It would have been easy to scoff when Graham Potter spoke of ‘a feeling that it’s close’ at Chelsea before the visit of Leeds.
The Blues have hugely underachieved this season and that has denied Potter and his players the benefit of the doubt.
Chelsea’s ongoing struggle for goals, Potter’s safety-first substitutions as he looked to see out a precious win and the fact the home side were clinging on against the Premier League’s fourth-bottom side may be hard for their critics to overlook.
But in the context of what Chelsea and Potter have been through lately, there were some green shoots attempting to poke through against Leeds as the manager battles to prove he can turn this situation around.