The applause comes from both sides of the sponsorship boards. The fans, grateful their journey home will be with three points in the bag. And the players, appreciative of the time, money and effort our supporters put into following the Blues across the country.

One of the downsides of being a Premier League head coach is the post-match media commitments immediately after the final whistle often take you away from such moments, but Enzo Maresca has seen the interactions. He is a big fan.

‘We need our fans. We need them. We need this kind of relationship with the players,’ he said.

‘I really like the moment at the end of the game when we win a game and can share that moment with the fans.

‘It is a nice moment for the players, it is a nice moment for the fans and even for us. Unfortunately, we cannot go there as a staff and enjoy that moment [but] we work every day to share that moment at the end with the fans so hopefully we can have that very soon at home and share with all of our fans.

‘We need them away but even more for me at home because we need for them to be patient in some moments.’

The need for patience often comes from the increased difficulty in breaking down opposition defences at home, where visitings sides are usually more compact out of possession.

Maresca will take his team into our opening match of this season’s League Cup campaign in good form, following back-to-back Premier League wins over Bournemouth and West Ham United, meaning it is now three victories in a row on the road in that competition.

That run also includes consecutive clean sheets in our last two matches, and some high-scoring wins – putting six goals past Wolverhampton Wanderers before Saturday’s 3-0 triumph over the Hammers.

Those three away wins were followed by the welcome sight of the Blues players celebrating with the travelling supporters after the final whistle.

And Maresca said: ‘Hopefully, we can share some good moments at home with our fans, that will be important. So hopefully we can give them the win, starting with tomorrow and then hopefully also the next game at home [to Brighton & Hove Albion].’

He continued: ‘It is always nice to share that moment with our fans. But it's even better when we can share that moment at home with all of the stadium.’

The hope will be that Stamford Bridge can become a fortress during the 2024/25 season, and Maresca was asked about the importance of the togetherness between the Blues’ players and fans if they are to make that happen.

‘Absolutely,’ came the reply. ‘Togetherness is probably the main word.’