The Blues ended the calendar year with defeat on the road, being edged out 2-0 at Portman Road despite dominating possession and creating a number of good chances.

Cole Palmer hit the woodwork twice, while Joao Felix had a goal disallowed following a VAR check as we looked to exert our dominance in the first half in Suffolk.

However, an early Liam Delap penalty and a further strike in the second half from former Chelsea winger Omari Hutchinson saw Kieran McKenna’s men take the points and left Cucurella to reflect on a case of ‘what might have been’ for the Blues.

‘It’s frustrating for us, of course,’ the defender said shortly after full-time at Portman Road.

‘It was one of those games where I think we created a lot of chances that we couldn’t take advantage of and unfortunately we conceded two easy goals, from our perspective.

‘We are disappointed but we can’t be downhearted, and we must work hard for the next game. This month has been difficult because we have played a lot of games and now, we must look forward and try to get back to winning ways.

‘Against Ipswich, we didn’t have the luck with us but this sometimes happens in football. It’s one of those things and I think we just need to focus on the positive aspects and keep working hard.

‘As a team, we never get too high when we win or too low when we lose. This remains the same and we just need to stick together, keep working hard and I’m sure the results will come again.’

Enzo Maresca felt it was a ‘strange’ game with the Tractor Boys, believing we were punished for some small errors while not taking our chances, and that is an assessment that our Spanish left-back concurred with.

Cucu was quick to point out that we’ve had a strong first half of the season and sees no reason why we can’t improve further as we head into the new year.

‘Overall, we had a few small mistakes which we need to correct going forward but I think if you look at the first half of the season, we have been doing very well,’ the left-back stated.

‘Of course, we want to win every game and the last few results are disappointing but if we can play at our best like we have been doing, then we know we are capable of pushing forward in the table.’