It was a night when both sides struggled to maintain control for any significant length of time. Goals, spells of dominance and errors were traded at regular intervals, leading to a helter-skelter matchday six encounter that culminated in Chelsea finishing second in Group H.

Fast out the blocks

The Blues had started so well. Saul fashioned a clear goalscoring opportunity for himself inside 50 seconds, and from the resulting corner Timo Werner put us ahead with a landmark goal.

Early on Zenit struggled to get to grips with Mason Mount, who drifted behind or to the side of Werner and Romelu Lukaku, finding pockets of space between the lines to knit our attacking play together.

With Saul and Callum Hudson-Odoi regularly in the final third the Blues created overloads and pinned our hosts back in the process, sensing an opportunity to grab a second goal and potentially end the contest.

Half-hour to forget

It was not forthcoming, however, and as individual mistakes crept in Zenit began to find their feet, squeezing us higher up the pitch and exploiting the space between our wing-backs and wide centre-backs.

Thomas Tuchel noted the shift in his side’s approach from the 15th minute until half-time, and the boss expressed concern the Blues have started letting themselves get affected by the scoreline at any given moment, rather than focusing on the pre-match gameplan.

Let’s look at that half-hour period in more detail. We lost possession on seven occasions, accounting for nearly half the total times we did so over the 90 minutes (18). Zenit had eight shots and won four tackles, both figures four times as many as we managed in the same timeframe.

In our attempts to stem the Zenit danger we committed four fouls; the Russians recorded none at all in the entire first half.

As well as conceding twice, Kepa made two superb one-on-one saves to deny the dangerous Sardar Azmoun. It is not only the quantity of efforts Zenit created in that 30-minute spell that will have concerned Tuchel, but also the quality of them. His Chelsea team have simply not allowed the opposition so many clear sights of goal in one game, let alone half-an-hour.

Having conceded three goals for the first time this season at West Ham, we let in two in the Champions League in three minutes, bringing to an end an 18-game run in the competition of not conceding or doing so just once.

Intricacy reaps rewards

Half-time came at a good time, and the Blues rediscovered our early tempo and control after the break. Eight of our 13 shots overall came in the second half - five of them on target - and we dominated possession with a 61 per cent share. Werner netted with two of his (joint game-high) five attempts, while Lukaku scored with his solitary effort on goal after good work from the German to get behind an increasingly deep and defensive Zenit rearguard.

It was a similar story for our third goal, this time Werner the scorer and sub Christian Pulisic the defence-splitter, as our combination play in and just outside the box looked crisper than in the loss at West Ham.

New role for Reece

The selection of Reece James in central midfield, for the first time under Tuchel from the off, added extra strength and range to that part of the team. When we were on top for a sustained period in the second half it was the 22-year-old dictating our tempo on his birthday.

James was in possession a game-high 8.1 per cent of the time, and kept the ball impressively when he was, misplacing just five of his 81 passes, equating to a 94 per cent completion rate.

He was not dribbled past once nor dispossessed as he won three tackles out of three. He was also successful with both his attempted dribbles and the two aerial duels he went up for.

Although Chelsea were targeting top spot we have secured qualification to the Champions League knockout stages for the 18th time in 19 attempts. With our formidable cup record under Tuchel it is safe to say Ajax, Bayern Munich, Lille and Real Madrid will all be hoping to avoid the name of Chelsea when the draw for the round of 16 is made.