Fall of the Roman empire leaves Chelsea with an uncertain feeling

As Kepa Arrizabalaga’s losing penalty kick soared high into the dark Wembley skies, still rising, some said, as it cleared Wembley Park tube station, the mass of Liverpool fans behind the goal produced a vast barrelling cheer, bodies tumbling, flares turning the night red.

For the Chelsea end, relieved from glorious distraction of an apparently never-ending penalty shootout, the immediate future seems less clear.

Perhaps some will call for change. Sack the charitable foundation! It wasn’t like this under Roman. Say what you like, he made the startlingly generous flow of private cash into a winning playing squad work. Either way, a losing Carabao Cup final felt like a suitably low-key day one for the post-Roman era; the alternate, rebooted Roman era, or wherever it is Chelsea FC finds itself heading off into right now.

It was a strange day all round. As Chelsea’s players missed chance after chance in the opening hour, as Mason Mount bludgeoned the ball into the advertising boards with all the finesse of man kicking an empty can of baked beans along the hard shoulder of the motorway, Thomas Tuchel could be seen beating the touchline turf with his fists, beseeching the Wembley skies, a tableau of agonised confusion. Yes, get it out Thomas. Because these are certainly fraught and interesting times. On the pitch this was an absorbing, ruminative cup final. Off it, this was football with a side order of European land war, the second-tier domestic cup competition spiced with a sense of impending mutual assured destruction.

And right now everything about Chelsea FC seems fraught with macro-chaos. Not least the exact status of the club’s ownership. The idea that Roman Abramovich has handed over “stewardship and care” of the club,