Mikel Arteta felt that our Champions League win at Slavia Prague was the proverbial game of two halves, as we survived a late scare to pick up another away win in the competition.

Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyokeres gave us the perfect platform with first-half goals, but having allowed Slavia back into the game with a number of chances after the restart, we had to endure a late onslaught after Wiktor Nowak’s 90th-minute strike.

While we held on for the win we came to the Czech Republic for, Mikel feels that we need to learn some lessons tonight to avoid any further nervy endings.

“I’m very happy with the result,” he said. “It’s always very tough to win away from home in the Champions League. We played four games in the competition - three away from home already - so it’s been a very difficult task. 

“Today, we had two very different halves. In the first, we showed incredible standards, high quality, a very high tempo and probably the scoreline should have reflected three, four or five goals. We didn’t make that gap, and at half-time, I said there is a lot to do in this game. This is a team that has huge spirit, they will find a way to create a chaotic moment if you give them the option to do that, and they are able to put you on the back foot. 

“They did that right from the beginning [of the second half]. We dropped our standards, we did some basic things really poorly, we didn’t respect any structure, no concepts applied. When you start to do that, you give them hope. We suffered much more than expected, and that’s credit to them as well.

“We made six changes, that’s a lot, but as well it was our third away game in a row in seven days that we’ve had to do. A lot to learn from the many positives we had in the game, and from some of the struggles we had that we need to put right.”

As well as the recent games at Fleetwood Town, Liverpool and now in the Czech capital, we have found ourselves away from home in 11 of our 16 games this season, yet find ourselves top of the Premier League and third in the Champions League.

On top of winning matches on unfamiliar territory amid hostile crowds, there is also the travel and overnight stays that make the schedule more gruelling. Despite that, we have extended our unbeaten away run in the Champions League to 10 games for the first time in our history, which pleases Mikel hugely, even if he is looking for even more.

“It’s unbelievable, 11 away games already. It’s going to have to level up at some point, because we’ve still got a lot to do. But as I said, it’s always really positive to win away from home in the competition; we value that, but the test that we had at the end - the second-half performance should be much, much better.

“It’s really tough away from home, it’s so hard to win, and we are there. So we’re happy in certain aspects, but there’s still a lot to improve."