The Blues were held to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge despite dominating possession and the shot count. A moment of brilliance from Ebere Eze shortly before the hour pegged us back after Nicolas Jackson’s opener, and we couldn’t make our late pressure tell. Fofana offered his assessment afterwards.

‘It’s hard because we gave everything on the pitch and we didn’t win the game,’ he said.

‘The Premier League is like this: when you don’t kill the game, you leave the other team alive. It’s difficult. We played well, and they defended well in the second half.

‘We had chances. We play at home, we normally win. From now we try to manage this and score more goals in the other games.’

Three games into the league campaign and five overall, including our early Conference League exploits, Fofana believes the Blues are heading in the right direction.

‘We are creating good things,' he stated.

'Every game is better. We have more energy, more quality with the ball. When we press, we create good things. Now we need to win games.’

On a personal level, the Frenchman is just delighted to be back out on the pitch having missed the entirety of last season through injury. He has been selected by Enzo Maresca in each of our three league games so far.

‘I enjoy every minute after a long period without football,’ smiled Fofana.

‘I’m very happy. Now we cut a little bit [for the international break], and we come back after to play games and win games.’

Fofana had earned a recall to the French national team for their upcoming Nations League fixtures against Italy and Belgium, but following discussions with Didier Deschamps it has been decided he will stay in London as he continues to build up his fitness after last season’s serious ACL injury.