The 2008/09 season is one the popular Portuguese full-back will want to forget quickly.

Having signed a new five-year contract in February 2008, Paulo would have been looking forward to working under his former international coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, but a sign of things to come came on the opening day of the campaign, as he played just seven minutes as a substitute for new arrival José Bosingwa.

It wasn't until Guus Hiddink's arrival in February that Ferreira started a Premier League game, covering for Ashley Cole at left-back after Wayne Bridge's departure had made him the main back-up on that side.

The defender, previously a model of consistency under José Mourinho, seemed to have given way to both Bosingwa and the versatile Branislav Ivanovic in his preferred right-back role, Bosingwa also taking over his starting place on the right of the national team defence. In total, there were 3+9 appearances last season.

Unused in any form by Hiddink after that one start against Aston Villa, Ferreira was ruled out for the rest of the campaign after rupturing a cruciate ligament, only returning to training towards the end of pre-season.

A well-liked member of the squad, Paulo returned to first team duty under Carlo Ancelotti, playing the entire 90 minutes in a 1-0 Carling Cup win over QPR at the end of September, which was followed by a reserve team outing, as captain, in a 1-0 win at Wolves.

Now he will be hoping to force his way further up the pecking order.

Paulo arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2004 when Mourinho paid a then British record £13.2 million fee for a full-back to purchase the defender who had walked the road to Champions League glory with him at Porto.

Both player and manager had also won league titles in Portugal and were immediately into the winning groove in England, Paulo one of the major reasons why the Chelsea defence suffocated so many attacks in that first campaign.

A broken foot in March 2005 removed him from the action but by then he had already won the Carling Cup and played his part on Chelsea's route to a first championship in 50 years and a record-breaking defensive season.

With consistent and solid defending, the young Paulo had become an international within six months of signing for Porto from lower table side Vitória Setubal - although his nation's big party in the summer of Euro 2004 fell flat for him.

He was dropped after a mistake in the opening game, only returning midway through Portugal's Final defeat by Greece.

However he had been voted the best right-back in Europe the previous season and immediately became first choice on arriving in England.

In his second season, he was a less regular choice with William Gallas and later Gérémi often preferred at right-back, though he remained number one in the Champions League.

That season Paulo at last scored his first (and only) goal since moving to a top level club, in the FA Cup v Colchester.

In August 2006, Gallas departed with new competition arriving in the shape of Khalid Boulahrouz. Paulo was just as likely to be found at stand-in centre-back as right-back in the early part of 2006/07 but he came back strongly.

In the second half of the campaign he regained the right-back shirt regularly and capped a return to his best form by playing a big part in subduing the celebrated Cristiano Ronaldo in the FA Cup Final.

Having been ousted at right-back at international level, he had also adapted to become Portugal's first choice at left-back, a position he filled throughout Euro 2008 until the quarter-final defeat by Germany, and with some justification, he could point to a push by club-mate Michael Ballack when attempting to defend the winning goal.

The domestic season that preceded the summer tournament followed a familiar pattern of sporadic activity. Avram Grant selected Paulo in his first side and he then shared duties with recently-arrived Juliano Belletti, filling in on the left too when Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge were both out.

That was until an injury in Carling Cup action in October led to five weeks on the treatment table himself.

In the closing months of the season, he was increasingly preferred to the more attacking nature of Belletti, however Michael Essien was the right-back selected for the Champions League Final, the Portuguese not even making the bench.

In January 2009, the departure of Bridge to Manchester City was allowed to go through, Scolari keeping in mind Ferreira's ability to fill in for Cole on the left flank. However when Ferreira's season ended early, a third cruciate ligament injury of the season to a Chelsea man, it was Bosingwa who had to fill in for the unavailable Cole away in Barcelona.

Now with Yury Zhirkov on board down the left, it may be down the right that Paulo now plays the most football, provided he can suitably challenge Bosingwa and Ivanovic.