Like Atalanta, who beat the Londoners last time out in December, the resort-city club are also fresh adversaries, the 104th different club the Blues have faced across all European competitions since 1958.

Cyprus’ current league champions also lost 2-0 in Italy to Juventus on matchday six, but now have a new manager in Albert Celades, previously of Valencia.

With a boss-level trip to face Antonio Conte’s Napoli a week away, the Londoners stand 13th, two points away from a coveted top-eight place and direct access to the round of 16.

Pafos lie 27th in the Champions League standings and on course for elimination, while being just a single point away from the play-offs.

The Cypriot Blues have never previously played in England and have not scored in any of their previous three trips abroad in this phase. They lost 2-0 at Olympiakos on Saturday and slipped to third in their domestic league table, shortly after Chelsea dispatched in-form Brentford 2-0 in a west London derby.

Head coach Liam Rosenior sampled UEFA Europa League football as a player with Hull City in 2014/15 and Strasbourg topped the UEFA Conference League table before his ascent to Chelsea, winning five and drawing the sixth match of the league phase.

This is the 41-year-old Londoner’s first taste of Europe’s marquee tournament as a head coach and he will become the first ever top-flight coach of an English club whose four opening fixtures have each been in a different competition.

Chelsea are unbeaten in 17 group and league stage home games in this competition since September 2019, a run that includes 13 victories. Another tonight could prove momentous.

Team news

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Rosenior confirmed that Jamie Gittens, Malo Gusto and Estevao Willian have all returned to training after overcoming illness and injury, but that Enzo Fernandez is the latest player to suffer with the virus that has impacted the squad.

'Enzo Fernandez was ill yesterday – he missed training – and there were signs of it during the game against Brentford, which goes to show the type of performance that he put in,' the Blues head coach explained.

'Fortunately, Estevao has been back in training. Jamie Gittens is back in. Malo Gusto is back involved, which is great, as he's another outstanding player. There are a few coughs but the players are working really, really hard. Enzo trained, but none of those lads [who've been ill] are 100 per cent, it's a bad illness.'

One player who will certainly miss the game tomorrow is Tosin Adarabioyo, after Rosenior confirmed that the defender suffered a hamstring injury in our weekend win over Brentford.

‘Tosin won’t be available for this game,’ Rosenior added. ‘Unfortunately for Tosin he felt something in his hamstring, which is going to rule him out for the next few weeks. I can’t be any more precise than that at this moment in terms of any timelines.’

The history

Pafos are our 66th new opponent in the Champions League and second from the island of Cyprus.

We played APOEL twice in the 2009/10 Champions League group stage. Late September in Nicosia brought a Blues win that was more comfortable than the 1-0 scoreline suggests. The winning goal was a curling strike from Nicolas Anelka, after Juliano Belletti gallivanted down the right and cut the ball back.

For the last game of the group stage, his team already qualified for the knockout rounds, Carlo Ancelotti made seven changes to the starting XI and the visitors took advantage.

They claimed a shock lead through Marcin Zewlakow on six minutes after slack defending, before the Blues roared back with goals from Michael Essien and Didier Drogba for 2-1. That looked likely to suffice, but the Cypriots were gifted a late chance and substitute Nenad Mirosavljevic slotted home through Ross Turnbull’s legs for 2-2.

Know this...

This is Chelsea’s 100th match at Stamford Bridge in the Champions League proper. The Blues have lost only two of our last 62 UEFA group stage or league phase home matches.

The Londoners have scored in each of our past 21 European games. Estevao Willian is the world champions’ leading scorer in this season’s Champions League with three goals.

Pafos have won one of their six matches in this competition, losing two and drawing three. The visitors have the fourth-lowest passing accuracy in the competition with 78.2 per cent, but the 10th best crossing with 29.5 per cent finding a team-mate.

Prior to the turnaround by Atalanta on matchday six, Chelsea were unbeaten in 41 Champions League games since 2013 when leading at half-time.

For Pafos against Monaco on 26 November, David Luiz scored his first Champions League goal since Chelsea versus Roma in 2017, aged 38 years, 218 days.

Champions League regulations

Each of the 36 participating clubs plays eight different opponents in the initial league stage and their standings appear on a single table. Teams finishing in the top eight qualify directly for the round of 16, while eight of those in ninth to 24th place can join them via two-legged play-off games in February. Those placed 25th or lower exit the competition.

Last season 16 points sufficed for Aston Villa to finish eighth, while Club Brugge qualified for the play-offs in 24th place with 11.

Teams tied in the table on points are separated by goal difference, then goals scored, away goals, number of wins, away wins or, finally, alphabetical order.