Seven touches. That's all it took to light the fuse of Chelsea fans last February. Any less than that and the fuse wouldn't have been needed, such was the explosive reaction.
Romelu Lukaku, brought in for £97m the summer before, had just seven touches in 90 minutes against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. It was the game that sealed the deal as far as most supporters were concerned. Having welcomed their new No.9 back to SW6 as a king, treason had been committed, the Belgian was hung out to dry.
He got it with both barrels. The reaction from the media was critical, the despondency of Chelsea fans was evidence enough that they had given up hope. There was no way back.
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Having been slowly worked back into the team by Thomas Tuchel after his damaging mid-season interview that angered Chelsea fans perhaps more than anything else ever has from a new signing, Lukaku's start at Palace was his fourth in a row after being banished from the side. It was part of a run that saw him score once in 10 appearances after the game and twice in the 14 leading up to it. No way to mark an emotional return to the league.
On the day Chelsea were bailed out by a last minute goal from a brilliant finish. Sound familiar? On that occasion it was Hakim Ziyech and this time it was Conor Gallagher, his goal overshadowed evidence that Chelsea might have solved a previously unsolvable problem.
It's not to say that the curse of the No.9 top is gone because Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored one goal, but his movement and decisiveness in front of the net with his only chance of the game was proof of what he can offer. The 33-year-old is still regaining fitness and match sharpness after transferring to London this summer from Barcelona, he then had two weeks off due to the international break. His moment of beauty to chest down Thiago Silva's header and fire it in was a goal Chelsea haven't scored for a while.
It was quick, instinctive, fluid. It came from a direct pass which has been missing. It didn't feel safe, it was off the cuff and it worked. It caught out a Palace defence that had seen all of the action in front of them. All of a sudden it was on top of them, by the time they had time to think, Aubameyang was celebrating and Palace fans were being mocked. "Our No.9 scored, how **** must you be?"
It is just one goal, but such is the torture that watching Lukaku felt like for large parts of last season, having a striker willing to drop deep for the ball, to make movements in-behind and play around the pitch, that was enough in itself to show that Chelsea may have benefited from this transfer already.
Aubameyang ended the game with 29 touches, one key pass, 87% passing accuracy. Lukaku saw Ruben Loftus-Cheek, on the pitch for 17 minutes, have more touches than him and completed just 66% of his passes. Aubameyang may not be on the ball as much as Kai Havertz or as dynamic as Raheem Sterling, but if he can be as clinical as he proved to be in south London then he won't need more touches, as long it's more than seven.
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