Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic give Chelsea healthy advantage over Lille

For Thomas Tuchel, the hope will be that Romelu Lukaku has a better understanding of how Chelsea aspire to play after the striker spent 90 minutes watching from the bench. This was a flexible and smart performance from the European champions, who functioned perfectly well without their £97.5m signing, and on this evidence Lukaku could be forgiven for wondering if his new diminished role is here to stay.

After all there is little reason for Tuchel to bring the Belgian back when Chelsea meet Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday. There could well be another humiliation on the way after this comfortable win over Lille. Chelsea were far more effective with the excellent Kai Havertz up front and they have a firm grip on this last-16 tie after Christian Pulisic gave them a 2-0 lead to take to Lille next month.

After making great play of wanting to protect Lukaku, it was telling that Tuchel decided that the best way to do so was by keeping him out of the limelight altogether. “A look of tiredness” was how the coach explained his decision to bench Chelsea’s record signing, but nobody was buying that.

As ever, the evidence was on the pitch. After all Lukaku had mustered a grand total of seven touches against Crystal Palace, the fewest registered by any Premier League player over 90 minutes since Opta began keeping track in 2003. Numbers of such anonymity made it simple for Tuchel, who seemed to be on to something by picking a front three that looked pacy and tricky on paper.

It was a controversial call, though, and one that Tuchel needed to come off. Chelsea have stumbled of late; their title challenge unravelling, injuries to key players taking their toll. It feels as if the next drama is always waiting to erupt and