“Some people are saying this group is over but in our view it is not. We know that people will think we are favourites to qualify, but we cannot get carried away.

“Ukraine have shown themselves to be a useful side, Croatia are a good team and Belarus gave us a difficult game over there. So we cannot allow any complacency to creep in.

“We are building but you can see how far we have come in a short space of time but there is still a long way to go until the World Cup and there’s a lot of improvement still to make and hopefully we will be a lot better come next summer.”

As in Saturday’s slaying of Slovakia, Gerrard was employed ostensibly in a left midfield role with a licence to roam and link up with Wayne Rooney in attack.

While not quite as effective against Ukraine, there were nevertheless signs the pairing could prove a profitable venue for England to exploit.

And Gerrard admits he is again playing with a smile on his face thanks to Capello’s tactical nous.

“It’s nice the manager believes in me enough to give me that freedom to play,” he says. “I’m on the left wing and I’m given a licence to cut in and get involved, and I enjoy that.

“You don’t get a CV like Fabio Capello’s if you are not clever and know where to play people. He’s a good manager and he seems to have found a solution to getting attacking players in the team and I’m enjoying it.

“It’s pleasing that I’ve had two assists in my last two games, but I know I’ll have to keep building on that kind of performance.

“I think that me and Wayne have linked up well. Everyone knows that Wayne is a top player, he picks up good positions and it’s easy to play with someone like that. It’s much easier to build up possession. Hopefully we can improve that partnership.

“Having a partnership like that is always important as a player, but for a team you need those kind of partnerships, that kind of relationship, all across the pitch.

“It’s all about pointing the team in the right direction. There are a lot of players who have had to sacrifice their natural game over the years and it’s all about qualifying for the World Cup and the team, not individuals. We have done well over the last few games.”

England end the season by travelling to Kazakhstan on June 6 before entertaining Andorra four days later, knowing two more victories would move them to the brink of qualification.

But Gerrard accepts that with many of the England squad members battling for honours in both the Premier League and Champions League, tiredness may prove a dangerous factor.

“It would be easy to go into those games and think you have to turn up and get the points,” he says. “But we may be tired. To me, my season ends with the Andorra game because anything less than maximum points is no good.

“It would be an absolute disaster to go away in the summer thinking about dropped points.”