We succumbed 4-1 at St James’ Park, Newcastle running away with the game in the final half-hour, a period in which Reece James was sent off and Cucurella picked up a fifth caution of the season. It rules him out of next weekend’s meeting with his former club Brighton.

‘We came here in a good way but we didn’t show our character,’ reflected Cucurella after our first away defeat since August.

‘We played very bad. We didn’t have a good performance. We made too many mistakes which you can’t do at this level. It’s not like we are conceding incredible goals, they are little mistakes. We need to improve on these things in training.

‘Every duel we lost gave them more confidence, but this is not an excuse. We didn’t show our personality. We need to change this. It’s very difficult in this league if you don’t show your character.’

What made the result and especially the performance all the more frustrating was that it came on the back of the 4-1 win at Tottenham and 4-4 draw with Manchester City.

Cucurella knows if we are to start challenging towards the top of the table we must string results together.

‘We have a lot of talent but we need to show that every week. It’s not enough to show it one week and then not the next. We need to be more consistent.

‘We need to delete this game and see the mistakes, and then we need to show our character next week.

‘When you have a good result you are not the best team, and when you lose you are not the worst, so we need to stay together in these bad moments and train hard because we have a very important game next week.’