There are thousands of details that go into determining the outcome of every game, every season, every career, and yet sometimes everything can turn on a moment. If Chelsea fail to qualify for the Champions League this season, it will have been for a host of reasons, but one incident, not entirely fairly, will stand out: the moment 10 minutes before half-time on Sunday when Nicolas Jackson stumbled, righted himself, looked over his shoulder at Sven Botman and then thrust his right forearm into the Dutchman’s face.
As the wheels of VAR slowly turned, Enzo Maresca, wearing a salmon-pink sweatshirt that gave him the air of a dad on his way to B&Q on a Saturday morning, turned to the bench, spread his arms and swore with a slight shake of his head. How could they be out of the specific bracket he needed? His diatribe at the fourth official felt performative: in his heart he knew he probably should have bought the necessary hardware more than five minutes before starting to put the shelf up, and that Jackson was bang to rights.
