As the dust slowly started to settle from a panicked, maddening and fractious second half at Stamford Bridge, Wesley Fofana was in no hurry to let this moment pass quickly.
He took in the surroundings of his new home as 'Blue is the Colour' reverberated around a relieved home crowd beginning to filter out into the concourses. The Matthew Harding Lower, the most rambunctious of the four stands at the Bridge, took in his applause and began chanting his name.
Thomas Tuchel did not hesitate to put Fofana into his new-look defence, pairing Thiago Silva and Kalidou Koulibaly in a back-three, with Reece James and Marc Cucurella forming the wing-back pair.
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"There were reasons for not doing it but in the end he seemed to be a cool guy and fine with it," Tuchel said pre-game when justifying his selection of the 21-year-old.
"He is fit and we can use his wildness in a back three and his spirit and first contact in the box for defending crosses and set pieces."
That "wildness" was not noticeable until the final 10 minutes when all hell broke loose in a game that for the first half, offered better sleep assistance than ASMR or white noise.
It was helped that Fofana emphatically won his first aerial duel of the afternoon after West Ham kicked off and looked to punt the ball long towards Antonio.
There were some signs of his speed and aggression down the flanks as a wide centre-back, whilst also a connection with Reece James that will hopefully develop in the coming weeks and months, with Fofana at points driving with the ball, laying off to James before running into the box as another option.
The first half certainly was not an environment to see a lot of Fofana's more obvious capabilities as a defender. The game was sluggish, the tempo at a walking pace, and neither team ever did enough to cause much strain for moments of vulnerability.
That changed in the second half. Not only were Chelsea's defence tested more, but going behind to Antonio's opener forced the hosts to take more risks. We started to see why the Frenchman suits Tuchel's proactive style of defending. Pushing forward, looking to engage with opponents early – an approach that suited Antonio Rudiger so neatly.
The most impressive moment of the afternoon was in the final 10 minutes and a 10-second period that probably demonstrated why Todd Boehly was persistent in getting a deal over the line this summer from Leicester City.
The worst moment of the afternoon came seconds after Havertz had given Chelsea the lead, a miscommunication with James led to the wing-back heading the ball back towards goal, causing panic from Edouard Mendy as Jarrod Bowen lunged in, leading to Maxwell Cornet's equaliser when then was ruled out by VAR. Crisis averted.
Fofana was certainly busy on his debut, ending with an 89 per cent pass completion, making five of those into the final third. Winning one of three tackles, making six ball recoveries, winning four out of five ground duels, two out of three aerials, making two clearances and blocking two shots.
For now, the chant was only "Ohhhh Wesley Fofana" from the Harding Lower before quickly altering to "Ohhh Thiago Silva", who was also still out on the pitch clapping the home support. An early connection had been made on an intense afternoon, Fofana is now a Chelsea player.
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