It took until the 70th minute for Chelsea-Tottenham to turn into Chelsea-Tottenham. It was bizarrely meek before that as the howling wind and rain that dog owners will attest can induce wild mania had a pacifying effect on a fixture  that typically starts at a hundred miles an hour and refuses to let up until Tottenham are roundly trodden into the Stamford Bridge turf.

Unlike Gary Neville, we know exactly why Cole Pamer reacted as he did to Mateus Fernandes stopping him running through on goal by palming the ball away from him from a prone position. That is very, very annoying at the best of times and utterly infuriating for Palmer given he had had such scant opportunity to make a difference in the final third before that moment.

We would also rail against Neville’s later suggestion that Palmer’s challenge on Conor Gallagher for which he was shown a second yellow was “naughty”. It was just where his foot landed after getting to the ball too late, with that tardiness was a consistent theme during a game in which Palmer, Morgan Rogers, Moises Caicedo and Jordan Henderson got nowhere near Tottenham in midfield.

Tottenham were excellent. Roberto De Zerbi failing to play Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali together in the double pivot before now would be a sackable offence if we had known just how brilliant they would be together. The one-touch passing between them as they ran rings around their opposite numbers was mesmerising at times.

The question was if all the beautiful build-up play would lead to a tangible reward at Stamford Bridge.

It arrived courtesy of Mike Penders, who opted to punch when he really should have caught. We’re never quite sure why it’s the accepted custom to punch in wet conditions for exactly this reason – a smaller surface area surely makes a slip of the glove more likely?

The opener was almost immediately followed by Palmer’s second yellow to extinguish any chance of a Chelsea comeback before Mathys Tel’s stunning solo goal confirmed the three points for Spurs. But Blues fans watching wouldn’t have held up much hope in any case as their side simply couldn’t get any foothold in the game thanks to a strange Xabi Alonso decision and then a bizarre refusal to accept his own mistake.

No one would have predicted this to be the game for him to select Geovany Quenda for his first Chelsea start. The winger had featured for 28 minutes in total before being thrust into a huge derby in horrible conditions.

“We want to have mobility and to be fluid,” Alonso explained when asked about his selection before the game. “So that we are not static and for sure with Geo we have those qualities.”

It’s the sort of decision managers make with a view to be hailed as a genius. If it comes off we’re all lavishing Alonso with praise.

But Danny Welbeck is right there as a replacement for Joao Pedro. Any “mobility” and “fluidity” Chelsea might lose by playing the veteran is counteracted by the huge benefit of playing Rogers in the position he’s excelled in since his summer move from Aston Villa. Welbeck would also have had a far better chance of getting the ball to stick and getting his side up the pitch.

And sure, all managers make mistakes, but to then watch that mistake continue to cost Chelsea until the game was gone will take some explaining.

Marco Palestra came on as the first substitute in the 65th minute to confound Chelsea’s problems as yet another new player who struggled to get up to speed before Quenda was taken off in the 72nd minute, for Estevao not Welbeck, who finally entered the action in the 88th minute.

It was a nothing performance which required action from Chelsea’s manager, who made a mistake in not starting Welbeck, another one in taking so long to bring him on and a third as he watched his midfield get dismantled by Spurs while Romeo Lavia and Valentin Barco sat and watched from the bench.

Chelsea weren’t at the races, but their manager’s hubris and inertia gave them no hope.