While the manner of our 4-0 thrashing of the Italian giants was stunning, lop-sided victories at this stage in continental tournaments have been a norm of late for the Blues who have won games on matchday five by at least four goals in five of our last six appearances in Europe.

This uncanny run began in our 2014/15 Champions League campaign when we travelled to Germany to meet Schalke, needing a win to book our place in the knockout rounds.

The Bundesliga side had held us to a 1-1 draw in our group opener at the Bridge but Chelsea dominated at the Veltins Arena, taking the lead when John Terry headed in a Cesc Fabregas corner after two minutes before a strike by Willian and a Jan Kirchoff own goal put us three-up at half-time.

Willian set up Didier Drogba to tap in our fourth after 76 minutes and the Ivorian then crossed for fellow substitute Ramires to head home shortly afterwards as we won 5-0 and matched a club record for our biggest away win in the Champions League.

A year later, we produced another dominant away performance to sweep aside Maccabi Tel Aviv in Haifa.

The Blues had trounced the Israeli champions 4-0 in our opener and we repeated the result at the Samy Ofer Stadium as Gary Cahill followed up on his saved header to open the scoring after 20 minutes before second-half strikes by Willian, Oscar and Kurt Zouma sealed an emphatic win.

After missing out on the Champions League the following season, we returned in 2017/18 and sealed our passage to the last 16 with a strong performance in Azerbaijan against Qarabag.

The Azeri side went close to taking the lead when Michel struck the crossbar but they struggled to cope with the brilliance of Willian on his 200th appearance for Chelsea. The Brazilian scored twice and also earned two penalties which were converted by Eden Hazard and Fabregas as we ran out 4-0 winners once again.

Chelsea were in the Europa League in 2018/19 but the pattern of big wins on matchday five continued when we hosted Greek side PAOK.

The match was dominated by a veteran and a newcomer as Olivier Giroud put the Blues in control with two well-taken goals in the first half before Callum Hudson-Odoi, on his first-ever European start, stole the show after the interval.

Just three weeks after celebrating his 18th birthday, the youngster notched his first senior goal for the club when he fired home a low right-footed effort after the hour. He then turned provider, crossing for Alvaro Morata to round off the scoring in another 4-0 win.

The only game in the sequence which did not end in a big win for the Blues still produced four goals as we drew 2-2 at Valencia in the Champions League in November 2019 but normal service was resumed when we visited Sevilla last season.

It was a record-setting night for Giroud as he became the first player to score four goals for Chelsea in a Champions League match as we swept aside the Spanish club to seal top spot in the group.

The Frenchman showed himself to be the complete striker as he scored with both feet and his head before completing the scoring with a penalty that he earned himself as we sent down a message of intent to our rivals during our successful march to a second Champions League title.