The Blues are back in Europe’s top club competition this season following a two-year absence, thanks to last term’s fourth-place finish in the Premier League.

We officially return on Wednesday 17 September, when we travel to Bayern Munich, before further trips to Napoli, Atalanta and Qarabag. That is on top of the return of those special Champions League nights under the lights at Stamford Bridge, with Barcelona, Benfica, Ajax and Pafos set to visit SW6.

Those fixtures include meetings with some of Europe’s biggest clubs; our opponents have won this competition 17 times between them. But Gusto stresses the Blues are worthy of a place among any of them.

'We want to fight against the best teams in the world,’ said the Frenchman. 'Now we can show why we deserve to fight against these types of teams.’

Of course, we have lifted the Champions League trophy twice ourselves, and served notice to the rest of the teams in this year’s competition that we are capable of taking on the very best by beating reigning European champions Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup over the summer.

And we will look to replicate those performances on this side of the Atlantic, starting in Munich at the Allianz Arena in two weeks.

'We are really excited,’ added Gusto. ‘People respect us and know we are a good team that plays well. We need to show this in the Champions League.’