Towards the end of last season Antonio Conte confided to staff at Chelsea that if he was to select his side based on training sessions then Ruben Loftus-Cheek would be the first name on the team-sheet. Instead Loftus-Cheek made four brief substitute appearances – the earliest he came on was the 82ndminute – in the final months of the season and has spent this campaign on loan at Crystal Palace.

Chelsea won the Premier League title but Conte felt he could not risk playing Loftus-Cheek or Ola Aina, another youngster who was flying in training and who made just one appearance, as a 75th-minute substitute. Aina is also out on loan, at Hull City, this season while it still pains some at the club that Nathaniel Chalobah was sold to Watford. The midfielder should be in the Chelsea team.

It is a situation that goes to the heart of Chelsea, the managers they employ and the environment that has been created at the club. They want to win and they want to win right now. Indeed they have proved to be extremely good at that over the years. Their model has worked. But it also makes it very difficult for any manager to say they are going to risk players for a particular game or feel confident enough and stay long enough to think: OK, I am not going to be fired if I lose the next two matches.