It was certainly a European night to remember for the Blues, as we won at San Siro for the first time in our history against any club. It was a highly tactical game, with Graham Potter and Stefano Pioli going head-to-head in their attempts to gain the upper hand.

• Potter analyses our brilliant win against AC Milan

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It was also a match which can be divided into two sections, with a dramatic shift in the way things were playing out before and after former Chelsea defender Fikayo Tomori was shown a red card 18 minutes in, reducing Milan to 10 men.

Midfield battle of wits

Before that sending off, Milan had set out looking determined to stamp their authority on the midfield at home, after struggling in that area in last week’s 3-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge.

A slight change of shape from Pioli saw Ismael Bennacer operating alone as a deep midfielder, with Sandro Tonali pushed higher up the pitch alongside Rade Krunic, apparently in an attempt to deny Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic time and space on the ball, as well as preventing them from venturing forward too often. The eagerness of the Milan midfield to press our own quickly was shown by the fact Bennacer and Tonali registered the highest number of tackles in the match with four each (level with Kalidou Koulibaly).

The way their shape shifted in and out of possession was also telling, with left-back Theo Hernandez, who returned to captain the Rossoneri after missing the first game through injury, coming inside to provide an extra body in midfield when Milan had the ball, before heading back to the left to help Rafael Leao handle the rampaging Reece James when they lost it.

It would have been interesting to see how that plan would have played out over 90 minutes, but once they lost Tomori any possibility of outnumbering Chelsea in the centre evaporated and they quickly shifted their approach, instead opting to hit longer high balls forward and use Olivier Giroud as a target man, meaning by the end of the game 16 per cent of the home side’s passes were long balls, compared to eight per cent for the Blues.

That plan was thwarted by another assured performance from Thiago Silva, man-marking Giroud on the Brazilian’s 100th Champions League appearance. Those two players won four aerial challenges each – the joint highest on the pitch – but it was the Blues man who came out on top as he ensured that neither of Giroud’s two shots were on target and prevented him from linking up with team-mates, the Frenchman’s 42 per cent pass completion being the lowest of anyone.

Ruthless from Potter

Instead, once Milan were reduced to 10 men, it was Chelsea who took a stranglehold on the midfield, especially after some telling interventions from Potter in the second half to suffocate any space for the home side in that area.

Knowing it would be difficult for the Rossoneri to keep applying pressure and chase the ball, we effectively passed them into the ground. Over the course of the game Milan played 312 passes, completing 253 of them. Both those figures are dwarfed by Chelsea’s 671 completed passes from a total of 712, giving the team an impressive overall pass completion rate of 94 per cent.

As always, Jorginho was a prime example of how to excel in that situation, with his 108 touches on the ball more than double anyone in a Milan shirt, while his 91 passes were far more than the home team’s best, centre-back Matteo Gabbia with 39.

It was Potter’s introduction of Ruben Loftus-Cheek from the bench in the second half which really handed us control of that area of the pitch, though, as he slotted in alongside Jorginho and Kovacic to give us a three-man midfield, who were able to play the ball around almost uncontested. That’s evidenced by the fact in just under half-an-hour Loftus-Cheek played 45 passes – more than any Milan player managed in 90 minutes – and had 49 touches in possession, compared to 43 for Tonali and just 26 for Krunic in the whole game.

Short and sweet from Mason

Mount’s game may only have lasted 45 minutes, as he was withdrawn at half-time as a precaution after picking up a booking, with Potter wary of the large number of cards being dished out by the referee – nine yellows and one red between the two teams in total.

However, Mount certainly made an impact during that time, enjoying a freer role to roam and find the space between the Milan lines while dragging Bennacer away from his position protecting the Milan back four.

It was in just such a situation that he got free in the box before the foul by Tomori which resulted in the red card and penalty and allowed Jorginho to open the scoring. It was another well-timed dart in among the defenders and intelligent pass which saw him set up Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for our second goal.

His creative influence was underlined by the three key passes he produced during the first half, the joint highest of any player during the whole match, alongside fellow Academy graduate Trevoh Chalobah.