Having guided the Seagulls to their highest-ever league finish last season (ninth), the 47-year-old made the switch to Stamford Bridge in September when they were fourth in the table after taking 13 points from their first six games of the campaign.

It has been seven years since a Chelsea head coach last came up against one of his former teams in December 2015 when the Blues under Jose Mourinho hosted Porto in our final match of the Champions League group stage.

We had been beaten 2-1 in Portugal earlier in the campaign but an early own goal by Ivan Marcano and a well-taken effort by Willian just after the interval secured a comfortable 2-0 win as we secured our progression to the last 16.

It was Mourinho’s third victory in three home games against Porto as Chelsea manager following our 3-1 success in the 2004/05 group stage and 2-1 win in the last 16 in 2006/07. However, he didn’t fare so well on his return visits to the Estadio do Dragao as the Blues were beaten 2-1 in December 2004 and held to a 1-1 draw in February 2007.

The victory against his former club provided only a brief respite for our Portuguese manager as he parted company with Chelsea a few days later after a 2-1 loss at Leicester City left us hovering just outside the Premier League’s relegation zone.

It was a grim echo of the fate which had befallen Roberto Di Matteo three year earlier. Having returned to Stamford Bridge as an assistant manager in the summer of 2011, the former Blues midfielder was elevated to caretaker manager the following March when Andre Villas-Boas was dismissed after a 1-0 away loss to West Bromwich Albion, the club Di Matteo had guided to promotion to the Premier League just a couple of seasons earlier.

While the goal-scoring hero of our 1997 and 2000 FA Cup and 1998 League Cup triumphs added to his legend by guiding the Blues to success in the FA Cup and Champions League, his reign would come to an end after only eight months, not long after another disappointing visit to the Hawthorns.

Under Di Matteo’s ex-Chelsea team-mate, Steve Clarke, West Brom put one over their former manager by beating us 2-1 to extend our winless run in the league to four games and the Italian moved on three days later after a defeat at Juventus effectively scuppered our Champions League hopes.

Rafael Benitez replaced Di Matteo on an interim basis and the Spaniard would also lead the Blues against his former club in April 2013 when we visited Anfield for a controversial clash against Liverpool.

With Chelsea leading 2-1 through an Oscar header and Eden Hazard penalty, Luis Suarez escaped any punishment after biting Branislav Ivanovic’s arm. The Uruguayan was later banned for 10 games but it came as cold comfort for the Blues on the day as he equalised in the seventh minute of stoppage time to rescue a 2-2 draw for Benitez’s former club.

Under Glenn Hoddle, Swindon Town were promoted to the Premier League in 1993 but their talismanic manager’s departure for Chelsea after their dramatic play-off victory over Leicester City saw them struggle in their only top-flight campaign to date.

Not surprisingly, he received a frosty reception from Robins fans when we visited the County Ground on New Year’s Day 1994 when goals by Neil Shipperley, Mark Stein and Dennis Wise sealed our first away league victory for over a year as we won 3-1.

We completed the double against our player-manager’s former club at the Bridge in April as Wise again got on the scoresheet with a penalty before Gavin Peacock also found the net in our 2-0 win.

The first Premier League match involving a Chelsea manager and his former club came in the inaugural season when Ian Porterfield was in charge for the visit of Sheffield United to Stamford Bridge in October 1992.

Andy Townsend netted for the Blues but the Blades, a side Porterfield had coached from 1981 to 1986, responded through Adrian Littlejohn and Brian Deane as they returned to South Yorkshire with three points after a 2-1 win.