Thiago Silva's bold act sends Chelsea transfer warning to Roman Abramovich in Club World Cup win

In the 76th minute, Thiago Silva attempted to revive a labouring Chelsea attack.

Expertly intercepting Salem Al-Dawsari's attempted pass-through to Moussa Marega, the Brazillian spotted a welcoming patch of grass in front of him to run into, so he obliged.

The Brazillian powerfully drove with the ball like a box-to-box midfielder before cooly threading a pass to Mason Mount, charging down the right channel. But as soon as Silva had injected some much-needed speed into a counter-attack, it had stopped dead.

Mount stopped and played the ball back to Silva, who had continued his run. Receiving the ball without apparent options, the 37-year-old regrettably laid the ball back to grind the attack to a halt.

There will be a lot of positivity about Chelsea reaching the Club World Cup final on Wednesday night thanks to a Romelu Lukaku strike to beat Al-Hilal, but this was a highly uninspiring performance.

It is unknown whether Roman Abramovich was in attendance or not, but the owner would have certainly had eyes on a game that put his club within one game of the last major trophy yet to capture since his takeover.

Silva's rare drive forward from central defence reflected another evening of attacking irritation.

Rather than outright failure, this felt like perfectly refined boredom.

For about four years now, Chelsea has become masters at managing to orchestrate spells of the campaign where they make football look as tedious as Golf.

Noticeably it usually occurs during the winter months when all sense of expression seems to leave Cobham. It felt ironic that even in the humidity of the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium, the winter slog usually experienced in cold England seem to transcend time zones and climate.

These all too familiar runs