Of all the ways in which Thomas Tuchel’s glorious opening sequence might have come to end very few would have predicted this.
Walloped at home, conceding five times against West Brom Albion, a team who had not scored in more than a month and were seemingly doomed to relegation as they rolled into Stamford Bridge where they had not won since 1978.
Tuchel had not lost in his first 14 games as Chelsea boss. His team had conceded only twice in that time, and one of those two was an own goal.
It could not go on forever of course, but there seemed to be little cause for alarm when Christian Pulisic scored the first goal of the game.