This evening we welcome Ernesto Valverde and his Athletic Club squad to St. James’ Park. Ernesto is very experienced on the European stage, and his teams are always well coached and difficult opponents. We know in this competition there are no easy games, and tonight will be another tough test for us.

In our last home game against Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup, we took the opportunity to rotate the squad and give some minutes to some of our first team players who needed them. Importantly, we picked a side we felt were capable of winning the game, and made a really positive start, which was rewarded midway through the first half when Fabian Schär gave us the lead.

We continued to push for a second goal for the rest of the first half, we started the second half in the same vein and doubled our lead soon after half time with another goal from Nick Woltemade. Spurs have plenty of quality and are never out of the match, so we had to show the other side of our game and defend well as a unit.

The players deserve credit for their game management and collective desire to defend as a unit. We secured the win, a clean sheet and booked our place in the quarter-finals of a competition we love to play in, where we will face another Premier League opponent in Fulham. Having played them in the league recently, we know all about their qualities, but it’s a game we will look forward to, especially with the boost of another home draw.

Last Sunday, our focus returned to the Premier League when travelled down to London to face West Ham United. We made a fast start when Jacob Murphy scored an excellent goal, and we looked to build on our lead. We also know that if we drop below the high standards we set ourselves, every team at this level is capable of beating anyone else.

While I could never fault the players commitment or work ethic, we didn’t manage to hit the levels we’ve shown in the previous three matches and were unable to get the outcome we wanted as a result.

We have an incredibly strong dressing room, full of very good professionals who deserve the praise that’s been given to them in recent times, but importantly who never shy away from learning from any setbacks and reacting well to difficult moments. Time and time again, a difficult match has been the catalyst for a strong and consistent run, and we will all work hard to ensure this is the case again.

This process began immediately on the training pitch, and the beauty of our fixture list is that we never need to wait too long for the next match to get back on track. It comes tonight in the Champions League, where we will give everything possible to build on our recent positive form in the competition. Your support at the London Stadium when things didn’t go our way meant so much. Thank you for always backing us, and we will do our best to reward your loyalty which we never take for granted.

Eddie Howe