Football’s pulling out all the stops to create the illusion that everything is normal. There’s the fake fan noise, pointless stadium announcers and even the odd bit of pre-match pyrotechnics thrown in.
But nothing is normal, of course, and as we plunge deeper and deeper into the current predicament, the Premier League season is turning into organised chaos. This competition is becoming so inequitable that whoever wins the 2020-2021 edition must accept there will always be an asterisk next to their name.
It always was a pale imitation of the real thing. Elite football demands a capacity to deliver in the eye of the storm – shutting out the noise to convert a penalty or pick a pass in a febrile, partisan atmosphere.