The pretence plumbed comic new depths this week as, when asked the now obligatory question about whether Chelsea are in this title race, Noni Madueke chose extreme evasive action as the wisest course.
“I don’t know what that is,” the winger told the BBC, launching his head towards the sand and sounding a bit like Jack Grealish that time it was put to him that he was a ‘football encyclopaedia’.
“I feel like title race talk in December, I’m not indulging in that,” the 22-year-old added. “The race hasn’t even started yet.” How the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City must wish that were true.
A smirk told you that Madueke, as with Enzo Maresca and all of his players, is by now in on the joke and they must all know that come four-o'clock on Sunday afternoon, the party line could become impossible to hold.
Should the Blues beat Everton on their final Premier League visit to Goodison Park they will, at least briefly, climb to the top of the Premier League. Should Liverpool then fail to win at Tottenham later this evening, they will still be there come Christmas Day. From that position, in the Premier League era, Chelsea have gone on to win the title five times out of five.
Noni Madueke isn't getting drawn into any Chelsea title race talk! 😅#BBCFootball #CFC pic.twitter.com/IhoPY6NcmL
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) December 20, 2024
You can almost imagine Maresca now, barricaded inside the away dressing room at Goodison, refusing to come out and face the inevitable question until news of a Mo Salah opener at Spurs has filtered through.
“We try to focus on the game, not on the consequence of the game that we can be the leader for a few hours,” Maresca said.
“I don’t know that if we win that [Liverpool] take it as pressure. It's more of a question for them.
“In that case they have two games in hand, so I don't think it's pressure for them, but it's more question for them. I don't know.”
Still, the end of the Conference League group stage this week ought to narrow the focus and while Maresca admitted the absence of European football may cause him a headache or two, his first instinct was that it will be to his team’s benefit.
“Probably in this moment we can focus on the domestic competition,” he said, and with all due respect, you doubt he meant League Two’s Morecambe in the third round of the FA Cup.
Eight wins on the bounce have left the Blues behind only Atletico Madrid as Europe’s form team and marks their best run in eight years, but to triumph on this farewell trip to Goodison they will have to right what is a dismal record across a similar period. Since the start of the 2015/16 season, Chelsea have won at Everton just twice in ten attempts, a sequence to which - unlike Madueke’s wilful title race ignorance - Maresca appeared genuinely oblivious. In any case, the tide was turned on a similarly shoddy home run against Brentford last weekend.
The Blues’s defensive problems have worsened since that game, with Marc Cucurella suspended and both Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana “out for a long period”, while Romeo Lavia is a doubt in midfield.
Opportunity knocks for Tosin Adarabioyo to form a partnership with Levi Colwill at centre-back that could last through the festive period, while Enzo Fernandez will be looking to continue his remarkable upturn, having registered at least one goal or assist in six consecutive league games.
