Image source, Getty Images

Benitez was the last Chelsea manager to win a European trophy, guiding them to the Europa League in 2013.

There is a story, which may be apocryphal, that when Chelsea got to the latter stages of the Europa League that season, the players put in a request to owner Roman Abramovich to ask if they would get a bonus for winning the trophy. The answer came back firmly as a no.

They have high standards at Stamford Bridge.

It is alleged that Benitez, during his Liverpool days, said that he would never manage Chelsea. He now argues that story's creation was partly down to... a teenager in the Czech Republic.

"A teenager in the Czech Republic had put on Twitter that I once said I would never manage Chelsea," he said. "But that is simply not true. Then this story was created."

#fakenews, he might have added.

Rafa Benitez, speaking to the media for this morning's papers, says that he "saved" Chelsea during his seven months in charge at Stamford Bridge, but that a vocal minority of supporters forced him to leave because of his Liverpool connections.

"The majority of fans were happy," he said. "But maybe some of them, because of my past with Liverpool, were unhappy."

Image source, Gett

Anyway, first up is Chelsea v Newcastle at 12:30 BST, featuring the return of this man to Stamford Bridge, where he was about as popular (among some fans at least) as a mouldy bag of grated parmesan lingering at the back of the fridge. The man himself has a theory about that...

My colleague Phil Dawkes has just chipped in on the cheese advent calendar debate. "I'd much rather have a cheese advent calendar than a chocolate one," he says. "Although I'd take a wine advent calendar over both of those."

I may have opened a can of worms here, if you'll excuse my mixed metaphors.

Lawro takes on comedian Nish Kumar for this weekend's fixtures.

Kumar - who appears in the new series of 'Live at the Apollo' - is a Manchester United fan.

Check out his predictions in the video below.

So as we peel back the latest door of our advent calendar, what can we expect from today's eight Premier League matches? Will we get a tasty square of cheddar, or a horrible lump of stilton?* Well, let's find out, shall we?

(*Sorry, I'm not a fan. I should point out, though, that my dislike of stilton is a personal opinion, and not that of the BBC.)

Image source, Getty Images

The football's getting a bit tasty right now too. (Seamless link alert.) This week alone, we've had two Premier League managerial appointments, a World Cup draw, Wayne Rooney scoring from inside his own half and an unexpected insight into Pep Guardiola's coaching methods.

Image source, Getty Images

...although advent calendars are getting a bit odd these days. Here, for instance, is the calendar my mum recently posted as a present to my sister Lauren and her partner Katie in Canada. Yes, it's an advent calendar of cheeses.

Image source, Katerina Lebedev

It's December, and that means two things - advent calendars and lots of football...