It has certainly been a successful 2021 for Jorginho so far, who followed up last season’s Champions League glory by playing a key role in Italy’s Euro 2020 triumph during the summer, before winning another trophy at Windsor Park in our first competitive match of the new campaign.

While the midfielder admits he is proud of those achievements, he gets the greatest joy from the feeling of togetherness in the squad.

He also sees a lot of potential still to come from this youthful Chelsea squad, believing that if we can keep our hunger and focus there will plenty more nights of celebration ahead for the Blues.

‘I’m really happy, but I’m more happy for the group than personally to be honest because when everyone is going all together it feels even better,’ explained Jorginho. ‘It is an amazing group, a young group, so I think we can enjoy a lot of moments together.

‘But for now we need to stay humble and always be hungry for trophies, to win, because when you get used to it and get too comfortable and think you have done enough, that is when you go down.

‘We need to keep working hard, talking a lot, because it’s very important, so I think we have a lot to do still.’

One team-mate in particular who Jorginho was delighted to see celebrating in Belfast was Kepa Arrizabalaga, who has had to remain patient for opportunities in the team since the arrival of Edouard Mendy at the start of last season.

The Spanish goalkeeper came off the bench late in extra-time against Villarreal to take his spot between the posts for the decisive penalties, saving efforts from Aissa Mandi and Raul Albiol to become our shoot-out hero.

‘It was amazing and he deserves it because he works so hard and he did very well. He always trains very hard, he’s always positive with the group, with his team-mates. So I cheer for him all the time and I’m so happy for him that he had this night.’

Before the shoot-out, the game had swung back and forth, as we took the lead through Hakim Ziyech in a first half we dominated, but conceded an equaliser as Villarreal fought back after the break, before applying more pressure of our own in extra time, going close on a couple of occasions but being unable to find a winning goal.

Jorginho believes that on the balance of play we were deserving winners, but gave our opponents plenty of credit for the way they came back into the game in the second half.

‘They were playing with more courage, they were playing with more risk because they were one goal down and then they had the control for some moments of the game. They scored and then we had the control of the game and we could push and push and push, and to be honest I think we deserved it.’