As Liverpool and their manager Jurgen Klopp began their celebrations at full-time, Mauricio Pochettino of Chelsea turned and looked the other way. Some things, after all, are just too painful to observe.
For this was not just a football match lost by Pochettino and his team. No, this was a triumph of one creed over another, a victory for continuity, patience and planning over the crudeness of a boom-and-bust football culture that once served Chelsea well but in these times of financial restrictions is now starting to drag at the London club’s heels.