After Saturday’s narrow victory over Crystal Palace, Thomas Tuchel claimed Hakim Ziyech’s late winner effectively earned Chelsea the right to forget about the game - and their tired performance in it - and move swiftly on.
It was, after all, a tricky assignment: away to a solid London rival in rancid conditions with a depleted squad; a jaded side looking a little “after the Lord Mayor’s show” in the wake of their Club World Cup triumph.
“You don’t have to wake up tomorrow thinking too much about what we could do better,” the German said, admitting his side looked “exhausted”.
Given the magnitude of the week that lies ahead, there is every chance that the 1-0 win at Selhurst Park will quickly become a distant memory, either overshadowed by genuine disappointments or much more significant victories. With Lille to come in the Champions League last 16 tomorrow night before Sunday’s Carabao Cup Final meeting with Liverpool, talk of lethargy and fatigue must quickly be banished.
Which side of that coin they land on may depend on which Romelu Lukaku turns up in either game. The Belgian’s near-anonymous display in south London came off the back of Club World Cup semi-final and final goals, which already look in danger of becoming another false dawn in what has been a stop-start campaign.
Lukaku managed just seven touches at Palace, the fewest by any player to last 90 minutes in a Premier League game since Opta records began, a statistic that has the potential to become a narrative-shaping point of reference.
It is also one that damns both Lukaku and Tuchel, if not quite in equal measure, as the latter still struggles to find a way to draw anything like the best from the marquee signing of his tenure.
Lukaku is hardly alone, though, in an attack of undisputed talent that has not clicked with any sort of consistency since injuries to Ben Chilwell and Reece James left it needing to shoulder more of the burden.
Christian Pulisic and Kai Havertz were poor at Palace, Mason Mount is facing a race against time to be fit to face Liverpool and Timo Werner and Calum Hudson-Odoi both have fitness concerns, too. Ziyech, perhaps the most maligned of the bunch at one point earlier this season, is now the form man.
Compare that muddle to the situation at Liverpool, where January signing Luis Diaz has brought the kind of freshness and verve Tuchel feels his side are lacking as they battle through a hectic schedule of five-competition commitments. The Colombian already looks part of the furniture, bedding in just as swiftly as Diogo Jota did after his arrival from Wolves two summers ago, though the Portuguese may not be fit to feature at Wembley.
Before that, Chelsea have the small matter of the next step in the defence of their European crown, inarguably Tuchel’s priority between now and the end of the campaign. The draw looked to have been kind to Chelsea when it was made before Christmas and that has not changed in the months since: Lille are 11th in Ligue 1, have won just twice in seven games in 2022 and were hammered 5-1 by PSG earlier this month.
Having watched Manchester City and Liverpool take charge of their ties at the midway stage, Tuchel will be eyeing something similar ahead of a trip to France next month, though a softening in rules regarding travel for unvaccinated players means that venture is no longer the logistical nightmare it might have been. In the meantime, it is an injection of energy that Chelsea desperately need.
