There were about 20 minutes on the clock during another tetchy match at Stamford Bridge when the signing of Mykhaylo Mudryk was confirmed with a statement and fashion shoot on Chelsea ’s website.
It was unusual timing from a club that is being run in an increasingly unusual manner.
Chelsea’s new £87m winger had already been pictured sitting in an executive box in the West Stand, surveying his new surroundings before settling down to watch a team that could badly do with rediscovering some cutting edge.
And the club had not exactly kept the deal secret - dropping a series of unsubtle hints on social media before a medical was even completed as they scooped his signature from underneath the noses of Arsenal thanks to an offer that the Premier League leaders were unwilling to match.
"You're never surprised in the transfer window because things happen sometimes like you don't expect them to happen,” head coach Graham Potter said of the speed in which the deal was completed.
At half-time their fifth signing of a transfer window that only opened 15 days ago was welcomed onto the pitch, the flag of Ukraine wrapped around his shoulders, as his new team-mates took a break from another afternoon in which they toiled.
In the end Kai Havertz’s fine header was enough to earn Potter a much-needed win - but they made hard work of it against a Crystal Palace team that continues to struggle when it comes to finishing their chances.
The Germany star’s goal and Chelsea’s lengthy injury list aside, this was another afternoon where it was clear that their attack requires some fresh energy and ideas. But that fact does not make the story of how this transfer was completed easier to comprehend.
Mudryk has signed an eight-and-a-half-year contract which is partly down to Chelsea’s need to satisfy financial fair play regulations. But it will also give him plenty of time to meet the requirements to satisfy £26.5m of performance-related add-ons in the agreement with Shakhtar Donetsk.
It is a lot of money to spend on a player in a position where - beyond those short-term injury problems - Chelsea’s squad is very well stocked.
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"He's a young player with a big future,” Potter said. “He’s exciting, he can go one v one, he’s direct. He attacks the back line. He can go in wide areas but he can also affect closer to goal. He's a really exciting player and our supporters will really like him."
But adding another wide forward is also an example of the club’s confused thinking in the transfer market.
Centre midfield needs major renovation with doubts around the future of the injury prone N’Golo Kante and the one-paced Jorginho. Both are out of contract in June, though there have been talks of extending the former’s stay.
A back-up for Reece James on the right of defence is desperately required. And upgrades should be expected at centre half, despite another new addition in Benoit Badiashile debuting against Palace.
Instead the club’s owners have committed to another huge fee, irrespective of its repayment being spread across eight years, on a player who may have dazzled in the group stage of this season’s Champions League but had only broken into Shakhtar’s senior team last season.
Potter would not be drawn on the duration of his latest new signing’s contract but at the end of a week in which the pressure on his own job ramped up he could still find some humour by saying: “If I'm here for the remainder of his contract, we'll all be happy."
Yet it will take something rather special for Mudryk to justify a total financial commitment that was almost double what leaders Arsenal were willing to spend.
