At one point during a break in play early in the first half Ruben Loftus-Cheek stood towering over a sprawled out Frank Onyeka.
The pair had come together innocuously and the Brentford man came off second best, left on the ground holding his face and requiring treatment prompting Loftus-Cheek to return to the scene just to double check on Onyeka’s welfare.
It was a fitting image. Loftus-Cheek was head and shoulders above all comers in the midfield battle at Brentford and Chelsea’s standout until Edouard Mendy’s late heroics ensured they escaped their West London rivals victorious thanks to Ben Chilwell’s first-half volley.