After 10 months without a Premier League start, there were kinder places that Reece James might have been handed his Chelsea comeback than at the home of leaders Liverpool.
Here, though, was Enzo Maresca, like a man charging off to HMV on Boxing Day morning, unsure when his Christmas gift voucher might run out.
James has had comebacks stall before, in competitive action, yes, but also in friendlies and in training. And so, after two weeks of encouraging preparation during the international break, it figures that the Chelsea boss saw fit to make use of one of his best players while guaranteed the chance.
There was an element of the selection being forced, with Maresca already missing half of his first-choice back-four because of the suspensions of Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana.
But there must also be a want to stress-test on Chelsea’s part: for planning purposes, the club need to know how heavily they can rely on a player dogged by injury for two seasons now, for the rest of this marathon campaign.
Still, James inclusion in the starting XI was a major surprise, given he had not played a competitive minute all season. The news was greeted with broad delight by Chelsea supporters when announced before kick-off, and remained, after a 2-1 defeat, the major positive of the day.
There must have been something reassuring in the sight of James leading this team out, the academy graduate one of few surviving links to the club’s most recent trophy success of still only three years ago.
Indeed, other than James, Levi Colwill was the only other member of the Blues starting XI even on the books at the start of 2023, and he was on loan at Brighton at the time.
The average first-team Chelsea player has been at the club for just 537 days. The only top-flight team with a shorter average span is Nottingham Forest, whose recruitment in that period has been similarly hard to follow. The average Ipswich player has been in-situ a day longer, and they began that period in League One.
If there was apprehension over James’s readiness then there was a settling moment, for player and fans alike, inside 10 minutes.
In front of the away section, James chased back with Cody Gakpo and not only reached a dangerous channel ball first, but then sold the Dutchman a dummy inside to swivel and take Chelsea on the attack. The composure, contrasted with Tosin Adarabioyo’s clumsy tug on Diogo Jota moments earlier, was noted.
Gakpo did trouble James at times, the forward’s rangy stride testing the robustness of that fickle hamstring as Liverpool got in behind on several occasions between taking the lead through Mo Salah and half-time.
The Chelsea captain, too, should have got closer to Curtis Jones as the midfielder’s run from deep took him through one of the gaping crack’s in the visitors’ high line and into the space to score the winner beyond. Afterwards, though, Maresca called it a failure of system and a justifiable one at that.
“In the way we conceded the second goal, we have already avoided this season five or six goals because of the line,” he explained.
Going forward, James produced one or two deliveries clipped on that ominous, arcing line towards the far post, but broadly Liverpool defended them well. It probably helped James’s cause that Trent Alexander-Arnold, a player to whom he has and will be relentlessly compared, had perhaps his quietest game of the season in opposition.
Maresca confirmed that James’s withdrawal, on 53 minutes and moments after Liverpool had retaken the lead, was pre-planned.
He had bargained for 45 minutes of his skipper, perhaps an hour tops, and given first-half stoppage time lasted an age, he had pushed the upper limit of that range.
No doubt the memory of pre-season was fresh, when James started all five matches on the tour of the USA, only to injure his hamstring again in the final minutes before he was due to come off against Real Madrid.
Maresca’s management of James from here will be pivotal. The Italian said on Friday that the defender’s body will not take the strain of playing more than once a week for some time and whether he even travels to Athens for Thursday’s Conference League meeting with Panathanikos remains to be seen.
In leaving Wesley Fofana, Cole Palmer and Romeo Lavia out of their group stage squad to manage workload, Chelsea have shown already they are willing to take temptation off the table entirely.
The gentle, midweek route back to first-team action between now and the next international break would have seen James face the Greeks and Armenian minnows FC Noah in the Conference League, as well as a potentially weakened Newcastle in the Carabao Cup.
Instead, on the weekend path, it could be Newcastle at Stamford Bridge, followed by Manchester United away and then the visit of Arsenal.
These are big games for Chelsea, ones which as a collective will give a clearer insight than one loss at Anfield into how far Maresca’s team have progressed. Should they, and James, come through them, aims for the rest of the campaign can be reassessed.
