Chelsea last night welcomed home Nemanja Matic from Benfica following a three-year-exodus from the Stamford Bridge club.

Composed, comfortable in possession and with a good range of passing, Matic will add guile and skill to the Chelsea midfield, with Blues owner Roman Abramovich having forked out a transfer fee of around £21million to re-sign the Serbian star.

The gallery below documents his first stint with the Blues and his progress at Benfica.

The 25-year-old midfielder has signed a five-and-a-half-year contract with the Blues and manager Jose Mourinho says the club has re-signed a more mature player than the one that was allowed to leave as part of the deal to take David Luiz from the Lisbon outfit.           

Follow all of all the latest January transfer window happenings in our live blog.