Thomas Tuchel surveyed the away dressing room. A lot of tired men. A lot of exhausted, aching bodies. But he would have seen something else as well. The mettle of champions. The faces of defiance, of determination.
Tuchel will have suspected as much already, of course. He travelled back from Porto with these players and the Champions League trophy. Yet domestic football is different. A long, arduous, often unglamorous slog. And Chelsea are unlikely to play a longer 45 minutes this season than the second half at Anfield.
And they came through it.