For Chelsea as a whole and three of their players specifically, tonight's game in Marseilles (Network 2, 7.45) is a case of coming home. The resumption of the second group phase sees Gianluca Vialli's side back in the Champions League they negotiated far more comfortably than the Premiership at the beginning of this season.
Meanwhile, Marcel Desailly and Didier Deschamps return to the club they once graced and Frank Leboeuf is back in the place of his birth. However, while the three will possess fond memories of Marseille, there is little love lost between current players at the Stade Velodrome.
Olympic Marseille are struggling, positioned just above the relegation zone in the French league after a series of player defections and appalling results, and not expected to pose the greatest threat to Chelsea's aspirations.
Indeed, such is their plight that four weeks ago they tried to tempt Leboeuf home, making an audacious bid for the Chelsea defender in an attempt to shore up their leaky backline. But Leboeuf's response was as dismissive as he hopes the Chelsea team will be of Marseille's advances tonight.
"Because I was from Marseille they came in for me," explained the 32-year-old. "But I told them I had two years left on my contract at Chelsea and I was happy. To go back to France would be a step backwards as I don't think the French championship is better than the Premiership."
Since qualifying for this season's Champions League, it seems that a number of players have similar thoughts to Leboeuf on the subject of playing for Marseille.
The list of defectors includes the likes of Fabrizio Ravanelli and Christophe Dugarry, while suspensions and injuries will deprive them of even more players tonight. The team that Chelsea face will bear little resemblance to that which beat Manchester United 1-0 at home in October. Not least because they have a new coach, Bernard Casoni, playing a new system.
Of course Chelsea, who top Group D after beating Feyenoord and drawing at Lazio, will not be so unprofessional as to underestimate the threat of a wounded team. Especially without the ineligible George Weah to lead their attack.
But victory here would certainly put Vialli's team a long way down the road to the quarter-finals and even in with a shout of winning the trophy itself.
"I hope we can win the tournament but we have to be realistic," argued Vialli. "We are one of the best teams left in the competition but perhaps not the best."
The manager really has just two problems to cope with in the build-up to the game. Firstly, how best to communicate with the bench, given that he is banned from the touchline and dressing room following an altercation with a linesman at Lazio. A mobile-phone link with Graham Rix is planned.
The second problem is whether to reinstate Celestine Babayaro at left-back now the experienced Nigerian has deigned to return to the club after going AWOL following the African Nations Cup.
The odds are on Vialli keeping faith with the youngster who stood in during Babayaro's absence, Jon Harley, who has been hitting the headlines for the right reasons. Tore Andre Flo and Gianfranco Zola may continue their European partnership up front.
