Back in October, Chelsea fluked a 1-0 win at Brentford’s new ground, with Ben Chilwell – currently out injured – scoring a scorcher against the run of play.

All bets are off, however, as the Blues return to the Community Stadium on Wednesday in the League Cup, with the Bees favourites to snatch victory under the floodlights.

The new stadium is a tricky place for visiting teams, but evening matches are doubly intimidating and the partisan crowd will want to repay Chelsea fans’ crowing two months ago as they left with three smash-and-grab points.

The Blues got out of jail a week ago against their old foe Leeds United, with a contested stoppage-time penalty – one of three in the match – just edging it for the home side.

But weaknesses were on display for all to see, and Thomas Frank, the wily and popular Bees manager, will look to exploit a shakiness in midfield that has become marked at Chelsea since Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante picked up injuries.

The simple fact is that Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Jorginho haven’t yet developed the kind of telepathic bond that the Brazilian No 5 (who turns 30 on Monday) had with Kante. And Jorginho is also proving himself prone to uncharacteristic errors which can also be explained by being alongside a less familiar playing partner.

Thomas Tuchel is trying to iron out the mistakes and reimpose the Blues’ trademark passing and possession game, but in the short term there’s a vulnerability that Brentford will be working to exploit.