Nothing captured the confusion at Chelsea better than the sight of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang waiting to enter the fray just before Harry Kane sealed the points for Tottenham. There was no point trying to work out the logic at that stage. Chelsea had delivered another muddled display and, although Graham Potter needed someone in blue to do the unthinkable and score a goal, it was hard to see why this was the moment to turn to a player who had not been deemed worthy of a place on the bench for more than a month.
It hardly suggested that Chelsea, who lie closer to the bottom three than the top four after another demoralising defeat, have a plan. Why bring back Aubameyang now? The striker has been shoved to the margins, omitted from Chelsea’s squad for the Champions League, deemed less effective than David Datro Fofana. But here, with Potter desperate for a response after losing at home to Southampton, there was nothing but more misery, waste and Aubameyang given seven minutes to try to stop Spurs from beating Chelsea in the league for the first time since November 2018.
