The pretence plumbed comic new depths this week as, when asked the now obligatory question about whether Chelsea are in this title race, Noni Madueke chose extreme evasive action as the wisest course.
“I don’t know what that is,” the winger told the BBC, launching his head towards the sand and sounding a bit like Jack Grealish that time it was put to him that he was a ‘football encyclopaedia’.
