The Spanish defender was one of the more experienced members of a young Blues group and played 90 minutes in the friendly against Aston Villa that brought the curtain down on our time in the Middle East.

John McGinn’s goal sealed a 1-0 win for Unai Emery’s men but our time away in the sun was about so much more than the 90 minutes against the Villans, with Cucurella left encouraged by the work put in on the pitches at our training base.

• Watch Champions League football at the Bridge this Christmas

• Read the report from our game against Villa in Abu Dhabi

• Watch: Reece James on his return to training

‘The week has been good for us to stay together and work for the second part of the season,’ he said after the game at Al Nahyan Stadium. ‘We played really good with a lot of young players and we created chances to score goals.

‘We’ve been training together at Cobham as well during this break and they have played really good. They are young and they need to learn but they have a lot of energy and a lot of qualities to play with us.’

Cucurella claims the Blues will be treating the Premier League resumption after Christmas as the start of a new chapter and believes the opportunity for Graham Potter and his staff to have time with the players in the absence of frenetic match action has been invaluable.

Potter reported after the Villa game that the likes of Reece James, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ben Chilwell would step closer to full team training this week, while those World Cup players knocked out in the early rounds will also soon return to club duty.

‘This is maybe another season that starts on 27 December, which is good for us,’ he continued. ‘The last part we didn’t play really good or take good results but this is a new season. We have to stay together, play good football and win the games.

‘After the coach arrived, it was difficult training because we had a lot of games but now we have had a lot of time to train and to prepare for the second part of the season. Everything is a process and we need to know his ideas but with each other this week has been really good for us.

‘He’s a good manager, his ideas are good and his style is attacking to play good football. We also have the big players to carry out his ideas.

‘It’s good training together because you need to know your team-mates and their movements. Now I think we are ready for the second part of the season.’

The 24-year-old finished by reflecting on the main differences between life at Brighton and Chelsea after his first six months as a player at Stamford Bridge.

‘I’ve really enjoyed it but of course it’s difficult,’ he added. ‘You have more pressure and you need to win every day. At Brighton it’s different because you don’t have the same pressures and it’s not a big, big club so that has been the one big change for me.

‘I know when we play every Saturday the other team has a lot of energy to beat us and this is a big change as well but it’s just amazing for me to be at such a big club. It’s every player’s dream to play here.’