Gone are the days of cagy football it appears in Anglo-Italian contests as Chelsea and Juve went from end to end at Stamford Bridge in The Champions League.
Despite Cristian Molinari losing his head with a number of reckless challenges from the bad old days of Italian football, this game was a victory for enterprising football.
Even the aging and more portly Alessandro Del Piero had time and space to roll back the years with some entertaining contributions as Chelsea eventually held on for a 1-0 win to take to Turin for the return in a fortnight.
This brings us on to goalscorer Didier Drogba and just why is he now playing a totally different game from the pallid and seemingly uninterested fare he served up under the ex-Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari?
It is not a question which takes much answering if you are of the cynical variety and believe his improved form is down to a change of manager, namely the arrival of Guus Hiddink in West London.
Chelsea continue to play 4-3-3 and Drogba and his partner in crime Nicolas Anelka are still not playing alongside each other.
Perhaps what has changed is Chelsea’s prolific supply to the Ivorian and, although he scored once and missed many chances, he will have nowhere to hide if he cannot at least convert one of these chances on a regular basis.
And such a thought will resonate with Drogba especially if he does harbour a move away from Chelsea at some point in the near future.
Salomon Kalou and Jose Bosingwa applied some quality crosses and this took the huge workload of Frank Lampard who fought gamely with Mohamed Sissoko & co in a congested midfield.
Claudio Ranieri received a hero’s welcome on his Stamford Bridge return and he set his side up to take the attack to their opponents.
An intriguing second leg is in front of us and if they continue to keep attacking football in the spotlight it will be gratefully appreciated.