Thomas Tuchel did not show his face. There was just a black space where it should have appeared on the press conference Zoom screen and the voice of a man who knows, though he isn't admitting it, that Liverpool and Manchester City look immeasurably better teams than his own.
No, he didn't know when N'Golo Kante, Chelsea's fulcrum who they miss so much, would be back. No, he wouldn't entertain a question about whether Kante might appear again this year. 'It's not interesting what I think,' said Tuchel. 'He has a long way to go.