August 2017. Chelsea 2 Burnley 3. The Premier League champions lose at home on the first day of the season. A day of drama, excitement, thrills and spills! This is a great advert for the Premier League; the self-styled most competitive league in the world; a league that has been sold, marketed, packaged as one where any team can beat any team.

If it was a good day for the Premier League then it was a bad one for Chelsea. And, despite one of their rivals losing, privately the other big clubs did not like it either. Richard Scudamore, the Premier League’s executive chairman, who steps down at the end of this year, has always been fiercely determined to have the most competitive league he can in the sound belief than it drives up interest.

It is why he has tried to treat each of the 20 clubs equally – they each have a five per cent stake in the pie even though there is far less worldwide interest in Burnley than Chelsea. That is and always has been his strategic vision. That is the Premier League’s vision.

But that is not what Chelsea or, say, Manchester United or Liverpool want.