Ethical questions everywhere at Stamford Bridge on a dark day for English football

Kai Havertz’s brilliant late goal ensured that Chelsea supporters could celebrate but there was no escaping the strangeness of the atmosphere on a dark day for English football.

Chelsea’s first visitors to Stamford Bridge since Roman Abramovich was hit with sanctions – casting the club’s future into doubt – were Saudi Arabian-backed Newcastle.

Here was a meeting between the Premier League’s original and oldest sportswashing project and its newest, played out against a grim backdrop of geopolitics and war.

A match which should have been about two much-loved community assets was instead a contest between, on one side, an oligarch implicated in an invasion of Ukraine and, on the other, a regime contributing to a different humanitarian disaster by waging war on a neighbouring country, while also accused of multiple human rights abuses at home.

The occasion perfectly summed up the mess in English football, the rot of sportswashing at the heart of our national game.

Despite the severity of Chelsea’s restrictions, everything looked like business as usual. There were no visible alterations in the press room or on the pitch, with the Chelsea shirts still bearing the logos of sponsors Three and Hyundai, who have cut ties with the club.

To the credit of the home fans, the only chants about Abramovich came from the away end, suggesting a majority of Blues supporters have taken on board the criticism for singing the Russian’s name at Burnley and Norwich.

Perhaps most are ready to move forward into a post-Abramovich era, although the ‘Roman Empire’ banner, bearing Abramovich’s face, still hung over the Matthew Harding Stand, an ever-present reminder of their predicament.

If only there was more introspection among the Newcastle ranks.