This time last year, as Thomas Tuchel’s reinvention of Chelsea began with a remarkable 14 game unbeaten streak, something strange occurred. On what was supposed to be a routine afternoon at Stamford Bridge against relegation-bound West Brom, Chelsea were unceremoniously throttled to a 5-2 defeat by the cold hand of Sam Allardyce. The result was not just an upset but an exercise in crashing and burning, with the debris settling somewhere near the bottom of a pint of wine. The scoreline inevitably provoked an immediate inquest and theories abounded over what mysterious virus might have emerged in Tuchel’s meticulously engineered machine.
Instead, of course, within the next two months Chelsea went on to secure fourth place and win the Champions League. The blip against West Brom was nothing more than a glitch in the mainframe. It was, essentially, rendered almost entirely meaningless. Chelsea went above and beyond their expectations, West Brom succumbed to the indignity of relegation, and Allardyce, perhaps, spent his summer holiday on the Costa del Sol wondering why Florentino Perez hadn’t yet made the trip south.
