Tuchel’s powerplay shows widening gulf between Chelsea and Tottenham | Barney Ronay

Manager’s half-time introduction of N’Golo Kanté emphasised a vast difference in resources during the Blues’ 3-0 triumph

With 10 minutes to play at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Chelsea 2-0 up and looking like a team just running up and down the scales of their own attacking possibilities, N’Golo Kanté took the ball and surged towards the Spurs defence. By that stage this London derby had descended into a selection of minor human interest storylines. Most obviously: can anyone on this pitch, in either a blue or white shirt, force Timo Werner to score a goal?

Kanté did his best, dinking a pass towards that familiar scurrying blond collection of random impulses. What followed was an extraordinary 30 seconds of kung-fu pinball stuff, the blue shirts taking it in turns to belt the ball into a series of full-body blocks.