No defeat means no superstition, and no superstition means no post-match haircut, yet Maurizio Sarri sounded very much like a man who was ready to yank out a few strands on Saturday night.
He's come across that way a lot lately. It's all been a bit of a slog, a touch harder than it needs to be, even in victory. This one was like so many of them recently – a grind, and one that only had a happy ending because of two moments of sublime quality from Pedro and Willian. Their goals, either side of an equaliser from Ciaran Clark, were really quite something.