Transfer deadline day was very different this time around for Chelsea. There was no rush. There was no panic. There was no need to frantically submit a deal sheet to the Premier League with just seconds of the window remaining.
Chelsea's executives could, for the most part, sit back and relax. Their work done or perhaps never even started given the Blues didn't make any genuine attempt to add a signing to Thomas Tuchel's squad.
The situation was very different at the end of the summer transfer window. Come the final hours of August 31, Chelsea were locked in a three-way transfer deal and their prospective addition was the first domino that needed to fall.
