Thomas Tuchel shrugs off tired display but needs Chelsea firing in huge week

After Saturday’s narrow victory over Crystal Palace, Thomas Tuchel claimed Hakim Ziyech’s late winner effectively earned Chelsea the right to forget about the game - and their tired performance in it - and move swiftly on.

It was, after all, a tricky assignment: away to a solid London rival in rancid conditions with a depleted squad; a jaded side looking a little “after the Lord Mayor’s show” in the wake of their Club World Cup triumph.

“You don’t have to wake up tomorrow thinking too much about what we could do better,” the German said, admitting his side looked “exhausted”.

Given the magnitude of the week that lies ahead, there is every chance that the 1-0 win at Selhurst Park will quickly become a distant memory, either overshadowed by genuine disappointments or much more significant victories. With Lille to come in the Champions League last 16 tomorrow night before Sunday’s Carabao Cup Final meeting with Liverpool, talk of lethargy and fatigue must quickly be banished.

Which side of that coin they land on may depend on which Romelu Lukaku turns up in either game. The Belgian’s near-anonymous display in south London came off the back of Club World Cup semi-final and final goals, which already look in danger of becoming another false dawn in what has been a stop-start campaign.

Lukaku managed just seven touches at Palace, the fewest by any player to last 90 minutes in a Premier League game since Opta records began, a statistic that has the potential to become a narrative-shaping point of reference.

It is also one that damns both Lukaku and Tuchel, if not quite in equal measure, as the latter still struggles to find a way to draw anything like the best from the marquee signing of his tenure.

Lukaku is hardly alone,