Chelsea are back at Stamford Bridge for our next match as we return to Premier League action, with high-flying Arsenal the visitors in a London derby, and Graham Potter is under no illusion about the difficulty of the task ahead when we take on a Gunners side who started this weekend top of the Premier League table and have lost just one league game this season, winning 10 of their 12 fixtures so far.

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Our head coach readily acknowledges that our opponents’ form demands to be respected when we meet on the pitch, but insists that won’t stop his Blues team from aiming to control the game at the Bridge.

‘That’s the challenge,’ said Potter. ‘Arsenal is a step up, so we have to respect the opponent and what they do well, and try to bring our own game. We’re at Stamford Bridge and it’s important we try to do that. We want to impose ourselves as much as we can.

‘It’s an important game, but success isn’t built by one match. You need to work, decide who and how you’re playing. It’s a process of pain and suffering, but you clearly need results along the way.’

One place where the results and performances definitely have been coming is in the Champions League. Following a 1-1 draw with Red Bull Salzburg in Potter’s first game in charge, and his debut in the competition, we won all four of our remaining European fixtures to qualify for the knock-out stages with a game to spare.

The icing on the cake arrived in midweek, when we came from behind to defeat Dinamo Zagreb at the Bridge in our last group fixture, and Potter discussed the extra edge we seem to have in the Champions League compared to domestic games while highlighting the need to replicate that European form in the Premier League as another challenge for him and his team.

‘I’m not 100 per cent sure why that is. The Premier League gives you a slightly different challenge in terms of how the game is played.

‘It’s not for the want of trying. It’s just so happened we have had better games in the Champions League. The challenge for us is to try to reproduce that form in the Premier League.’

Of course, the initial chances to do that are limited, as after today’s match against Arsenal and next week’s trip to Newcastle United, the Premier League will be put on pause until Boxing Day as club football takes a break for the upcoming World Cup.

While you may expect our head coach to be frustrated by that interruption to any momentum he is building at Chelsea, in fact he believes it will be a welcome opportunity to take stock and review our progress, given the limited time he has had for planning ahead during the hectic fixture schedule since he arrived at Stamford Bridge in November.

‘It’s going to be very important. It’s been a crazy time. Starting the season at Brighton, then quickly here, it happened so fast, international break and then October was 11 games, crazy.

‘Trying to understand everybody, the players, you need a bit of time to reflect and give you time to settle, recharge and go again. We need to understand how we can help in January and moving forwards. It’s a culmination of work and reflection.

‘Fingers crossed the players come back healthy and positive and enjoying their football and they can hit the ground running with us.’