Funny club, Chelsea. A win has always been worth its weight in skulls to managers within that empire, but keeping your back free of knives has tended to be of equal importance.
For that reason, Thomas Tuchel might have gained more than he lost from Saturday’s underwhelming draw at Southampton, a game most notable for a startling demonstration of strength by the German.
Whether or not Callum Hudson-Odoi deserved to feel its full force is almost moot, and likewise whether it is a little early in Tuchel’s promising reign for the sort of theatre that comes with substituting a substitute.