There was still plenty to love, of course. There always is in this game: whatever the standard, whatever the stakes. Here, it was Chelsea’s two smartly taken left-footed goals, the first a sharp chance for the irrepressible Olivier Giroud, the second a thunderous finish by Marcos Alonso, a player who for all his manifold qualities never looks happier than when trying to leather a football as hard as he can.
Giroud was a delightful, puppyish presence: starved of a first-team start since November and eager to make up for lost time. Perhaps his greatest quality is the disruption he creates: the awkward elbows, the outstretched toes, the way he shovels defences out of shape, burrowing space from which teammates can profit. Often this is referred to as “ugly work”. In the grappling hands of Giroud, it is elevated to something approaching high art.
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