For Mauricio Pochettino, it was just not possible to sell this as a hard-luck story, although he would try. His Chelsea team dominated possession, they played on the front foot and they had plenty of possibilities in their approach work. But there remains something missing in what he is trying to create out of the chaos of the summer transfer window.
Quite simply, it is aggression and conviction – particularly in the final third, when the pressure is really on. It was hard to say that anybody in Chelsea’s colours had played well – maybe apart from the stand-in captain, Conor Gallagher.
