from a throw-in that we didn’t take well, we missed the foul and then they created the chance and David was there to save us.”