Cole Palmer sat on the ball by the corner flag, at as much of a loss for the Servette supporters’ impromptu fireworks display as Chelsea’s attacking damp squib.
The England forward was pressed into emergency service in Geneva, to ensure Chelsea avoided the ignominy of being dumped out of the Europa Conference League at the qualifying stage, and by a team of relative minnows to boot.
In the land of sitting on the fence, Palmer was meant to stay sat on the bench all night. That Chelsea were even anywhere close to needing a rescue act speaks volumes on the size of the task ahead in Enzo Maresca’s work in progress.
With just a minute’s normal time on the clock, the home fans set off a sequence of fireworks that saw red smoke plume across the field, and play suspended until the sideshow was complete.
Palmer could easily have been reduced to sitting on the ball in frustration because of Chelsea’s laboured performance, even though in reality he was simply waiting for the fireworks nonsense to come to an end.
When Mykhailo Mudryk was upended to win an early penalty, Christopher Nkunku blasted home to put the Blues 1-0 up on the night, and three goals to the good on aggregate.
All Chelsea’s second XI had to do was kill the game, tighten up, shut up shop and hit cruise control. It is too early in the Maresca overhaul, coupled with the fissures of previous managerial failures past, for Chelsea to be robust enough to complete such missions without panic.
First Jeremy Guillemenot slotted home to drag Servette in from the cold. A sluggish, almost uninterested groups of hosts were suddenly back in the running.
And when Enzo Crivelli mugged a statuesque defence to nod home and put Servette into the lead on the night, Chelsea’s pretensions for a Swiss stroll evaporated.
Palmer’s immediate introduction after Chelsea leaked their second on the night further underscored not only his importance to Maresca’s Blues plan, but also the visitors’ fears of being turfed out of Europe entirely.
Palmer’s impact was telling, the former Manchester City man needing no time to find the pace or rhythm of the game – then controlling the ebb and flow too.
His first cute intervention helped Nicolas Jackson find the net, only for offside to rob the Senegal man of a smart goal. Then he should really have scored himself, only to hit the bar when played in by Nkunku.
Academy debutant Tyrique George had displayed his class to create the platform for Nkunku’s killer pass, in one of the few heartening Chelsea stories of the night.
George showed many of his vastly more experienced team-mates how to influence proceedings in a cameo of invention and promise.
Chelsea might be through and in the pot for Friday’s group stage draw, but not many of Maresca’s second string line-up will be in the mix for a start in the full-strength XI any time soon.
