It was interesting to hear Thomas Tuchel delivering the ‘Don’t Panic’ speech after the home defeat to Brentford. There was more of a cool Douglas Adams in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy vibe about his demeanour than a Corporal Jones from Dad’s Army attitude. Apologies to anyone under a certain age for the analogy, but it means he wasn’t in a panic himself when he said Don’t Panic.

Chelsea fans in general currently have a decent outlook when it comes to perspective. In the grand scheme of things 4-1 sounds like nothing more than an anomaly and a minor annoyance in the current circumstances.

The run of form and results in the build-up to Saturday was impressive by any standards and we still have a decent cushion in the race for the top four, even after dropping those three points. There is also the small matter of the experiments and calculated risks the manager took for the game, most specifically going to a back four when our side is as good as there is in the business with a back three and wing-backs. It was worth another look, but is unlikely to be used again soon as a starting system, unless there are a raft of injuries and suspensions to defenders.

The defenders can play in a back four, but they are much more practised in the alternate line-up they have been used to under Thomas. In that it wasn’t broke, it is likely Thomas will not be looking to fix it when Real Madrid arrive at the Bridge tomorrow. Weirdly I didn’t think Chelsea played that badly, and unsurprisingly the stats showed more possession (70/30), more shots on goal, more corners and many more passes by the Blues, way more than double, with far better accuracy on our side of the ledger too.

If Real Madrid think they can watch this game back and expect the same result, performance, system and even personnel, especially in the midfield, they will be very disappointed. This will be one of those special nights when I have no doubt it will be a pleasure to be at Stamford Bridge, maybe even a game to be talked about for years and decades to come.

At the moment I, slightly self-indulgently, have to admit I will not be there. Under the current sanctions I have not been able to attend and have no idea when I will be able to get back in the ground.

I will not however be moaning about it. There are many Chelsea fans who have that feeling every single week and getting to a Champions League match against Real Madrid would be nothing less than a dream come true.

Even so, being glued to the TV will no doubt be exciting enough. It should be a great opportunity to see some of the world’s best go head-to-head. Karim Benzema up against Thiago Silva is a duel that may rarely if ever be savoured again at this level. They are two of the best proponents of their positions of their generation.

Even the compare and contrast possibilities between Benzema and Kai Havertz will be an interesting enough study. Their styles are very different, but could the younger German man one day end up with as many trophies or important goals than the older Frenchman? More important than that, who will shine brightest on the night?

One player who would have been keen to watch our last game was Luca Modric, as much to study one of our opponents as our own players. The evergreen Modric must have spotted how well Christian Eriksen did at Stamford Bridge at the weekend. Although they are far from being exactly the same player, they share enough in common in terms of style that the Croatian will have got a lift from the Dane’s performance. Then again, anyone could get a lift from seeing Eriksen just simply walk on a football field and being among us.

I believe the Chelsea fans were fulsome with their praise, which was the right and classy way to behave, even if he did once play for a certain other team in north London. Well done everyone there.

The concentration will however now be legitimately totally focused on Carlo Ancelotti’s side from here on in. After the weekend’s defeat against the Bees and the fact that they are speeding ahead in La Liga with Barcelona only barely visible in the rear-view mirror, it might lead some to believe they are favourites for this tie. I am certainly not convinced that is the case. We are still European champions and as holders there must be some respect for what happened last season. There is also the small matter of the Premier League being far more competitive than La Liga at the moment, and most would argue it has a higher general standard, though there are more than a few Spaniards who would disagree.

The Champions League final last season was contested by two English clubs and as it stands there are three Spanish and three English left in the last eight. After these quarter-finals, we should have a decent idea of whether this really is the new order.

Spanish clubs all but dominated this competition for a decade, but the Premier League has provided two of the last three winners. If Villarreal, Atletico Madrid or Real do not reach Paris this time, the argument for the true powerbase will be hard to win if you are from Spain, which will be as painful to accept as any single defeat their clubs have ever had. This tie will be as good a pointer to the answer as we can have in the meantime.