Both strikers will be facing their former club at Stamford Bridge, with Aubameyang starting his professional career at AC Milan and Giroud winning the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021 before moving to San Siro that summer.

• The latest injury and team news ahead of facing AC Milan

• Potter on Koulibaly's fantastic response

• Kovacic gives his own preview of our match with AC Milan

After Aubameyang scored his first goal in a Chelsea shirt in our 2-1 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday, Koulibaly is in no doubt what a big role the summer signing from Barcelona can play for the Blues against AC Milan and for the rest of the season, although he knows he is far from the only attacking player we can count on.

‘Everybody knows Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, we know that he is an important player for us,’ said the Senegal international. ‘He used to score a lot in the Premier League, he did it also in Barcelona last year and now we are happy to be with him today.

‘We know that he can give us a lot because he can score a lot of goals and it is hard to take him in training because he is talented, but I think in training everybody is difficult to take because we have a lot of talent in this team. We know that we can score at any time, even if sometimes it is a little bit difficult.

‘I have confidence in our strikers, I know that they will always score for us, the most important thing is to not let in goals at the back when we know that up front we have players like Raheem, like Pierre-Emerick, so we know that we can score a lot. So he will give us his experience and I hope that he will have big season this year, to score a lot of goals and to try to win something.’

Turning his attention to our opponents AC Milan, Koulibaly shared his experience of playing against Giroud after coming up against him with Napoli last season as the Rossoneri claimed the Italian league title.

‘It’s true that Giroud is a big player. He showed it in Serie A last year, he scored a lot of goals, also in Chelsea he used to score a lot of goals. Last year he did good work with the Scudetto win of AC Milan so I think he is a dangerous striker.

‘We have to always be aware of him because he can score at any time. So we know that we will have a tough game tomorrow for the defenders but we will be ready for this game, to win this game, because the most important thing tomorrow is that he doesn’t score and that Chelsea win.’

Of course, Koulibaly also knows all about AC Milan as a team from his many years playing in Italy, pointing out that their many successes, recently at domestic level and historically in Europe, means they are opponents who have to be respected, even if he is confident Chelsea have what it takes to come out on top.

‘They have a good team, a great team. We know that Milan have a good story in the Champions League, they have won it a lot. Last year they made a really good championship, they won the Scudetto with a lot of good players, talented players.

‘We know that they are really dangerous and I think that they got some good points at the beginning of the round. They have a lot of quality up front and at the back. They have young players who are used to playing in the big games.

‘So we know everything about them and they are a really good team. We know our opponents, I know them very well personally, we know they are very dangerous, but we saw that Napoli beat them at home this season, we watched a tape on that game. We know that they are a dangerous team but we have the key to unlock them and win this game.’