James Maddison strikes as Leicester earn draw to further frustrate Chelsea

This season cannot finish quickly enough as far as Chelsea are concerned. They have all but secured third place with a game to spare but this is a club crying out for a fresh start. Everything feels messy at the moment. The defence is vulnerable, the attack is unreliable and the worry for Chelsea is that nothing can move until Todd Boehly’s consortium has finally ushered in the end of the Roman Abramovich era. These are draining times for Thomas Tuchel. Chelsea have won one of their past six home games and this draw with Leicester did little to lift the mood at Stamford Bridge, which will only be full again once Abramovich has sold the club.

There was a loose vibe to Chelsea. They had spent the day celebrating the 10th anniversary of their first Champions League title but there was only so much comfort to be found in the past. The present, after all, only offers uncertainty. The takeover is yet to go through and when the cameras picked out Boehly in the director’s box during the early stages it seemed the American was seeing exactly why Tuchel believes Chelsea will struggle to close the gap on Manchester City and Liverpool this summer.

That much was clear when Tuchel turned away in disgust after Leicester went ahead after six minutes. The laxness, epitomised by Marcos Alonso allowing a clearance from Kasper Schmeichel to reach Timothy Castagne on the right flank, was appalling. It was shocking defending from Alonso and there was still no reaction when Antonio Rüdiger cut out Castagne’s cross, nobody smelling danger when the ball ran to James Maddison.

Where were Jorginho and N’Golo Kanté? Where was the cover for Thiago Silva? The centre-back stepped up but he seemed off the pace after playing on with an injury against